UAB stuns Marquette
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Speed kills. That was confirmed constantly in this second-round game of the Conference USA tournament. Ninth-seeded UAB (18-11) used its plentiful speed to pull off a stunning 83-76 upset of top-seeded and eighth-ranked Marquette (23-5) and advance to a Friday semifinal against St. Louis.
“We’re not a huge basketball team,” said coach Mike Anderson, a former Arkansas assistant who has taught UAB the frenetic style that earned the Razorbacks the 1994 national title. “So we have to create chaos. Some of the words I wrote on the blackboard (before the game) were, ‘Attack, attack, attack.’”
They attacked. They made 20 steals and forced 30 turnovers.
Their guards, Finley and Eric Bush, penetrated constantly and finished with 23 and 17 points, respectively. They totally frustrated Wade, who committed 10 turnovers and scored only 11 points while going 3-of-12.
Marquette coach Tom Crean thought the pressure got to his team. “We just gave the ball away,” he said. “We flat-out handed the ball to them at times.”
His Golden Eagles certainly did that after rushing off to a quick 9-2 lead. Over the next nine minutes, they went 1-of-12 from the field, committed nine turnovers (five by Wade) and fell behind by eight. They pulled to within four at halftime, but then went down 10 at 11:18 after committing three more turnovers.
“We never got a great flow because of the way we turned it over,” Crean said.
Yet somehow his team stayed close and actually took the lead at 2:21 on a Diener three-pointer. They were still up one after a pair of Robert Jackson (18 points) free throws at 1:36, but Finley answered with two of his own as UAB regained the lead.
Then Marquette made its critical error. Jackson was on the end line as he accepted an entry pass from Terry Sanders, a turnover that led to Bush’s 6-foot floater at :28.4.
Two more Finley free throws that put UAB up five with :20.7 seconds left. Then Jackson, after grabbing an offensive rebound, was stripped by Finley, who put the exclamation point on his team’s victory with a last pair of free throws.

— Skip Myslenski, Chicago

Tribune (KRT)

Softball home opener postponed
No. 22 Oregon has to wait another month to play on its home field.
Thursday’s doubleheader against Portland State was postponed because of weather conditions.
The softball team opens Pacific-10 Conference play Saturday in Corvallis. Oregon (16-6) faces No. 17 Oregon State (19-9) at 1 p.m. The Ducks and the Beavers are the two lowest-ranked Pac-10 schools in the top 25. All eight conference schools with a softball program are ranked in the poll, including No. 1 UCLA.
The Ducks will open at Howe Field on Wednesday, April 9 in the rescheduled doubleheader against Portland State. The following weekend, Oregon hosts Washington and UCLA to open Pac-10 play at home.

— Mindi Rice