By The Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS – Illinois showed its inside game is pretty powerful, too.

James Augustine scored a career-high 23 points and Jack Ingram added 12 more in the top-seeded Illini’s 71-59 win over ninth-seeded Nevada in the second round of the NCAA tournament Saturday. Augustine also grabbed 10 rebounds, blocked four shots and had two steals.

Illinois’ famed guard trio of Deron Williams, Dee Brown and Luther Head combined for 31 points, but most came late in the game as the big guys took center stage. Williams scored five points on free throws down the stretch.

The Illini (34-1) reached the regional semifinals for the second straight season and fourth time in the last five seasons. They will play No. 12 seed Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Thursday in the Chicago Regional at Rosemont, Ill.

Utah 67, Oklahoma 58

TUCSON, Ariz. – Turns out there’s more to Utah than Andrew Bogut.

The sixth-seeded Utes capitalized on the 7-foot Aussie’s skilled passing and 20 points by Justin Hawkins to beat No. 3 seed Oklahoma 67-58 Saturday in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

The Utes (29-5) advanced to the Austin Regional for the first time since 1998, when they lost to Kentucky in the national championship game. They had been knocked out in the early rounds five of the last six years, but move on to play the Cincinnati-Kentucky winner next.

Although the beefy Sooners (25-8) did their best to beat up Bogut in the low post, they couldn’t overcome 32 percent shooting. Except for hitting the opening basket, they trailed the entire game and got no closer than seven points in the second half.

Bogut had a career-high seven assists and tied his season low with 10 points, taking just seven shots. He scored 24 points in Utah’s 60-54 opening-round win over 11th-seeded UTEP. The sophomore has been mentioned as a potential No. 1 pick in this year’s NBA draft.

Texas Tech 71, Gonzaga 69

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) – Bob Knight is back. Ronald Ross made sure of that.

Knight’s Texas Tech Red Raiders rallied from a 13-point second-half deficit to beat Gonzaga 71-69 on Saturday to advance to the semifinals of the Albuquerque Regional.

Ross, the sharpshooter who walked on as a freshman four years ago and became one of the best guards in the Big 12 under Knight’s guidance, sank a 3-pointer from the corner to put sixth-seeded Tech up 68-67 with 1:06 to play, then sealed the victory by making both halves of a one-and-one with 7.5 seconds remaining.

Ross and Knight hugged in the final seconds as it became obvious that a Knight-coached team would make it to a regional semifinal for the first time since 1994.

When it ended, Knight’s wife Karen joined the coach on the court, crying and hugging him. It was an emotional scene around the crusty coach whose 854 career victories are just 25 shy of Dean Smith’s NCAA Division I record.

Washington 97, Pacific 79

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – Washington is making it a lot harder to question its No. 1 seed in the Albuquerque Regional.

The Huskies advanced to the round of 16 for the first time since 1998 with a convincing 97-79 victory over Pacific.

Nate Robinson scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half, Bobby Jones scored 19 and Will Conroy had 10 assists for Washington (29-5).

Nate Simmons scored 15 for the Pac-10 champion Huskies, whose top seed was the most disputed among the four No. 1s. But Washington backed it up well against Pacific.

The Huskies never trailed and pulled away by going 19-for-31 (61 percent) from the field in the second half. They finished shooting 56.3 percent (36-of-64) for the game.

Arizona 85, UAB 63

BOISE, Idaho – Salim Stoudamire’s shooting and a little calm under pressure helped Arizona reach the NCAA regional semifinals for the fourth time in five years.

Stoudamire made five 3-pointers and had 28 points, and Arizona never buckled under Alabama-Birmingham’s constant pressure defense to move on in the Chicago Regional with a 85-63 victory over the Blazers.

Arizona (29-6) struggled with UAB’s frenetic, trapping defense in the first half, but had just four turnovers in the second to reach the round of 16 for the 12th time.

UAB (22-11) played its usual helter skelter pace and gave the Wildcats problems at times, but couldn’t seem to turn mistakes into points. The 11th-seeded Blazers made just 6-of-30 from 3-point range – their forte – and shot 32 percent overall in failing to add another upset victory to a list of tournament wins that included Washington, Kentucky and LSU the past two years.

Kentucky 69, Cincinnati 60

INDIANAPOLIS – Kelenna Azubuike scored 19 points and second-seeded Kentucky held Cincinnati scoreless for the final 2:41 to escape with a 69-60 second-round victory.

Rajon Rondo added 16 points for Kentucky (27-5). Randolph Morris finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds as the Wildcats avoided a second straight second-round exit.

Nick Williams scored 16 points and Jihad Muhammad added 14 for seventh-seeded Cincinnati (26-7), which was trying to become the third straight Conference USA school to eliminate Kentucky from the tournament. The Bearcats have lost 15 straight to their nearby rival and still haven’t beaten Kentucky since 1939.

The bitterness between the two schools, who have rarely played since 1948, was evident throughout the RCA Dome, where there was a Final Four-like atmosphere.

West Virginia 111, Wake Forest 105, 2OT

CLEVELAND – Shooting at baskets he practiced on all summer, former Cleveland prep star Mike Gansey fashioned yet another West Virginia upset – this one in two overtimes.

The junior guard scored a career-high 29 points – 19 of them in the two overtimes – and the Mountaineers sent No. 2 seed Wake Forest to another stunning second-round loss, 111-105 on Saturday night.

West Virginia (23-10) will play Texas Tech next in the Albuquerque Regional, its deepest tournament run since it also made the round of 16 in 1998.

Wake Forest’s 105 points were the second most for a losing team in tournament history not the legacy the Demon Deacons wanted for one of their most promising seasons.

High expectations accompanied the Demon Deacons, who also lost in the second round as a No. 2 seed in 2003. They returned every scholarship player from last season, were ranked No. 1 in the country for two weeks and set a school record for wins in the NCAA opener.

The burden appeared to weigh on them in their 70-54 win over Chattanooga on Thursday. Several players conceded they felt some opening-game jitters.

This time, they couldn’t hold onto a 13-point halftime lead or hold off a team that has made its mark by knocking off Top 25 teams. West Virginia tore through the Big East tournament to reach the finals, developing a knack for big finishes.

None was bigger than this one.

Gansey, a prep star for a suburban school who worked out at Cleveland State over the summer and had about 300 friends and relatives in the stands, made a free throw that tied it at 77 with 21 seconds left in regulation.

The frenetic pace stretched into overtime, with neither team ahead by more than a couple of baskets. It was tied at 93 when Wake Forest center Eric Williams blocked Johannes Herber’s driving layup with 2 seconds to go at the end of the first overtime.

Wake Forest point guard Chris Paul scored 10 points in the first overtime, then fouled out with 3:24 to go in the second, walking slowly to the bench. Gansey had 10 in the first overtime and nine more in the second.

Wake Forest’s Trent Strickland missed a 3-pointer with 29 seconds left in the second overtime, and Herber’s fastbreak layup sealed it with 13 seconds to go. Patrick Beilein, the son of West Virginia coach John Beilein, threw the ball the length of the floor in jubilation when the buzzer sounded.

In the second half, West Virginia started holding its own inside and D’or Fischer, the star of the tournament’s 2001 play-in game, momentarily took the stage again, turning it into a game.

Fischer, who blocked nine shots in Northwestern State’s play-in win and later transferred to West Virginia, had a three-point play, a dunk and a block during a 10-3 spurt that cut it to 54-51 midway through the second half.

AP-ES-03-19-05 2341EST