ANAHEIM, Calif. — Stanford coach Trent Johnson missed an amazing ending.

In an emotional response to Johnson's first-half ejection, the Cardinal rallied for an 82-81 overtime victory over Marquette in the NCAA's South Regional yesterday, advancing to the round of 16 for the first time since 2001.

"We stay together no matter what," point guard Mitch Johnson said.

The Cardinal, who trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half, advanced to Houston, where they will face the winner of today's Miami-Texas game.

Brook Lopez made a baseline leaner with 1.3 seconds left to win it for the third-seeded Cardinal (28-7). Lopez, one of Stanford's twin 7-footers, finished with 30 points. The bucket came on Mitch Johnson's career-high 16th assist.

Trent Johnson, the Pac-10 Coach of the Year, was ejected with 3:36 remaining in the first half for walking on the court to argue a foul call.

His ejection seemed to fire up the Cardinal, who trailed 36-30 at halftime.

"We knew that we had to win that game from that point on," said Robin Lopez, Brook Lopez's twin brother. "We weren't going out like that."

Brook Lopez scored eight of Stanford's 11 points in overtime as the Cardinal took advantage of a big size difference. The Golden Eagles were hampered after their best big man, Ousmane Barro, fouled out with 1:44 left in regulation.

"When Ousmane went down with the fouls, there's no question it changed for us a little bit," Marquette coach Tom Crean said.

Brook Lopez was an effective counter to Marquette sharpshooter Jerel McNeal, who scored a career-high 30 points, and hit three 3-pointers in overtime.

But McNeal missed at the worst time for the sixth-seeded Golden Eagles (25-10). With about 15 seconds left, he misfired a 15-footer, and the Cardinal rebounded and called timeout.

McNeal's miss set the stage for Brook Lopez's winning bucket, which came over the 6-8 Dwight Burke.

MICHIGAN STATE 65, PITTSBURGH 54

DENVER — All this talk about brawn and brute force gets old. Drew Neitzel and Kalin Lucas let everyone know these Michigan State guys can dribble and shoot it, too.

Lucas and Neitzel combined for 21 of the final 25 points for the fifth-seeded Spartans to help them win a battle of the bullies.

Neitzel led the Spartans (27-8) with 21 points, and Lucas finished with 19.

Levance Fields had 19 points for fourth-seeded Pitt (27-10), which had won six straight.

With his team leading by one, Neitzel scored Michigan State's next eight points to give the Spartans a five-point lead with 4 minutes left.

"I just wanted to be aggressive," Neitzel said. "That's what this team needs from me. Coach has been preaching that."

Pitt trailed 40-30 with 15 minutes left, but went on a 14-2 run to take a lead.

It was brief.

Lucas followed with a three-point play to put the Spartans back ahead. Then, Neitzel went off with eight straight points.