AP SPORTS WRITER

WORCESTER, Mass.--Julius Hodge looked up and saw Rudy Gay smiling with the game on the line. There was no way Hodge would let the Connecticut freshman stand there smirking as the final seconds ticked away.

So the flashy North Carolina State senior made his move. He darted past Gay--leaving him sprawled on the floor--and scored on a slashing drive with 4.3 seconds left to break a 62-all tie and send the Wolfpack past the defending national champions 65-62 yesterday in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

"He started clapping his hands and smiling," said Hodge, who finished with 17 points and six assists. "I just felt like there was no way I was going to be denied."

Hodge was fouled on the play by Ed Nelson and completed the three-point play. The Wolfpack survived after Marcus Williams missed a desperation 3-pointer from the top of the key at the buzzer.

North Carolina State (21-13), the 10th seed in the Syracuse Regional, advances to the regional semifinals for the first time since 1989 and will play sixth-seeded Wisconsin in the next round.

No team has repeated since Duke in 1991-92, but the second-seeded Huskies (23-8) seemed almost a lock to at least move past the second round. They went into the game 27-0 against teams seeded sixth or lower in the tournament. And in 19 years under coach Jim Calhoun, they were 23-2 in the first two rounds of the tournament, reaching the regional semifinals 13 times.

But UConn was plagued by a series of injuries and illnesses. Two backup point guards were lost this season, and outside ace Rashad Anderson returned to the lineup last week after battling a life-threatening illness brought on by complications from a skin infection.

The Huskies just wilted at the end.

"We ran out of bullets and energy. We had no more bullets," Calhoun said. "For one of the few times in my coaching career, we ran out of gas, and North Carolina State was able to take advantage of that. You need bullets to win games, guys that can make plays, that are healthy enough to."

The loss also was a setback for the Big East conference, which has lost four teams so far, including a No. 2 seed and two No. 4 seeds.