Sharp-shooting Indiana sends Kent State packing

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Indiana is back in the Final Four thanks to nearly unprecedented 3-point shooting.

Making their first eight long-range shots and close to 80 percent overall, the Hoosiers rolled past upstart Kent State 81-69 Saturday night in the South Regional to return to the national semifinals for the first time since 1992.

Indiana (24-11) -- at No. 5, the lowest-seeded team left in the tournament -- will play Oklahoma next Saturday in Atlanta. The Sooners won the West Regional by beating Missouri 81-75.

"It's an unbelievable feeling," said Dane Fife, who led Indiana with 17 points. "We've done what we came down here to do. Now we've got to go get Oklahoma."

Kent State's nation-leading 21-game winning streak ended, as did its attempt to become the first No. 10-seeded team to reach the Final Four.

Instead, Indiana -- stunned by Kent State in the first round of last year's NCAA tournament -- gets a chance to add to its five national championships, the last of which came in 1987.

Six players hit 3-pointers for Indiana, with Fife going 5-for-6. Kyle Hornsby added 16 points for the Hoosiers, who tied for the Big Ten regular-season title.

"Give Indiana credit," Kent State coach Stan Heath said.

"I haven't seen a shooting display like that in my 13 years of coaching."

Indiana finished 15-for-19 on 3s -- 78.9 percent, the fifth-highest ever in an NCAA tournament game. The 15 made set a school record.

Today's games

MARYLAND VS. CONNECTICUT: The first time Maryland and Connecticut met this season they were very different from each other.

Maryland had three senior starters back from its first Final Four appearance. Connecticut used two sophomores and two freshmen as it tried to rebound from a season that ended with a second-round loss in the NIT.

Experience prevailed on Dec. 3 in the MCI Center, with Maryland winning 77-65 in the championship game of the BB&T Classic.

When the Terrapins and Huskies meet today in the Carrier Dome, they again will be very different teams -- and the stakes will be much higher: the East Regional championship and a berth in next weekend's Final Four in Atlanta.

OREGON VS. KANSAS: Aaron Miles wants to rebuff the Oregon Ducks again.

The Portland, Ore., native spurned his home state for the chance to play college basketball at Kansas, and now the freshman point guard will try to keep the Ducks from reaching their first Final Four since 1939.

"I do want to win so I have a little bragging rights, but the main reason I want to win is so we get to the Final Four," Miles said Saturday, a day before Kansas and Oregon play in the Midwest Regional final.

The top-seeded Jayhawks (32-3) haven't been to the national semifinals since 1993. The No. 2 Ducks (26-8), meanwhile, are playing in a regional final for the first time since 1960.

-- From wire reports