Cunningham, Cowboys shock top-seeded Bears
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Cade Cunningham scored 25 points, Avery Anderson III added 20 and No. 12 Oklahoma State was nearly perfect from the foul line down the stretch in beating second-ranked Baylor 83-74 on Friday night in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals.
Rondel Walker also had 11 points for the No. 5 seed Cowboys (20-7), who will play No. 13 Texas for the title Saturday night.
The third-seeded Longhorns advanced earlier Friday when their semifinal against No. 11 Kansas was canceled because of a positive COVID-19 test that forced the Jayhawks to withdraw from the tournament. While the Cowboys have two Big 12 tourney titles to their credit, Texas has never won the event in six appearances in the finals.
The Bears have never won a conference tournament title, either — and won’t this year. They will remain 0-3 in the Big 12 tourney title game for at least another year after winning their first regular-season league championship since 1950.
MaCio Teague scored 17 points and Jared Butler had 16 for the Bears (22-2), who had won 10 of their last 11 against the Cowboys after sweeping them in the regular season. Davion Mitchell also had 13 points for coach Scott Drew’s team.
IONA 70, NIAGARA 64
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Asante Gist scored 19 points with five assists and Iona defeated Niagara 70-64 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals on Friday.
Dylan van Eyck added 14 points for Iona (11-5), which has won five in a row, including three in the post season. Nelly Junior Joseph added 13 points and nine rebounds. Isaiah Ross had seven rebounds and eight of Iona’s 16 turnovers.
Isaiah Ross, the MAAC’s leading scorer, was held to four points on 1
of 9 shooting.
Niagara twice cut a 20-point, second-half Iona lead down to three, the last time when Raheem Solomon scored and converted a threepointe play making the score 67-64 with 15 seconds left.
Ryan Myers and Joseph made three of four free throws for the final score. Niagara outscored Iona 39-27 in the second half, whittling away the Gaels 43-25 halftime lead.
NO. 4 MICHIGAN 79,
MARYLAND 66
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Michigan
coach Juwan Howard was ejected midway through the second half after getting into a shouting match with the Maryland bench, and the No. 4 Wolverines won 7966 Friday to reach the Big Ten semifinals.
Mike Smith scored 18 points and set a Big Ten Tournament record with 15 assists for top-seeded Michigan (20-3). The Wolverines rallied from a 12-point first-half deficit and will face No. 9 Ohio State in Saturday’s semifinals.
Michigan swung the game by
ending the first half on a 16-2 run and starting the second half on an 11-4 spurt.
But during a timeout with 10:44 to go, Howard walked toward midcourt and shouted toward the Maryland bench. The refs called two technical fouls on Howard and another on Terrapins coach Mark Turgeon, who was not ejected.
Franz Wagner and Eli Brooks each scored 16 points for the league’s regular-season champs.
Eric Ayala scored 19 points and
Darryl Morsell added 16 to lead the eighth-seeded Terrapins (16-13).
NO. 6 ALABAMA 85, MISSISSIPPI STATE 48
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Jahvon Quinerly scored 14 points off the bench, Jaden Shackelford had 13 points and Alabama blew out Mississippi State in a Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinal.
The No. 6 Crimson Tide (22-6) will face Tennessee in Saturday’s semifinals.
Playing as the tournament’s top seed for the first time since 2002, the Crimson Tide followed a couple of small early runs before going on a 17-0 surge over five minutes for a 43-13 cushion just before halftime.
Iverson Molinar scored 18 points, Tolu Smith had 11 and Abdul Ado grabbed 11 rebounds for ninth-seeded Mississippi State (15-14).
NO. 9 OHIO STATE 87, NO. 21 PURDUE 78, OT
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Seth Towns scored six of his season-high 12 points in overtime, and Ohio State beat Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
Duane Washington Jr. scored 20 points for Ohio State (20-8), which led by 18 at halftime.
Trevion Williams finished with 26 points, 14 rebounds and five for Purdue (18-9), which had its fivegame winning streak end. Jaden Ivey added 19 points.
TENNESSEE 78,
FLORIDA 66
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Volunteers could be without their big senior for the Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinals against sixthranked Alabama.
Santiago Vescovi scored 14 points to lead five Volunteers in double figures, and Tennessee beat Florida 78-66 to advance to the SEC semifinals for a third straight tournament.