NCAA Men's Basketball Championship First Round Game Notes

March 20, 2010

Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 1 | Photo Gallery 2

No. 8 CALIFORNIA

The Golden Bears win their first NCAA Tournament game in almost seven years. Their last NCAA Tournament win came in the First Round of the 2003 Tournament, a 76-74 overtime victory against NC State, on March 20. They had dropped their last 3 NCAA Tournament games. Mike Montgomery improves to 11-3 in First-Round games. He won 10 straight at Stanford from 1995 through 2004.
Jerome Randle, Patrick Christopher and Theo Robertson, who average 48.8 points per game, combined for 59 points on 20-for-35 shooting, including all eight of the Golden Bears' 3-point field goals.
With 17 points, Patrick Christopher increased his career point total to 1,698. He passed Lamond Murray (1,688 points) for third place on California's all-time scoring list.
The Golden Bears, who entered play as the Pac-10 most accurate 3-point shooting team at 37.3 percent, connected on 8-of-15 against the Cardinals - the fifth game this season in which the Bears shot 50 percent or better from beyond the 3-point arc - they are 5-0 in those games this year and 17-1 in those games in two years under Montgomery.
Cal and Duke have met once in NCAA Tournament play. 17 years ago tomorrow, March 20, 1993 the sixth-seeded Bears upset the two-time defending national champion Blue Devils, 82-77 in a showdown between Bobby Hurley and Jason Kidd. Kidd scored 11 and handed out 14 assists while Hurley, in his final game at Duke totaled 32 points and 9 assists against only 1 turnover.
Montgomery owns two one-point victories against Duke while coaching Stanford. On Nov. 11, 1999 at the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic, the Cardinal won 80-79 in overtime. One year later, as part of the Pete Newell Challenge Casey Jacobsen banked in a jumper with 3.6 seconds left as No. 3 Stanford roared back from an 11-point deficit in the final four minutes to beat top-ranked Duke, 84-83.

No. 9 LOUISVILLE

After making consecutive runs to the Elite 8, Louisville loses in the First Round for only the second time in seven trips to the NCAA Tournament under Rick Pitino. The Cardinals only other First-Round loss under Pitino came in 2004, an 80-70 loss to Xavier.
Friday's loss drops Rick Pitino's record in First-Round games to 12-3 (5-2 at Louisville, 6-0 at Kentucky, 1-0 at Providence, 0-1 at Boston).
Edgar Sosa's second-half 3-point field goal gave him 200 for his career. He becomes the fifth player in Louisville history to amass 200 3-point field goals.
Rakeem Buckles scored 20 points off the bench on 10-of-11 shooting, doubling his previous career high (10 pts vs UNLV on Nov. 28). His 90.9 FG percentage ranks as the best by a Big East player this season (Min 10 FGM).

University of Louisville Athletics

NCAA Men's Basketball Championship First Round Game Notes

Players Mentioned

Rakeem Buckles

Edgar Sosa

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