MILWAUKEE—The first NCAA Post Season action here at the Bradley Center since 2004 was greeted by full houses and one exciting game of the four played. The two afternoon games were West Regional Games and Minnesota,the first of the five Big Ten teams to play,also was the only one to lose.The Golden Gophers saw Xavier break a 26-26 halftime tie and lead throughout the second half for a 65-54 win. Indiana transfer Jordan Crawford was unstoppable en rout to scoring 28 points for the Musketeers while Lawrence Westbrook tried in vain to keep the Gophers in the game with 19. Xavier will face the Pitt Panthers next after the Big East entry recovered from a slow start to easily put away Oakland 89-66.The night session featured a pair of Midwest Regional Games,the first of which was exciting as Georgia Tech hit an amazing 25-26 free throws to overtake Oklahoma State 64-59. The last Yellow Jacket field goal came with just over eight minutes to play in the game,but they nailed nine free throws to keep the Cowboys at bay. #2 seed Ohio State then defeated undermanned,but nonetheless enthusiastic UC-Santa Barbara 68-51. Chicagoan Evan Turner was more interested in finding teammates rather than “shopping for points”. Jon Diebler led the Buckeyes,who was clearly not the crowd favorites,with 23.

Sunday,OSU faces Georgia Teach at 1:15pm(CDT)with Xavier and P[Pittsburgh to meet about a half hour later.

LES