NIT

Jackson lifts Bears into NIT final

NEW YORK - Pierre Jackson has played some of the best basketball of his career near the end of it.

Jackson earned himself and Baylor another game with 24 points and 10 assists to lift the Bears back into the NIT championship game with a 76-70 victory over Brigham Young on Tuesday night.

“We got one more,” Jackson said. “If we win on Thursday, I’ll probably be here shaking because I’m too excited.”

The Bears will play Iowa or Maryland on Thursday night. Baylor’s Cory Jefferson scored 21 points and Isaiah Austin had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Bears, who are in the championship game for the second time in five years, after losing to Penn State in 2009.

Tyler Haws scored 25 points for the Cougars, who couldn’tbuy a shot from three-point range for much of the game. Baylor (22-14) pulled away in the final eight minutes or so, and then withstood a late rally by BYU, led by Matt Carlino on 5-for-15 three-point shooting. The rest of the Cougars (24-12) went 0 for 6.

Carlino, who finished with 19 points, made three late three- pointers to give BYU one last chance. His third one, with about 38 seconds to go, bounced three times on the rim and fell through to make it 71-68.

Jackson missed 1 of 2 free throws to make it a four pointgame. Carlino put up another three, but this one finally bounced wide, and Baylor was able to finally finish off the Cougars.

“I’m really proud of our guys,” BYU Coach Dave Rose said. “We outrebounded them, and I think that speaks volumes to the effort that we got from our players.”

Jackson has been closing out his career in style, entering Tuesday’s semifinal averaging 19 points and 11.7 assists in the Bears’ three NIT games. For the season, he has led the Big 12 in scoring and assists, and is on track to be the first player to lead a major conference in both since Jason Terry at Arizona in1998-1999.

IOWA 71, MARYLAND 60

Devyn Marble had 21 points and nine rebounds to help Iowa reach the NIT championship for the first time.

Iowa (25-12) won for the 11th time in 14 games. Eric May finished with 12 points, his last on a three-pointer with 1:01 to play that iced it for the Hawkeyes, who laid the foundation for a future Big Ten rivalry with Maryland, which is set to join the conference starting in 2014.

Alex Len had 16 points, 9 rebounds and 6 blocked shots for Maryland (25-13).

Sports, Pages 20 on 04/03/2013

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