SALT LAKE CITY -- The Santa Clara Broncos showed Thursday night why the NCAA tournament has become so popular.
The NCAA tourney, more than any big-time sports event in the country, gives the underdog a chance for glory. And Santa Clara earned some glory against the Arizona Wildcats in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the event.
With freshman Steve Nash hitting six free throws in the final 31 seconds, Santa Clara stunned the Arizona Wildcats, 64-61, in the opening round of the West Regional.
Santa Clara overcame a 25-point run by Arizona to become only the second No. 15 seed to win a tournament game since the field was expanded to 64 teams in 1985.
'We are tremendously happy,' said Santa Clara Coach Dick Davey. 'I'm proud of the way our players handled the adversity tonight. They didn't panic. I did, but they didn't.'
Arizona trailed 33-21 when it started its run with five minutes to play in the first half and had a 46-33 lead when it was over five minutes deep in the second period.
But the Broncos battled back and a jump shot by Pete Eisenrich put Santa Clara in front for good at 54-53 with 2:45 to play.
'I thought we had things in control with a 10-point lead,' said Arizona Coach Lute Olsen. 'We had a number of problems, but it starts on the boards. That has been an area where we had been very good during the course of the year. But we were not good tonight.
'Our shooting was atrocious. If you don't shoot the ball you're not going to be successful.'
After Eisenrich put the Broncos in front, Santa Clara expanded its lead to 56-53 on a layup by DeWayne Lewis. Two free throws by Arizona's Chris Mills made it a one-point game, but freshman Kevin Dunne grabbed an offensive rebound for Santa Clara and scored with 52 seconds to go to put the Broncos ahead, 58-55.
Nash gave Santa Clara a five-point cushion with two free throws with 31 seconds to go and did so again with 26.2 seconds left. Nash converted two more foul shots with 18 seconds remaining to put the Broncos in front by six, but Mills cut Arizona's deficit to three points with a 3- point shot with eight seconds to play.
Nash was again fouled, but this time he missed both free throws with six seconds left only to have Dunne rebound the second miss. Dunne was fouled and he, too, missed two free throws. That gave Arizona's Damon Stoudamire a chance for a game tying 3-pointer, but it smashed off the backboard as time ran out.
It marked the second straight year Arizona had left the tournament in a first-round upset, having fallen to Tennessee State last year. Santa Clara will take a 19-11 record into the second round while Arizona's season ended at 24-4.
'I don't feel jinxed,' Olson said. 'At this point I just feel frustrated that we couldn't play more of the way we are capable of playing.'
Santa Clara opened the game with a 21-7 run over the first 10 minutes, a stretch of basketball that was lost in the late heroics.
Mills led the Wildcats with 19 points while Eisenrich had 19 for the Broncos.
