By Dylan Butler
With a berth into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament at stake, Queens native Royal Ivey stepped to the foul line for the Texas Longhorns with 26.2 seconds left and his team leading Mississippi State 64-62 and remembered some words of advice from his father, Rod.
“My father always told me I’d be in that situation again one day in my life,” said the former Cardozo standout. “And I was in that situation again today.”
The last time Ivey was on the foul line with the game in the balance was his senior year at Cardozo when he drained key free throws to help lead the Judges to the 1999 PSAL city championship.
Ivey, who averages 77 percent from the free throw line, hit those two shots and was back at the line with 8.6 seconds remaining. After swishing the first to put his team ahead, 67-65, Mississippi State’s Derrick Zimmerman asked him a favor.
“[He] came up and said, ‘C’mon, miss this one,” said the sophomore guard. “I just said, ‘Sorry, I’m making this one, fellas.”
Ivey had 10 points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists to lead Texas (22-11) to the 68-64 second-round win Sunday at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas. Next stop for the sixth-seeded Longhorns is the Midwest Regional semifinals in Madison, Wis.
Texas plays No. 2 Oregon (25-8) Friday at 7:55 p.m. The winner plays either Kansas or Illinois Sunday in the Midwest Regional final.
In the Longhorns’ opening game, Ivey netted just four points in 14 minutes as Texas defeated Boston College 70-57 Friday. Uka Agbai, a 6-foot-8 junior forward from Queens Village, played well for the Eagles as the former Molloy star netted 12 points and grabbed six rebounds.
Ivey isn’t the only former Queens high school standout advancing into the Sweet 16. University of Connecticut sophomore guard Taliek Brown, a LeFrak City native out of St. John’s Prep, had eight points, including 4-of-4 from the foul line, and three assists to help the second-seeded Huskies to a 77-74 win over North Carolina State in the second round of the East Regional Sunday at the MCI Center in Washington, D.C.
UConn (26-6) will face 11th-seeded Southern Illinois in the East Regional semifinals Friday at 7:38 p.m. at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse.
Brown had nine points and six assists in the Huskies’ first-round 78-67 victory over Hampton Friday.
Former Christ the King standout Mark McCarroll is also moving on in the tournament as third-seeded Pittsburgh (29-5) advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 63-50 win over sixth-seeded California Sunday in Pittsburgh. The Panthers face No. 10 Kent State in the South Regional semifinal Thursday at 9:55 p.m. at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.
McCarroll, a 6-foot-10 redshirt freshman, played just one minute against the Bears and didn’t register a point. In a first-round 71-54 victory over Central Connecticut State Friday, he played three scoreless minutes. Christ the King alum Rob Barrett played four minutes for the Blue Devils in the loss and didn’t score.
Another former Christ the King player also saw the end of his tournament run as Zach Williams and the Ohio State Buckeyes were upset by No. 12 Missouri, 83-67, Saturday.
Williams, a 6-foot-7 forward, had eight points, four rebounds and three assists for fourth-seeded Ohio State (24-8) in the loss. Williams also had two points, five rebounds and four assists in the Buckeyes’ 69-64 first-round win over No. 13 Davidson last Thursday.
Former Jamaica star Cheyne Gadson and seventh-seeded Oklahoma State also exited the tournament early, falling to Kent State last Thursday in the first round.
Gadson, a 6-foot-3 junior guard, struggled in the game, scoring two points on 1-of-9 shooting, had a team-high five assists and three rebounds.
While Ohio State was expected to win, not many thought Patriot League champion Holy Cross had much of a chance against top-seeded Kansas in the opening round last Thursday.
But for a second straight year, Queensbridge native Jave Meade and the Crusaders gave a national powerhouse a first-round scare. A year after falling to Kentucky, 72-68, at the Nassau Coliseum, Holy Cross (18-15) had a five-point advantage with 17:54 left in the second half courtesy of a Meade three-pointer.
The Crusaders kept it close most of the second half, but Kansas closed out the game on a 14-4 run to pull out the 70-59 victory.
Meade, also a Christ the King product, had nine points, four assists and three steals for the 16th-seeded Crusaders.
Queens natives Kevin Fitzgerald and Rashad Bell also knew what it felt like to play the role of giant killer as the St. Francis Prep alums and America East champions Boston University took on top-seeded Cincinnati in the first round Friday in Pittsburgh.
While the Terriers fell 90-52, Bell, a freshman forward, was a bright spot for Bayside native Dennis Wolff’s team. He netted 12 of his team-high 16 points in the second half, including 8-of-8 from the foul line.
Fitzgerald, a sophomore guard from Belle Harbor, had two points and two assists for BU (22-10).
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.
