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Monday, March 19, 2007

AP Story on Nevada Game

Tigers advance to Sweet 16 over Nevada

By Jaime Aron
Associated Press
March 18, 2007

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- John Calipari's Memphis Tigers finally have a victory worth bragging about in their run of 24 straight.

They also have a spot in the regional semifinals.

Chris Douglas-Roberts scored 16 points before leaving with a sprained ankle and his high-flying, versatile teammates took over from there for a 78-62 victory over Nick Fazekas and Nevada on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
The second-seeded Tigers (32-3) hadn't played a team as good as the Wolf Pack (29-5) since their last loss, back on Dec. 20. They showed they were up to the task by never trailing after going down 2-0, and shutting out the Wolf Pack the final 6:17 _ after Nevada had gotten within two and Douglas-Roberts was in the locker room.

The biggest surprise wasn't that the Tigers won, but that foul shooting was a big reason for it. They came in making only 61 percent _ worst among all tournament teams and near the bottom of all 336 Division I schools. It was such a problem Calipari stopped practicing foul shots and told guys to visualize swishes instead. The Tigers went 26-of-34 from the line Sunday, so chalk one up for visualization.

Douglas-Roberts led the way from the line at 10-of-12. Joey Dorsey, who shoots 46.5 percent, was 4-of-6.

Jeremy Hunt scored 16 and Antonio Anderson added 14 points and 10 rebounds for Memphis. Andre Allen had yet another bigger-than-usual game in the NCAA tournament with 10 points and four assists, and Robert Dozier had nine points, eight rebounds and most of the good defense on Fazekas.

Fazekas, the three-time Western Athletic Conference player of the year, missed his first six shots but finished 7-of-18 for 20 points with seven rebounds.

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