time, the two teams were knotted at 27. In the second half, with Vandy playing a sticky match-up zone, the Commodores forged a-head 43-42 with 8:07 to play, and from there, Vanderbilt hit their free throws to stave off a Kentucky rally. The win capped a day when upsets were the rule. It made the race for the tourney crown a wide open affair.
Oh, and the fourth game? That one featured LSU, who had anything but an easy time of it, with Florida. With LSU playing very poorly, Tiger coach Dale Brown benched four of his five starters late in the half, and the Tigers trailed 41-34 at halftime. But the second half was all LSU as the starters came back in off the bench to lead the favored Bengals to an 85-73 win. Leonard Mitchell came back to hit for 27 points to lead the Tigers, Howard Carter had 20, Rudy Macklin 13, and Greg Cook 15. Florida was led by Vernon De-Lancy's 26 points and Ronnie Williams' 23. And the favored teams for the semi-finals were worried.
Vanderbilt, the '81 Tourney giant-killers, faced Ole Miss in the first game of the semis, and at the half, it looked like the Commodores were going to knock off another team that was favored to beat them. With the score tied 20-20, Vandy decided to hold the ball for the last
Kentucky couldn't find the handle and lost to Vandy
shot of the first half. But Mike Rhodes was called for charging, and the Rebs' Cecil Dowell canned a 22-footer at the buzzer to give Ole Miss a 22-20 edge. Ole Miss' center Roger Stieg helped keep the Rebels in the game, hitting for nine points and pulling down five rebounds in the half. In the second period, it was all Ole Miss as the Rebels took advantage of Vandy's weariness (the Commodores were playing their third game in three days). Ole Miss outscored Vanderbilt 19-4 to open the second half, and at one point, the Rebels led by
24 at 65-41 with 1:32 to go before winning 71-51. Elston Turner paced Ole Miss with 22 points while Stieg finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. The Commodores were led by Al Miller's 13 points while Mike Rhodes became Vandy's career scoring leader when he scored a free throw with 2:43 to play in the first half. He finished the night 1,699 points on his career, 10 for the contest.
While the first game may have broken the form of the underdog winning the game, the second one
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Tennessee lost out on this call and they lost to the Ole Miss Rebels
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