March 21, 2000

Box Score

By ROB GLOSTER
AP Sports Writer

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - Sean Lampley seems to save his biggest games for the NIT.

Lampley, the MVP of last year's tournament, scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half as defending champion California (18-14) defeated Georgetown 60-49 Tuesday night in the NIT's second round.

Georgetown (19-15) shot just 28 percent and committed 16 turnovers, and never seemed to play under control against the Golden Bears. Anthony Perry had 12 points and Lee Scruggs had 11 to lead the Hoyas, who had a triple-overtime victory over Virginia in the first round.

Lampley, whose 20 points led Cal to a 70-66 victory over Long Beach State in the tournament's first round, struggled at times this season despite leading the Bears in scoring and rebounding. His inconsistent play earned him a spot on the bench at the start of Cal's first game this season against archrival Stanford.

Against the Hoyas, he was nearly unstoppable in the second half.

"At the end of the game, they just kept giving him the ball, which forced us to make a decision about either double-teaming him and leaving someone else open on the perimeter, or he drew fouls on some of our big guys," Georgetown coach Craig Esherick said.

The Bears, seeking to become the NIT's first repeat champion since St. John's in 1943-44, will play at Wake Forest on Friday in the third round. The Demon Deacons (19-14) won 72-65 over New Mexico on Tuesday night.

Ruben Boumtje Boumtje, the Hoyas' leading rebounder and No. 2 scorer this season, returned after missing the Virginia game with a sprained left ankle but was held to three points.

Georgetown's Kevin Braswell, who had a career-high 40 points against Virginia, went 1-for-12 from the field and also scored three points against Cal.

"I just took some bad shots and made some key turnovers at the end of the game," Braswell said. "In the second half, it seemed when I went past one man that three other guys were there."

For the Bears, that was precisely the plan. They spent all week in practice focusing on how to prevent Braswell from igniting the Georgetown offense.

"As soon as he tried to penetrate, somebody stepped up on him," Cal guard Shantay Legans said.

Cal led 28-26 at halftime, and both teams continued to struggle offensively in the first few minutes of the second half. Georgetown scored only two points in the opening 7:50 of the half, and Cal's first basket of the half came with 5:09 gone. The Bears led 32-28 with six minutes gone in the second half.

Cal led 36-28 with 12:10 remaining when the Hoyas scored five straight points. Georgetown pulled within 41-40 with 8:06 remaining on a basket by Gharun Hester, but Lampley then converted an alley-oop and added a dunk as Cal went on a 6-0 run.

Lampley had five more points as the Bears extended that run to 13-5. Lampley's three-point play with 2:52 remaining gave Cal a 54-45 lead.

"Our players put in their best defensive performance of the year," Cal coach Ben Braun said. "That's what did the job for us tonight."

Georgetown made just four of its first 19 shots, and went 9-for-30 from the field in the first half. But the Hoyas stayed in the game by outrebounding Cal 20-13 in the half, and trailed by just two points at halftime.

Scruggs had nine points in the first half and Perry added seven for Georgetown. Lampley and Ryan Forehan-Kelly had six points each in the first half for the Bears, who did not have a basket in the game's opening 3:26.