Final four bound

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- After watching sophomore Jared Jeffries spoil Duke's run to a second consecutive national championship with 24 points and 15 rebounds Thursday, Kent State coach Stan Heath figured he would do his best to clamp down on Jeffries, the Big Ten Player of the Year and second team All-American. \nIU made him pay -- 15 times. \nWith the Golden Flashes fronting, grabbing and nearly gnawing at Jeffries in the paint, the Hoosiers started flinging up three-pointers. \nThey didn't miss. \nIU shot 15 of 19 from the three-point line -- setting a new school record for threes in the NCAA Tournament -- on its way to an 81-69 victory in the South Regional Final in front of 22,435 fans in Rupp Arena.\n"They just shot the lights out," Kent State guard Andrew Mitchell said. "If we would had have 10 people out there, I don't think we could have stopped them from shooting tonight."\nThe win sends fifth-seeded IU (24-11) to the Final Four, where it will meet West Regional champion Oklahoma Saturday in Atlanta, for the eighth time in school history and first time since 1992. Tenth-seeded Kent State (30-6) saw its school-record 21-game winning streak come to a close. \nSenior guard Dane Fife, who scored a total of 30 points in his first nine NCAA Tournament games, led IU with 17 points, junior Kyle Hornsby scored 16 and junior Tom Coverdale finished with 14. Antonio Gates led Kent State with 22. \nIU's 15 threes tally is the fifth-most in NCAA Tournament history and the most ever in the South Regional. The Hoosiers solved Kent State's man-to-man defense and their occasional use of a 2-3 zone. \nIU hit its first eight three-pointers and missed more than twice as many free throws (nine) as it did threes (four). No Hoosier missed more than three shots all night. \n"One thing our guards are ready to do is hit shots," Hornsby said. "If they take away our inside game, that's the only thing that's going to open it back up again -- if we hit shots."\nDespite an original game plan to dump the ball into the post to Jeffries and senior Jarrad Odle -- the duo combined for just 15 points after scoring 39 against Duke -- the Hoosiers rode nine first-half three pointers to an early 20-point lead and a 12-point halftime edge, but the biggest long-range bomb came with time winding down. \nWith Coverdale sitting in a folding chair near the IU bench resting his severely sprained ankle and Kent State in the midst of a 13-0 run that chopped a 20-point IU lead to seven, Fife sank a three-pointer from the left wing that pushed the lead to ten. \nKent State never got closer than eight the rest of the way. \n"He sent a dagger right at us with that three-pointer," Heath said. "That took a lot of nerve and guts. He has it and that might have been the play of the game."\nIU had several plays of the game. Like any of the seven three-pointers in the first 13 possessions. Or the five threes in the first 13 possessions of the second half. Or any of the defensive stops that held Kent State's leading scorer Trevor Huffman to eight points on seven shots, only the fifth time this season he failed to score double figures and a season-low of shot attempts. \nCoverdale spent most of the night glued to Huffman before re-injuring his ankle on a drive to the bucket with 9:35 left in the game. Fife then switched to Huffman, holding him to just two free throws the rest of the way. \nMitchell scored 13 of the Golden Flashes' final 17 points, but IU fended off the pesky Golden Flashes, who bounced IU from the tournament last season by making defensive stops and hitting nine of 17 free throws over the final 2:42. \nIU held Kent State to two of 14 from the three-point line and 40.6 percent from the field on the night. \n"People kept saying all season that we live and die by the three," IU coach Mike Davis said. "But we don't. We live and die by our defense."\nDefense has been there for IU, but it's torrid outside shooting has been the story. The Hoosiers are shooting 56 percent from the field in the tournament, the highest percentage by any team. \nThe 15 threes marked the ninth time this season IU has hit 10 or more threes in a season, but was the first time since Feb. 9. \n"I told our guards that the opportunity would be there, so take it," Davis said. "Coverdale had the look in his eye, Hornsby had the look and Fife has a look all the time."\nThat look has surprised many and ignited IU's best NCAA Tournament run in 10 years. Davis said all season that the team's goals were to win the Big Ten championship, (check) win the Big Ten Tournament, (messed up by a last-second loss) and get to the Final Four. Check. \nFife said after IU's final regular season game, that the Hoosiers were a Final Four long shot. Through the first four games, they tipped the odds in their favor. Next stop, Atlanta. \n"This is where this program belongs," Fife said, "in final eights and Final Fours"