Xavier rallies to upset Terps
ORLANDO, Fla. — Trevon Bluiett doesn’t spend a lot of time worrying about missed shots. He knows the makes will eventually come.
After missing his first seven shots and contributing just three points in the first half, Bluiett finally found his rhythm Thursday night to lead No. 11 seed Xavier to a 76-65 upset of sixth-seeded Maryland in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Bluiett was 6-for-7 from the field during the final 20 minutes to finish with 21 points.
“Once I get a couple to go in and get a rhythm going, then everything starts to fall,” Bluiett said. “Everything you shoot just feels good.”
Bluiett made four 3s in the second half to help Xavier (2113) come back from a six-point deficit. The Musketeers move on in the West Region, marking the third straight year they have advanced to the second round.
Maryland (24-8), which started three freshmen for much the season, lost in the first round for the first time since 1997.
Kevin Huerter finished with 19 points but was just 5-for-13 from the field, and star junior Melo Trimble couldn’t find a rhythm against the Musketeers’ zone, going 1-for-9 from 3-point range to finish with 13 points, three assists and three turnovers.
The Terps also had no answer for Xavier big man Sean O’Mara, who had a career night off the bench as he finished with 18 points by making five of six shots from the field and eight of nine free throws.
› Villanova 76, Mount St. Mary’s 56: In Buffalo, N.Y., Donte DiVincenzo scored 21 points as the Wildcats, the 2016 tournament champions and this year’s overall No. 1 seed, shook off a slow start and stumbled forward in the East Region.
The Wildcats (32-3), who are trying to become the first program with back-to-back championships since Florida in 2007, weren’t themselves for much of the first half before they opened the second with a 21-6 run.
Freshman Miles Wilson scored 22 to lead the 16th-seeded Mountaineers (20-16), who edged New Orleans in a First Four matchup Tuesday and gave Villanova all it could handle for 20 minutes.
› Virginia 76, UNCW 71: In Orlando, Fla., London Perrantes scored 24 points, Marial Shayok added a career-high 23 off the bench and the East Region’s No. 5 seed rallied from 15 points down to survive the opening round against 12th-seeded UNC Wilmington (29-6).
Perrantes scored 19 points in the second half as the Cavaliers (23-10) got their slow-paced offense going. His biggest bucket was a driving bank shot with 1:37 remaining, which put the Cavs up 71-66.
But UNCW’s Chris Flemmings drained a 3-pointer from the elbow, and then Devontae Cacok hit a layup to make it 73-71 with less than a minute to play. But Shayok answered on the other end, banking in a runner that gave the Cavaliers some breathing room in the closing seconds.
› Gonzaga 66, South Dakota State 46: In Salt Lake City, Jordan Mathews scored 16 points to help Gonzaga slowly pull away from South Dakota State and avoid the first 1 vs. 16 upset in the history of the NCAA Tournament.
A stunning result looked possible for a while. The Jackrabbits (18-17), champions of the Summit League, led for the first 17 minutes in the West Region matchup and stayed in range for most of the game.
They did it without a big performance from Mike Daum. The nation’s second-leading scorer finished 7-for-16 from the floor with 17 points, more than eight below his average. Defensively, Daum did a nice job on Gonzaga’s 7-foot-1 center, Przemek Karnowski, holding him to four points over the first 32 minutes.
But Karnowski , who finished with 10 points, scored three straight buckets for the Bulldogs (33-1) to help them expand the lead to 20 with five minutes left, and it was over. Gonzaga became the 129th straight No. 1 seed to beat a 16 since the bracket was expanded to 64 teams in 1985, and later in the day Villanova made it 130-0.
› West Virginia 86, Bucknell 80: In Buffalo, N.Y., Tarik Phillips scored 16 points and Nathan Adrian had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the West Region’s fourth-seeded Mountaineers (279), who struggled at times to stop the outside shooting of the No. 13 seed Bison (26-9).
But West Virginia avoided a repeat of last year’s first-round meltdown, when the Mountaineers lost to 14th-seeded Stephen F. Austin. Next up in this year’s bracket is No. 5 seed Notre Dame, which beat Princeton 60-58.
Bucknell’s Kimbal Mackenzie made five of seven 3-point attempts and led the Patriot League champions with 23 points. The Bison had won six straight games and 14 of 16.
› Saint Mary’s 85, VCU 77: In Salt Lake City, Jock Landale had 18 points and 13 rebounds as the West Region’s No. 7 seed held on against 10th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth University.
The Gaels (29-4) led most of the way, but they had to fight to hold on after VCU’s defensive pressure started to become too much in the second half.
Joe Rahon and Calvin Hermanson finished with 16 points apiece for Saint Mary’s. JeQuan Lewis paced VCU (26-9) with 30 points.
Saint Mary’s took a 46-31 lead into halftime thanks to a 23-6 run that was highlighted by back-to-back 3-pointers from Hermanson. The Gaels, so crisp in the first half, struggled to find their rhythm on offense after the break, but VCU kept fouling and sending them to the line for free points.
› Butler 76, Winthrop 74:
In Milwaukee, Butler’s Avery Woodson scored 18 points and tied his career high by making six 3-pointers in his NCAA tournament debut.
Woodson, a graduate transfer from Memphis, hit five 3s in the first half to help the South Region’s No. 4 seed build a 14-point halftime lead. The Bulldogs (24-8) need one more win to advance to the Sweet 16 for the fifth time since 2003.
A 12-2 run in the middle of the second half gave Butler a 60-43 lead with less than eight minutes left and put the game out of reach for the 13th-seeded Eagles (26-7), who were led by Xavier Cooks’ 23 points.
› Purdue 80, Vermont 70:
In Milwaukee, Vincent Edwards scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half to help the Boilermakers, the Midwest Region’s No. 4 seed, win in the NCAA tournament for the first time in five years.
Caleb Swanigan added 16 points, 14 rebounds and four assists for Purdue (26-7), which was upset by 12th-seeded Arkansas-Little Rock in double overtime in the first round last year. Dakota Mathias made three of Purdue’s nine 3-pointers Thursday and finished with 13 points.
It was Vermont’s first loss this calendar year. The Catamounts (29-6), the regular-season and tournament champions in the America East Conference, had the nation’s longest active winning streak at 21 games. But they were unable to make up for a huge disadvantage inside against the bigger, stronger Boilermakers.