March 30, 2009

Maryland Falls to Louisville, 77-60, In Elite Eight

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Angel McCoughtry had 21 points and 13 rebounds and Louisville claimed its first Final Four berth by upsetting top-seeded Maryland 77-60 on Monday night in the Raleigh regional final.

Deseree Byrd added 17 points and Candyce Bingham had 15 for the third-seeded Cardinals (33-4). They never trailed and led by double figures for virtually the entire second half in continuing the most successful tournament run in school history.

They'll face the winner of the Oklahoma City regional, either Oklahoma or Purdue, Sunday night in St. Louis.

Marissa Coleman finished with 18 points two nights after scoring a career-high 42 against Vanderbilt and Marah Strickland added 15 the top-seeded Terrapins (31-5), who finally ran out of comebacks.

Two nights after rallying from 18 down to beat the Commodores, the Terps turned it over 21 times - a major reason why they were denied their fourth trip to the national semifinals.

Headed there instead is a Cardinals team led by a Baltimore native, McCoughtry, and coached by a former Maryland assistant, Jeff Walz.

Just when the Terps thought they had clawed back into the game late, the Cardinals seniors put it away.

Coleman hit a 3-pointer to pull Maryland within eight at the five-minute mark. But Bingham responded seconds later with a layup over Demauria Liles to start the 13-2 run that pushed it into double figures to stay. McCoughtry added hit a 3-pointer over Liles and Bingham followed that with a layup to stretch it to 67-52.