Spartans

Kalin Lucas scored a career-high 25 points and Raymar Morgan emerged from a quiet night by hitting key shots down the stretch as fifth seed Michigan State edged 12th seed New Mexico State, 70-67, in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Morgan broke a late tie with four straight points, then made two free throws with 18.6 seconds remaining. Troy Gillenwater scored 17 points for the Aggies. The Spartans will face Maryland at 2:40 p.m. Sunday in the second round. COVERAGE, PG 6

Coach Chris Hasbrouck was pleased to see St. Mary's play with the emotion he had hoped the team would play with as it raced out to an 8-1 advantage in the first quarter en route to a 22-5 demolition of Wesley in the first round of the Capital Athletic Conference tournament on Wednesday. And the No. 3 Seahawks' reward is a return matchup with York, which edged St. Mary's, 9-8, last Saturday to gain the No. 2 seed, a first-round bye, and a semifinal contest at home. “We're glad we got there to have a chance,” Hasbrouck said Thursday morning.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Before tackling Michigan State yesterday, Utah's rotund coach Rick Majerus said jokingly: "I don't know how we're going to stop the Spartans. I'm going to have to eat on it."The Spartans almost gave Majerus an ulcer, forcing two overtimes with stirring comebacks before the Utes survived, 85-84, to advance to the semifinals of the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament West Regional."It's probably the best game I've been involved with in my life," Majerus said on a more serious note after the game.

Chris Hasbrouck is not happy that St. Mary's dropped its regular-season finale to Capital Athletic Conference rival York last Saturday, and the coach wants to see his players show a little emotion when they meet Wesley in the first round of the conference tournament this Wednesday at Seahawk Stadium in St. Mary's City. “We need to go in there with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder,” Hasbrouck said Tuesday morning. “They knew that for a lot of reasons, we let a great opportunity slip by. I think we play better when we feel like there's more at stake.

Bobby Sabelhaus, former McDonogh School quarterback and Parade All-American, is headed to San Jose State -- the fourth college he will have attended since 1995.Sabelhaus yesterday made an oral commitment to play football for the Spartans, who offered the 6-foot-5 junior a scholarship though he has yet to take a snap in a college game."I want to show this country that I wasn't a fluke," said JTC Sabelhaus, 21, who failed to impress in stints at Florida and West Virginia. "I'm going to get it done."

ST. LOUIS -- In the end, after the ragged start, the angry speech and the remarkable turnaround, Antonio Smith wound up with the ball in his hands and the Midwest Region at his feet.Michigan State's 6-foot-8 senior followed the first impulse that hit him. He kicked the ball as hard as he could. "Almost to the ceiling," he said, in half astonishment. "I just let it hang out."Why not? The Spartans, everybody's underdog, had just beaten the odds one more time. They spotted the Kentucky Wildcats 13 points in yesterday's Midwest Regional final, then eliminated the defending NCAA champions with the blunt, efficient end of their ever-present defense.

- Jordan Williams raced off the court, slapping hands with fans behind Maryland's bench as he headed toward the Spokane Arena tunnel. Greivis Vasquez leaped up onto a chair and pumped his fist repeatedly at a cluster of red-clad Terrapins backers in the stands. Handwritten in red ink on one of Vasquez's white sneakers were the words "Win" and "Love the Game." The Terrapins were loving the game more than ever after overcoming early NCAA tournament jitters to beat Houston, 89-77, and advance to today's meeting with Michigan State for a spot in the Sweet Sixteen.

Michigan State star Kalin Lucas will miss the rest of the NCAA tournament after a magnetic resonance imaging confirmed that he ruptured his left Achilles tendon. In Lucas' place on Sunday, Korie Lucious made a 3-pointer at the buzzer to put the Spartans into the round of 16 with an 85-83 win over fourth-seeded Maryland. Lucas was hurt late in the first half of that game when he landed awkwardly after a shot. He is a two-time All-Big Ten player and leads the Spartans in points and assists.

ST. LOUIS -- Mateen Cleaves, who promised a Big Ten-type football game, delivered a show-stopping hit that helped turn Michigan State's Midwest Regional semifinal game against Oklahoma last night.When Cleaves ran fullback-like into an Eduardo Najero pick 10 minutes into the second half, the collision left both players sprawled on the court during a 10-minute delay. Najera fell face-down, out cold. Although he eventually returned, it was Oklahoma that never recovered."That ranks among the top hits I've had," Cleaves said after top-seeded Michigan State outlasted the 13th-seeded Sooners, 54-46, at the Trans World Dome.

AUSTIN, Texas - Dexter Pittman admits he needed to get mad. And Texas coach Rick Barnes knew how to push the proper buttons to accomplish that. Before the Longhorns faced North Carolina on Saturday, Barnes led Pittman into the gym for an early season message. Running and conducting drills for an hour and a half was a way to jolt Pittman out of his "mentally relaxed" mode, Pittman said. "Like an NBA predraft camp but harder," he said. Pittman grasped the message and delivered with 23 points and 15 rebounds in a 103-90 victory against the Tar Heels.

The disappointment of St. Mary's 15-4 loss to No. 5 Salisbury, the reigning Division III national champion, last Saturday has given way to the excitement surrounding the team's upcoming home contest against Capital Athletic Conference foe York this Saturday. The Seahawks (9-5 overall and 4-1 in the conference) are battling the Spartans (12-3, 4-1) for the No. 2 seed in the CAC tournament, which begins next Wednesday. A victory would give either side a first-round bye in the six-team field and at least one home game.

When the Maryland women's basketball team steps onto the court Monday night for its NCAA tournament second-round game at Comcast Center, the Terps will be without two starters and a reserve because of injury and another starter who's recovering from illness. Maryland (25-7) has withstood playing with diminished numbers for much of the season to earn a No. 4 seed in the Bridgeport (Conn.) Region, and the six to seven players comprising the regular rotation have grown accustomed to performing at their peak despite logging extensive minutes.

Hoosiers, Spartans tough Shannon Ryan Chicago Tribune I'm tempted to say "all of them. " In this topsy-turvy never-know-what's-coming college basketball season it seems like everyone has a chance. This is a season in which five No. 1 teams have been displaced in five consecutive weeks after all. But by looking critically at the season, I'll give weight to teams that are consistent and have been warming up recently. Indiana fits the former, Michigan State fits the latter.

Morgan State (3-6, 2-4 MEAC) vs. Norfolk State (3-7, 1-6 MEAC) Time: 1 p.m. Site: Dick Price Stadium, Norfolk, Va. Radio: 88.9 FM Series: Norfolk State leads 14-10 What's at stake: After a season that began with a lot of promise in a 3-2 start, the Bears are now just trying to snap a four-game losing streak and end the season with a couple of victories. Having taken on four of the top five teams in the MEAC in four consecutive weeks, the Bears could finally be getting a break in lowly Norfolk.

For most of Ken Niumatalolo's first four years as coach at Navy, the references to the past were nearly all positive reminders of how the program had kept up the standard set by his mentor and predecessor, Paul Johnson. Even last year, when Niumatalolo suffered his first losing season and Navy had its first losing record in nine years, there seemed to be a feeling that the Midshipmen weren't very far off, with five of the seven losses coming by a total of 11 points. This season is different - a painful flashback to what Navy football was like when Johnson first arrived in 2002.

It has been said that many of America's future heavyweight boxing champions are hidden on various football fields and basketball courts across the country. Gone are the days of supreme athletes choosing a career between the ropes over one in the NFL  or NBA.  But now, seven knee surgeries later, a former linebacker has gone from the football field and into the ring in an attempt to bring the heavyweight title back to the United States.  ...

WASHINGTON - In today's BB&T Classic championship game, Maryland will play an opponent that is aggressive, balanced and hungry. That was supposed to be Michigan State, but the 11th-ranked Spartans were pummeled by George Washington in yesterday's second semifinal, 96-83. The Colonials (4-1) took control with a 10-0 run late in the first half and led by as many as 15 early in the second half. Fourth-year coach Karl Hobbs' rising team went inside for 23 points from junior center Pops Mensah-Bonsu, while senior guard T.J. Thompson got half of his 18 points on three-pointers.

INDIANAPOLIS - Some things just don't happen. Wile E. Coyote doesn't catch the Road Runner. Martha Stewart doesn't leave crumbs on the tablecloth, and the Tennessee women's basketball team doesn't lose in the Final Four to a team of neophytes. But the Lady Vols squandered a 16-point, second-half lead and a six-point advantage in the final three minutes against Michigan State in the national semifinals last night, as the Spartans won, 68-64, to claim one of the most shocking upsets in women's basketball history.

Katy McCabe spent six years in the Marines, including a 13-month tour in Iraq and two shorter stints in Afghanistan. So when she signed up for last year's Spartan Death Race, McCabe didn't think it would be more difficult than being in the military. "I really did think it would be a lot easier [than the Marines]," said McCabe, 32, who grew up in Aberdeen and lives in Ellicott City, where she works as a consultant. "I look at it differently now. It was brutal. " That is exactly what Andy Weinberg and Joe DeSena want to hear.

Each week The Sun's John McIntyre presents a moderately obscure but evocative word with which you may not be familiar - another brick to add to the wall of your working vocabulary. This week's word: LACONIC The Athenians were a gabby lot, but the soldierly Spartans were people, men mainly, of few words. From the Greek Lakon , Laconia or Sparta, and Lakonikos , we get the English word laconic (pronounced luh-KAHN-ik), meaning terse or concise to the point of appearing rude or mysterious.  Example: From a 1996 column by Maureen Dowd in The New York Times : " We would rather have a smiling, shape-shifting Democrat we don't trust than a frowning, laconic Republican we trust more.