NEW YORK — Tulsa withstood a late charge from Memphis, while Alabama held off Detroit's early run.
The resiliency of both teams put them into the NIT championship.
Kevin Johnson scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half, and the Golden Hurricane, after seeing their 20-point lead dwindle to three, beat the Tigers 72-64 Tuesday night in the second semifinal.
"We've been doing that the last three games," Johnson said of letting teams back into games. "We just relaxed, and they did a good job trapping and pressing us. We were lucky to hold on."
Alabama fell behind by 14 points after nine minutes before Erwin Dudley and Kenny Walker wore down Detroit on the inside in a 74-63 win.
"It seemed to me that we were a little bit in awe of the whole environment," Crimson Tide coach Mark Gottfried said. "It's Madison Square Garden, and Detroit came out so aggressive. At about the nine- or 10-minute mark in the first half, it seemed like we really settled in and started playing hard and aggressive."
The Golden Hurricane (25-11) didn't have to go down to the final seconds to win for a change. Their first three NIT victories were by a total of nine points, including a last-second win at Mississippi State in the quarterfinals.
But they did get a scare when Shannon Forman scored 11 points in a 21-4 run that cut the lead to three with 4:46 left.
Tulsa then held the Tigers scoreless for the next 3:37, highlighted by Johnson's blocked shot against Shamel Jones, and hit its free throws to ice it.
"It's the same old story. We relax and let a team back at the end of the game," Tulsa's David Shelton said. "But luckily, we recovered. "
This was the first trip back to the New York area as a head coach for Memphis' John Calipari since he was fired as New Jersey Nets coach three years ago.
There didn't appear to be many supporters from across the Hudson River in the crowd of 6,597, but Calipari did bring fans from Massachusetts, where he went 193-71 in eight seasons, making the Final Four in 1996.
"It's not like I grew up in New York or New Jersey," Calipari said. "I'm from Pittsburgh. I spent three years here. Two were great, the third I was fired. So it was not like being back here was exciting."
Marcus Hill had 13 points and Shelton added 11 for Tulsa, which had seven players score at least six points.
Forman led Memphis (20-15) with 16 points, and Marcus Moody and Kelly Wise added 13 each. The Tigers shot just 4-for-14 from the foul line compared with 20-for-26 for Tulsa.
"This wasn't the team that played the last three games," Forman said. "We didn't have proper spacing, we didn't play hard enough on defense. We came back, but it's hard to sustain that energy."
Dudley had 20 points and 16 rebounds, and Walker scored 13 points, including eight straight in a key second-half run to lead Alabama (25-10).
Rod Grizzard added 18 and Gerald Wallace had eight points, seven assists and six rebounds for the Crimson Tide, who outrebounded the Titans 44-33 and outscored Detroit 19-3 on second-chance points.
"We got some big baskets down the stretch off offensive rebounds," Dudley said. "That helped us a lot."
Alabama, ranked in the Top 25 for 14 straight weeks this season, lost five of its final six games and had to settle for an NIT berth.
The struggles on the road were the biggest problem for the Crimson Tide. They were just 6-9 away from Tuscaloosa, costing them the NCAA bid, before winning in double overtime at Purdue to earn a trip to New York.
"Playing on the road has been a nightmare for us," Dudley said. "We put all that behind us now and are focusing on the present and future."
Alabama wore Detroit (25-11) down with its superior size and inside play. The Titans closed to 59-57 on a 3-pointer by Rashad Phillips with 5:39 to play, but Walker scored eight straight points inside over a two-minute stretch to extend the lead to 10 points with 3:19 to play.
"We normally win the rebounding battle and when we don't we lose," Detroit coach Perry Watson said. "I thought we did an excellent job of executing until late in the second half when they got very physical in the paint."
Phillips, with his Allen Iverson corn rows and fearless attitude, scored 25 points and made seven 3-pointers to lead Detroit. But after scoring 11 points in the first nine minutes, Phillips had a hard time getting open shots.