In the NCAA tournament, Oakland basketball falls to N.C. State in overtime: "Hard that it's over."

Pittsburgh — Everything worthwhile has to end. It was exactly what Oakland basketball's incredible run did on Saturday. <u>In the second round of the NCAA tournament, the 14-seed Golden Grizzlies were defeated by 11-seed N.C. State, 79-73 in overtime</u>, at PPG Paints Arena. This occurred just 48 hours after the team upset 3-seed Kentucky, which led to early tournament buzz. "Very different from a few nights ago," OU head coach Greg Kampe remarked. "It's hard because it's over."

Bonus basketball

Townsend split two free throws to open the scoring in the extra period with the score tied at 66, but Burns scored a finger-roll layup on the other end. Burns grabbed an offensive rebound following a failed 3-point attempt from the short corner, and his putback gave N.C. State a lead it wouldn't let go after two free throws by Townsend had given Oakland the lead, 69-68. "I don't think that ball even got 10-feet-2 in the air," Kampe stated. "It lands directly in front of the rim, travels straight to the large man, and he puts it in. The only rebound the big guy would get from us if it struck the rim and fell straight down.

The final minutes (we thought)

With less than four minutes remaining in the game, Gohlke, who had trailed Oakland for the first 37 minutes of the contest, stole the ball on the left wing, forced a defender to fall, and then calmly scored his sixth 3-pointer of the contest. Townsend's three-pointer on the ensuing possession gave Oakland its first lead, 63-61. With five and a half remaining, Michael O'Connell of N.C. State made a diving layup and drew a foul to extend Oakland's lead to two points. Fifteen seconds later, Gohlke was fouled without the ball and converted two free throws with 41.7 seconds remaining to tie the game. Oakland attempted to draw up one last look in regulation following a miss by N.C. State. "The ball was getting to Townsend facing the basket at the left elbow," Kampe stated. "One of those three things was going to happen: he was going to rip and drive, be the hero, or get to the free throw line. That was the plan.

Absorbing first punch

Similar to their performance on Thursday night, the Golden Grizzlies got off to a sluggish start, missing seven of their first eight shots. Horne didn't require any such time to warm up. He started the game with a transition layup, then scored the first seven points for the Wolfpack with a 3-pointer from the left wing and a floater. Burns then entered the game with a low-post lefty hook to put the Wolfpack ahead 9-2. Before Gohlke, who received a standing ovation upon his arrival, made his first 3-pointer of the game from the right wing on his first shot attempt, Chris Conway added a put-back slam to bring OU back within two. "I know in my life I've never put a sub in and seen a place go nuts three minutes into a game," Kampe stated. "Is there seating for, say, 18,000 people here? When he entered the game three minutes in, it was the greatest cheer of the evening. He then caught it and made it."