Albany beats Mount St. Mary's, advances to play No. 1 Florida

DAYTON, Ohio -- DJ Evans is charitably listed at 5-9. His coach and teammates tease him that he looks a foot shorter.

Yet he stood awfully tall for Albany last night.

Evans scored 22 points, including two clinching free throws with 12.6 seconds left, to lead the Great Danes to their first NCAA Tournament victory, 71-64, over Mount St. Mary's in the First Four.

Evans, an often overlooked component in Albany's lineup, belied his height with nine rebounds to go with three assists.

"He's about 4-foot-8, so he's really impressive," laughed his running mate at guard, Peter Hooley, who had 20 points. "I don't think there's another 4-8 guard who could go in there and get that many boards. He did what he needed to do to get this win."

It was a signature victory for the America East Conference Tournament champs, who had come up empty in three previous trips to the NCAAs.

"It means a lot," said an emotional coach Will Brown, a native of Miller Place. "There's no better feeling. Like I told our kids, we're going to be in the history books at the University of Albany forever."

The Great Danes (19-14), which beat Stony Brook to earn a trip to the tournament, advance to meet overall No. 1 seed and top-ranked Florida tomorrow in Orlando. But that was a concern for another day.

It was a wild game of incredible turnarounds, with the Great Danes leading 13-0 and 21-2, only to have the Mount (16-17) bounce back with a 21-2 run of its own to pull even.

Hooley, one of three Australians on the Albany roster, hit two free throws with 2:43 left to make it 65-62. After Julian Norfleet countered with a bucket, Hooley scored to make it 67-64.

It stayed that way with the teams missing big shots. Mount St. Mary's Rashad Whack and Norfleet each missed potential tying threes -- Whack's rolled almost inside the rim and then bounded away. "When it hit the rim, I thought it was going to go in," Whack said softly.

Will Miller led the Mount with 21 points, all on threes. But he didn't get off a shot in the last 3:32.

Evans was fouled with 12.6 seconds left and hit both shots to increase the lead to five points -- and out of reach of another long-range shot.

Evans was most proud of his rebounding. "They shot a lot of threes and there were a lot of long rebounds," he said with a grin. "I was just at the right place at the right time."

After playing two years of junior-college ball and sitting behind a senior starter a year ago, Brown told Evans his day would eventually come.

"He's the happiest kid in the world right now," Brown said.

N.C. State 74, Xavier 59: ACC player of the year T.J.Warren scored 16 of his 25 points in the second half for North Carolina State (22-12). The 12th-seeded Wolfpack headed to Orlando, Fla., for a game tomorrow against St. Louis in the Midwest Regional. Matt Stainbrook led Xavier (21-14) with 19 points despite an injured left knee.