Gonzaga

It's not exactly the irresistible force meeting the immovable object, but destiny has a tough choice to make this afternoon in the NCAA West Regional Championship game. Does she finally smile on Connecticut, who after so many hard-twisting misfortunes, is again poised to advance to its first Final Four? Or does she stick with upstart Gonzaga - the Little School That Could, battling for the pride of midmajor programs everywhere? In a situation like this, destiny can't lose.

The Gonzaga basketball team said Thursday it was tired of the Cinderella tag that had been hung around its neck. Then, last night, the Bulldogs were just tired. After 30 minutes against the Michigan State Spartans - 30 minutes against the defending national champions, the NCAA South Regional's top seed - their legs deserted them. First, their shots fell short, then they fell wildly long in compensation. Turnover then piled upon turnover as the Spartans sensed what was happening.

PITTSBURGH - West Virginia took a 75-mile bus ride to town. Gonzaga flew more than 2,200 miles. Many said it wasn't fair that the No. 7 seed had to travel so far to play No. 10, barely an hour from its campus, at the Consol Energy Center. They were all right. It wasn't fair. Gonzaga jumped West Virginia midway through the first half Thursday night and never let up, blowing the Mountaineers out of the Big East to the Big 12 with a sendoff that only a Pittsburgh fan could love.

Jeff Adrien had 16 points and 15 rebounds as Connecticut routed visiting Florida A & M, 93-54, last night in the Huskies' final tuneup before meeting No. 14 Gonzaga on Saturday in Boston. It was Adrien's third double-double this season for the Huskies (5-1). In other games: At Iowa, Chas McFarland scored 15 points and Wake Forest (4-0) beat the Hawkeyes, 56-47, in a Big Ten/ACC Challenge game . . . At Notre Dame, Kyle McAlarney had a career-high 25 points to lead the Fighting Irish (4-2)

Nic Wise scored 21 points, including three free throws in the final 31 seconds, and Arizona upset No. 4 Gonzaga, 69-64, at the Desert Classic in Phoenix yesterday. Jordan Hill added 22 points and Chase Budinger had 14 for the Wildcats (7-2), who beat a team ranked in the top four for the first time since Nov. 8, 2001, when they beat No. 2 Maryland. Arizona, which led most of the game, outscored Gonzaga (7-1) 7-2 over the last 2 minutes, 25 seconds, with Hill and Wise scoring all of the points.

Gonzaga and Brigham Young, two of the best teams west of the Rockies, will face off in Denver on Saturday. For the 25-9 Zags, the 11th seed, the key to advancing is simple: stop the Cougars' Jimmer Fredette, who scored 32 points in BYU's win over Wofford, and has averaged 28.6 points per game in leading BYU (31-4) to the No. 3 seed in the Southeast Regional. The Cougars, meanwhile, will be doing precisely the opposite. Wisconsin vs. Kansas State. After an impressive first half against Utah State in their second-round game, Kansas State played the second half like the team coach Frank Martin got fed up with early in the season.

Less than a week after winning their holiday tournament with an upset of then-No. 15 Auburn, the St. Joseph's women were deflated by Gonzaga yesterday at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse. The Bulldogs (9-6) were 67-43 winners in a matinee game for schoolchildren. They made the trip from Spokane, Wash., for just this nonconference game, their first against the Hawks (7-7). "We stopped in Utah along the way," coach Kelly Graves joked. "Doesn't everyone make that Utah-Philly road swing?

Jeremiah Dominguez scored 25 points last night, helping Portland State knock off seventh-ranked Gonzaga, 77-70, in Spokane, Wash. This was Portland State's first win over a ranked team since it reinstated its basketball program for the 1996-97 season. Portland State (9-3), which relied on a short, quick lineup, outrebounded the Zags by 39-30. The Vikings stayed in front by hitting 12 three-pointers. Gonzaga (8-3) looked sloppy, committing 11 turnovers, missing layups, and shooting only 42 percent.

A.J. Price scored a season-high 24 points - including the three-pointer that sent the game into overtime - and Jerome Dyson scored six of his 21 points in the extra period to rally No. 2 Connecticut to a wild 88-83 victory over eighth-ranked Gonzaga (8-2) in Seattle yesterday. Dyson and Price rallied the Huskies (10-0) from 11 points down in the second half. "This game assured me of our toughness," Price said. "Being able to battle adversity, down 11 in the second half on the road and come back?

Playing 11th-seeded Gonzaga on its home floor in Spokane, Wash., in the first round of the NCAA women's basketball tournament ended up posing a lot of problems for sixth-seeded Rutgers. The crowd noise kept the Scarlet Knights from communicating effectively with each other. And they had trouble shooting the ball, especially in the first half. "We couldn't hear each other," Rutgers' April Sykes said. "The crowd was loud. " Coach C. Vivian Stringer resorted to sending substitutes into the game to carry her instructions to the team during an 86-73 loss to the Bulldogs on Saturday.

KINGSTON, R.I. - After a week in which Connecticut's Caroline Doty and Penn State's Maggie Lucas were able to reminisce about playing basketball for a talented Germantown Academy squad, the discussion Sunday night moved to talk of the immediate future. On the NCAA tournament road that brought UConn and Penn State together in the Kingston Regional semifinal, the top-seeded Huskies moved on to the Elite Eight with a 77-59 victory. On Tuesday night, Connecticut (32-4) will take on Kentucky, which beat Gonzaga in the second game at the University of Rhode Island's Ryan Arena.

KENTUCKY DIDN'T need its "40 minutes of dread" fullcourt press to beat Gonzaga. It just needed a quick strike from long range. Keyla Snowden made five three-pointers, hitting a pair of them to turn back the Bulldogs' last charge on Sunday as Kentucky beat Gonzaga, 79-62, to advance to the East Regional finals of the NCAA women's tournament. Snowden had 17 points, going 5-for-9 from three-point range, and Samarie Walker scored 16 with 12 rebounds for No. 2 seed Kentucky, which plays top-seeded Connecticut on Tuesday for a spot in the Final Four in Denver.

KINGSTON, R.I. - After a week in which Connecticut's Caroline Doty and Penn State's Maggie Lucas were able to reminisce about playing basketball for a talented Germantown Academy squad, the discussion Sunday night moved to talk of the immediate future. On the NCAA tournament road that brought UConn and Penn State together in the Kingston Regional semifinal, the top-seeded Huskies moved on to the Elite Eight with a 77-59 victory. On Tuesday night, Connecticut (32-4) will take on Kentucky, which beat Gonzaga in the second game at the University of Rhode Island's Ryan Arena.

Playing 11th-seeded Gonzaga on its home floor in Spokane, Wash., in the first round of the NCAA women's basketball tournament ended up posing a lot of problems for sixth-seeded Rutgers. The crowd noise kept the Scarlet Knights from communicating effectively with each other. And they had trouble shooting the ball, especially in the first half. "We couldn't hear each other," Rutgers' April Sykes said. "The crowd was loud. " Coach C. Vivian Stringer resorted to sending substitutes into the game to carry her instructions to the team during an 86-73 loss to the Bulldogs on Saturday.

Geno Auriemma and the Connecticut Huskies are raring to go after being off for 10 days. The top-seeded Huskies open up their NCAA tournament Saturday in Bridgeport, Conn., against No. 16 Prairie View A&M. Eighth-seeded Kansas State will face No. 9 Princeton in the first game of the doubleheader. After struggling through the latter part of the regular season with losses in their final two home games, UConn rallied to win the Big East tournament. The Huskies topped Notre Dame in the championship game, earning Geno Auriemma his 800th career victory.

PITTSBURGH - West Virginia took a 75-mile bus ride to town. Gonzaga flew more than 2,200 miles. Many said it wasn't fair that the No. 7 seed had to travel so far to play No. 10, barely an hour from its campus, at the Consol Energy Center. They were all right. It wasn't fair. Gonzaga jumped West Virginia midway through the first half last night and never let up, blowing the Mountaineers out of the Big East to the Big 12 with a sendoff that only a Pittsburgh fan could love.

Robert Sacre and Gary Bell Jr. scored 14 points apiece as Gonzaga routed West Virginia, 77-54, on Thursday night in Pittburgh in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Kevin Pangos added 13 points and five assists for the seventh-seeded Bulldogs (26-6). Gary Browne led the Mountaineers (19-14) with 15 points off the bench, and Kevin Jones scored 13 in his final game for West Virginia, which had its worst postseason defeat in 28 years despite the home-court advantage. Gonzaga never let the crowd get into it. The Bulldogs took control during a 13-0 run midway through the first half and cruised, shooting 56 percent from the floor.

The wait was certainly worth it for Notre Dame. Skylar Diggins scored 24 points and the second-seeded Fighting Irish made up for 28 years of beatings at the hands of Tennessee, upsetting the top-seeded Vols, 73-59, Monday night in the Dayton Regional final game to earn a spot in the Final Four. The Fighting Irish (30-7) came in 0-20 all-time against the Vols. But the operative number on this night was 3-0 - Notre Dame's record in regional championship games. The Irish are headed to the Final Four for the first time since 2001, when they won the national championship.

Coach Pat Summitt absolutely lit up her Tennessee team at the break, and their regional semifinal game Saturday tilted soon after. With Shekinna Stricklen scoring 14 of her 20 points in the second half and touching off a critical 11-3 second-half run, Summitt and the Vols (34-2) moved into their accustomed spot in the Elite Eight with an 85-75 win over Ohio State. "It was about an 81/2," she said, rating her halftime speech on a scale where 10 is when the paint peels off the walls.