No. 2 Villanova won its first national championship since 1985, defeating No. 1 North Carolina, 77-74, on Kris Jenkins’ buzzer-beating three-pointer Monday night in Houston.
It is Villanova’s second national championship while North Carolina finishes as the national runners-up for the fifth time.
Villanova wins national title on Kris Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer
The lead had evaporated. Overtime loomed.
For Villanova, its season hung in the balance in Monday’s national championship game, thanks to North Carolina guard Marcus Paige’s circus-shot three-pointer that tied the game with less than five seconds left. But that shot was about to be upstaged.
With the clock ticking down, Ryan Arcidiacono brought the ball upcourt, and tossed back to Kris Jenkins. Jenkins let it go.
The ball went in, Jenkins hands went up, and the rest of the team wrestled him down.
It capped a classic, 77-74 thriller for Villanova, which won its second national championship.
Villanova defeats North Carolina, 77-74, on Kris Jenkins’ three-pointer at the buzzer
Some special visitors in attendance tonight cheering on North Carolina:
Championship game: About to get underway in Houston
The starting lineups for the NCAA championship game:
Villanova (34-5): Junior forward Kris Jenkins; senior forward Daniel Ochefu; freshman guard Jalen Brunson; junior guard Josh Hart; senior guard Ryan Arcidiancono.
North Carolina (33-6): Junior forward Kennedy Meeks; senior forward Brice Johnson; sophomore forward Justin Jackson; sophomore guard Joel Berry II; senior guard Marcus Paige.
Marcus Paige’s shot helps Tar Heels pull away from Syracuse
It was happening again.
Almost a week after Syracuse’s improbable comeback against Virginia, the Orange again trailed big against North Carolina in the second half of Saturday’s national semifinal game. Then, the lead started to vanish: a three-pointer, a dunk, a layup. When Malachi Richardson, last week’s hero, hit another three-pointer, the lead was in single digits, at seven.
North Carolina was reeling. It was dominating inside, but was 0 for 13 on three-point attempts. At the other end, Marcus Paige tried another.
This time it went in. The comeback faltered. North Carolina peeled away for an 83-66 victory, and will play Villanova on Monday for the national championship.
The three-pointer ended a horrid stretch for the backcourt from behind the arc, but Paige said “it was more of a relief for our entire team. We needed that basket.”
In film study this week, North Carolina (33-6) watched how Syracuse (23-14) had clamped down against Virginia with a full-court press. Forward Kennedy Meeks said the players saw how the Orange harassed a usually careful, patient team into mistakes.
“It’s a dangerous thing,” Meeks said.
Syracuse again clamped down late, as it cut into North Carolina’s lead.
“That’s when we needed our press to work, we needed our traps to work,” Syracuse guard Trevor Cooney said.
At first, they did. North Carolina had two turnovers in three possessions.
Tar Heels Coach Roy Williams called timeout and screamed at his players.
“My pulse went up quite a bit,” he said. “My heart rate went up quite a bit.”
The team settled down. It leaned on its preparation.
“We knew they would press eventually in the game,” forward Brice Johnson said. “Hey, if that’s what you want to do against a team that likes to run, then, hey, by all means go ahead and do it. We got a bunch of layups out of it. That’s what we do.”
The Tar Heels bullied Syracuse inside for much of the game. They scored 50 points in the paint and outrebounded the Orange, 43-31.
Johnson and Meeks shot a combined 13 for 20. Johnson and forward Justin Jackson each had 16 points, Meeks 15.
For Syracuse, Cooney scored 22 points and Richardson had 17.
North Carolina will make its 10th appearance in the national title game. The Tar Heels’ path there could not have been much smoother. They’ve trailed for all of 50 seconds in the second half of their NCAA tournament games.
But in the other semifinal, Villanova won by 44 points. It is the first time since 2008 both semifinal games were decided by double digits. Some North Carolina players caught some of the early contest. Others learned of the score for the first time in the postgame locker room.
“They won by how much?” Meeks said, mouth agape.
Williams said he’d been informed of Villanova’s unprecedented 71.4% shooting accuracy. If they shoot that again, Williams drawled, “they’ll probably win again.”
Syracuse, meanwhile, was an unlikely pick to even make it this far. The Orange squeaked into the tournament. Cooney said at his postgame press conference that “we weren’t even supposed to be here.” But they became the first No. 10 seed to reach the Final Four.
The game had another unusual distinction: it was played between two teams under NCAA scrutiny. Syracuse is on probation for NCAA rules violations, which Coach Jim Boeheim has vigorously argued against, and which resulted in his nine-game suspension earlier this season.
North Carolina has been under investigation for years over allegations of widespread academic cheating in the athletic program.
Boeheim grew argumentative when a reporter asked about the suspension.
“Why do you guys always ask me that, really? Did you ask Roy that?” Boeheim said. “I guess my answer to your question is, I’m happier now at the end of this year than any time I’ve ever coached.”
Sanctions may await North Carolina, too, but all of the involved players have moved on. For now, at least, their focus is elsewhere.
Running up the tunnel toward the locker room, Johnson yelled, “One more!”
Follow Zach Helfand on Twitter @zhelfand
Final Four: North Carolina and Syracuse about to tip off
Villanova defeats Oklahoma, 95-51, by record-setting margin
HOUSTON -- There came a time in the first national semifinal game — much of the second half, really — when a sense of decency had to be preserved.
It was the waning minutes of Villanova’s seismic, historic 95-51 demolition of Oklahoma on Saturday. Villanova guard Phil Booth tore off on another breakaway. He chopped his feet, anticipating a dunk.
“Coach was telling him, ‘Cool it down! Cool it down!’” Villanova forward Daniel Ochefu said. “We all understood at that point, we’re not trying to disgrace anybody. We’re not trying to make ourselves look like bad people.”
Villanova Coach Jay Wright knew: The Wildcats could hardly miss if they tried. Never in NCAA tournament history had a Final Four game been so lopsided. The 44-point victory made the next-greatest margin, 34-point wins by Michigan State (1979) and Cincinnati (1963), seem like nail-biters.
Villanova’s dominance was without parallel. The Wildcats (34-5) scored nearly 1.5 points per possession. They made 71.4% of their field goals, second in Final Four history to Villanova’s 1985 performance against Georgetown. Only back then, there were no three-point shots.
(The Wildcats made 11 of those against Oklahoma, on 18 attempts.)
It was easy to forget Oklahoma (29-8) had crushed Villanova in December by 23 points. Villanova’s second-half total alone (53) would’ve been enough to win the game, as the Wildcats scored 25 unanswered points.
“Got whipped in every way,” Oklahoma Coach Lon Kruger said.
“I feel bad for Oklahoma,” Wright said afterward, on the floor. He was not gloating. “We’ve all had those nights.”
Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield had been the star of this NCAA tournament. But in the first half Saturday he went more than 15 minutes between baskets. Perhaps an even greater indicator of the Wildcats’ defense: For an eight-minute span, he didn’t even attempt a shot.
Villanova used all five positions to guard him, at different points. He couldn’t find space.
Hield made the first basket of the second half, then didn’t score again. He finished with nine points, and made one of eight three-point attempts.
Villanova, he said, was “throwing a bunch of bodies at me.” He called the Wildcats “one of the best teams I’ve ever played in college.”
The mood in Oklahoma’s locker room was funereal.
“Everything fell apart, even when we got stops,” Oklahoma guard Isaiah Cousins said
Forward Khadeem Lattin sat with his head in his arms. He politely requested not to do any interviews until he saw his mom.
Down the NRG Stadium hallway, Villanova’s celebration was muted.
“It feels good,” guard Josh Hart said. “I wouldn’t mind it on Monday.”
The Wildcats do not have a player like Hield, but they do bring a deep, versatile lineup. On Saturday, it was Hart’s turn. The former sixth man made 10 of 12 shots for 23 points. Forward Kris Jenkins scored 18 with eight rebounds. Six players scored in double figures.
The first half was dominant enough. The lead changed 11 times early. Then Villanova turned relentless. The Wildcats made two thirds of their baskets, which seemed disappointing only in hindsight. Their biggest run was a mere 12-0 as they took a 42-28 lead.
Oklahoma actually mounted a run early in the second half. Early on, the Wildcats’ lead was in the single digits. In the huddle, Villanova’s players snapped at each other, challenging themselves to answer.
They did, with a 25-0 run over almost six minutes.
The run began with a broken play. Hart lost his dribble at the foul line. He pivoted, turned, twisted, then flung a fadeaway as Hield contested. It went in.
Seconds later, Jenkins lobbed a pass that would make Brian Hoyer, who plays quarterback here for the Texans, jealous. From under Villanova’s basket, he hit Mikal Bridges on the other side of the court. Bridges threw down a dunk, with a foul. On the next possession, Booth splashed in a three-pointer.
“I mean, they’re just throwing it up there, and everything was falling for them,” guard Isaiah Cousins said. “I just figured that they pretty much had the game.”
The sequence was the backbreaker. Oklahoma had all but given up.
And Villanova still had 17 unanswered points to go on its march into the record books.
‘Nova Nation
Syracuse vs. North Carolina: How the teams match up
WHO: No. 10 Syracuse (23-13) vs. No. 1 North Carolina (32-6)
WHAT: NCAA Final Four, Saturday, 5:49 p.m.
WHERE: NRG Stadium, Houston. TV: TBS; Radio: 710.
UPDATE: Syracuse has been to nine Final Fours. Its senior class alone has been to two. Its coach, Jim Boeheim, is second on the Division I wins list. The Orange aren’t a typical Cinderella team. But that’s what they are. Syracuse became the first No. 10 seed to reach the Final Four after mounting a 14-point second-half comeback against Virginia. Despite its seeding, Syracuse is not wanting for talent. Boeheim’s signature 2-3 zone defense is swarming — Syracuse is fourth nationally in steal percentage. Playing against it is a slog — Syracuse’s average defensive possession is the longest in the nation. The matchup could give North Carolina trouble. The Tar Heels prefer to pound the ball into the paint — 6-foot-9 forward Brice Johnson leads the team with 17.1 points per game — rather than rely on shooting. The team makes just 32% of its three-point attempts, and only six teams in the nation get a lower percentage of their points from three-pointers. One exception could be Marcus Paige, whose shot has come alive in the tournament. He made six of nine three-point attempts against Indiana. For Syracuse, Michael Gbinije paces the offense, averaging 17.6 points a game. Only four players in the nation log more minutes. He has scored in double digits in every game this season. Malachi Richardson is also dangerous. He scored 21 points in the second half against Virginia. The Tar Heels have been to four Final Fours under coach Roy Williams and 19 overall, the most in NCAA history. North Carolina won the teams’ first two meetings this season, each by fewer than 10 points.
LINEUPS
Starters
Syracuse;Ht;Wt;PPG | Pos | North Carolina;Ht;Wt;PPG
Malachi Richardson;6-6;205;13.3 | G | Marcus Paige;6-2;175;12.3
Trevor Cooney;6-4;195;12.7 | G | Joel Berry II;6-0;195;12.8
Michael Gbinije;6-7;200;17.6 | G/F | Justin Jackson;6-8;200;12.2
Tyler Roberson;6-8;226;9.0 | F | Brice Johnson;6-10;230;17.1
Tyler Lydon;6-9;210;10.2 | F | Kennedy Meeks;6-10;260;9.2
Reserves
Syracuse;Ht;Wt;PPG | Pos | North Carolina;Ht;Wt;PPG
Kaleb Joseph;6-3;180;0.8 | G | Nate Britt;6-1;175;5.7
Frank Howard;6-4;190;1.7 | G | Theo Pinson;6-6;205;4.6
Chinonso Obokoh;6-9;21 | F | Isaiah Hicks;6-9;235;9.1
DaJuan Coleman;6-9;268;4.9 | C/F | Joel James;6-11;280;2.2
Boomer Sooners
Oklahoma vs. Villanova: How the two teams match up
WHO: No. 2 Oklahoma (29-7) vs. No. 2 Villanova (33-5)
WHAT: NCAA Final Four, Saturday, 3 p.m.
WHERE: NRG Stadium, Houston. TV: TBS; Radio: 710 AM.
UPDATE: No player this tournament has been as electrifying, or seemingly unstoppable, as Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield. He scored 36 points against Virginia Commonwealth and 37 points against Oregon, when he made eight of 13 three-pointers. Hield is shooting nearly 57% in the tournament, has drawn praise from Kobe Bryant and brings the highest scoring average (25.4) of any Final Four player since 1990. The pressure will be on Villanova’s Josh Hart, who will likely guard Hield, but teams that have focused too much on Hield have suffered — guard Jordan Woodard, who is averaging almost 17 points per game, can also be lethal. Hield and Woodard, plus guard Isaiah Cousins and forward Ryan Spangler, have played 104 consecutive games together. Villanova will again try to make the game “ugly,” as the team proudly described its win over Kansas, when it won a grinder of a game with defense and rebounding. Villanova likes that style — its defense is seventh in efficiency. But its offense is even better: fourth in efficiency. Hart leads the team in scoring (15.3 points per game) and forward Kris Jenkins is a tough matchup who can shoot from the outside (he makes 38% of his three-pointers). The Wildcats are on a redemption tour after winning just one game in the last two tournaments. Now, there’s another indignity to avenge: in December, Oklahoma rained down 14 three-pointers and destroyed Villanova, 78-55.
LINEUPS
Starters
Oklahoma; Ht; Wt; PPG | Pos. | Villanova; Ht; Wt; PPG
Jordan Woodard; 6-0; 187; 13.0 | G | Jalen Brunson; 6-2; 199; 9.8
Buddy Hield; 6-4; 214; 25.4 | G | Josh Hart; 6-5; 202; 15.3
Isaiah Cousins; 6-4; 200; 12.8 | G | Ryan Arcidiacono; 6-3; 195; 12.3
Ryan Spangler; 6-8; 234; 10.3 | F | Kris Jenkins; 6-6; 240; 13.5
Khadeem Lattin; 6-9; 208; 5.7 | F | Daniel Ochefu; 6-11; 245; 10.1
Reserves
Oklahoma; Ht; Wt; PPG | Pos. | Villanova; Ht; Wt; PPG
Dinjiyl Walker; 6-1; 203; 3.4 | G | Phil Booth; 6-3; 185; 6.6
Christian James; 6-4; 218; 2.9 | G | Mikal Bridges; 6-7; 191; 6.3
Dante Buford; 6-7; 221; 3.6 | F | Darryl Reynolds; 6-8; 225; 3.8
Jamuni McNeace; 6-10; 215; 1.1 | F | Patrick Farrell; 6-5; 200; 0.4
One half by Syracuse’s Malachi Richardson made this Final Four special
He walked into Syracuse’s locker room Friday, and he was not mobbed.
Malachi Richardson wasn’t the most popular player in the room. He might not have been the best one, either. But he was the reason everyone was here.
“A gift from God,” Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim’s wife, Juli, called it, according to the New York Post.
She was talking about Richardson’s miraculous second-half performance last Sunday, when he carried the Orange back from the dead and into the Final Four. Richardson rescued Syracuse’s season, and also saved this year’s roiling, unpredictable NCAA tournament from an orderly, ordinary conclusion.
Instead, the Final Four will be have one No. 1 seed, two No. 2s … and the first-ever 10 seed. (Three No. 11s have made it.)
Syracuse isn’t quite a rags-to-riches tale, but it isn’t a popular pick here, either. Villanova, in the top 10 in offensive and defensive efficiency, is the statheads’ darling. Oklahoma has the star, in Buddy Hield. North Carolina’s entire lineup is fearsome.
Getting set for tipoff
Final Four: UNC, Syracuse, Oklahoma and Villanova
The NCAA tournament’s Final Four are set for Saturday at Reliant Stadium in Houston.
Here’s the schedule (times PDT):
3:09 p.m.: Oklahoma (West) vs. Villanova (South)
5:49 p.m. North Carolina (East) vs. Syracuse (Midwest).
TV: TBS
Championship game will be at 6 p.m., Monday, April 4
North Carolina beats Notre Dame, 88-74, to complete Final Four
Brice Johnson had 25 points and 12 rebounds to help top-seeded North Carolina reach its 19th Final Four with an 88-74 victory over sixth-seeded Notre Dame in the East Regional final on Sunday night.
The Tar Heels are in the Final Four for the first time since 2009, when they won the national championship. Coach Roy Williams is in the Final Four for the fourth time with North Carolina.
The Tar Heels will play Syracuse at 5:49 p.m. PDT on Saturday in Houston. Villanova will play Oklahoma in the first semifinal at 3:09 p.m.
Demetrius Jackson scored 26 to lead Notre Dame.
North Carolina shot 62% (31 of 50) and turned missed free throws into high-flying dunks to open a 77-67 lead with three minutes left.
The Irish have made some runs that kept the game tight.
North Carolina built some breathing room against Notre Dame early in the second half, but the Irish responded.
Demetrius Jackson keyed a Notre Dame run and the Tar Heels suffered a minor meltdown that aided the Irish run. North Carolina’s Brice Johnson was whistled for a foul, then tossed the ball high over his head in frustration and was hit with a technical.
Notre Dame’s Steve Vasturia made two free throws to trim Carolina’s lead to 51-50.
North Carolina had pulled ahead of Notre Dame, 43-38, at halftime. The teams combined to make 30 of 49 shots overall and 10 of 16 three-pointers in the first half.
Notre Dame’s V.J. Beachem threw down a baseline dunk that stands among the most eye-popping of the regional rounds.
The only thing better may have been his teammates’ reaction on the bench. Shades of the Monmouth bench, the Irish put on a show.
Zach Auguste (see below) palmed his forehead and acted like he had fainted. His teammates wrapped their arms around Auguste and tried to prop him up.
--Associated Press
Syracuse rallies in second half to beat Virginia, 68-62
Syracuse is headed to the Final Four after being one of the last teams to make the NCAA tournament, beating top-seeded Virginia, 68-62, in the Midwest Regional final on Sunday.
Virginia is the third No. 1-seeded team to go down in the Elite Eight round this NCAA tournament.
Syracuse went on a 25-4 run, including 15 straight points, midway through the second half to erase a double-digit deficit and claim a 64-58 lead with 3:27 left.
Malachi Richardson scored 23 points for the Orange, who advance to their first Final Four since 2013 and sixth overall. Syracuse’s 15 unanswered points turned a nine-point deficit into a 64-58 lead with 3:27 left.
Malcolm Brogdon hit two free throws for Virginia to make it 64-62 with 27 seconds left, but the Cavaliers simply couldn’t wipe out the deficit.
Syracuse’s Michael Gbinje made one of two free throws and Tyler Lydon hit two more to make it 67-62 with nine seconds left.
Gbinije and freshman Tyler Lydon each scored 11 points for Syracuse (23-13), while teammate Tyler Roberson finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.
London Perrantes scored 15 of his 18 points in the first half for Virginia (29-8), which blew a 16-point lead in the second half.
Perrantes went on a tear in the first half, nailing five three-pointers as the Cavaliers grabbed a 14-point lead. They were up 16 early in the second when the Orange started to chip away at it.
Syracuse’s Tyler Lydon cut the lead to 39-32 with a three-pointer just over five minutes into the half, capping a 9-2 spurt.
Virginia got it back up to double digits before Malachi Richardson nailed another one for the Orange. But the Cavaliers’ Malcolm Brogdon answered with one of his own and Darius Thompson hit from long range to make it 51-37.
That made Virginia seven of 17 on thee-pointers. Syracuse was three of 13.
— Associated Press
It’s about to go down
Midwest Region: No. 1 Virginia vs. No. 10 Syracuse, 3:09 p.m. (TBS)
Before every game, the door knocker comes out, and each of the Virginia Cavaliers takes a turn. While the swings are different for each player, the message is the same.
Just keep going.
“We don’t want to take steps back,” junior guard London Perrantes said Saturday. “We want to keep on knocking until the door opens for us.”
The next door for the top-seeded Cavaliers (29-7) leads to the Final Four in Houston, but standing in the way is resurgent Syracuse (22-13) after a late slide almost led to another empty March for the Orange. With Coach Jim Boeheim deftly pulling the right strings on his tricky 2-3 matchup zone, 10th-seeded Syracuse is giving up 53.7 points a game in the NCAA tournament.
The Orange appeared to be in big trouble in the Midwest Regional semifinals against Gonzaga, but used their full-court pressure to rally for a 63-60 victory and an all-ACC rematch with Virginia on Sunday.
“They’re a very disciplined team, and we’ve just got to be smart defensively and offensively, as well,” said Michael Gbinije, who scored 20 points against the Bulldogs, including a go-ahead layup with 22 seconds left.
The Orange visited Virginia on Jan. 24, and the Cavaliers used a strong finish to secure a 73-65 victory. Syracuse trailed 49-48 with 5:58 to go before Malcolm Brogdon hit consecutive 3-pointers to help Virginia pull away.
The Cavaliers shot 56.8% from the field in their third consecutive victory against the Orange. It was the highest shooting percent against Syracuse since North Carolina State shot 57.7 percent in the Orange’s 88-72 victory on Dec. 17, 2011.
“It’s a good zone. You have to be able to attack it in different ways,” Virginia Coach Tony Bennett said. “You have to knock down some shots. The ball has to move, you have to dent it off the dribble, get on the glass, different kinds of things.
“I just think I have the guys that have the right spacing and the right mindset, and these are the guys who have made the shots and made the plays.”
--Associated Press
East Region: No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 6 Notre Dame, 5:49 p.m. (TBS)
The day before North Carolina and Notre Dame were to meet for a berth in the Final Four, the talk around the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia was about a game played two weeks ago.
That would have been the semifinals of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, a 78-47 victory for North Carolina over the Fighting Irish. A 31-point blowout just 15 days ago.
“I misplaced it,” Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey said about the tape of that game. “Those are the ones that you burn, you don’t go back to. But certainly you have to learn from it, and we’ve talked about it a little bit in practice.”
Since that loss, Notre Dame has become the comeback kids of the NCAA tournament. The Fighting Irish have trailed in the second half of all three of their games and two have come down to the final seconds.
“They’re playing at a really high level right now. But I think we are as well,” Notre Dame forward Steve Vasturia said. “So especially with one day to get ready for them, we’re so familiar with what they do and they know what we do. So I think mainly for us just going out there and focusing on what we do best and playing with nothing to lose and that should be good enough for us.”
The matchup between top-seeded North Carolina (31-6) and sixth-seeded Notre Dame (24-11) in the East is just one of two all-ACC regional finals. In the Midwest, top-seeded Virginia meets 10th-seeded Syracuse, guaranteeing the ACC a team in the national championship game.
North Carolina players look to another matchup the Tar Heels had with Notre Dame that turned the season around. On Feb. 6, the Fighting Irish won at home, 80-76, and the Tar Heels say that second half is what turned things around for them. They have gone 12-2 since that loss.
“First thing we’ve learned is that defense wins championships. We’ve really played well defensively especially at the end of the first half and beginning of the second. And that’s basically what we learned mostly out of that game,” said Brice Johnson, North Carolina’s leading scorer (16.8) and rebounder (10.5). “We can’t let up on them because they’re a very good team and they will make runs during the game. And that’s pretty much it.”
This is North Carolina’s 26th regional final, and the Tar Heels have gone on to the Final Four a record 18 times, the last in 2009 when they won the most recent of their five national championships.
This is Notre Dame’s seventh regional final. The Fighting Irish won once, its only Final Four appearance in 1978.
--Associated Press
Oklahoma’s strong rebounding effort is too much for Oregon
Oklahoma had a decided edge in the backcourt Saturday, an advantage that was borne out by the 61 points guards Buddy Hield, Jordan Woodard and Isaiah Cousins combined for in the Sooners’ 80-68 West Regional final victory over Oregon at Honda Center.
But the blue-collar work the Sooners did on the glass, especially in the first half, against the supposedly superior front line of the Ducks was as much of a factor in Oklahoma reaching its first Final Four since 2002.
The Sooners had more offensive rebounds (11) in the first 20 minutes than Oregon had total rebounds (10). They turned six of those rebounds into 15 second-chance points, nine on three-pointers by Woodard, Cousins and Hield, and scored 12 points off turnovers en route to a 48-30 halftime lead.
“Yeah,” said Khadeem Lattin, Oklahoma’s 6-foot-9 sophomore forward, “we kind of just imposed our will in the paint.”
The paint was supposed to be Oregon’s domain, a place where quick and athletic forwards Chris Boucher and Jordan Bell, both shot-blocking specialists, and forward Dillon Brooks often dominate.
Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield has a three-for-all at Oregon’s expense, and Sooners are going to Final Four
Behind the three-point line, Jackie Swann looked up and cried.
When her son, Buddy Hield, was growing up in the Bahamas, he had to fasten his own basketball hoop from milk crates or old bicycle rims.
Now, he climbed a ladder at the Honda Center and snipped a piece of net. Hield and Oklahoma were going to the Final Four.
See the most-read stories in Sports this hour>>
The Sooners never trailed in their breezy 80-68 victory over Oregon in the West Regional final on Saturday. Hield was transcendent. He scored 37 points and made eight of 13 three-point shots.
He made fadeaways and pull-ups. He scored three-pointers in transition and with hands in his face. Once, he pulled off a one-handed put-back at the rim. His makes rarely grazed the iron.
“Every time I felt like we were getting ready to do something, he would jump up and make a shot,” Oregon Coach Dana Altman said.
Did you know?
Oklahoma advances to Final Four with 80-68 victory over Oregon in West Region final
Buddy Hield made eight three-pointers while scoring 37 points and Oklahoma advanced to its first Final Four since 2002 with an 80-68 victory over Oregon in the West Region final of the NCAA tournament on Saturday in Anaheim.
Jordan Woodard added 13 points for the Sooners (29-7), who streaked to an 18-point lead in the first half and never let the Ducks back in it.
The regional final was a monument to the formidable talent of Hield, the Sooners’ senior star. He produced a dynamite performance on his biggest stage, carving the Ducks’ defense from all distances with his smooth outside shot and a knack for momentum-swinging buckets.
Elgin Cook scored 24 points for the Ducks (31-7), whose 11-game winning streak ended one game shy of the second Final Four in school history.
Oklahoma is in the Final Four for the fifth time. Hollis Price and Aaron McGhee led Coach Kelvin Sampson’s Sooners there 14 years ago, only to lose to Indiana in the national semifinal. The Sooners have never won a national title, but Hield’s talent suggests history could be made in Houston.
Hield scored 17 points in the first half, capped by drilling his fifth three-pointer from three steps behind the line with four seconds left to put the Sooners ahead 48-30 at the break.
He hit two more huge three-pointers down the stretch, including a graceful, high-arching shot with 4:20 left that pushed Oklahoma’s lead back to 17 points.
The two-time Big 12 player of the year scored at least 30 points for the 12th time this season and matched his career high for three-pointers. His 37 points were his third-best total of the season.
Oregon had beaten six NCAA tournament-bound teams by double digits during its winning streak, but Oklahoma’s outside shooting and rebounding led to a first-half hole that was too deep for the Pac-12 champions.
Hield had the highest-scoring performance against the Ducks all season. He became the first player with 100 points and 15 three-pointers made before the Final Four since Stephen Curry of Davidson in 2008.
--Associated Press
Villanova upsets top-seeded Kansas, 64-59
Kris Jenkins made two free throws with 13.3 seconds remaining, Jalen Brunson added two more with 3.5 seconds left and second-seeded Villanova upset top-seeded Kansas 64-59 on Saturday night in the NCAA Tournament South Region final to reach the Final Four.
Mikal Reynolds and Josh Hart each made big steals in the final minute to help the Wildcats (33-5) pull off the upset and end the Jayhawks’ 17-game winning streak.
The Wildcats are back in the Final Four for the first time since 2009, and they can credit balanced scoring and ferocious defense.
Jenkins, Hart and Ryan Arcidiacono each scored 13 points for the Wildcats, who used a 10-0 run to take a 50-45 lead and get key baskets and plays down the stretch in beating the Jayhawks (33-5).
Devonte’ Graham had 17 points, and Frank Mason III and Wayne Selden Jr. added 16 each for Kansas.
— Associated Press
West Regional final: No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 2 Oklahoma, 3:09 p.m. (CBS)
Lon Kruger and Dana Altman are one win away from the Final Four, and neither man can bear to lose.
They can hardly stomach a win, either.
Kruger, the Oklahoma coach, gave Altman, the Oregon coach, his first Division I job, as an assistant at Kansas State. In return, Altman brought his star junior college player, a young man named Mitch Richmond. In their brief stretch together, along with point guard Steve Henson, they built one of the best stretches in Kansas State basketball history.
Both coaches moved on, but remained what Kruger called “best friends.” They’re both naturally calm, studiously dull and undeniably effective. They talk every 10 days throughout the season, play golf together and have avoided playing each other throughout their careers — they didn’t want one man to lose.
But they couldn’t avoid this game, the West Regional final on Saturday at the Honda Center in Anaheim, one of the biggest games of either coach’s career.
It has put Richmond, the former Laker, in a bind.
“I wanted to wear an Oklahoma shirt and an Oregon shirt,” Richmond said.
Coach K offers apology to Oregon for chat with Dillon Brooks
Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a statement Saturday that has apologized to Oregon Coach Dana Altman for his postgame conversation with Dillon Brooks, who helped lead the Ducks to an 82-68 victory over the Blue Devils in a West Region semifinal on Thursday night in Anaheim.
In a statement issued Saturday, Krzyzewski said “it is not my place to talk to another team’s player” and he hoped he “did not create a distraction” for the top-seeded Ducks.
Oregon plays second-seeded Oklahoma in the regional final on Saturday afternoon.
Brooks made a three-pointer with the shot clock expiring in the final seconds of the Ducks’ victory. In the handshake line, Krzyzewski had a prolonged discussion with the Oregon guard.
Krzyzewski said in his statement that chat “took the focus away from the terrific game that Dillon played.”
The Hall of Fame coach also apologized for responding “incorrectly to a reporter’s question about my comment to Dillon.”
Brooks said in the locker room after the game that Krzyzewski told him that “I’m too good of a player to be showing (off) at the end.”
In his news conference, Krzyzewski disputed Brooks’ version of events and appeared angry when it was brought up.
“I didn’t say that,” Krzyzewski said. “You can say whatever you want. Dillon Brooks is a hell of a player. I said, `You’re a terrific player.’ And you can take whatever he said and go with it, all right?”
Here is Krzyzewski’s statement in its entirety:
“Today, I spoke with Oregon head coach Dana Altman and apologized to him for my remarks to Dillon Brooks following our game. It is not my place to talk to another team’s player and doing so took the focus away from the terrific game that Dillon played. In the postgame press conference, I reacted incorrectly to a reporter’s question about my comment to Dillon. Clearly, the story that night was about Oregon advancing to the Elite Eight, and the outstanding game they played. I sincerely hope I did not create a distraction for Coach Altman and his team at this critical time of year. Certainly, I have the utmost respect for the Oregon program and their tremendous accomplishments.”
— --Staff and wire reports
Syracuse punches its ticket to the Elite Eight with a win over Gonzaga, 63-60
Michael Gbinije made a go-ahead layup with 22 seconds left, sending Syracuse to a 63-60 victory over Gonzaga on Friday night and a spot in the Elite Eight.
Tyler Lydon sealed the win with a block on Josh Perkins’ runner in the final seconds. Lydon then grabbed the ball and made two foul shots before Domantas Sabonis’ desperate fling was well off at the buzzer.
Gbinije scored 20 points and Trevor Cooney had 15 as Syracuse (22-13) advanced to the regional final for the first time since 2013.
The 10th-seeded Orange will face No. 1 Virginia on Sunday for a spot in the Final Four.
Kyle Wiltjer had 23 points for Gonzaga (28-8), and Sabonis finished with 19 points and 17 rebounds.
— Associated Press
North Carolina cruises past Indiana, 101-86, to reach the Elite Eight
Marcus Paige scored 21 points and North Carolina continued its offensive prowess, moving to the Elite Eight for the 20th time since 1975 with a 101-86 victory over Indiana on Friday night in the East Regional.
The top-seeded Tar Heels (31-6) will meet sixth-seeded Notre Dame on Sunday, determining one of two guaranteed Atlantic Coast Conference spots in the Final Four. The Fighting Irish beat Wisconsin 61-56 on Friday.
It will be the same case in the Midwest Regional, where top-seeded Virginia will face 10th-seeded Syracuse, meaning at least half the Final Four will be from the ACC. The conference will also have a team play for the national title.
Brice Johnson had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Tar Heels, who are in the regional final for the seventh time in coach Roy Williams’ 12 years and for the first time since 2012.
Yogi Ferrell had 25 points to lead Indiana (27-8).
— Associated Press
Notre Dame advances to Elite Eight with win over Wisconsin, 61-56
Demetrius Jackson stripped the ball and scored the go-ahead layup with 14.7 seconds left and Notre Dame advanced to the brink of its first Final Four in 38 years with a 61-56 win over Wisconsin on Friday night in the East Region semifinal of the NCAA Tournament.
Jackson sealed the win with a pair of free throws to send the Irish (24-11) into a regional final for the second straight season.
Notre Dame lost to Kentucky a year ago. This year, the Irish will get a shot at top-seeded North Carolina or Indiana on Sunday.
Vitto Brown’s 3-pointer with 26 seconds left put the Badgers (22-13) up 56-53 and kept Wisconsin’s shot at a third straight Final Four alive.
But the Irish shook off a miserable shooting game down the stretch and have their first Final Four since 1978 in sight.
— Associated Press
Virginia keeps dancing, beats Iowa State 84-71
Anthony Gill finished with a season-high 23 points, Mike Tobey came off the bench to score 18, and top-seeded Virginia beat Iowa State 84-71 in the Midwest Region semifinals on Friday night.
The Cavaliers (29-7) withstood a second-half push by the fourth-seeded Cyclones (23-12) after grabbing a big lead in the early going and advanced to their first regional final since 1995.
Virginia will face Syracuse or Gonzaga on Sunday. A win would send the Cavaliers to their first Final Four since 1984, when coach Tony Bennett was a teenager.
Georges Niang had another big game for Iowa State, finishing with 30 points after scoring 28 against both Iona and Arkansas-Little Rock in the first two rounds. But an up-and-down first season under coach Steve Prohm ended on a disappointing note.
With a chance to go farther than they ever did under predecessor Fred Hoiberg, the Cyclones never could recover from a flat start in the arena where “The Mayor” now coaches the Chicago Bulls.
They got outscored 52-36 in the paint, with Gill finishing two points shy of a career high and Tobey missing his personal best by one. Gill had eight rebounds while Tobey grabbed seven.
ACC Player of the Year Malcolm Brogdon added 12 points and five assists for the Cavaliers.
Virginia was leading 49-35 early in the second half when Iowa State went on a 9-2 run that Monte Morris finished with a floater, drawing a roar from a large contingent of Cyclones fans.
But Virginia kept its cool and got the lead back up to 15 — 63-48 — on a put-back by Tobey with 9:10 remaining.
With many in the crowd wearing Iowa State’s Cardinal and Gold, Virginia did all it could to silence them in the early going. The Cavaliers led by as much as 17 and took a 45-31 advantage to the locker room.
Devon Hall hit a 3 on the game’s opening possession, London Perrantes added two more, and in a flash it was 17-3 just over five minutes into the game.
The Cavaliers exposed gaps whether Iowa State was playing man-to-man or zone. They showed some flash, too, like when Darius Thompson delivered a behind-the-back pass to Isaiah Wilkins for a fast-break dunk that made it 26-9.
Iowa State cut into the lead late in the half, with Niang nailing a 3 to make it 41-31 with just over a minute left. But Virginia regrouped.
Gill and Brogdon each hit a pair of free throws to make it a 14-point game and a soaring Gill blocked Niang’s layup at the buzzer.
— Associated Press
Sunday’s NCAA results
ELITE EIGHT
- No. 10 Syracuse 68, No. 1 Virginia vs. 62
- No. 1 North Carolina 88, No. 6 Notre Dame 74
Oregon topples defending champion Duke, 82-68
At midcourt, Oregon’s Dillon Brooks stomped and screamed. There had hardly been enough time for Duke’s players to turn around and watch his highlight.
Oregon can score in a blink, and it did so often in its 82-68 victory in Thursday’s West Regional semifinal at the Honda Center.
It was enough to be demoralizing for the Blue Devils.
A few minutes into the second half, Duke’s Matt Jones thought he had an open layup.
Oregon’s Jordan Bell closed fast. He swatted Jones’ attempt, hard, against the backboard. The Ducks scooped the rebound and tossed the ball to Brooks, who threw it down.
From block to dunk, it took three seconds. While Brooks and his teammates celebrated, Duke called timeout. In the huddle, shoulders sagged. Most of the second half remained, but Oregon was overwhelming.
“We just kept going and kept going,” Brooks said. “They couldn’t hang.”
Top-seeded Kansas polishes off Maryland, 79-63
Perry Ellis scored 27 points to match a season high, Wayne Selden Jr. added 19 and top-seeded Kansas topped No. 5-seeded Maryland for a 79-63 NCAA tournament South Region semifinal victory Thursday night in Louisville, Ky.
The win put the Jayhawks back into the Elite Eight for the first time since 2012.
It took time for the Jayhawks (33-4) to get going, but once they finally seized the lead late in the first half everything else fell into place for their 17th straight victory. They emerged from the break to make their first six shots and steadily take control behind senior forward Ellis, who made 10 of 17 from the field.
Selden was right there with seven-of-16 shooting to help Kansas earn a berth in Saturday’s regional final against Villanova at 5:49 p.m. PDT.
The Terrapins (27-9) dictated the early tempo and briefly engaged in a back-and-forth game with the Jayhawks before eventually falling behind the tournament favorite. Rasheed Sulaimon led Maryland with 18 points.
Landen Lucas added 14 points and 11 rebounds while Frank Mason III had 11 points for Kansas, which outworked Maryland 43-28 on the glass and outscored the taller Terps 40-28 in the paint.
Better shooting also helped the Jayhawks, who made 14 of 25 in the second half and finished 29 of 62 from the field (47%).
Kansas just had to take its time to slow down Maryland, which entered the game with every starter averaging at least 11 points per contest. Its main focus was keeping Maryland guard Melo Trimble (17 points) from getting hot, a strategy that worked as the sophomore made just five of 16 from the field with just one 3-pointer.
The Jayhawks defense kept other Maryland players from becoming factors on both ends as well and ended up holding the Terps to just 40% shooting including 35% after halftime.
--Associated Press
Oklahoma easily defeats Texas A&M, 77-63
The house money ran out for Texas A&M, which extended its NCAA tournament run with a miraculous, last-minute comeback win in the second round but went bust against Oklahoma in the West Regional semifinals on Thursday.
With the Aggies channeling most of their defensive energy toward Sooners star Buddy Hield, Oklahoma point guard Jordan Woodard went off for 22 points and five assists to lead the Sooners to a 77-63 victory in the Honda Center.
Hield, one of four Naismith Award finalists, scored 17 points on six-for-13 shooting, well off his 25.4-point average. But Woodard nearly doubled his 12.8-point average, making eight of 11 shots from the field and five of six three-pointers, most of them uncontested.
Freshman guard Christian James scored 12 points off the bench, and forwards Ryan Spangler and Khadeem Lattin each added 10 points to help Oklahoma (28-7) advance to Saturday’s Regional final against Oregon, with the winner of that game advancing to the Final Four.
“When people hug Buddy and deny him, that frees up some space on the interior,” Oklahoma Coach Lon Kruger said. “So any time we can create a two-on-one at the rim, we like that.
“And when you take one of their defensive guys out of the rotation because he’s hugging Buddy, then maybe that frees up a few opportunities. But again, hugging Buddy is probably a pretty good plan too.”
The plan worked early for Texas A&M on Thursday night, as guards Alex Caruso and Admon Gilder limited Hield to five points and four shots in the first 12 minutes. The Aggies even took a 13-6 lead four minutes into the game, Jalen Jones fueling the early burst with a pair of three-pointers.
But Oklahoma weathered the run, came back to tie the score at 15 and went on a 14-0 run to take a 40-22 lead with 2 minutes 23 seconds left in the half. Woodard sparked the surge with a three-pointer and a free throw, and Isaiah Cousins, who scored only two points but had eight assists, scored on a coast-to-coast layup.
Hield, with Caruso overplaying him, took a nice backdoor pass from Spangler for a layup and found Woodard for another open three. Lattin completed the run with an alley-oop dunk off a Woodard pass.
Hield got an open look from the top of the key and drilled a three-pointer with 1:47 left, and Woodard picked up a loose ball and hit a running, 12-foot bank shot as the shot clock expired to give the Sooners a 45-26 halftime lead.
“The glass is your friend,” Woodard said with a smile. “I knew the clock was rolling down, so I just wanted to make sure I got it to the rim. It was just that type of night, I guess.”
Few expected the Aggies to go quietly, not after they erased a 12-point deficit in the final 44 seconds of regulation in Sunday’s double-overtime win over Northern Iowa.
Texas A&M pushed the ball inside to start the second half, with center Tyler Davis scoring seven of his team’s first eight points. But Oklahoma used good ball movement to find its big men, with Spangler and Lattin combining for eight early second-half points.
The Aggies trimmed the lead to 53-42 when Jones made two free throws with 15:01 left, but that was as close as they got. Hield drove for a basket, was fouled and made the free throw, Spangler scored from inside, and Hield hit a step-back three to push the lead back to 18 points (61-43) with 12:51 left.
“Defensively, we paid so much attention to Buddy. I think we fell asleep at times on the weak side and gave up layups,” Texas A&M Coach Billy Kennedy said. “We had a hard time matching up with them. You take Buddy away, it opens up driving lanes for Jordan and Isaiah. They got dunks and layups for their bigs, and it just throws your defense totally out of whack.”
Buddy Hield has carried Oklahoma’s basketball team with a sweet jumper and a sweet smile
Kyle Lindsted’s first sight of Buddy Hield is burnt in his mind like a brilliant tropical sunset. It was six years ago, when Lindsted, then the basketball coach at Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita, Kan., was scouting a showcase in the Bahamas.
“He was just a little bitty guy with a smile and a dream,” Lindsted, now a Wichita State assistant, said of Hield, who was a stringy 16-year-old high school sophomore. “I just fell in love with him from the very beginning.”
The little bitty guy has grown into a strapping 6-foot-4, 214-pound senior guard whose long-range shooting skills have been compared to Stephen Curry. Hield has led Oklahoma to an NCAA West Regional semifinal at the Honda Center, where the Sooners will play Texas A&M on Thursday.
Villanova finishes off rout of Miami, 92-69
Ryan Arcidiacono and Kris Jenkins each scored 21 points, and No. 2-seeded Villanova never trailed in routing third-seeded Miami, 92-69, Thursday night in the South Region semifinal of the NCAA tournament in Louisville, Ky.
The Wildcats (32-5) are back in the Elite Eight for the first time since 2009, when they reached the Final Four. It’s their third trip to the regional final with Coach Jay Wright. They turned in quite the offensive performance with former coach Rollie Massimino, who led Villanova to the 1985 national championship, sitting nearby.
Villanova will play either top-seeded Kansas or No. 5-seeded Maryland on Saturday in the regional final.
Daniel Ochefu added 17 point, and Josh Hart had 11 for Villanova, which shot 62.7% (32 of 51) from the field.
Miami (27-8) now is 0-3 in the Sweet 16, including 0-2 with Coach Jim Larranaga.
Sheldon McClellan scored 26 points and Angel Rodriguez added 13 for the Hurricanes.
Though Marshall Plumlee soldiers on at Duke, a fraternal dynasty nears its end
Chances are you don’t like Marshall Plumlee.
If so, it’s probably because of his brothers. And if you dislike his brothers, it’s probably because, like Marshall, they both played and won at Duke.
And everyone dislikes Duke.
Few siblings have come to symbolize a college basketball program like Miles, Mason and Marshall Plumlee have the Blue Devils, who will play Oregon in an NCAA tournament West Regional semifinal at the Honda Center on Thursday.
At least one of Perky and Leslie Plumlee’s three sons has started in 193 of Duke’s last 293 games, spanning eight seasons. Each has won a national championship.
“I’m mad at Perky and Leslie for not having more,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski joked. “Imagine, three 7-footers in one family.”
What they’re talking about heading into the Sweet 16
Last Pac-12 team standing, Oregon, takes on defending national champion Duke
Oregon, the last team standing from a battered Pac-12 Conference, has double the tournament wins of the rest of the conference. It dispatched Holy Cross, 91-52, in the first round before defeating St. Joseph’s, 69-64.
Duke defeated North Carolina Wilmington, 93-85, and Yale, 71-64. Duke is the reigning national champion but has almost completely overhauled its lineup this season — only Matt Jones remains from last season’s starting five.
That’s part of the reason Duke is a slight underdog — a rarity for the Blue Devils, who have won five national championships under Coach Mike Krzyzewski. Grayson Allen leads Duke in points and three-point shooting percentage (43.5%).
Oregon holds off St. Joseph’s, 69-64
Dillon Brooks refused to let top-seed Oregon and the Pac-12 Conference be eliminated on the first weekend of the NCAA tournament, scoring 25 points and leading the Ducks to a 69-64 win over eighth-seeded Saint Joseph’s in the second round of the West Regional on Sunday night.
Oregon (29-6) was carrying the banner for the rest of the Pac-12 after the conference posted a collective dud on the opening weekend. Five teams were sent home in the first round and Utah was routed by 11th-seeded Gonzaga in the round of 32, leaving the Ducks as the lone conference representative.
And they were tested by the Hawks, rallying from down 58-51 in the final five minutes to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013. Brooks started the rally with a driving three-point play and put Oregon in front for good on a three-pointer with 1:19 left.
DeAndre’ Bembry led the Hawks (28-8) with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
— Associated Press
Texas A&M comes back to beat Northern Iowa in 2 OT
Texas A&M outscored Northern Iowa, 14-2, in the last 33 seconds of regulation to force overtime, then held on in double overtime for a 92-88 victory in Oklahoma City to move on to the Sweet 16.
Alex Caruso scored 25 points for third-seeded Texas A&M (28-8), which advances to the Sweet 16 for the third time in school history, the first since 2007.
Danuel House scored all 22 of his points in the second half and overtime, while Jalen Jones finished with 16 for Texas A&M, which has now won 10 of its last 11 games.
Jeremy Morgan had career highs of 36 points and 12 rebounds to lead the 11th-seeded Panthers (23-13), who led 69-59 in the final minute of regulation before committing four turnovers in the final 29 seconds to spark the Aggies comeback.
Northern Iowa had upset Texas when Paul Jesperson made a half-court game-winning shot. He launched another half-court heave at the end of regulation for the win against Texas A&M but missed.
— Associated Press
Wisconsin beats Xavier on last-second shot, 66-63
Bronson Koenig made two three-pointers in the closing seconds, the last of them as the buzzer sounded, and seventh-seeded Wisconsin edged second-seeded Xavier, 66-63, on Sunday night in the second round of the NCAA tournament in St. Louis.
The talented sharpshooter who failed to hit from beyond the arc in a first-round win over Pittsburgh connected from well beyond the three-point line to tie it at 63 with 11.7 seconds left.
Edmond Sumner brought the ball up court for Xavier (28-6), and then drove to the basket, running over the Badgers’ Zak Showalter and getting called for an offensive foul with 4.3 seconds to go.
Wisconsin (22-12) called timeout after crossing half court and coach Greg Gard drew up a play for his best outside shooter. Koenig got the inbound pass in front of his own bench and buried the fallaway shot, sending the jubilant Badgers streaming onto the court and into another Sweet 16. They’ll face Notre Dame on Friday in Philadelphia.
— Associated Press
Maryland turns back Hawaii, 73-60
Melo Trimble scored 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds as Maryland beat Hawaii, 73-60, on Sunday in Spokane, Wash., to advance to the round of 16 of the NCAA tournament.
Diamond Stone added 14 points for fifth-seeded Maryland (27-8), which advanced to the round of 16 for the eighth time in the last 22 years.
Mike Thomas had 19 points and 11 rebounds for 13th-seeded Hawaii (28-6), which won a tournament game for the first time on Friday.
Maryland will play Kansas next Thursday in the round of 16.
After a sluggish first half in which Maryland led 28-27, the tempo picked up in the second.
Hawaii went on a 10-4 run to take a 39-36 lead. Then the bottom fell out.
Trimble’s three-pointer, the first of the game for Maryland after 15 misses, highlighted a 14-0 run that put the Terrapins ahead by 12 points, 53-41, with just over seven minutes left.
— Associated Press
Syracuse topples Middle Tennessee, 75-50
The insufferable zone of Syracuse ground Middle Tennessee State’s magical March ride to a halt, and the No. 10 seed Orange beat the No. 15 seed Blue Raiders, 75-50, on Sunday night to advance to the Sweet 16.
Michael Gbinije poured in 23 points, Tyler Lydon added 14 and the Orange (21-13) used a 21-2 charge midway through the second half to crack open a close game and join five other ACC schools in advancing to the third round of the NCAA tournament.
After teetering on the bubble a week ago, they’ll play No. 11-seeded Gonzaga on Friday in Chicago.
The Blue Raiders (25-10), who shredded so many brackets with their upset of second-seeded Michigan State, made things tough on Syracuse for a while. They led early in the second half and still trailed just 40-39 with 16:02 to go, but proceeded to make just one of their next 16 field-goal attempts.
The Orange became the sixth and perhaps most unlikely of the ACC schools to advance to the Sweet 16, a record number for a single conference since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985. The league went 12-1 in the opening two rounds with only Pittsburgh losing.
Darnell Harris led Middle Tennessee State with 11 points, while Reggie Upshaw — who scored 21 points against the Spartans — was held to two on 1-for-10 shooting.
— Associated Press
Oklahoma holds off VCU, 85-81
Buddy Hield scored 19 of his 36 points in the final eight minutes to help No. 2 seed Oklahoma hold off No. 10 seed Virginia Commonwealth, 85-81, on Sunday in Oklahoma City in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Hield, who didn’t score for more than 10 minutes to start the game, made nine of 12 shots in the second half after going two for eight in the first. The senior guard posted at least 30 points for the 11th time this season.
Jordan Woodard scored 17 points and Isaiah Cousins added 15 for the Sooners (27-7), who advanced to the Sweet 16 for the second straight year. Melvin Johnson scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half,
JeQuan Lewis scored 22 points and Michael Gilmore added 12 for VCU (25-11), which was trying to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since its Final Four run in 2011.
— Associated Press
Oklahoma rolls to a 44-31 lead over VCU at halftime
After scoring 20 points and grabbing eight rebounds in Virginia Commonwealth’s opening-round victory over Oregon State, junior Mo Alie-Cox was scoreless in the first half against Oklahoma.
The 6-foot-7, 250-pound Alie-Cox also had three blocks and was seven for eight from the field against the Beavers, using his bulk to make up for his relative lack of height.
However, against the Sooners’ physical inside combination of Ryan Spangler and Khadeem Lattin, Alie-Cox struggled to find free space in the first half as Oklahoma outrebounded the Rams, 25-13.
The junior played only eight minutes in the first half, with 6-10 sophomore Michael Gilmore taking his place, and he also failed to grab a rebound.
Oklahoma led, 44-31, at halftime.
— Associated Press
Meanwhile in Oklahoma City...
No. 6 Notre Dame escapes with a win against No. 14 Stephen F. Austin
Rex Pflueger tapped in a miss with 1.5 seconds left and Notre Dame survived a valiant effort by No. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin, 76-75, on Sunday to reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season.
With 17.5 seconds left, sixth-seed Notre Dame grabbed an SFA rebound down one and put it in the hands of Demetrius Jackson. The point guard drove to the basket and missed. Zach Auguste followed for the Irish (22-12) but could not convert. The ball slipped off the rim and with one hand Pflueger flipped it in for his only basket of the game.
A long heave from Stephen F. Austin (28-6) went wide and Notre Dame celebrated by swarming Pflueger.
The Irish advance to play either Wisconsin or Xavier Friday in the East Regional at Philadelphia.
Thomas Walkup, the hero of Stephen F. Austin’s first-round upset of West Virginia, scored 21.
— Associated Press
Watch Notre Dame’s game-winning tip-in
Up next: No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 8 St. Joseph’s
Up next: No. 2 Xavier vs. No. 7 Wisconsin
No. 3 Texas A&M vs. No. 11 Northern Iowa
This Northern Iowa team will be remembered for quite a while for Paul Jesperson’s half-court shot that beat Texas in its first-round game. But the Panthers have had a few late-game situations like that lately and they all have turned out well.
“It’s funny because it’s never how you think it’s going to happen or how it’s going to be drawn up, so you’ve just got to take it for what it is,” Northern Iowa’s Matt Bohannon said.
“It’s pretty crazy we’ve had four games that have kind of ended the same way. You kind of start to build a little confidence and understand that through each of these experiences you kind of build a little bit more and build a little bit more and have a sense of a calm, cool, collected attitude.”
— Associated Press
Up next: No. 13 Hawaii vs. No. 5 Maryland
Up next: No. 15 Middle Tennessee vs. No. 10 Syracuse
Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim didn’t hold back when he was asked about his team’s opponent, Middle Tennessee State, the 15th-seeded team that beat Michigan State in the opening round.
“They’re a very good team. If they were bad I’d be saying that too. Or if they were lucky, I would be saying the same thing,” Boeheim said. “But the truth is they’re a really, really good offensive team. I didn’t see any weaknesses on that team. They didn’t turn it over. They made good plays when they had to. They made shots when they had to. And they did it multiple times. Michigan State came at them multiple times. It wasn’t like they were ahead the whole game and Michigan State made a little run. They answered five or six times. And a different guy, a different guy answering almost every time.”
— Associated Press
Up next: No. 2 Oklahoma vs. No. 10 VCU
Oklahoma backup center Akolda Manyang won’t be available for the second-round game against VCU because of a death in the family.
A team spokesman says Manyang flew back to Minnesota on Sunday morning.
Manyang, a 7-foot junior, averages 2.5 points and 1.4 blocks in 8.0 minutes per game for the Sooners.
— Associated Press
No. 14 Stephen F. Austin keeping it close with No. 6 Notre Dame
Credit to Stephen F. Austin for being able to play two very different styles and have success in their first two NCAA Tournament games.
The Lumberjacks are down 42-41 to Notre Dame at the half in a game with both teams shooting over 50 percent. The Lumberjacks beat West Virginia in the first round with both teams shooting under 31 percent.
Thomas Walkup has eight points for the Lumberjacks.
— Associated Press
No. 2 Villanova easily advances past No. 7 Iowa, 87-68
Josh Hart scored 19 points and second-seeded Villanova advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2009 with an 87-68 rout of seventh-seeded Iowa on Sunday in the South Regional.
Villanova’s senior class, led by Ryan Arcidiacono and Daniel Ochefu, made it to the tournament’s second weekend for the first time. They were upset in the round of 32 the last two seasons and didn’t make it that far as freshmen.
The Wildcats (31-5) will meet third-seeded Miami on Thursday in Louisville, Ky.
There was no doubt in this one. Villanova led 54-29 at halftime and by as many as 34 points in the second half. The closest Iowa (22-11) got was 16 points in the final minutes.
— Associated Press
Villanova cruising, leads Iowa, 54-29, after first half
How do you erase the memories of some awful recent second-round flops? Play the first half that Villanova just did against Iowa.
The Wildcats tore apart the Hawkeyes and lead 54-29 at the break. Villanova shot 60% from the floor, scored 12 points off eight turnovers and out-rebounded Iowa 19-12.
The only way it could have been worse for Iowa is if the Stanford band played at halftime.
— Associated Press
Villanova working its dunking muscles against Iowa
Up next: No. 6 Notre Dame vs. No. 14 Stephen F. Austin
No league benefited from all those first-round upsets quite like the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Four ACC teams drew second-round matchups with double-digit seeds — more than any other conference — and two of those are coming Sunday.
Notre Dame will take on 14th-seeded Stephen F. Austin instead of third-seeded West Virginia, and Syracuse faces 15th-seeded Middle Tennessee State and not perennial March power Michigan State.
Thomas Walkup, the bearded star for Stephen F. Austin, is as positive as one can be heading into a second-round matchup with sixth-seeded Notre Dame.
“I think we are the real deal, and we’re preparing to win,” he said. “We’re not preparing just to go out there and say we won a game and we’re satisfied. I think it’s all about the approach, and that’s what we’re approaching it like.”
— Associated Press
First up: No. 2 Villanova vs. No. 7 Iowa
It’s not the only thing being talked about around the Villanova basketball team, but it sure takes up a lot of the discussion.
The Wildcats have another chance to advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. They haven’t been there since their run to the Final Four in 2009. This senior class will go down as the winningest in school history but it hasn’t gotten past the second round.
The final chance for those seniors is Sunday when the second-seeded Wildcats face seventh-seeded Iowa in the South Regional at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
“Everyone has the right to think what they want, say what they want. We played in those games. We haven’t come through in the second round of the tournament,” senior guard Ryan Arcidiacono said. “I can’t really tell people how they should look at our senior class or myself in particular.”
His classmate, Daniel Ochefu, said the talk has been going on for a while.
“Everybody’s been talking about this game for the whole year, even in the summertime before the season started,” the center said. “So the fact that the game is here and we can finally just get it done. Hopefully, we’ll get the win, and people will stop talking about it.”
Junior Josh Hart said everyone will judge Villanova on this game.
“They’re not going to judge us on being Big East champions, Big Five champions or anything that we did in the regular season. Our whole year the questions have been about this game. Obviously we didn’t know the opponent but it’s about this game, this round,” Hart said. “So we know we’re going in focused, ready for a dogfight and playing a great team. I’m not sure how they got a draw to be a seven seed. They’re a heck of a team.”
— Associated Press
No. 1 North Carolina punches its ticket to the Sweet 16
Brice Johnson had 21 points and 10 rebounds, and No. 1 seed North Carolina pulled away from foul-hit Providence, 85-66, on Saturday night in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Joel Berry II added 15 points for the East Region’s top seed, which found itself in a fight well into the second half against the Friars’ high-scoring duo of Ben Bentil and Big East player of the year Kris Dunn.
But the Tar Heels (30-6) stepped up their offensive efficiency, attacked the paint and started cashing in at the line as the fouls piled up for Providence (24-11).
Justin Jackson scored on a drive to start an 8-0 run that broke a 41-all tie, and then Johnson scored six straight points in the 10-0 burst that put the Tar Heels up 17 with 6 1/2 minutes left.
— Associated Press
No. 9 Providence falls behind No. 1 North Carolina
North Carolina’s walk-on players made a conga line to the scorer’s table in the final minute of their NCAA tournament game against Providence on Saturday.
Whatever Carolina Coach Roy Williams has been saying at halftime, it has been working.
In two tournament games, the Tar Heels, the top-seeded team in the East Regional, haven’t led by more than four points at halftime. In each, they won in a runaway.
On Saturday, they defeated No. 9 seed Providence, 85-66, to advance to the East semifinals to play No. 5 Indiana, which defeated No. 4 Kentucky earlier Saturday.
The Tar Heels won with speed, sure shooting and a massive rebounding edge. But the game essentially was over when one of Providence’s two workhouses made a premature exit.
Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil score more than half of the Friars’ points. Saturday, they combined for 50 of their 66.
But with more than eight minutes left, each picked up his fourth foul within a 30-second span. Running down the floor, Bentil laughed.
He turned to a North Carolina player and asked, “That was a foul?”
He stayed in. Less than a minute later, fighting for a rebound, he picked up his fifth. With seven minutes left, Bentil was gone, and Providence stood no chance.
Dunn led the Friars with 29 points on 10-for-16 shooting. Bentil scored 21.
In the first round, against No. 16 Florida Gulf Coast, North Carolina led by only one point at halftime before sprinting away with the second half.
Against Providence, it led by just 34-30. This time, Providence was ready for a run. Dunn struck quickly to start the second half.
But with less than 16 minutes remaining, North Carolina tightened, forcing eight straight Providence misses. The Tar Heels embarked on a 9-0 run.
Five Carolina players scored in double figures. Brice Johnson led the team with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Justin Jackson and Joel Berry II scored 15.
On the boards, North Carolina dominated 42 to 24.
By the end, the lead was big enough to relax.
Dunk alert: North Carolina’s Brice Johnson throws down a highlight
No. 1 Kansas runs away from No. 9 Connecticut to reach Sweet 16
Wayne Selden Jr. and Perry Ellis carried Kansas on a sweet romp to the round of 16, combining for 43 points in a 73-61 victory for the Jayhawks over Connecticut in the second round on Saturday to hand Kevin Ollie’s his first NCAA Tournament loss as head coach of the Huskies.
Selden had 22 points and seven rebounds, Ellis scored 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds and the No. 1 overall seed Jayhawks (32-4) advanced to the South Region semifinals on Thursday in Louisville, Kentucky, to play the winner of the Hawaii-Maryland game on Sunday.
Selden and Ellis combined to shoot 17 for 27 from the floor, shooing away the disappointment of second-round defeats in each of the last two years.
Sterling Gibbs had 20 points for the No. 9 seed Huskies (25-11), who fell into an irreparable deficit that reached 24 points in the first half.
— Associated Press
Gonzaga crushes No. 3-seeded Utah, 82-59
Gonzaga stayed on a roll, getting 22 points from Eric McClellan and another double-double from Domantas Sabonis in an 82-59 rout of Utah in the second round of the NCAA tournament in Denver on Saturday.
The 11th-seeded Bulldogs (28-7), who beat Seton Hall by 16 points in the first round, are onto the Sweet 16 for the second consecutive year.
This game was billed as a battle of big men, between the 6-foot-11 Sabonis and Utah’s 7-footer, Jakob Poeltl, but it never materialized. Poeltl finished with five points and four rebounds, while Sabonis had 19 and 10 for his 22nd double-double of the season.
The third-seeded Utes (27-9) trailed by 15 at halftime and by as many as 30 in the second half.
Gonzaga’s next game is Friday in Chicago, against either Syracuse or Middle Tennessee.
Up next: No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 9 Providence
The two second-round games in Raleigh, N.C., on Saturday night have plenty in common.
Both match a No. 1 seed from the Atlantic Coast Conference against a No. 9 seed from the Big East.
Virginia takes on Butler in a Midwest Regional game, then North Carolina faces Providence in the East.
Both the Cavaliers and Bulldogs can shoot the three-pointer — Virginia is ninth in Division I, making 40.9% of its long-range attempts, while Butler isn’t far behind at 16th (39.1%).
The second game will feature a contrast between the Tar Heels’ depth and the Friars’ one-two punch. North Carolina might be the deepest team in the field, while Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil combine to average 37.1 points for Providence — roughly half of the team’s 74-point scoring average.
— Associated Press
Kansas piles it on, leads Connecticut, 44-24 after the first half
Connecticut coach Kevin Ollie’s perfect NCAA Tournament record is in trouble.
His Huskies went into a long first-half skid against Kansas that could have all but ended UConn’s hope of upsetting the No. 1 overall seed and advancing to the Sweet 16. The Huskies missed 12 straight shots over a span of 7:08 during a 19-0 run by the Jayhawks en route to a 40-16 lead.
Kansas leads 44-24 at halftime on the strength of 8-for-12 shooting from 3-point range. The Jayhawks are NCAA Division I’s third-best 3-point shooting team.
Ollie took a 7-0 NCAA Tournament record as UConn’s head coach into the game, including the 2014 national championship run.
— Associated Press
Video: Jamari Traylor with the swat
Kansas jumps ahead of Connecticut early
Top-seeded Kansas looks primed to return to the Sweet 16 after two straight second-round flameouts.
The Jayhawks went on an early 16-0 run against ninth-seeded UConn, highlighted by a pair of Devonte Graham 3s. Kansas pushed its lead to as much as 13 just six minutes in.
Connecticut rallied to get past Colorado in the first round. Can the Huskies do it again?
— Associated Press
Virginia advances to Sweet 16 with win over Butler
No team was happier to see No. 2-seeded Michigan State knocked out in first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday than No. 1 Virginia, save maybe No. 15 Middle Tennessee State, the team responsible for the upset.
Michigan State had eliminated Virginia from two straight tournaments, and a third clash seemed imminent when both were seeded atop the Midwest region. Now Virginia needed only to avoid a letdown.
But on Saturday, its first-half performance against No. 9 Butler did not inspire much confidence. Butler led at the half. During the break, Virginia Coach Tony Bennett said he told his team, “Butler will not lose. You’re going to have to go get it.”
The Cavaliers responded with textbook Virginia basketball: defense and brutal efficiency. The Cavaliers won, 77-69, to move within two wins of their first Final Four since 1984.
Early on, the game belonged to Butler forward Andrew Chrabascz, normally a modest scorer. Chrabascz dominated inside. Outside, he couldn’t miss. He finished with 25 points, a season high.
After his 25th point, Bennett said, Virginia guard Malcolm Brogdon looked at Bennett and pointed to his chest. He wanted Chrabascz. Bennett obliged.
“When a guy got cooking like that,” Bennett said of Chrabascz, “you had to respect that.”
Chrabascz didn’t make another shot.
Brogdon also led Virginia with 22 points, and forward Anthony Gill scored 19.
In the second half, the Cavaliers punished every Butler mistake. They shot 73% and scored second-chance baskets on three of their misses.
In all, Virginia wasted just eight possessions all half.
Still, Butler hung around. Down six points with about two minutes left, Roosevelt Jones took over. He scored five Bulldogs points in a row.
With 36 seconds left, Butler was closing in. It was within one possession when Jones chased down Marial Shayok and blocked his breakaway layup.
It was whistled a foul.
“I felt that I got it clean,” said Jones, who scored 18 points. “There’s nothing I can do about it now.”
Virginia made its free throws, and the Cavaliers marched on.
Iowa State takes charge, beats Little Rock, 78-61
Georges Niang scored 28 points and Iowa State kept Josh Hagins from any more second-half heroics in a 78-61 win over Little Rock in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.
The Cyclones (23-11) advanced to their second Sweet 16 in three years. They will play the Virginia-Butler winner in Chicago next weekend.
Niang, the winningest player (97) in Cyclones history and Iowa State’s only two-time All-American, was simply too much for the 12th-seeded Trojans (30-5) of the Sun Belt.
For the second straight game, Hagins had just two points at halftime.
Unlike last time, when he went off for 29 more in a double-overtime win against Purdue, Hagins added just six after the break.
— Associated Press
No. 9 Butler leads 1 Virginia, 25-23, at the half
It’s been a tight first half between Butler and Virginia.
Butler led 25-23 at halftime of a defense-dominated second-round game in which neither team led by more than three points.
Butler shot 45% but was completely kept off the offensive glass by the Cavaliers.
They shot 38% but were just 1 of 5 from 3-point range; they’re a 41% shooting team from beyond the arc.
— Associated Press
New meme alert: crying saxaphone girl
No. 5 Indiana takes down No. 4 Kentucky, 73-67
Thomas Bryant scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half, Yogi Ferrell had 18 and fifth-seeded Indiana beat Kentucky 73-67 Saturday to earn a spot in the Sweet 16.
The Hoosiers (27-7) will return to the regional semifinals for the first time since 2012, despite losing starting guard Robert Johnson to an apparent left ankle injury late in the first half.
Indiana took control with a 17-4 run to go up 10 with four minutes left. Tyler Ulis and Alex Poythress pulled Kentucky within 69-67 on free throws, but Bryant hit two from the line with 10 seconds to go to seal the win.
Ulis scored 27 points for Kentucky (27-9), which suffered its earliest NCAA Tournament exit since 2008.
— Associated Press
Indiana beats Kentucky to advance to the Sweet 16
Indiana holds a 33-32 edge over Kentucky at halftime
Indiana leads Kentucky, 33-32, at halftime despite seeing guard Robert Johnson leave the game with an apparent injury to his left ankle.
Johnson missed a jump shot with 5:17 left before halftime for the Hoosiers. A few seconds later, he was on the floor on the other end while holding his ankle, the same one that kept him out of the last four games before the NCAA Tournament.
He had six points for the Hoosiers, who were led by Troy Williams’ nine and Yogi Ferrell’s seven.
Tyler Ulis was the top scorer for the Wildcats with 12 points and three assists in the first half.
— Associated Press
Kentucky and Indiana filling up highlight reel
Duke fends off Yale’s second-half rally for 71-64 win
Yale’s hopes of advancing to the Sweet 16 have ended.
Duke survived a second-half rally that included a 15-0 run by the Bulldogs to secure a 71-64 victory on Saturday in Providence, R.I.
Grayson Allen made 10 of 15 shots from the field, including five of seven from long range, and finished with 29 points to lead the Blue Devils. Brandon Ingram contributed 25 points and five rebounds for the defending champions, who will play the winner of top-seeded Oregon and St. Joseph’s.
The West Region’s No. 4 seed, Duke led by as many as 27 points in the battle of the brainy schools before seeing that dwindle to just three points with less than a minute left.
Yale came close to forcing a needed turnover, but eventually had to foul. Duke connected on four of its final five free throws to close out the game.
Brandon Sherrod led Yale with 22 points, and Justin Sears and Anthony Dallier each had 12. Makai Mason, the star in Yale’s upset of Baylor in the first round with 31 points, had just eight against Duke and was 0 of 5 on three-pointers.
— Associated Press
Yale is making a run at Duke, which still leads by 11
Miami turns back Wichita State, 65-57
Miami is the first team to punch its ticket to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16.
The Hurricanes led big early before holding on to defeat Wichita State, 65-57, on Saturday in Providence, R.I., to earn their first Sweet 16 berth since 2013.
Miami fans chanted “Sweet 16! Sweet 16!” in the closing seconds.
Angel Rodriguez led Miami with 28 points and five assists. Sheldon McClellan added 18 points.
There is some symmetry in the victory for Miami Coach Jim Larranaga, who led George Mason to the Final Four a decade ago when he was the Patriots coach. He had to go through Wichita State in the Sweet 16 in Washington, D.C., to do it.
Rodriguez took over after Miami blew a 21-point lead midway through the second half, hitting a big three-pointer with 72 second left in the second--round game.
Miami (27-7) made it that far three years ago under Larranaga, in his fifth season as head coach. Sheldon McClellan finished with 18 points and Davon Reed had 10 for the Hurricanes.
Fred VanVleet and Shaquille Morris each had 12 points and Ron Baker added 11 for Wichita State (26-9), which put on a furious rally in the second half of a bruising game, taking a 43-42 lead with 10:24 left.
The Hurricanes will play either Iowa or Villanova next weekend in Louisville in the South Region semifinals.
— Associated Press
A look back at the first No. 15 seed’s upset of a No. 2
Kurt Warner celebrates with Northern Iowa
The half-court shot that toppled Texas
Paul Jesperson banked in a half-court shot at the buzzer to give 11th-seeded Northern Iowa a 75-72 win over No. 6-seeded Texas on Friday night.
Oregon players display talent (off court)
The dunk that came too late to save Cincinnati
Cincinnati’s Octavius Ellis appeared to tie the score with his dunk as time expired, but after a lengthy review, officials determined the shot came too late, giving St. Joseph’s a 78-76 victory Friday night.
Up next: No. 4 Iowa State vs. No. 12 Arkansas Little Rock
Little Rock Coach Chris Beard said his phone blew up after his team’s dramatic comeback upset.
No, really.
Beard shut off the phone shortly before the Trojans went to the Pepsi Center in Denver to play Purdue on Thursday. When he went to turn it back on that night, it was broken. “Just destroyed,” he said.
So, he has no text messages, no missed calls — nothing.
“So if any of my friends or family or recruits are out there, I’m not getting a big head, I’m not turning into somebody else,” Beard said. “My phone’s not working. But I hope that you’ll text me again so I can thank you for the text.”
The 12th-seeded Trojans try to dial up another upset, this time against Iowa State, on Saturday.
— Associated Press
Up next: No. 11 Gonzaga vs. No. 3 Utah
The big man has not played himself completely out of college basketball.
Not out of this year’s NCAA tournament, either.
When Gonzaga and Utah meet Saturday, with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line, the game will feature two of the best big men in America — 7-foot Jakob Poeltl of the Utes versus 6-11 Domantas Sabonis of the Bulldogs.
And while it won’t resemble Kareem Abdul-Jabbar leaning on Robert Parrish, this one could feel like something of a throwback — a game that could very well be won and lost in the post.
“It’s certainly a story line that’s going to have a lot to do with the outcome — how they guard [Poeltl], how we guard Sabonis, collectively, how it all plays out,” said Larry Krystkowiak, who coaches the third-seeded Utes.
— Associated Press
Up next: No. 9 Butler vs. No. 1 Virginia
The two second-round games in Raleigh, N.C., on Saturday night have plenty in common.
Both match a No. 1 seed from the Atlantic Coast Conference against a No. 9 seed from the Big East.
Virginia takes on Butler in a Midwest Regional game, then North Carolina faces Providence in the East.
Both the Cavaliers and Bulldogs can shoot the three-pointer — Virginia is ninth in Division I, making 40.9% of its long-range attempts, while Butler isn’t far behind at 16th (39.1%).
The second game will feature a contrast between the Tar Heels’ depth and the Friars’ one-two punch. North Carolina might be the deepest team in the field, while Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil combine to average 37.1 points for Providence — roughly half of the team’s 74-point scoring average.
— Associated Press
Up next: No. 11 Wichita vs. No. 3 Miami
Up next: No. 9 Connecticut vs. No. 1 Kansas
The UConn Huskies are 7-0 in the NCAA tournament with Kevin Ollie as the head coach, a remarkable record buoyed by their 2014 national title, but the 43-year-old has downplayed his work on the bench in March.
“I’m just trying to make substitution patterns and read the game. I do my best coaching in practice,” said Ollie, emphasizing the relationship-building he’s done with his players to earn their respect.
Connecticut takes on Kansas in a second-round game Saturday. The Huskies will be facing a familiar foe.
Jayhawks junior Wayne Selden, who had 14 points in the first-round blowout of Austin Peay, grew up in Boston and was heavily recruited by UConn.
“Early that was like a dream school. A lot of guys from Boston went there. It almost seemed like there was a pipeline,” Selden said. “When I visited Kansas, it fit me right.”
— Associated Press
Up next: No. 12 Yale vs. No. 4 Duke
Now, a story about smart guys.
Duke plays Yale in a meeting between two fine universities who happen to have basketball teams.
One of those teams also happens to be the defending national champion. The other is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1962.
Quick quiz: Which team is which? If you passed, read on …
Yale Coach James Jones said the difference between his school and the rest of the world isn’t as stark as some might believe. (He’s talking about basketball, folks.)
The Ivy League has been making strides the past few years, behind Cornell, which made the Sweet 16 in 2010, then behind Harvard, which has knocked off New Mexico and Cincinnati in the recent past, and given Michigan State and North Carolina big scares, as well.
“The national media and the attention that we get from the NCAA doesn’t do us justice in terms of who I think we are,” Jones said. “I think it was nice for some people in their brackets to do it. But none of the people, Seth Greenberg … Charles Barkley — they all thought Yale was going to lose by 1,000.”
— Associated Press
Up next: No. 5 Indiana vs. No. 4 Kentucky
Indiana and Kentucky haven’t met since 2012 because of a disagreement over where they should play. Leave it to the NCAA to fix that issue, even if the timing doesn’t feel quite right.
The fifth-seeded Hoosiers (26-7) and fourth-seeded Wildcats (27-8) will play for the 57th time Saturday. It’s a matchup of border-state rivals that feels more like it should happen in the Sweet 16 — or later.
That might have been possible had both teams not been seeded worse than many people expected. Indiana won the Big Ten regular-season title and was ranked 10th in the last Associated Press poll; Kentucky tied for the SEC regular-season crown and beat Texas A&M for the tournament title but was slotted one line below the Aggies, much to Coach John Calipari’s chagrin.
The selection committee claims not to pay attention to setting up these sort of matchups. To hear Calipari tell it, the committee doesn’t pay attention to anything. “We don’t have basketball people in that group,” he said.
Indiana Coach Tom Crean knows this: “I wish we weren’t playing them. I wish it was later down the road. But it is what it is.”
Also in Des Moines, Iowa, which has turned into college basketball’s focal point this week, top-seeded Kansas will meet UConn in another meeting of pedigree. These teams have only met twice before, but never in the NCAA tournament.
NCAA tournament is a conference cull for Pac-12 teams
Say this for the Pac-12 Conference, things can’t get much worse from here on in the NCAA tournament.
The Pac-12 was proud of its quality depth this season, and then a record seven of its teams were selected for the tournament, tied for most of any conference. If that caused pause in areas east, the Pac-12 privately had to be giddy.
Then the games began.
And down they started to fall, until by the first round’s end, the Pac-12 was staring blankly at a 2-5 record.
Now, only Oregon and Utah remain to carry the conference banner, and neither is exactly a lock to advance to the Sweet 16.
St. Joseph’s edges Cincinnati, 78-76
Isaiah Miles sank a three-pointer with nine seconds left to lift St. Joseph’s to a 78-76 win over Cincinnati in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday in Spokane, Wash., after a dunk at the buzzer by the Bearcats was waved off.
Octavius Ellis appeared to tie the score with his dunk as time expired, but officials after a lengthy review determined that the shot came too late.
DeAndre Bembry scored 23 points and Miles finished with 19 to lead eighth-seeded St. Joseph’s (28-7). Twenty of Bembry’s points were in the first half.
Jacob Evans scored 26 points to lead ninth-seeded Cincinnati (22-11).
St. Joseph’s will play top-seeded Oregon in the second round on Sunday. Oregon beat Holy Cross, 91-52, earlier Friday.
— Associated Press
Northern Iowa topples Texas on last-second shot from half court
Paul Jesperson banked in a half-court shot at the buzzer to give 11th-seeded Northern Iowa a 75-72 win over No. 6 seeded Texas Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament’s West Region in Oklahoma City.
Northern Iowa passed the ball in under its basket after Isaiah Taylor tied the game on a layup with 2.7 seconds to play. Jesperson caught the ball, took a few dribbles and heaved.
Wes Washpun scored 17 points, Jeremy Morgan scored 16 and Jesperson added 14 for the Panthers (23-12), who claimed their fifth NCAA tournament win in school history.
Taylor scored 22 points, Eric Davis Jr. had 13 and Javan Felix added 12 for the Longhorns (20-13).
Jesperson’s shot came in the same building where Golden State’s Stephen Curry hit a dramatic game-winner against the Oklahoma City Thunder last month.
— Associated Press
Notre Dame rallies to defeat Michigan, 70-63
V.J. Beacham scored 18 points, including the three-pointer that gave Notre Dame the lead for good, and the sixth-seeded Fighting Irish rallied to beat 11th-seeded Michigan, 70-63, on Friday night in New York in the first round of the East Regional.
The Fighting Irish (22-11) didn’t take a lead in the game until Beacham’s three-pointer with 9:26 left to make it 51-48. From there on there were five lead changes and three ties.
Notre Dame will face 14th-seeded Stephen F. Austin in the second round on Sunday. The Lumberjacks upset third-seeded West Virginia, 70-56.
Michigan (23-13) controlled the first half, taking a 41-29 lead. Notre Dame scored the first eight points of the second half, a run that included three-pointers by Vasturia and Matt Farrell, matching the team’s total of the first half. It brought the Fighting Irish within 41-37.
Beacham’s three-pointer with 4:24 left gave Notre Dame a 62-59 lead, one they never gave up.
Michigan beat Tulsa, 67-62, on Wednesday in the First Four. Wichita State, the other 11th seed to win a First Four game, advanced to the second round with a victory over Arizona.
Bonzie Colson had 12 points for Notre Dame but the final minutes were where he shined. He had a big blocked shot with just under 2 minutes to play and he converted a rebound for a 66-61 lead with 1:35 to go. He then iced the game with two free throws that made it 68-63 with 11 seconds left.
Zach Auguste had 10 points and 12 rebounds for the Irish, who finished with a 33-25 advantage on the boards.
Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkam had 15 points for Michigan and Derrick Walton Jr. had 10 points and eight assists.
Notre Dame, which led the nation in turnovers for a while this season, finished with 16 turnovers, almost double their regular season average of 9.7, and the Wolverines turned them into 19 points.
— Associated Press
Xavier shakes off pesky Weber State, 71-53
James Farr had 18 points and 15 rebounds, fellow big man Jalen Reynolds added 12 points and No. 2-seeded Xavier pulled away late for a 71-53 victory over pesky 15th-seeded Weber State in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday night in St. Louis.
Remy Abell added 11 points and Trevon Bluiett had 10 for the Musketeers (28-5), who never trailed the Big Sky Tournament champs in advancing to play seventh-seeded Wisconsin for a spot in the Sweet 16.
The Badgers trudged past Pittsburgh earlier in the night.
Weber State (26-9) was within 54-47 midway through the second half when Farr and Reynolds, both of them heftier than anybody on the Wildcats’ bench, began to impose their will. The managed to power right through Weber State’s back line for easy buckets, allowing the Musketeers to slowly draw away.
Joel Bolomboy finished with 14 points for the Wildcats. McKay Cannon had 10.
— Associated Press
Oregon romps past Holy Cross, 91-52
Carrying the marquee for the underachieving Pac-12, No. 1 seed Oregon showed no nerves playing as a top seed and rolled past No. 16 seed Holy Cross 91-52 on Friday night in a West Regional first-round game.
Chris Boucher led Oregon (29-6) with 20 points, while Dillon Brooks and Elgin Cook each added 11 points as the Ducks won their ninth straight and advanced to the round of 32 for the fourth straight season.
With nearly all of the Pac-12 making a quick exit out of the NCAA tournament, the Ducks used their overwhelming athleticism to quickly build a double-digit lead and never allowed the Crusaders to sniff a potential 16-seed upset. Boucher slammed a trio of lob dunks in the first 12 minutes and the expected blowout quickly developed. Robert Champion led Holy Cross (15-20) with 22 points off the bench.
— Associated Press
Stephen F. Austin pulls off latest upset, toppling No. 3 West Virginia
Thomas Walkup scored 33 points and 14th-seeded Stephen F. Austin faced down West Virginia’s full-court pressure with some of its own in-your-face defense, pulling off a rugged 70-56 first-round NCAA tournament upset of the third-seeded Mountaineers Friday night in New York.
The Lumberjacks (28-5) ran the nation’s longest winning streak to 21 games and will face either six seed Notre Dame or No. 11 Michigan on Sunday at Barclays in the second round of the East Region.
The Mountaineers (26-9) and Lumberjacks played physical, chest-to-chest defense, contesting not just every shot, but every pass. Neither team shot better than 31%.
Walkup, the two-time Southland Conference player of the year, took it to the teeth of West Virginia’s defense and went to the line 20 times. He made 19, including two to make it 60-47 with 5:15 left in the second after West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins’ griping to officials drew a technical on the Mountaineers.
When Clide Geffard slammed home an alley-oop to make it 66-54 with 2:40 left, the Lumberjacks’ purple-clad supporters roared, knowing the biggest win in program history was all but complete.
West Virginia came in leading the nation in steals per game at just under 10. Press Virginia, the Mountaineers call it, but they met their match in Stephen F. Austin. The Lumberjacks lead the nation in turnovers forced at nearly 19 per game. West Virginia turned it over 22 times.
Making its third straight NCAA appearance under Coach Brad Underwood, Stephen F. Austin won in the first round for the second time.
The Mountaineers from the Big 12 became the first No. 3 seed to be eliminated from the field of 68 and joined No. 2 seed Michigan State and No. 4 seed California as Friday’s biggest surprise losers.
West Virginia was called for 15 fouls and turned the ball over 12 times in the first half. All the fouls had Huggins and the WVU fans fuming, and Stephen F. Austin used 12 free throws — in 19 attempts — to help take a 31-28 halftime lead while shooting 29% from the field.
The Lumberjacks scored the first seven points of the second half and had the lead up to 38-28.
— Associated Press
Up next: No. 8 Saint Joseph’s vs. No. 9 Cincinnati
Texas A&M routs Green Bay, 92-65
Danuel House scored 20 points as Texas A&M pulled away in the second half to win its first NCAA Tournament game since 2010 with a 92-65 first-round victory over Green Bay on Friday night.
The third-seeded Aggies (27-8) trailed by as many as eight points in the first half before using a 26-9 first-half run to take control on the way to a comfortable victory over the 14th seed.
House was 8 of 12 from the field and hit a pair of three-pointers for Texas A&M, which shot 56.1% (32 of 57) in the win.
Khalil Small scored a career-high 22 points to lead the Horizon League Tournament champion Phoenix (23-13), who were making their first tournament appearance in 20 years, while Jamar Hurdle added 11 in the loss.
— Associated Press
Wisconsin tops Pittsburgh in low-scoring game
Ethan Happ had 15 points and nine rebounds, none bigger than one he pulled down in the closing seconds, as seventh-seeded Wisconsin beat No. 10-seeded Pittsburgh, 47-43, in the NCAA tournament on Friday night in St. Louis.
Nigel Hayes had 12 points and Vitto Brown scored 11 for the Badgers (21-12), who advanced despite an awful shooting night. Hayes was just three for 17 from the field, Bronson Koenig failed to hit a three-pointer for the first time in 44 games and the Badgers finished four for 19 from beyond the arc.
It was still enough to knock off the equally cold-shooting Panthers.
Jamel Artis had 13 points to lead Pittsburgh (21-12), which started the season 14-1 before struggling when it hit ACC play. Leading scorer Michael Young was held to six points and five rebounds.
Wisconsin will play No. 2 seed Xavier or No. 15 seed Weber State on Sunday.
— Associated Press
Despite disappointing loss, future is bright for USC
PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C., was empty. The USC basketball team trudged noiselessly down a sideline that, an hour before, nearly had become a place for a celebration.
The Trojans’ season had ended with a late collapse against Providence. Their first NCAA tournament game since 2011 was much like their season. They took control with athleticism. They showed flashes of a bright future. Then, at the end, their inexperience showed.
During a nightmarish final two minutes bad memories began to creep back, point guard Julian Jacobs said. Late last season, when USC finished last in the Pac-12 Conference standings, USC had a habit of keeping opponents close only to fail in the end.
The Providence game felt similar for one reason: “We looked very young at the end,” Jacobs said.
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That won’t be a legitimate excuse next season. For the first time in Andy Enfield’s tenure as coach, he will have an older, experienced team.
Maryland holds off South Dakota State, 79-74
Maryland needed a turnover in the closing seconds to ensure it would avoid a place with all the other top seeds that lost in the first round of this topsy-turvy NCAA tournament, holding off South Dakota State, 79-74, Friday behind a career-high 27 points from Jake Layman.
Deondre Parks fumbled a pass from Keaton Moffitt for the 12th-seeded Jackrabbits (26-8) and Rasheed Sulaimon picked up the ball and dunked it for the final score. South Dakota State was seeking its first victory in the NCAA tournament, but was undone by cold shooting in the first half.
Melo Trimble added 19 points and Jared Nickens 14 for fifth-seeded Maryland (26-8), which made 51% of its shots, including nine three-pointers.
Maryland plays 13th-seeded Hawaii, a 77-66 winner Friday over California, in Sunday’s second round.
Parks scorted 22 points for the Jackrabbits.
— Associated Press
Up next: No. 2 Xavier vs. No. 15 Weber State
Oklahoma pulls away from Cal State Bakersfield, 82-68
Buddy Hield scored 27 points to help No. 2 seed Oklahoma defeat No. 15 seed Cal State Bakersfield, 82-68, Friday in Oklahoma City in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
The senior guard made eight of 14 shots, including three of six three-pointers.
Isaiah Cousins scored 16 points and Jordan Woodard added 15 for the Sooners (26-7), who made 11 of 20 three-pointers and shot 50% overall.
Oklahoma enjoyed a homecourt advantage at Chesapeake Energy Arena, just a half-hour’s drive north of the Norman campus. The Sooners advanced to play No. 10 seed Virginia Commonwealth, which defeated Oregon State, 75-67, earlier in the day.
Aly Ahmed had 16 points and eight rebounds, Kevin Mays contributed 14 points and eight rebounds and Dedrick Basile added 13 points for Bakersfield (24-9), the Western Athletic Conference tournament champions.
The Sooners won despite making only 15 of 25 free throws.
— Associated Press
Up next: No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 16 Holy Cross
Up next: No. 6 Notre Dame vs. No. 11 Michigan
Up next: No. 6 Texas vs. No. 11 Northern Iowa
Up next: No. 14 S.F. Austin vs. No. 3 West Virginia
Up next: No. 7 Wisconsin vs. No. 10 Pittsburgh
Rebound basket at buzzer gives Iowa a 72-70 OT win over Temple
Adam Woodberry put back a missed shot at the overtime buzzer to give Iowa a 72-70 victory over Temple on Friday in the first round of the South Regional at Barclays Center.
With the game tied at 70, Mike Gesell worked his way to the baseline and put up about a 10-foot jumper that missed the rim and went right to Woodberry, who put it in as the red lights around the backboard lit up.
Iowa (22-10) will play second-seeded Villanova in the second round on Sunday. The Wildcats beat UNC-Asheville 86-56.
The Hawkeyes got the chance at the game-winner when Daniel Dingle of Temple, who played just six minutes and was in the game because Devin Coleman had fouled out a minute earlier, missed the front end of a 1-and-1.
Jarrod Uthoff led Iowa with 23 points, while Peter Jok had 16 and Woodberry finished with 10.
Quenton DeCosey, who made three free throws with 2.1 seconds left in regulation to tie the game, had 26 points for the Owls (21-12).
— Associated Press
Final: Middle Tennessee 90, Michigan State 81
No. 15 seed Middle Tennessee State sent the biggest shock yet through the NCAA Tournament on Friday, topping second-seeded Michigan State 90-81 in the first round.
Reggie Upshaw scored 21 points to lead the balanced Blue Raiders (25-9), who shut down player of the year candidate Denzel Valentine. Middle Tennessee never trailed the Spartans (29-6) in one of the biggest upsets since the tournament began seeding teams in 1985.
It was the eighth time a No. 2 seed lost to a No. 15, and first since Florida Gulf Coast beat Georgetown in 2013. The Eagles went on to reach the Sweet 16.
The Blue Raiders will try to do the same against No. 10 seed Syracuse on Sunday.
Matt Costello matched a career-best with 22 points for the Spartans, but it wasn’t enough to offset Valentine’s miserable afternoon. The senior had 13 points and 12 assists, but he also had six turnovers — one of them coming with the Spartans trailing 79-76 and less than three minutes to go.
— Associated Press
Up next: No. 14 Green Bay vs. No. 3 Texas A&M
Up next: No. 14 Stephen F. Austin State vs. No. 3 West Virginia
A bracket buster in the making?
No. 2 Michigan State trails No. 15 Middle Tennessee by three with less than four minutes remaining.
Hawaii stuns California, 77-66
Hawaii won its first NCAA tournament game in school history, when the No. 13 Warriors ended fourth-seeded California’s tumultuous week with a 77-66 upset victory Friday in the first round of the South Regional.
The Golden Bears’ played without popular assistant coach Yann Hufnagel, dismissed amid allegations of sexual harassment, and the loss of leading scorer Tyrone Wallace, who broke his hand Wednesday in practice. As if the Bears (23-11) needed more obstacles, guard Jabari Bird had back spasms during warmups and never played.
Quincy Smith scored a career-high with 19 points, Roderick Bobbitt had 17 points and Stefan Jankovic 16 for the champions of the Big West Conference regular season and tournament. Hawaii (28-5) used a strong first half from Jankovic to lead by as many as 11, then withstood Jankovic’s foul trouble in the second half thanks largely to Smith.
Smith scored 11 points in the second half and keyed Hawaii’s surge midway through after California had pulled within one.
Jordan Mathews led California with 23 points.
-- Associated Press
Rough day for Cal’s Jaylen Brown
Top pro prospect Brown goes 1 for 6 from the floor for four points in the fourth-seeded Golden Bears’ upset loss to 13th-seeded Hawaii.
Halftime: Iowa 38, Temple 37
Halftime: Middle Tennessee 41, Michigan State 35
Tournament-tested VCU gets past Oregon State, 75-67
JeQuan Lewis had 21 points, eight assists and seven rebounds as 10th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth won its first NCAA Tournament game since 2013 with a 75-67 first-round victory over No. 7 seed Oregon State on Friday.
The tournament appearance is the sixth straight for VCU (25-10), and the experience showed as the Rams led by eight points at halftime and held off a charge by the Beavers in the second half.
Mo Alie-Cox added 20 points and was 7 of 8 from the field in the win, while Melvin Johnson also finished in double figures with 12 points. Gary Payton II scored 19 points to lead the Beavers (19-13), who were making their first tournament appearance in 26 years, while Derrick Bruce finished with 15 and Drew Eubanks 13.
-- Associated Press
Up next: No. 5 Maryland vs. No. 12 South Dakota State
Up next: No. 7 Wisconsin vs. No. 10 Pittsburgh
Up next: No. 15 CSU Bakersfield vs. No. 2 Oklahoma
Halftime: Hawaii 36, California 30
Villanova rolls past UNC Asheville, 86-56
Ryan Arcidiacono scored 14 points, including a buzzer-beating 3 at the end of the first half, and Daniel Ochefu had 17 points inside as second-seeded Villanova beat UNC Asheville, 86-56, Friday to roll into the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Wildcats (30-5) will face seventh-seeded Iowa or No. 10 Temple on Sunday in the South Region at Barclays Center, looking to reach the second weekend of the tournament for the first time since their 2009 Final Four run.
Dylan Smith led 15th-seeded UNC Asheville (22-12) with 14 points as the Big South champions bowed out quietly.
Kris Jenkins scored 12 and Jalen Brunson had 10 points for the Villanova, which spent three weeks at No. 1 this season but is under pressure to return to the Sweet 16.
-- Associated Press
Halftime: Virginia Commonwealth 36, Oregon State 28
Syracuse routs Dayton, 70-51
Malachi Richardson scored 21 points, Syracuse stumped seventh-seeded Dayton with its trademark zone and the No. 10 seed Orange rolled to a 70-51 victory in their return to the NCAA Tournament on Friday.
Tyler Roberson added 10 points and 18 rebounds for the Orange (19-13), banned from the field last season following an NCAA investigation into academic misconduct and improper benefits.
They looked back at home in the first round of the Midwest Regional.
Tyler Lydon had 14 points, Trevor Cooney had 13 and Michael Gbinije added 10 as Syracuse advanced to play No. 2 seed Michigan State or No. 15 seed Middle Tennessee State on Sunday.
Charles Cooke led the Flyers (25-8) with 14 points, but he was just 2 of 9 from beyond the arc, as the regular-season Atlantic 10 champions shot 32 percent from the field.
-- Associated Press
Halftime: Villanova 40, UNC Asheville 26
Up next: No. 7 Iowa vs. No. 10 Temple
Up next: No. 13 Hawaii vs. No. 4 California
Up next: No. 2 Michigan State vs. No. 15 Middle Tennessee
Up next: No. 10 Virginia Commonwealth vs. No. 7 Oregon State
Halftime: Syracuse 30, Dayton 28
Up next: No. 2 Villanova vs. No. 15 UNC Asheville
Up next: No. 10 Syracuse vs. No. 7 Dayton
Gonzaga upends No. 6 Seton Hall, 68-52
Gonzaga is moving on in the NCAA tournament after pulling away from Seton Hall for a 68-52 victory Thursday night behind 21 points and 16 rebounds from Domantas Sabonis.
Kyle Wiltjer added 13 points for the Bulldogs (27-7), who will play Utah on Saturday for a trip to the Sweet 16.
Gonzaga came in as an 11 seed — a team that struggled at times this season and was no sure bet to make its 18th consecutive trip into March Madness until it won its conference tournament.
But against sixth-seeded Seton Hall (25-9), this didn’t feel like an upset.
The key was limiting Isaiah Whitehead, the star of Seton Hall’s run to its first Big East tournament title since 1993. He scored only 10 points and missed all 10 of his three-point shots.
— Associated Press
Kentucky blows past Stony Brook, 85-57
Jamal Murray led five players in double figures with 19 points and fourth-seeded Kentucky routed Stony Brook 85-57 Thursday, setting up a showdown with rival Indiana in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Isaiah Briscoe scored 13 with 11 rebounds for the Wildcats (27-8), who haven’t faced the Hoosiers since beating them in the Sweet 16 in 2012.
Kentucky opened the second half on a 20-6 run that put it ahead 53-25 with 14 minutes to go. The Wildcats hit 13 of their first 16 shots after the break, helping validate coach John Calipari’s cries that they were under-seeded.
Jameel Warney had 23 points and 15 rebounds for Stony Brook (26-7), which was making its first NCAA Tournament appearance. The Seawolves, who shot 47.6% entering play, was just 20 of 76 from the field.
— Associated Press
Wichita State swarms Arizona, beats Wildcats, 65-55
Fred VanVleet and Ron Baker combined for 29 points and Wichita State’s swarming defense did the rest as the Shockers beat Arizona 65-55 on Thursday night in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Wichita State (26-8) will play Miami (26-7), the third seed in the South Region, on Saturday.
Arizona coach Sean Miller called a timeout 53 seconds into the game after VanVleet and Baker pounced on a loose ball in the Wildcats end. It was evident from the outset that Wichita State’s in-your-face defense was going to be the decisive factor against Arizona (25-9).
The Shockers forced 19 turnovers they converted into 22 points and snared nine steals.
Arizona’s big three of Ryan Anderson, Gabe York and Allonzo Trier, each averaging 15 points, combined for 28.
— Associated Press
Providence edges USC, 70-69, on basket with one second left
The season was on the line, and USC was panicking.
In a stunned postgame locker room, the players would run through all the ways it had lost Thursday’s NCAA tournament first-round game to Providence, 70-69.
If only the Trojans had slowed down, been less reckless. If only they had made their free throws. If only they’d gotten that offensive rebound.
The fact was, despite all of it, USC led by one with three seconds remaining. Providence was inbounding under USC’s basket. USC needed one stop.
“A simple ball out of bounds,” point guard Julian Jacobs said. “We go over it every single day.”
A look at Julian Jacobs’ latest dunk
Another Jacobs dunk and a seven-point lead for USC
USC leads Providence midway through second half
Katin Reinhardt scored on a layup to give the Trojans a 51-46 lead over Providence with 10:15 left in the second half of a first-round game in the NCAA tournament on Thursday night in Raleigh, N.C.
The Friars could have tied the score moments earlier, but Ben Bentil missed a three-pointer with 10:42 left.
— Staff and wire reports
Can’t beet this . . .
Trojans ahead by two points with 15:15 left
Julian Jacobs reacts to his dunk
Trojans down by two points late in first half
USC takes a 36-35 halftime lead
USC’s Katin Reinhardt made a three-point shot with 33 seconds left in the first half to give the Trojans a 36-35 lead over Providence at halftime.
Jordan McLaughlin leads USC in scoring with nine points, while Elijah Stewart has seven and Nikola Jovanovic has six. Reinhardt and Bennie Boatwright both have five for the Trojans, who shot 53.6% (15 of 28) from the field in the first half, including four of eight from long range.
Ben Bentil leads the Friars with 13 points on five-of-12 shooting. Rodney Bullock has nine points, three rebounds and two steals for Providence, which shot 43.3% (13 of 30) from the field.
— Staff and wire reports
Highlight-reel material
Utah holds off Fresno State
Sophomore 7-footer Jakob Poeltl scored 16 points and pulled down a career-high 18 rebounds to help Utah hold off feisty Fresno State, 80-69, Thursday night in Denver in a first-round game of the NCAA tournament.
Utah, the third seed in the Midwest, used a blistering 20-2 run down the stretch to regain control after falling behind for the first time all night with 10:32 left in the second half.
Lorenzo Bonham had 17 points and Brandon Taylor added 16 for the Utes (27-8), who will try for their second consecutive trip to the Sweet 16 when they face Seton Hall or Gonzaga on Saturday night.
Marvelle Harris, the Mountain West’s player of the year, led the Bulldogs (25-10) with 24 points. It was their first NCAA appearance since 2001.
— Associated Press
Trojans make it a two-point game
Foul trouble begins for both USC and Providence
Double technical fouls given out
Providence uses 15-4 run to take lead from USC
Providence erased a four-point deficit early in the first half with a 15-4 run that gave the Friars a 24-17 lead over USC with 11:42 left before halftime of a first-round NCAA tournament game Thursday night in Raleigh, N.C
The Trojans used balanced scoring to open a 13-9 lead on Providence with 14:45 left in the first half.
Bennie Boatwright leads the Trojans with five points, while Elijah Stewart has four. USC made six of its first 10 shots, with four of five starters scoring points.
— Staff and wire reports
Getting into the zone
Five-minute warning
North Carolina (finally) pulls away from FGCU
Brice Johnson scored 18 points and No. 1-seeded North Carolina needed an overwhelming second-half start to put away 16th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast, 83-67, on Thursday in an NCAA tournament game in Raleigh, N.C.
Isaiah Hicks added 12 points off the bench for the Tar Heels (29-6), who led by just a point after a frustration-filled opening 20 minutes in which the Eagles stayed right with the East Region’s top seed. But UNC dominated the opening 10 minutes of the second half, running off a 20-3 burst by controlling the boards and locking down defensively to build a 20-point lead.
That helped the Tar Heels avoid the unwanted history of being the first 1-seed to lose to a 16-seed in tournament history.
Florida Gulf Coast (21-14) already owned a bit of underdog history with its “Dunk City” bunch, the first 15-seed to reach the Sweet 16, in 2013.
This would have topped that considering the game was in UNC’s home state, were the Tar Heels haven’t lost an NCAA game in 37 years. But by the end, this one looked a lot like those other 1-vs-16 matchups, with the Tar Heels just too big, deep and athletic for the Atlantic Sun champions.
Christian Terrell had 15 points to lead Florida Gulf Coast, which shot 60% in the first half but went 2 for 15 to open the second half as the Tar Heels finally took control.
— Associated Press
Indiana chews up Chattanooga, 99-74
Yogi Ferrell had 20 points and a season-high 10 assists, O.G. Anunoby pitched in 14 points and No. 5 seed Indiana took charge of its NCAA Tournament opener against Chattanooga on the way to a 99-74 victory on Thursday in the East Region.
Thomas Bryant had 13 points and Troy Williams added 12 points and eight rebounds for the Hoosiers (26-7), who had their high-powered offense in prime form. They shot 37 for 57 from the floor for 64.9%. Anunoby, the long-armed freshman forward, was 6 for 7 with a highlight-reel array of 3-pointers and dunks.
Duke Ethridge had 16 points and Justin Tuoyo scored 12 points for the No. 12 seed Mocs (29-6), whose stellar first season under young coach Matt McCall came to a screeching end.
— Associated Press
Who has next?
Some pregame reading for USC-Providence
Miami turns back Buffalo, 79-72
Angel Rodriguez had 24 points and seven rebounds as third-seeded Miami held on to defeat No. 14-seeded Buffalo, 79-72, in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday in Providence, R.I.
Sheldon McClellan contributed 20 points and five rebounds in Miami’s first tournament win since it went to the Sweet 16 in 2013. The Hurricanes advance to play the winner of Arizona and Wichita State in the second round of the South Region on Saturday.
Miami (26-7) kept the Bulls at bay for most of the second half, leading by as many as 12 points.
The Bulls (20-15) finally got some traction, closing to within four points, 72-68, on a jumper by Lamonte Bearden with less than two minutes to play. But Miami made enough free throws down the stretch to put the game away.
Nick Perkins had 20 points and six rebounds to lead Buffalo. Bearden added 19 points.
— Associated Press
A view from the sidelines at UNC-FGCU
Well, that explains Yale’s advantage on the boards
Arkansas Little Rock knocks off fifth-seeded Purdue
Little Rock is moving on in the NCAA tournament, thanks to an out-of-nowhere comeback that led to an 85-83 double-overtime victory over Purdue on Thursday in Denver.
Josh Hagins sent the game into overtime with a shot from the edge of the midcourt logo, and then into double OT with an arcing shot off the glass over an outstretched defender.
The 6-foot-1 senior finished with 31 points, including six in the second overtime.
The 12th-seeded Trojans (30-4), trailed by 13 points with 3:33 to go in the second half, and then went on a 12-0 run. Trailing by three on the final possession, Hagins tried to find space, then stepped back and launched from 30 feet to tie the score.
Vince Edwards led Purdue (26-9) with 24 points.
Little Rock will face Iowa State on Saturday in the second round.
— Associated Press
Kansas crushes Austin Peay, 105-79
Svi Mykhailiuk scored a career-high 23 points, Perry Ellis added 21 and top-seeded Kansas throttled Austin Peay, 105-79, on Thursday in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
Landen Lucas scored 16 points for the Jayhawks (31-4), who will face Connecticut on Saturday with a chance to return to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013.
Kansas, the No. 1-seeded team in the South Region, jumped ahead by 20 at halftime and cruised to their 10th consecutive win in an NCAA tournament opener.
Josh Robinson scored 24 points for the Governors (18-18), who learned quickly that the magic they leaned on to win four straight games and the Ohio Valley title was no match for the talent-laden Jayhawks.
Kansas entered this year’s tournament as one of the favorites to win it all after dominating the brutal Big 12 for most the season. Coach Bill Self is looking for his second national championship, and the Jayhawks got off to a strong start by dismantling the overmatched Governors.
By far the most promising development was the play of Mykhailiuk.
Mykhailiuk, an 18-year-old Ukrainian guard whose production often has failed to live up to his promise, didn’t even score in wins over Baylor and West Virginia in the recent Big 12 tournament. But he made three of his first four three-point attempts, and his three-point play early in the second half helped put Austin Peay away.
Kansas star Wayne Selden, who averaged a paltry 2.5 points in four previous NCAA tournament games and was shut out in a loss to Wichita State last March, also impressed with seven points in the first 12 minutes. He finished with 14 points.
Any hope the Governors had at pulling off a monumental upset — or even staying close — was done in by a brutal start from the floor. Austin Peay made just seven of its first 24 shots, with many of those misses from close range.
Chris Horton had 14 points and 10 rebounds in his final game for the Governors.
— Associated Press
Yale upsets No. 5-seeded Baylor, 79-75
Makai Mason had a career-high 31 points, including six of Yale’s final nine points, and the No. 12-seeded Bulldogs held on to upset fifth-seeded Baylor, 79-75, in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday in Providence, R.I.
Yale (23-6) earned its first NCAA tournament victory. It comes in its first appearance since 1962.
Justin Sears added 18 points and Brandon Sherrod contributed 10.
The Bulldogs led by as many as 13 points in the second half before having their lead cut to one point. A late turnover by the Bears helped Yale secure the victory.
Taurean Prince led Baylor (22-12) with 28 points. Johnathan Motley finished with 15 points and seven rebounds.
Expelled Yale player Jack Montague, dismissed last month because of a sexual assault allegation, was in the stands for the game. He was present as a fan and sat across from the Yale bench.
Yale will play No. 4-seeded Duke on Saturday.
Yale played a chunk of the second half without Sears and Brandon Sherrod after both picked up their fourth fouls. Both returned with just over four minutes to play in the game.
— Associated Press
Virginia rolls over Hampton, 81-45
Anthony Gill scored 19 points as Virginia beat Hampton, 81-45, on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
London Perrantes had 12 points, and Malcolm Brogdon finished with 11 for the top-seeded Cavaliers (28-6).
They shot 55%, hit 12 3-pointers and put this one well out of reach with a 20-3 run late in the first half before Coach Tony Bennett collapsed and was taken to the locker room a few seconds early.
Virginia reported that Bennett was dehydrated, and he was back for the second half. His team had no problems advancing to face ninth-seeded Butler (22-10) on Saturday.
Quinton Chievous scored 17 points, and Reginald Johnson Jr. had 10 for 16th-seeded Hampton (20-11), which was just 4 of 20 from 3-point range.
— Associated Press
Not a good look for the Bears
Iowa State races past Iona, 94-81
Monte Morris showed no lingering effects of his right shoulder injury, scoring 20 points and dishing out eight assists in Iowa State’s 94-81 win over Iona in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.
Georges Niang’s 28 points led the No. 3 seed Cyclones (22-11), who saw all five of their starters score in double figures. They will play either Purdue or Arkansas-Little Rock on Saturday at the Pepsi Center.
Less than 24 hours after declaring he’d never felt better, Morris went out and proved it. Abdel Nader added 19 points, Matt Thomas had 14 and Jameel McKay 11 for the Cyclones.
A.J. English led 14th-seeded Iona (22-11) with 28 points and Jordan Washington scored 26.
-- Associated Press
Virginia coach is OK after collapsing to the floor
Virginia Coach Tony Bennett collapsed to the floor during the final seconds of the first half against Hampton. “I think I was dehydrated,” he told CBS during halftime. “I blacked out.”
Halftime: Virginia 40, Hampton 21
Halftime: Yale 39, Baylor 34
Connecticut rallies past Colorado, 74-67
Rodney Purvis, Daniel Hamilton and a stifling defense carried Connecticut back from an 11-point first-half deficit, giving the Huskies enough for a 74-67 first-round victory over Colorado that kept Coach Kevin Ollie unbeaten in the NCAA Tournament.
Purvis scored 15 of his 19 points after halftime, Hamilton had 17 points and 10 rebounds and the No. 9 seed Huskies (25-10) advanced to the second round of the South Region.
Josh Scott had 23 points and 11 rebounds for the No. 8 Buffaloes (22-12), finishing 0-3 in the NCAA Tournament in his career. He had five of Colorado’s 11 misses in 30 free-throw attempts, aiding UConn’s comeback.
-- Associated Press
Halftime: Iowa State 45, Iona 33
Butler pulls away late for a 71-61 over Texas Tech
Kelan Martin scored all 11 of his points in the final 8 1/2 minutes, including consecutive three-pointers to break a tie game, to help Butler beat Texas Tech 71-61 in Thursday’s first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Kellen Dunham scored 23 points to lead the Bulldogs (22-10), including a critical three-pointer of his own with 2:26 left as the Midwest Region’s No. 9 seed finally pulled away in the final minutes.
Butler shot 52 percent after halftime, using some NCAA Tournament experience to rally from an early eight-point deficit and finally push ahead midway through the second half.
Devaugntah Williams scored 18 points to lead the eighth-seeded Red Raiders (19-13), who were making their first tournament appearance since 2007.
But Texas Tech made just 2 of 9 shots to close the game as Butler began to take over in the critical moments.
-- Associated Press
Duke surges past UNC Wilmington in second half of 93-85 win
Marshall Plumlee ditched the mask guarding his broken nose and responded by scoring a career-high 23 points to lead defending national champion Duke past UNC Wilmington 93-85 on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Plumlee had 10 of his points and two blocks as the Blue Devils stepped up the defensive pressure early in the second half to build a lead after trailing at the break.
Duke (24-10), seeded fourth in the West, will next play Yale or Baylor. UNCW (25-8), seeded 13th, was in it until the closing moments after Plumlee and Matt Jones fouled out.
Grayson Allen also scored 23 points for the Blue Devils, but 15 came from the foul line as he shot just 4 of 12 from the field. Brandon Ingram added 20.
Craig Ponder led UNCW with 22 points. Chris Flemmings had 18, Denzel Ingram 17 and C.J. Bryce 16.
-- Associated Press
Up next: Yale vs. Baylor
Halftime: Colorado 36, Connecticut 27
Halftime: Butler 30, Texas Tech 28
Halftime: UNC Wilmington 43, Duke 40
Up next: Connecticut vs. Colorado
USC must stop Providence’s Kris Dunn in NCAA opener
One of the most feared players in college basketball took the court here Wednesday evening for a light shoot-around.
Down the tunnel, in USC’s locker room, the player assigned to contain him noted his opponent’s attire.
Providence’s Kris Dunn was wearing shorts. Regular, no-frills basketball shorts.
“He puts his shorts on just like I do,” USC guard Julian Jacobs observed with a laugh.
USC’s surprising season continues Thursday with a first-round NCAA tournament game against Providence. In their first postseason appearance since 2011, the Trojans (21-12) are seeded No. 8 in the East Region, one notch higher than the Friars (23-10).
But the 6-foot-4 Dunn might be the most talented player at a subregional that includes North Carolina and Virginia, a pair of No. 1-seeded teams.
After Dunn won the Big East Conference player of the year award last season as a junior, his coach, Ed Cooley, advised him to enter the NBA draft. Dunn decided to return to school. He earned another Big East player of the year award with averages of 16 points and 6.4 assists, and is projected to be a high lottery pick in June’s draft.
Watching Dunn, USC has been reminded of Utah’s Delon Wright, the 20th pick overall by Toronto in the 2015 NBA draft.
Up next: Wichita State vs. Arizona
Up next: Gonzaga vs. Seton Hall
Up next: Stony Brook vs. Kentucky
Up next: Florida Gulf Coast vs. North Carolina
Up next: Arkansas Little Rock vs. Purdue
Up next: Buffalo vs. Miami
Up next: Providence vs. USC
Up next: Austin Peay vs. Kansas
Up next: Chattanooga vs. Indiana
Up next: Iona vs. Iowa State
Up next: Hampton vs. Virginia
Up next: UNC Wilmington vs. Duke
Up next: Butler vs. Texas Tech
First Four: Michigan wins on another late shot, beating Tulsa, 67-62
Zak Irvin hit a go-ahead 3-pointer and a pair of free throws in the closing minute as Michigan pulled out another one at the end on Wednesday night, beating Tulsa, 67-62, in the First Four.
The Wolverines (23-12) made the leap from bubble team to the NCAA Tournament with their last-second drama. They hit a pair of end-game shots for wins in the Big Ten Tournament, including one by Irvin that beat Northwestern.
His 3-pointer on Wednesday put the Wolverines up, 62-60, with 52 seconds to go, and his two free throws with 10 seconds left sent the 11th-seeded Wolverines into a matchup against rival Notre Dame in Brooklyn on Friday night.
Tulsa (20-12) got 23 points from Shaquille Harrison, but its senior-laden lineup couldn’t keep up at the end. There were five ties and 12 lead changes in the frantic second half.
--Associated Press
NCAA tournament could have more senior moments than usual
The warmup acts are over, those Tuesday and Wednesday doubleheaders known most recently as the First Four, the play-ins and the despoilers of what once was a perfectly proportioned NCAA tournament bracket.
Now it’s on to the main event, 16 games Thursday and the same Friday.
The games will generate plenty of senior moments, which have dwindled in the recent past as the one-and-dones dominated the landscape. They will produce one three-peat after another — perhaps along with royalties for Pat Riley, if the trademarked term is echoed — as teams have fired away from behind the arc at unprecedented rates this season.
They will trigger a torrent of B-words allowed on network television — bracket-buster, buzzer-beater, blowout. And they will ignite discussion of the tired parity theme, which might be prevalent among the field’s middle class: In six of the first-round games, the lower seed is favored.
If “One Shining Moment” is not serenading Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan State or one of only a few more nobles at the end of the Big Dance-athon, another B-word will be elicited: bewilderment. The title contenders can be counted on two hands, even by an old Saturday morning cartoon character.
One is Oklahoma, whose probable Wooden Award winner is Chavano Rainer Hield, better known as Buddy. Hield is the season’s face of college hoops. He’s a senior, a class that is often marginalized by freshmen and sophomores in March.
Thursday’s NCAA schedule
SWEET 16 ROUND
- No. 2 Villanova 92, No. 3 Miami 69 (South Region)
- No. 2 Oklahoma 77, No. 3 Texas A&M 63 (West Region)
- No. 1 Kansas 79, No. 5 Maryland 63 (South Region)
- No. 1 Oregon 82, No. 4 Duke 68 (West Region)
First Four: Holy Cross tops Southern, 59-55
Robert Champion scored 19 points, including a key three-pointer in the final minute, to help Holy Cross beat Southern University, 59-55, Wednesday night for its first NCAA tournament victory since 1953.
Champion, a junior guard, also hit two key free throws with 14 seconds left to put the game out of reach. He connected on as many three-pointers as the entire Southern team, which was three for 20 from beyond the arc in a sluggish, mistake-filled First Four game.
Holy Cross (15-19) was an unlikely NCAA team, earning its automatic bid by winning four games on the road to in the Patriot League Tournament.
The 16th-seeded Crusaders advance to play No. 1 seed Oregon on Friday in Spokane, Wash.
— Associated Press
A look at the matchup between USC and Providence
WHO: No. 8 USC (21-12) vs. No. 9 Providence (23-10).
WHAT: NCAA East Regional first-round game, Thursday, 6:45 p.m. PDT
WHERE: PNC Arena, Raleigh, N.C. TV: TBS; Radio: 710.
This is USC’s first NCAA tournament game since 2011. The Trojans were not expected to do much in the Pac-12 Conference this season, as they were coming off consecutive last-place finishes. But they cruised to a 12-2 start and were ranked in the top 25 nationally for the first time since 2008. The season was progressing smoothly until USC lost six of its last eight regular-season games. Wins over Oregon State and UCLA in the last two weeks marked enough of a rebound to satisfy the tournament selection committee. Providence followed a similar trajectory. At the beginning of January, the Friars were 14-1 and ranked No. 8. Later that month, they defeated Villanova, which is a No. 2-seeded team in this tournament. But then came five losses in six games to start February. Inclusion in the NCAA tournament wasn’t a guarantee until the Friars won four straight games before a loss to Villanova in the Big East Conference tournament.
STARTERS
Providence | Ht | Wt | PPG | P | USC | Ht | Wt | PPG
Kris Dunn | 6-4 | 220 | 16.0 | G | Jordan McLaughlin | 6-1 | 170 | 13.4
Junior Lomomba | 6-5 | 205 | 5.5 | G | Julian Jacobs | 6-4 | 180 | 11.8
Jalen Lindsey | 6-7 | 210 | 7.3 | G | Elijah Stewart | 6-5 | 180 | 9.8
Rodney Bullock | 6-8 | 225 | 11.6 | F | Bennie Boatwright | 6-10 | 220 | 11.5
Ben Bentil | 6-9 | 235 | 21.2 | F | Nikola Jovanovic | 6-11 | 235 | 12.1
RESERVES
Kyron Cartwright | 6-0 | 185 | 5.7 | G | Katin Reinhardt | 6-6 | 220 | 11.5
Drew Edwards | 6-3 | 185 | 2.4 | G/F | Chimezie Metu | 6-11 | 215 | 6.6
Ryan Fazekas | 6-8 | 205 | 5.3 | F | Darion Clark | 6-7 | 202 | 2.6
Obama makes his choice -- Kansas will win the NCAA championship
President Obama announced more than one big decision on Wednesday.
Hours before he revealed his nomination for the Supreme Court vacancy, Obama let the country know whom he’s picking to win the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
He’s going with Kansas ... again.
“Bill Self owes me,’’ Obama said of the Jayhawks coach while filling out his bracket on ESPN. “I’m putting Kansas in here. Coach, I’m just teasing. I’m not putting pressure on you. But I think the Jayhawks in a squeaker get past UNC.’’
Obama must be hoping the third time’s a charm with the Jayhawks -- he incorrectly picked them to go all the way in 2010 and 2011. The president hasn’t chosen the eventual winner since going with North Carolina in 2009, his first year in office.
In addition to the Jayhawks and Tar Heels, the top seeds in the South and East regions, Obama has Texas A&M, the No. 3 seed in the West, and Michigan State, the No. 2 seed in the Midwest, in his Final Four.
Trojans hope to soar in tournament like Andy Enfield’s Eagles
Soaked and smiling, Andy Enfield sat in the trainers room inside Wells Fargo Arena with three of his players and tried to comprehend what had just happened.
It was a Sunday night in Philadelphia, and Florida Gulf Coast had just pulled off one of the most improbable first-weekend runs in NCAA basketball tournament history: the first No. 15 seed to reach a regional semifinal.
Finally, Enfield found words.
“Who would’ve ever thought I’d be sitting here with you three, all of us together, going to a Sweet 16?” he said.
The NCAA tournament can change lives in an instant. Over the course of 72 breathless hours in 2013, the obscure Fort Myers, Fla., university turned into “Dunk City,” with Enfield the coach and architect.
Not long after, USC hired Enfield away, hoping he could re-create the magic in Los Angeles. He’ll have his first chance Thursday when USC plays Providence in an opening round NCAA tournament game in Raleigh, N.C.
Enfield’s blueprint remains simple. The first piece, he said, is the most important — and obvious: “You have to have good players.”
After that: Keep the team loose, but foster a sense of urgency too.
Enfield doesn’t believe a coach can do much more. He can only watch what unfolds.
Senior guards lead Wichita State to First Four victory
Wichita State’s guards used their Final Four experience to pull out a defense-dominated First Four game on Tuesday night, leading the way to a 70-50 victory over Vanderbilt.
Fred VanVleet — the two-time Missouri Valley player of the year — scored 14 points, and Ron Baker also had 14 as Wichita State (25-8) took control at the start of the second half and held on. The seniors were part of Wichita State’s 2013 Final Four team.
The Shockers play Arizona on Thursday in Providence, R.I.
Vanderbilt (19-14) couldn’t take advantage of its pronounced size advantage on offense and never led in the second half. Joe Toye and Riley LaChance had 10 apiece.
The Shockers returned three starters from the team that knocked off Indiana and Kansas to reach the Sweet 16 last year, drawing a No. 10 ranking in the preseason poll. A lot of early injuries — including VanVleet’s pulled hamstring — forced the Shockers to reinvent themselves.
— Associated Press
First Four: Florida Gulf Coast is the first tournament winner
Marc-Eddy Norelia scored 20 points and Florida Gulf Coast coasted to a 96-65 win over an overmatched Fairleigh Dickinson team in a First Four game Tuesday night.
Norelia opened the game with a dunk, and the Eagles (21-13) never relinquished the lead, going on a 23-6 run in the first 10 minutes and opening a 40-19 lead at the half. Fairleigh Dickinson got some looks but couldn’t get much to fall, shooting just 33% from the field while playing thoroughly lackluster defense throughout.
Florida Gulf Coast wasn’t the “Dunk City” gang that made the terrific tournament run to the Sweet 16 as a No. 15 seed three years ago, instead outmuscling its opponent’s big men inside and spreading the ball around. Julian Debose and Christian Terrell both added 14 for the Eagles, and Demetris Morant added 10. After Norelia’s opening slam, Brian Greene Jr. closed the scoring with a dunk for FGCU.
Norelia was 10 for 11 from the field while grabbing 10 rebounds. FGCU outrebounded the smaller Fairleigh Dickinson squad 52-33 while dominating on the defensive boards.
— Associated Press
Social media Sweet 16 sensations