Walton leads Wolverines’ bomb squad
Derrick Walton Jr. stuck to the plan Friday in Indianapolis.
He kept running the Michigan Wolverines offense against an aggressive Oklahoma State defense and eventually things fell into place. Again.
Walton scored 26 points and had 11 assists as the Wolverines made a school record 16 three- pointers in an NCAA tournament game, getting past Oklahoma State 92- 91 in the first round of the Midwest Regional.
“We haven’t played a team that got up into us in a minute. It’s hard to simulate that in practice,” Walton said. “In the second half, I settled down. I wanted to make the right play consistently.”
Seventh- seeded Michigan needed every point it could muster in a game that ended with a parade to the free- throw line, a buzzer- beating three and a foe that refused to go away.
The difference: Poise and emotion, the same components that helped Michigan ( 25- 11) overcome last week’s harrowing plane mishap to sweep four games in four days at the Big Ten Tournament.
Early Friday, it looked like Michigan’s momentum was waning. The Wolverines\ looked out of sync and out of sorts in the first half.
But rather than change the game plan, Walton followed the script, steadied his team and the shots started going.
While Michigan made only five shots inside the arc in the second half, it went 11- for- 15 from threepointrange. Waltonwoundup6-for- 9 on threes, and Zak Irvin made four more in front of his hometown crowd. Irvin finished with 16 points.
“You go 11- for- 15, that’s hard enough to do in a gym by yourself,” first- year Cowboys coach Brad Underwood said. “We shot 55 percent in the NCAA tournament and just lost in the first round, outrebounded an opponent 40- 21 and you lose.”
Juwan Evans scored 23 points and Jeffrey Carroll had 19 to lead Oklahoma State ( 20- 13), but the nation’s eighth- highest scoring team just couldn’t keep up with Michigan’s three- point barrage.
Michigan State 78, Miami 58
Nick Ward scored 19 points to help the Spartans ( 20- 14) atone for last season’s early NCAA tournament disappointment with an openinground victory over the Hurricanes ( 21- 12) in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Ninth- seeded Michigan State trailed by 12 points in the first half before blitzing past stunned Miami the rest of theway, using a 20- 2 first half run to take control for good.
Ward made his first six shots and finished 8- for- 9 fromthe field, while Miles Bridges was 8- for- 12 and added 18 points in the win.
S. Carolina 93, Marquette 73
Sindarius Thornwell had 29 points and 11 rebounds to help the seventh- seeded Gamecocks ( 23- 10) win its first NCAA tournament game in 44 years, blitzing the Golden Eagles ( 19- 13) to close firstround play in the East Region in Greenville, South Carolina.
South Carolina last won a game in the NCAAs when it topped Southwestern Louisiana 90- 85 in a regional consolation game on March 17, 1973. The Gamecocks had been one- and- done in their next five appearances.
Wichita State 64, Dayton 58
The Shockers’ powerful offense stalled out until the closing minutes, but their defense carried them to the victory over the Flyers in the South Regional in Indianapolis.
Wichita State ( 31- 4) won its 16th consecutive game. The Shockers had brought their reputation for piling up the points into the NCAAs, along with the feeling that they’d been slighted by their No. 10 seed.
“It was definitely something a little brand new to us from what we’ve seen in the Missouri Valley,” said Zach Brown, who had 12 points, including a late three. “But I don’t know— we’ve just grinded it out.”
Seventh- seeded Dayton ( 24- 8) was held to a season low in points and shot a season- low 31 percent from the field. The Flyers also got rebounded 48- 29 and had eight shots swatted away.
Rhode Island 84, Creighton 72
Jeff Dowtin scored a career- high 23 points with a perfect day at the free- throw line as the 11th- seeded Rams ( 25- 9) ran into the next round of the NCAA tournament by stunning the cold- shooting sixth- seeded Blue Jays ( 25- 10) in an opener of the Midwest Region in Sacramento, California.
USC 66, SMU65
Elijah Stewart hit a late threepointer for the Trojans ( 26- 9), seeded 11th, in a nail- biting victory against the sixth- seeded Mustangs ( 30- 5) in the first round of the East Region in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
N. C. State turns toKeatts
North Carolina State didn’t have to look very far to find its next coach. The school hired UNC Wilmington’s Kevin Keatts to take over as the program, staying in its home state to find a coach who had spent time as an assistant to Rick Pitino before leading his ownNCAA tournament team. The school announced Keatts’ hiring a day after his Seahawks lost to Virginia in the first round of the NCAAs. Keatts reportedly was on Illinois’ radar as a replacement for John Groce.