Top seeds avoid early exits

No. 5 Illinois defeated 12 seed South Alabama 69-51 while No. 4 Maryland overcame a slow start to beat Utah State 82-68.

No. 9 Illinois State scored a mild overtime upset over the No.8 seed Tennessee to earn the right to meet No. 1 Arizona in the round of 32. Forward Dan Muller tossed in a layup with 1.8 seconds remaining to give the Redbirds the 82-81 victory. The Redbirds, Missouri Valley Conference champs, were led by forward Rico Hill's 22 points.

"Obviously it was a terrific game," Illinois State coach Kevin Stallings said. "We feel very fortunate to have won it."

Historically, No. 8-No. 9 games have been topsy-turvy contests, with the lower seed winning about 43 percent of the time.

Rodney Elliott, a forward, scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for Maryland, a team many experts say could threaten Arizona if the teams meet in the Sweet Sixteen.

Despite a solid first half and 25 points from guard Marcus Saxon, Utah State fell short, shooting just 32 percent from the field in the second half.

"I got worn down in the second half," Saxon said. "They kept a guy on me trying to get the ball out of my hands most of the time."

Three other players turned in double-figure scoring efforts for Maryland. Center Obinna Ekezie scored 17, guard Sarunas Jasikevicius threw in 16, while the team's usual scoring leader, forward Laron Profit, had 12 points.

The victory moved Maryland to the tourney's second round for the first time since 1995. The Terrapins fell to Santa Clara in 1996 and College of Charleston last March.

"We're just glad to get this game," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "Hopefully, we'll do a good job in preparing for our next opponent."

Maryland has two days to get ready for the Fighting Illini.

The Illinois squad overcame the plodding pace of South Alabama to move on. Though the Illini play an up tempo, open-court game, the Jaguars controlled the pace. Illinois, however, dominated the scoreboard throughout the game.

"I thought this was really a hard-fought ball game," Illinois coach Lon Kruger said. "South Alabama, as we expected, was very hard-nosed and they didn't give up buckets very easily."

Neither did the Illini. In the second half, Illinois stifled South Alabama forward Rico Alderson and the Jaguar post attack. Alderson scored 13, but just three in the second half.

"We started to come around and get a little better position defensively," Kruger said. "We created a little bit of offense out of our defense."

The Illini forced Alderson into six turnovers. On the offensive side of the game for the Illini, guard Kevin Turner was just 4 for 12 from the field, but managed to come up with 18 points.

Arizona and Illinois State will tipoff 25 minutes following the completion of Saturday's Maryland-Illinois game. That game begins at 2:30 p.m.