Sun Mar 30 10:20:20 2008

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Final Four bid up for grabs as Texas takes on Memphis

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Houston, TX (Sports Network) - One of only six teams in NCAA history to record as many as 36 wins in a season, the Memphis Tigers try to build on their success this afternoon as they take on the Texas Longhorns in the title game of the NCAA Tournament's South Region inside Reliant Stadium in Houston.

Top-seeded Memphis has now run its win streak to 10 straight since losing to second-ranked Tennessee in late February. The Tigers went from winning the Conference USA Tournament title against Tulsa by 26 points, to pouncing on Texas-Arlington in the first round of this 70th annual tourney, 77-51. From there, Memphis defeated Mississippi State by just three points in the second round before pummeling Michigan State on Friday night, 92-74.

As for the second-seeded Longhorns, who lost to Kansas in the championship game of the Big 12 Conference Tournament for the third year in a row, they two have had a couple of blowout wins in this event, in addition to a close call. First, it was a 74-54 defeat of Austin Peay in Little Rock, followed by a narrow 75-72 triumph versus Miami-Florida in round two. Friday night saw Texas dominate Stanford in an 82-62 triumph.

As far as the all-time series between these two teams is concerned, the 'Horns have won four of the previous five encounters. The most recent of those meetings took place in early January of 2006 with the Longhorns picking up a 69-58 triumph on the road. The winner of today's bout will head to San Antonio to face the UCLA Bruins who defeated the Xavier Musketeers on Saturday evening in the finals of the West Region.

Except for Justin Mason who tallied seven points, eight rebounds and six assists, every starter for the Longhorns scored in double figures in the lopsided win over Stanford on Friday night. D.J. Augustin tallied a team-high 23 points and also managed to distribute a team-best seven assists for Texas, while Damion James picked up 18 points, despite shooting just 5-of-14 from the field, including a 2-of-8 showing from beyond the arc. A.J. Abrams ended up with 12 points, followed by Connor Atchley who made the most of his 4-of-5 shooting effort to finish with 10. The 12 points by Abrams was his lowest total in the last five games, a bit of a surprise considering he made six three-pointers in each of the first two games of the tournament. Augustin, who now has a total of 32 assists in the last four games, has managed to control the tempo of games without losing control, turning the ball over a mere seven times over the last four. Although he's just a 57 percent shooter at the free- throw line, James is still a critical piece of the offense for the 'Horns, averaging 13.3 ppg and clearing a team-best 10.5 rpg as well.

The Tigers ended up beating Michigan State by 18 points on Friday night, and it wasn't even that close. The Spartans scored the first points of the contest on a jumper by Drew Naymick, but after that the game belonged to Memphis which moved out to a 10-point advantage five and a half minutes into the opening frame and led by 30 at the break as MSU made a total of just nine field goals. Derrick Rose finished with 27 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field but, more importantly, converted all but one of his seven free-throw attempts. Similarly, Chris Douglas-Roberts tallied 25 points as he made 11-of-12 at the stripe, followed by Antonio Anderson with 10 points. As a team, Memphis made good on 26-of-35 (.743) at the line, which is head-and-shoulders above the team's overall accuracy this season of just 59.8 percent. Douglas-Roberts, who is scoring just under 22 ppg in the tournament, has averaged a team-best 17.5 ppg this season overall, with Rose coming up with 14.4 ppg and a team-best 168 assists over the course of 37 games. With just six points and four rebounds two nights ago, Joey Dorsey stayed under the radar, but the fact that he is responsible for a team-best nine and a half rebounds per contest means that he is someone that cannot be overlooked at either end of the floor.