March 16, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - John Cox's injury-plagued career at San Francisco has been devoted to reviving a program his father helped build into a national contender nearly three decades ago.

Cox scored 15 of his 27 points in the final 11:11, and Tyrone Riley made a layin with 1.3 seconds left for the Dons' first postseason victory in 26 years, 69-67 over Denver in the opening round of the NIT on Wednesday night.

"This is like building blocks, getting back to the postseason," said Cox, the West Coast Conference's leading scorer this season. "It was crunch time. I had to pick it up. It was time to take the game over. It was coming down to it, and I had to make some plays."

Cox _ Kobe Bryant's first cousin _ scored three straight baskets to rally the Dons from a 49-44 deficit. His 3-pointer with 7:17 remaining tied the game at 55.

After Denver's Erik Benzel hit a 3 to make it 65-64 with 1:19 left, Cox converted two free throws at 43 seconds.

Rodney Billups, the younger brother of Detroit Pistons star Chauncey Billups, then hit a 3 from the top of the arc with 29 seconds left for Denver. USF set up a final play with 20.9 to go, but Cox called timeout near midcourt with 7 seconds on the clock under defensive pressure by Andrew Carpenter.

Then Hazel drove into the paint and made a pretty pass to Riley for the winning basket. Carpenter received a baseball pass, but missed a short baseline jumper at the buzzer.

Riley finished with 16 points and six rebounds for USF (17-13), which advances to play Friday night at home against Cal State Fullerton, an 85-83 winner over Oregon State in overtime.

Riley was the third option on the final play, but he made up for crucial misses from the waning moments of defeats to Loyola Marymount and Saint Mary's this season.

"Andre told me if he got it to be ready," Riley said. "I had the same play against Loyola Marymount and missed, and we lost. I told Coach I would make up for it, and I did."

USF won a postseason game for the first time since beating Brigham Young University 86-63 in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 1979, only two years after Cox's father, Chubby, helped the top-ranked Dons go 29-2 and reach the NCAA tournament.

Yemi Nicholson had 15 points for Denver (20-11), but the 6-foot-10 center didn't touch the ball on offense until scoring his first points at the 13:17 mark of the first half.

Antonio Porch added 14 points for the Pioneers, but had six turnovers. Denver shot 59.5 percent, but USF was nearly as good at 52.8 percent and held a 27-19 rebounding edge.

"We have nobody to blame but ourselves, and we're going to grow from that and learn from this experience," Denver coach Terry Carroll said. "It's just too bad somebody had to end up two points short at the end. Unfortunately, it had to be us."

Cox, 25th in the nation in scoring at 19.9 points per game, wore jersey No. 5 instead of his usual 33 to honor injured teammate Jason Gaines, out for the season with a torn ligament in his right knee that happened during practice last week. Riley will wear Gaines' jersey Friday.

The Dons reached their first postseason since winning the West Coast Conference in 1998, beating No. 10 Gonzaga and 22nd-ranked Pacific this season.

Denver made its second NIT appearance and first since a 90-81 loss to New York University in 1959, the school's last trip to the postseason.

The Pioneers won the Sun Belt Conference _ the same league first-year USF coach Jessie Evans left after coaching Louisiana Lafayette to four postseason berths in seven years before replacing the fired Phil Mathews last year. Evans is 11-1 against Denver.

USF led 37-34 at halftime.

The game was the first NIT contest hosted by a WCC school and the first postseason men's basketball game in Memorial Gym, where a raucous crowd loudly celebrated the school's first NIT berth since 1976.

Cox reached 1,500 career points with a free throw at the 5:53 mark of the first half.

USF honored four members of the school's 1949 NIT champion team at halftime. That team was coached by Pete Newell. The Dons and Pioneers played three times between 1946 and 1950, but this was the first meeting since.