(10) N.C. STATE 65, (2) CONNECTICUT 62

Julius Hodge shouted to his fans at the buzzer, saying he knew this would happen all along: North Carolina State was heading to the round of 16, and the defending champion was knocked out.

Hodge scored on a slashing drive through the lane with 4.3 seconds left to break a 62-all tie and send North Carolina State past second-seeded Connecticut 65-62 yesterday in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

N.C. State (21-13), the 10th seed in the Syracuse Regional, advances to the regional semifinals for the first time since 1989 and will play Wisconsin, which topped Bucknell later in the day.

No team has repeated since Duke in 1991-92, but the defending national champion Huskies (23-8) seemed almost a lock to at least move past the second round. They went into the game 27-0 against teams seeded sixth or lower in the tournament. And in 19 years under coach Jim Calhoun, they were 23-2 in the first two rounds of the tournament, reaching the regional semifinals 13 times.

The loss also was a setback for the Big East conference, which has lost two no. 2 seeds and two no. 4 seeds so far.

Hodge finished with 17 points and six assists, Cameron Bennerman had his second straight solid game with 15 points, and Ilian Evtimov had 11 before fouling out with 2:16 left.

Williams led the Huskies with a career-high 22 points, and Charlie Villanueva had 16 points and 12 rebounds. Freshman Rudy Gay, who was averaging 12 points, had early foul trouble and finished with only four points. Long-range ace Rashad Anderson made only 1-of-5 3-pointers and finished with five points.

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(5) VILLANOVA 76, (4) FLORIDA 65

Basket by basket, rebound by rebound, Villanova’s Jason Fraser stirred memories of 20 years ago.

The fifth-seeded Wildcats, back in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1999, got a huge performance from their 6-foot-10 backup center and humbled Florida 76-65 yesterday.

With leading scorer Allan Ray struggling, Fraser and guard Randy Foye took the team on their backs and led the Wildcats into the round of 16 for the first time since 1988 – where they will face North Carolina.

Twenty years ago, Villanova made an improbable run to their only national title. And with the star of that team – Ed Pinckney – on the bench as an assistant coach, the Wildcats look capable of getting back to the Final Four.

Fraser scored 21 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Foye had 18 points to help pick up the slack for Ray and Curtis Sumpter, who left the game after scoring eight early points and twice tumbling to the court and clutching his sore knees. Ray went 0-for-6 from the field, but made 7-of-8 free throws in the final 4:03 to help Villanova (24-7) pull away after wasting most of a 14-point first-half lead.

Florida closed the deficit to 44-43 early in the second half but saw its chances of getting past the second round for the first time in five years slip away during a seven-minute scoring drought that followed Matt Walsh’s first basket of the game.

The Gators (24-8) were held to 38.5% shooting and got little offensive support for David Lee, who did his best to keep them in the game with 20 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks, and three steals before fouling out.

Walsh finished with 12 points, but was 4-for-13 after a horrible shooting performance in the first round.

Villanova looked like the superior team from the start, easily handling the Gators’ half-court trapping defense and taking command with a 20-3 run that turned an early deficit into a 23-10 lead. Just as surprising was Villanova’s ability to control the game without getting any first-half points from Ray.

***

(1) NORTH CAROLINA 92, (9) IOWA STATE 65

Sean May and sixth man Marvin Williams bullied North Carolina back to the round of 16, leaving Iowa State’s six-man rotation gasping for air along the way.

May had 24 points and 17 rebounds, Williams finished with a career-high 15 rebounds, and the top-seeded Tar Heels beat the Cyclones 92-65 yesterday to advance past the first weekend for the first time in five seasons.

Williams scored 20 points and Rashad McCants added 17 for North Carolina (29-4), which went to the Final Four in 2000 before the tournament drought. Now, coach Roy Williams has the Tar Heels back in the regional semifinals in his second season, the 10th time he’s made it that far in 17 NCAA tournament appearances.

The Tar Heels will face fifth-seeded Villanova next weekend. They also set up a possible matchup with league rival North Carolina State in the final of the Syracuse Regional.

This one was pretty easy. Iowa State (19-12) beat Minnesota in the first round with stifling defense, but it was no match for North Carolina’s offensive prowess. Time and again, point guard Raymond Felton penetrated to find open teammates, and if they missed their shot, May or Williams likely was there to clean it up.

Iowa State’s Jared Homan, playing in his final game, finished with 19 points and 20 rebounds, but he had little help. Iowa State had 17 turnovers while shooting only 36% to finish its surprising run back to the tournament.

***

(6) WISCONSIN 71, (14) BUCKNELL 62

Maybe Bucknell could’ve found a scheme to stop Wisconsin’s Mike Wilkinson or Zach Morley. Handling both, however, was too much for the upstart Bison.

The 6-foot-8 forwards consistently put themselves in all the right places, especially when things were tight in the second half, carrying the Badgers to a 71-62 victory.

Morley was 6-of-7 with three 3-pointers and 15 points. His tap-in with 8:41 left put the Badgers (24-8) ahead for good, then he protected the lead with rebounds on the next two defensive stands.

The Bison (24-9) were still within four points when Wilkinson showed why he’s won more games than any player in school history. He personally went on a 7-2 run, capped by a three point play to push the lead back to nine, virtually ending Bucknell’s bid to become just the third no. 14 to reach the NCAA’s round of 16. He finished with 23 points and nine rebounds.

Alando Tucker, Wisconsin’s other frontcourt starter, scored 15 of his 17 points from the foul line, including five in the final 36.7 seconds, sending the Badgers into the regional semifinals for the second time in three years.

***

(1) DUKE 63, (9) MISSISSIPPI STATE 55

With one of his most unlikely Duke teams, Mike Krzyzewski moved himself into the NCAA tournament record books and the Blue Devils into the round of 16.

Daniel Ewing handled the offense and Shelden Williams took care of defense to lead the top-seeded Blue Devils to a 63-55 win over Mississippi State in the Austin Regional. The win was a record 66th tournament victory for Coach Krzyzewski, moving him ahead of Dean Smith at the top of the list.

It also sent Duke (27-5) into the regional semifinals for the eighth consecutive year, the longest current streak in the nation. The Blue Devils will play fifth-seeded Michigan State.

The Blue Devils had their hands full with ninth-seeded Mississippi State (23-11).They shot just 38% and had 16 turnovers, but when the going got tough, Williams and Ewing took over.

Williams scored on a three-point play to give Duke the lead for good at 53-50 with 4:19 to go, then blocked Lawrence Roberts’s shot at the other end. J.J. Redick scored on a fadeaway, and after a Mississippi State miss, Ewing pushed in a Redick miss to make it 57-53. Roberts dunked for the Bulldogs, but Ewing came up big again with a short runner in the lane for a 59-55 lead with 1:01 to play.

Redick had 16 and Williams ended with 13 points and 15 rebounds. Roberts led the Bulldogs with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

***

(5) MICHIGAN STATE 72, (13) VERMONT 61

Maurice Ager scored 19 points and Paul Davis had 11 points and 14 rebounds to lead Michigan State to a 72-61 win over Vermont. The win sends the Spartans to the regional semifinals.

Michigan State (24-6) found itself the sentimental second choice in Worcester when the 13th-seeded Catamounts (25-7) beat Syracuse – the first NCAA win in Vermont history.

But Vermont star Taylor Coppenrath went into a shooting slump – making 5-of-23 shots – and Michigan State proved too fast in transition.

Coppenrath, a three-time America East player of the year, had 16 points and 14 rebounds, but 10 of the boards were on offense and many of those came on his own misses. T.J. Sorrentine, who won the conference’s top award the other year, scored 26 points but made just 6 of 15 shots from 3-point range; he topped the 2,000-point mark in the game and is the third-highest scorer in school history.

Michigan State led by as many as 14 points, and Vermont made its last best run to cut it to 62-53 on Sorrentine’s 3-pointer with 4:39 left.