NEW YORK, 22 March 2004 — Kennedy Winston scored 21 points as the eighth seed Alabama Crimson Tide stunned top ranked Stanford Cardinal 70-67 in Phoenix Regional play at the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.
Stanford became the first No. 1 seed team to be eliminated from this year’s tournament as Dan Grunfeld missed a 3-point attempt at the buzzer. The Cardinal led the game 53-40 with 7:40 to play, but a 16-0 Alabama run stunned Stanford, which lost for just the second time in 32 games this season.
Trailing 70-64, Matt Lottich hit a 3-pointer with 7.2 seconds remaining and when Alabama’s Earnest Sheldon missed two free throws seconds later, the Cardinal had one more chance for another improbable comeback, something the team has done several times this season.
However, Grunfield missed his shot, giving the Crimson Tide (19-13) a date in the Sweet 16 against Syracuse next week in Phoenix.
Fifth seeded Syracuse, the defending national champions, survived a late rally to edge fourth ranked Maryland 72-70 earlier in the day.
In another major upset, second seeded Gonzaga, which had been a Cinderella team for several years, was this time an upset victim, falling to number 10 Nevada 91-72 in St Louis Region play.
Kevinn Pinkney scored 20 points, Todd Okeson added 19 and Kirk Snyder had 18 for the Wolf Pack.
Gonzaga (28-3) trailed by as many as 20 in the first half and never really got back into the game.
In East Rutherford Region play, Top ranked St. Joseph’s (29-1) survived a scare to edge eight seed Texas Tech 70-65, knocking veteran coach Bobby Knight’s team out of the tournament.
In the other East Rutherford game, No. 4 Wake Forrest edged No. 12 Manhattan 84-80.
Duke (29-5) continued its impressive play as the Atlanta Region’s top seed easily defeated eighth seed Seton Hall 90-62.
In the other games, second seed Connecticut beat No. 7 DePaul 72-55 in the Phoenix Region while third ranked Texas got by sixth ranked North Carolina 78-75 in the Atlanta Region.
