Acy leads way as Baylor moves into Elite Eight

By Jay Busbee,

ATLANTA – It took exactly 55 seconds for Xavier coach Chris Mack to realize his team was in serious trouble.

Quincy Acy, the bearded heart and soul of Baylor and part of its much-maligned frontcourt, found daylight at the top of the key and buried a head-on jumper.

Quincy Acy's 20 points and 15 boards carried Baylor into the South Region final against Kentucky.
(Getty Images)
“He’s not supposed to do that!” Mack said on the sideline. “Seventeen feet? He’s not supposed to do that.”

But he did. Acy also threw down crowd-rousing jams, reeled in both offensive and defensive rebounds that kept Xavier at a (mostly) comfortable distance in the rear-view mirror, covered for yet another Perry Jones III vanishing act, and singlehandedly willed his third-seeded team into the Elite Eight with a 75-70 victory over the 10th-seeded Musketeers.

“He was a beast,” said Brady Heslip, Acy’s roommate and a starting guard. “He was telling me all week that he wanted to play better because he knew he hadn’t been carrying his weight. He sure did tonight.”

Acy finished with 20 points and 15 rebounds on 8-of-11 shooting. And even that doesn’t tell the entire story of how he dominated Xavier on both ends of the floor.

“He’s a cage-rattler,” Mack said. “I want to see his birth certificate. He’s that kid, when you’re coaching AAU and you look over and he just looks so much bigger and stronger than everybody. … I can take some of the offensive rebound putbacks, but when he starts facing up and hitting jump shots, it’s not what the doctor ordered. It’s not fair.”

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Georgetown moves on 74-59 over Belmont

By TOM WITHERS, AP Sports Writer
13 hours, 24 minutes ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)—For a whole year Georgetown had to live with its failure last March, a second straight early-round NCAA exit. It haunted the Hoyas, angered them, drove them.

On Friday, they made sure it didn’t happen a third time.

Jason Clark scored 21 points, Otto Porter added 16 and Georgetown’s ruthless defense bottled up Belmont’s shooters all over the floor in a 74-59 win Friday, advancing the Hoyas in the NCAA tournament after first-game knockouts the past two years.

“It was so good to get that first game,” said Hoyas center Henry Sims. “But we didn’t come here just to win one game.”

No, the Hoyas plan to hang around this March.

Sims had 15 points, and the third-seeded Hoyas (24-8) shot 61 percent from the floor—70 percent in second half—to advance to Sunday’s third round of the Midwest Regional and a matchup with No. 11 seed North Carolina State, which beat San Diego State in the day’s opener at Nationwide Arena.

Georgetown’s previous two seasons ended with embarrassing opening-round losses to Virginia Commonwealth and Ohio, scrappy mid-majors who made the big, bad Hoyas look silly. This time around, Georgetown played like the Georgetown of old, using inside muscle and a swarming defense that choked the life out of the Bruins.

“They’re well taught, and they’ve got great athletes,” Belmont coach Rick Byrd said of the Hoyas, who went 12-6 in the Big East. “If Syracuse is better than that, I’m glad we didn’t play Syracuse.”

Georgetown was enough. More than enough.

The Bruins had their 14-game winning streak stopped and fell to 0-5 in NCAA appearances. Belmont had to shoot well to pull off the upset. The Bruins had a few good looks but went just 10 of 27 on 3-pointers.

Blake Jenkins scored 17 to lead Belmont, but senior Kerron Johnson, the Bruins’ leading scorer, had just 4—10 below his average.

“We forced a couple of shots inside instead of kicking it out to shooters like we’re normally pretty good at,” guard Drew Hanlen said. “Sometimes we tried to make the hero play instead of just a smart play.”

Leading by nine at half, Georgetown never let Belmont get closer than six in the second half.

Sims controlled the inside and Clark handled things outside for the Hoyas, who look like a team capable of making a deep tourney run.

After Belmont got within 58-49 on Hanlen’s 3-pointer with just under six minutes left, Georgetown went on a 13-2 run to end any doubt—along with Belmont’s season.

When the final horn sounded, the Hoyas looked relieved. And with good reason. Their season was still alive.

“Finally got the monkey off our back,” guard Markel Starks said.

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