Tar Heels survive ejection, big rally, beat ’21 champ Baylor
FORT WORTH, Texas — RJ Davis scored a careerhigh 30 points with a nifty layup while being fouled in overtime, and eighth-seeded North Carolina blew a 25-point second-half lead but still found a way to beat defending champion Baylor 93-86 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.
Brady Manek had a season-high 26 points before getting ejected because of a flagrant foul midway through the second half, right after his 3-pointer had given the Tar Heels (26-9) their largest lead.
A year after going out in the first round of the tourney in retiring coach Roy Williams’ final game, Davis, Armando Bacot and these Tar Heels (26-9) are headed to Philadelphia and a Sweet 16 for first-year coach Hubert Davis.
Davis got his only points in overtime on the off-balance layup with 1:18 left and added the free throw for a 91-85 lead.
Adam Flagler had 27 points for Baylor (27-7), which made only one field goal in overtime. James Akinjo had 20 points while Jeremy Sochan had 15 points and 11 rebounds.
All-ACC power forward Armando Bacot had 15 points and 16 rebounds for North Carolina. After missing three of four free throws in the final 38 seconds of regulation, he made three of five in overtime.
The Tar Heels won as No. 8 seed over a top seed for third time. They did so on the way to the Final Four in 2000, 10 years after after beating top-seeded Oklahoma when Davis was a player for Dean Smith.
Baylor lost in the second round for the second time in the last three NCAA tourneys. The Bears, who fell to top-seeded Gonzaga in the round of 32 three years ago, were trying to match the biggest comeback ever in an NCAA Tournament game.
Manek, the graduate transfer from Oklahoma of the Big 12, was ejected with 10:08 left after his left elbow to the face of Sochan as they were battling underneath the Baylor basket. Manek had just drained a 3-pointer that put the Tar Heels ahead 67-42.
With Manek out, and Caleb Love fouling out soon after that, the Tar Heels had 10 turnovers as Baylor turned up the pressure and made a furious rally.
The Bears got within 76-73 on a three-point play with 1:48 left by Akinjo, who had another one with 16 seconds left to tie the game at 80-80. North Carolina had one more shot, but Davis’ 3-point try hit off the front of the rim.
KANSAS 79, CREIGHTON 72
FORT WORTH, Texas — Remy Martin scored 20 points, Ochai Agbaji put Kansas ahead for good with his first basket early in the second half, and the Jayhawks held off Creighton to advance to the Sweet 16.
Martin hadn’t led topseeded Kansas (30-6) in scoring all season as the fifth-year senior transfer from Arizona State battled a sore knee, but he’s done it in both NCAA Tournament games.
The shorthanded Bluejays (23-12) stayed close with an uncharacteristically hot showing from 3-point range. One of the worst teams in the country from beyond the arc, ninthseeded Creighton went 12 of 28.
The biggest came from freshman Trey Alexander, who swished an off-balance heave from well behind the line as the shot clock was about to expire. Keyshawn Feazell’s bucket soon after got Creighton within one in the final two minutes.
The Bluejays had a chance to go ahead in the final minute, but Alexander’s errant pass went off Alex O’Connell’s hands, leading to a breakaway dunk for Agbaji, who scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half.
Arthur Kaluma scored 24, going 4 of 10 from long range for the Bluejays.
Creighton, which reached the Sweet 16 last year, had just six players in its rotation after losing 7-footer Ryan Kalkbrenner to a knee injury late in overtime of a 72-69 win over San Diego State on Thursday.
Ryan Hawkins drained a 3-pointer from well behind the arc 13 seconds into the game and finished 3 of 6 from distance with 14 points. O’Connell was 3 of 8 and scored 16. Alexander finished with 14.
Martin, the plucky 6-foot guard who scored 15 in a blowout of Texas Southern in the opening around, had 16 in the first half off the bench, then helped the Jayhawks stay in front.
Christian Braun scored 13 for the Jayhawks, including a big 3 that was his only one of the game in the second half.
MICHIGAN 76, TENNESSEE 68
INDIANAPOLIS — Eli Brooks put Michigan ahead for good with a three-point play and delivered four critical points in the final minute, and 11th-seeded Michigan booked the most surprising of its five straight trips to the Sweet 16 by beating No. 3 seed Tennessee in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Brooks finished with 23 points, including a looping, improvised hook shot and two free throws as the Wolverines (19-14) put away the Volunteers, who had a six-point lead with 81⁄2 minutes left but then went four minutes without scoring. Their cold shooting continued until it was too late.
Big man Hunter Dickinson had 27 points and two of his 10 rebounds in the closing seconds for the Wolverines, whose five straight Sweet 16 appearances are the most in Division I. Gonzaga is the only other team to make it four straight times.
Michigan will face either second-seeded Villanova or longtime rival Ohio State, the No. 7 seed, in Thursday’s East Region semifinals in San Antonio, Texas.
Hardly a conventional Cinderella given its resources and pedigree, this Michigan team nonetheless came into the tournament amid low expectations. The Wolverines (19-14) have the worst record of any team left in the field and did the bare minimum down the stretch to secure an at-large berth. Their consecutive wins in the tourney are their first since mid-February.
But coach Juwan Howard’s squad still has plenty of talent and elevated its play down the stretch against the Southeastern Conference champions. Howard himself had to learn some lessons about composure when he was suspended for five games late in the season for hitting a Wisconsin assistant during a postgame handshake line.
Kennedy Chandler had 19 points and Josiah-Jordan James had 13 for Tennessee (27-8), which had a sevengame winning streak snapped. Two days after shooting a school tourney record 60% from the field, the Vols shot 41.8% and came up short again in the postseason. Tennessee lost to Oregon State in the first round last year, also at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
PROVIDENCE 79, RICHMOND 51
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Noah Horchler scored 16 points and Providence had its best 3-point shooting performance of the season, routing 12th-seeded Richmond to advance to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 25 years.
The fourth-seeded Friars (27-5) will face Kansas, the top seed in the Midwest Region, in Chicago next week.
Providence has made living this season on winning the close ones, 16 in all by single digits. The Friars talked this week about being well aware of their skeptics and motivated by being called the luckiest team in America.
The Big East regularseason champions looked like a juggernaut against Richmond.
Providence controlled the game from the start and went up 21 on the Spiders (24-13) less than two minutes into the second half when Horchler swished a 3 from the corner. The Friars shot 52% from the field, and a season-best 54.5% from 3. They came in shooting 34.3% from long range.
The Friars are past the first weekend of the tournament for the first time in six tries under 11th-year coach and Providence native Ed Cooley.