Ohio St makes East final, beats Cincinnati 81-66

BOSTON (AP)—Jared Sullinger and the Ohio State Buckeyes had blown a 12-point lead and fallen behind Cincinnati in the second half of the East Regional semifinals.

It was time for the “cool guys” to take a seat, and let the blue-collar team take over.

Sullinger scored 23 points with 11 rebounds and Ohio State turned back Cincinnati’s last charge with a 17-1 run to beat the Bearcats 81-66 on Thursday night and advance to the NCAA regional finals for the first time since 2007.

“We’ve got two types of basketball teams: We’ve got the cool guys and then the blue-collar guys,” Sullinger explained. “I thought to start the second half we got into the cool-guy mode and we kind of let our guard down. … I mean, we just came out and decided to be cool guys, and they came out and they stung us, and then we got ourselves back into another basketball game.”

Deshaun Thomas scored 26 points for the second-seeded Buckeyes (30-7), who will play Syracuse at the TD Garden on Saturday. Aaron Craft added 11 points— all in the second half—with five assists and six steals, taking charge during the second-half run that turned a four-point deficit into a double-digit lead.

Cashmere Wright scored 18 and Sean Kilpatrick had 15 for the No. 6 seeded Bearcats, who were attempting to match Big East rival Syracuse by beating a Big Ten opponent to advance to the East Regional finals. The top-seeded Orange advanced earlier Thursday by beating fourth-seeded Wisconsin 64-63.

It’s the first trip to the regional finals for Ohio State since it lost in the 2007 championship game to Florida. The Buckeyes lost in the round of 16 in each of the past two years.

“Coach (Thad) Matta has been through two Sweet 16s where the train kind of stopped. And we wanted to make sure that this train was going to keep rolling,” Sullinger said. “It’s tremendous to be in a situation like this, and it’s a blessing. But at the same time we can’t lose focus.”

Wearing fluorescent orange shoelaces and piping on their jerseys, Cincinnati (26-11) fell behind by 12 at the half before going on a 19-4 run early in the second. The Bearcats led 52-48 with 11:34 to play when Matta called a timeout and ripped into his team.

The Buckeyes allowed just one free throw over the next 5 1/2 minutes.

“They had 20 points in nine minutes and were shooting 80 percent, and some of that goes to them,” Craft said. “But we didn’t play defense like we did in the first half. We did a great job of sticking together and getting stops.”

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Purdue holds off Saint Mary’s 72-69 on Jackson FTs

By ERIC OLSON, AP Sports Writer
8 hours, 50 minutes ago

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)—Having watched his team hang on against Saint Mary’s after blowing a late double-digit lead, Purdue coach Matt Painter didn’t point to a specific play that made the difference.

Painter simply said luck was on the Boilermakers’ side after they moved on in the NCAA tournament with a 72-69 victory Friday night in the Midwest Regional.

“We’re very grateful to get this victory,” Painter said. “Any time you play a great team like Saint Mary’s and you get a 13-point lead, you’ve got to put them away. We weren’t able to do that. When you get a big lead like that and somebody takes the lead back from you, it’s normally difficult to win the game.”

But the 10th-seeded Boilermakers did, thanks to Lewis Jackson’s two free throws with 22.8 seconds left, a couple more from Robbie Hummel and Rob Jones’ missed 3-pointer for Saint Mary’s at the buzzer.

Jackson, Purdue’s senior point guard, said it would have been awful to end his career after blowing an 11-point lead in the last 4 minutes.

That’s why he was glad to be the one to step to the free throw line with the game hanging in the balance.

“As a little kid, you live in the moment, you count down, and I knew my fate and my career were lying in my hands,” Jackson said.

Jorden Page hit a 3-pointer with 44.2 seconds left to finish a 14-2 run that brought the Gaels back from a 66-55 deficit with 4:24 to play.

Purdue’s Terone Johnson was called for traveling while under heavy pressure from Clint Steindl, and then Steindl was called for traveling as he tried to inbound the ball on the baseline.

Page, just 1 for 8 from the field in the game, badly missed what would have been a go-ahead 3 with 10 seconds left, and Hummel’s free throws made it a three-point game.

Jones, who scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half, couldn’t connect on a good look at a 3 from the wing just ahead of the buzzer for the seventh-seeded Gaels (27-6).

“It’s a program win,” Purdue’s Ryne Smith said. “We were a bubble team for a long time and we got in. We’re allowed two hours to enjoy this and then we have to move on to the next game.”

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No. 15 seed Norfolk St stuns No. 2 Missouri 86-84

By DAVE SKRETTA, AP Sports Writer
11 hours, 44 minutes ago

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)—Kyle O’Quinn’s booming voice echoed through the halls, the jovial center for Norfolk State riding the euphoria of a monumental upset of Missouri as the words spilled out of his mouth faster than he could think.

“We messed up some brackets! We messed up some brackets!” he bellowed, before turning a corner and seeing a pack of reporters.

“We even messed up my bracket,” he said sheepishly.

O’Quinn put together the finest game of his career at the biggest moment in the history of Norfolk State basketball. The senior finished with 26 points and 14 rebounds, helping the No. 15 seed Spartans to an 86-84 victory over the second-seeded Tigers on Friday.

All those brackets that had the Big 12 tournament champs advancing to face Florida in the West Regional—perhaps even all the way to the Final Four—can be torn up. It’s the MEAC champions who are moving on.

Pendarvis Williams and Chris McEachin each added 20 points for the Spartans (26-9), who have already made their first trip to the NCAA tournament a memorable one. They became the fifth No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 and the first since fellow conference member Hampton in 2001.

“You always go into the game with a sense of confidence,” O’Quinn said, “but I never thought it was an upset-alert until that buzzer went off.

“At the end of the game,” he said, “that’s when I thought it would happen.”

O’Quinn had a chance to take some drama out of the final possession, but the 70-percent foul shooter missed two free throws with 3.8 seconds left. Missouri coach Frank Haith called timeout to set up a final play, and Phil Pressey got a pretty good look at a 3-pointer just before the buzzer sounded.

It clanked off the back iron as O’Quinn leaped for joy.

Pressey fell to the court in disbelief.

“We just shocked everybody,” Spartans swingman Brandon Wheeless said.

Michael Dixon led Missouri (30-5) with 22 points, and Pressey and fellow guard Marcus Denmon finished with 20 points each. Pressey also contributed eight assists, though senior guard Kim English was held to two points on 1-for-7 shooting.

“I’m very disappointed, as everyone in that locker room was,” Haith said. “I hurt for those seniors because they put so much into this. They had high expectations.”

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Mitchell leads Saint Louis past Memphis 61-54

By RUSTY MILLER, AP Sports Writer
9 hours, 9 minutes ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)—During his years away from coaching as an ESPN commentator, Rick Majerus figured he’d have the perfect forum to discuss how much fun defense is.

Then he learned otherwise.

He said he was told, “We’re not going to show some guy in a defensive stance on SportsCenter.”

No problem. His team got to put on a show for a national audience watching the NCAA tournament.

Kwamain Mitchell supplied the offense with 22 points, including three big 3-pointers, and Saint Louis rode its gritty defense to a 61-54 victory over Memphis on Friday night in a West Regional second-round game.

The result was vintage Majerus, the colorful coach who led Utah to the 1998 national championship game. The Tigers wanted to run, Saint Louis wouldn’t let them. A team averaging more than 75 points per game was stymied, saddled and shut down.

“We wanted to make sure we limited their fast-break baskets and make defense a priority,” said Majerus, who has won more than 500 games as a coach at Marquette, Ball State, Utah and Saint Louis.

Mitchell closed the first half by banking in a 3, then nailed two others to help the ninth-seeded Billikens (26-7) overturn an eight-point deficit in the second half. They advanced to play the winner of LIU Brooklyn and top-seeded Michigan State on Sunday.

“I came in with the attitude that we had something to fight for,” Mitchell said. “Win, or lose and go home.”

Brian Conklin added 16 points, including five free throws in the final minute to salt the game away.

Some observers thought the Billikens were overmatched. Memphis was bigger, stronger, deeper, more athletic and had more NCAA experience. As Majerus had said a day earlier, Saint Louis didn’t have any future pros on its roster.

“It’s fun to come out and prove people wrong,” Conklin said.

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Michigan State handles LIU 89-67

By TOM WITHERS, AP Sports Writer
6 hours, 49 minutes ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)—Draymond Green got on the phone earlier this week with a former Michigan State star.

Magic Johnson must have told Green to play just like him.

Green recorded his second career NCAA tournament triple-double—the first player to do it since Johnson—and Derrick Nix added 18 points as top-seeded Michigan State fought off the upset bug that took down two No. 2 seeds, advancing in the West Regional with an 89-67 win over LIU Brooklyn on Friday night.

On a freaky Friday of upsets, Michigan State wasn’t going down.

Green wouldn’t stand for it.

“The kid’s a great player,” LIU coach Jim Ferry said. “I thought he was a great player going in on tape. He’s a great player live. He’s going to have a very long career in front of him. He’s just a fantastic basketball player.”

The Spartans (28-7) finally put away the bothersome No. 16 Blackbirds (25-9) with a 14-4 run midway through the second half. Michigan State outscored LIU 47-30 after halftime to set up a third-round game with Saint Louis on Sunday.

Green had 24 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists and no turnovers in 35 minutes. He joined Johnson and Oscar Robertson as the only players in history to have more than one triple-double in the tournament.

Afterward, Green showed typical humility in downplaying his accomplishment. His previous triple-double came in last year’s tournament loss to UCLA.

“At the end of the day I’d much rather have a win than a triple double, because when you look at those record books it’s going to say Draymond Green stats triple double and then it’s going to say the score of the game,” he said. “And the last one was a loss and this one was a win. So it don’t really matter.

“It’s just about getting wins this time of year, and I’m just happy we’re able to do that.”

Green didn’t get into any specifics about his conversation with Johnson. The Hall of Famer was talking with Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, who put Green on the phone.

“I don’t know what he said to him, but it might have been something good,” Izzo said. “I might have to call him back. I’m proud of Day Day (Green’s nickmane). I’m pleased for him. Happy for him. And yet he’s got a lot of basketball to go. “

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Beal, Prather lead Gators to 71-45 win over Cavs

By ERIC OLSON, AP Sports Writer
13 hours, 0 minutes ago

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)—With his 1.5-point scoring average, Casey Prather surely wasn’t a big part of Virginia’s scouting report on Florida.

You can bet any team that plays Florida the rest of the NCAA tournament will know who he is.

Prather scored a career-high 14 points on a rare day Florida’s 3-point shooters went cold, and the Gators had no trouble beating the Cavaliers 71-45 Friday in the NCAA West Regional.

“On a big stage like this, he was probably a very unlikely candidate to step up and do what he did for us tonight,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said. “I’m happy for him, because he’s a great kid.”

Prather made 6 of 7 shots in a season-high 22 minutes, using a cool spin move to get to the basket for a baseline layup in the middle of the second half. But his best shot came late when he dunked off Erving Walker’s alley-oop pass.

“I woke up trying to be focused on the game and what I could do to help the team,” the sophomore reserve said.

Prather had played more than 10 minutes in a game just twice since mid-December and hadn’t scored more than six points in any previous game this season. In his last 16 games he had scored a total of 15 points.

“He gave them a great lift,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. “When you look at someone off the bench to give you a spark—I don’t want to say you weren’t counting on him—but that is a pleasant surprise, and he was that for them.”

Bradley Beal also had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Patric Young had 13 points on 6-for-6 shooting with three dunks.

Those efforts were enough to offset the Gators’ 4-for-23 shooting on 3-pointers. They entered the game averaging a nation-leading 9.9 a game but missed their first 13 attempts.

No. 7 seed Florida (24-10) pierced Virginia’s vaunted defense—the Cavaliers were giving up just 53.7 points a game—to get to the boards for second-chance baskets. The press also generated some easy buckets for the Gators, helping them go 24 of 30 from inside the arc.

“We were struggling to score in the beginning,” Walker said. “The press had a huge effect on the game. It got us in our offensive rhythm.”

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McCollum leads Lehigh to 75-70 upset win over Duke

By STEVE REED, AP Sports Writer
7 hours, 46 minutes ago

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP)—The Lehigh Mountain Hawks said they weren’t afraid of mighty Duke.

Maybe no one believed them at the time, but the Patriot League champions proved they were serious.

C.J. McCollum scored 30 points and Lehigh upset Duke 75-70 to become the second No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 during a wild Friday in the NCAA tournament.

“It means a lot as a team, a family and as the Patriot League in general,” McCollum said. “We wanted to come out here and protect this team and this family, get the win and we did that tonight.”

Lehigh forward John Adams said it was a matter of believing in each other.

“We saw on the selection show we had Duke and we thought we could match up very well against them,” Adams said. “We all believed it and we showed it on the floor. Everybody bought into that idea that we could beat them. The rest is history.”

History indeed.

The Mountain Hawks are the sixth 15 seed overall to pull off the trick. Norfolk State edged Missouri 86-84 in the West Regional earlier in the day, and No. 13 seed Ohio knocked off Michigan to add to the madness.

Duke dropped its first tournament game for only the second time in the past 16 years, and this one occurred just 55 miles from its campus. The Blue Devils also lost their opener against 11th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth in 2007.

The Blue Devils had no answer for the speedy McCollum, the two-time Patriot League player of the year and the nation’s fifth-leading scorer.

“They had the best player on the court tonight in McCollum,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “He’s been their player of the year, and he’s really one of the outstanding players in the country. You could see why tonight.”

It didn’t help that the Blue Devils hit just 6 of 26 shots from 3-point range.

Lehigh (27-7) led most of the game, drawing support from North Carolina fans who borrowed brown signs from Mountain Hawks supporters that read “Go Lehigh” to root against their rivals.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” forward Justin Maneri said with a deep laugh. “We came to the practice the other day and as soon as you walked in they were going crazy for us and we’re like, `What’s going on?’ They were like, `Go Lehigh, beat Duke!’ They were screaming. It was nice to have fans here that weren’t Duke. I’ve never seen two schools that hate each other so much.”

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CU holds off UNLV for 68-64 victory

By EDDIE PELLS, AP National Writer
Mar 16, 2:01 am EDT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP)—For anyone familiar with Colorado basketball, the scene was hard to believe.

The Buffs leading UNLV, of all teams, by 20. Their fans standing in The Pit, of all places, chanting “This is our house.”

Well, CU’s first appearance in the NCAA tournament in nine years didn’t turn out to be a breeze, but yes, maybe the Buffs could get used to this college basketball thing.

Freshman Askia Booker came off the bench for 16 points and Andre Roberson had 12 points and 16 rebounds, as Colorado fought off a furious UNLV comeback for a 68-64 victory Thursday night at The Pit.

“It’s been great,” Roberson said. “I feel like our guys are playing well, playing with a lot of confidence, and we’re just going to try to keep it rolling.”

The 11th-seeded Buffs (24-11), who bullied their way into March Madness for the first time in nine years by winning the Pac-12 tournament as a No. 6 seed, suddenly can’t seem to do anything wrong. The team that got snubbed by the selection committee last year and used that as fuel for this season has won five straight games with its season essentially on the line.

CU’s next test is Saturday against No. 3 seed Baylor, a 68-60 winner over South Dakota State earlier and a former Big 12 rival of the Buffs.

For the first 27 minutes of this South Regional game, Tad Boyle’s team played with a freedom and looseness that made the game look easy. Never as easy as early in the second half, when Austin Dufault (14 points) made back-to-back 3-pointers and Carlon Brown (12) followed with another to push CU’s lead to 49-29. A few minutes later, it was 53-33.

CU leading UNLV by 20?

That’s the kind of thing that just didn’t seem possible—and not just decades back, but as recently as a few weeks ago.

Maybe it was too good to be true.

UNLV went on a 22-4 run and cut the lead to two on Justin Hawkins’ 3-pointer with 4:20 left. From there, though, sixth-seeded UNLV (26-9) missed its next seven shots. Brown made a windmill dunk—reminiscent of those he slammed home late in Pac-12 wins over Arizona and Cal—to help CU regain its bearings, then the Buffs made 4 of 8 free throws in the last minute to hold on for the win.

“Our guys were not handling it well, that was obvious,” Boyle said. “We talked about playing with poise, playing with composure and continuing to attack. When we got stops, we wanted to run. That’s one of the things that had gotten us that lead to begin with.”

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Indiana impressive in 79-66 win over NM State

By TIM BOOTH, AP Sports Writer
Mar 16, 1:31 am EDT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP)—After a four-year absence, Indiana is making its NCAA tournament return last longer than just one brief appearance.

And even though it’s one victory, it’s still a moment worthy of reflection for Indiana coach Tom Crean after rebuilding a gutted program and leading the Hoosiers to a 79-66 win over New Mexico State—their first in the NCAA tournament in five years.

“I think when I look up at the crowd and catch a glimpse of my family … it hits you for a brief moment that this is really, really special,” Crean said. “We’ve been through so much to get to this point. We’ve all learned a great deal. Everybody is better. It didn’t seem like it at the time, but everybody is better for what we had to endure.”

Now if the Hoosiers want to keep this tournament return going for another week, they’ll just need to take out Shaka Smart and those bracket-busting upstarts from VCU.

Jordan Hulls went on a second-half shooting spree and finished with 22 points, and the fourth-seeded Hoosiers rolled Thursday night in the second round of the South Regional.

Indiana picked up its first tournament win since beating Gonzaga in 2007 on a night its main stars—Cody Zeller and Christian Watford—did the heavy lifting in the opening minutes then watched Hulls and others take over.

Hulls shot 8 of 12, and 7 of 8 in the second half including his own personal 11-point run as the Hoosiers (26-8) blew the game open. Zeller, Watford and Will Sheehey all finished with 14 points for Indiana as part of a 59 percent shooting display that propelled the Hoosiers to the weekend.

Next up for the Hoosiers are the 12th-seeded Rams in the third-round Saturday afternoon and the chance for Indiana to find its way back to the regional semifinals for the first time since going to the Final Four in 2002.

“In a situation like this, there’s some physical to it, but it’s much more mental and retention, and seeing how it applies to you,” Crean said. “I’m looking forward to being up late.”

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No. 2 seed Kansas rolls through Detroit 65-50

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)—Kansas coach Bill Self hardly broached the topic of fellow No. 2 seed Missouri’s upset loss to Norfolk State on Friday. He figured there was no need—his players already knew.

He made sure to mention another No. 2 seed, Duke, also went down.

“The Duke game was going on and there was 5 seconds left or 20 seconds left when I finished doing my pregame,” Self said. “I told them then, `Hey, Duke’s getting ready to get beat, too.”’

It served as a warning to the Jayhawks.

They most certainly heeded it.

Thomas Robinson bullied his way for 16 points and 13 rebounds, and the second-seeded Jayhawks rolled to a 65-50 victory over Detroit in the second round of the Midwest Regional.

“I didn’t make a point of it because sometimes you make a point, it could add pressure, saying it’s possible. But I did say, `Hey, the one thing is we have to make sure Detroit doesn’t play well,” Self said of the earlier upsets. “When teams get comfortable anything can happen.”

After the first 15 minutes, Detroit never looked comfortable.

Doug Anderson led the Horizon League-champion Titans with 15 points before fouling out with 11:06 left. Ray McCallum, the son of the Detroit coach, added eight points on 4-for-15 shooting.

“I’m really proud of my guys,” said Detroit coach Ray McCallum. “We played one of the truly great teams in the country tonight, and that really, pretty much tells the story.”

Elijah Johnson added 15 points and Tyshawn Taylor had 10 for the Jayhawks (28-6), despite spending much of the second half in the locker room with cramps. Self said that Taylor received IV fluids during the game and should be 100 percent for Sunday night’s game against Purdue.

Kansas toyed with the Titans (22-14) early on before ramping up the defense, eventually holding them to 32 percent shooting and 3 for 17 from beyond the arc.

“They do a good job of not letting you get in the paint. That’s one of the strengths of my game,” the younger McCallum said. “I felt like I got good looks. It was just one of those games.”

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Xavier edges Notre Dame 67-63 in NCAA

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) Tu Holloway kept attacking the paint and knocking down tough shots for Xavier throughout the second half. It's no surprise the senior guard came through with the basket to help the Musketeers advance in the NCAA tournament.

Holloway banked in the go-ahead shot over Jack Cooley with 21.3 seconds left, helping Xavier rally to beat Notre Dame 67-63 on Friday night in the second round of the South Regional.

Holloway finished with 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting, including a flurry that helped the 10th-seeded Musketeers (22-12) rally from 10 down in the second half against the seventh-seeded Fighting Irish (22-12).

``He's made such big plays through the course of his career,'' Xavier coach Chris Mack said. ``The moment's never too big for him.''

Holloway had 17 points in the second half, the last coming when he rounded a screen from Kenny Frease and sent a high-arcing shot over Cooley's outstretched arm for the 64-63 lead.

``Coach Mack called my number, and it's a shot I practiced over the summer,'' Holloway said. ``I work hard for moments like this, and fortunately through the graces of God the ball went in. I knew it was big.''

After a free throw from Dezmine Wells pushed the lead to two, Notre Dame's Eric Atkins drew a blocking foul to get to the line with 2.8 seconds left. He swished the first free throw, but official Michael Stuart ruled that Jerian Grant left his position behind the 3-point arc too early as he ran in for a rebound, giving the ball back to Xavier.

The same unusual call was made at a critical moment of top-seeded Syracuse's 72-65 victory over UNC Asheville during the second round of the East Regional on Thursday.

On the ensuing inbounds pass, Pat Connaughton was whistled for an intentional foul when he grabbed Wells' jersey trying to deny him the ball. Wells knocked down both free throws to push the lead to four with 2.8 seconds still on the clock to ensure the victory.

``It's too bad that happens, but there was a lot of plays,'' Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said of the lane-violation call. ``We missed some free throws. There were a lot of plays that culminated in not being able to escape with a win.''

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