Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
UConn routs Xavier in Big East tourney opener
NEW YORK >> The start wasn’t exactly what UConn envisioned. But boy, what a finish. Tristen Newton and Donovan Clingan each had 13 points and seven rebounds, and the second-ranked Huskies blitzed Xavier in the second half Thursday to open their postseason with an 87-60 blowout in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals.
“Thrilled the way we responded to some early adversity,” UConn coach Dan Hurley said.
Alex Karaban and Cam Spencer both scored 12 in a balanced performance by the top-seeded Huskies (29-3), who have won five straight games and 19 of 20. The defending national champions will play No. 5 seed St. John’s, a 91-72 winner over fourth-seeded Seton Hall, in the first semifinal Friday evening at Madison Square Garden.
UConn is 0-3 in Big East semifinals since rejoining the league in 2020-21.
Connecticut fell behind 10-0 at the start, then reeled off the next 13 points. After leading 34-33 at halftime, the Huskies opened the second period with runs of 9-2 and 21-10 to build a 12-point cushion with 9:30 remaining.
They ran away from there, making their final 15 field-goal attempts. Many were dunks or layups — a few by backups in garbage time. But the Huskies shot a blistering 79% in the second half (22 for 28) and set program records for shooting rate (58.3%) and assists (29) in a Big East Tournament game.
Hurley was asked what he said to his team in the locker room to spark such a turnaround.
“A little bit of it was like, raise your intensity level. This is a playoff game,” he explained. “Just, I think it took us a half to get going — but also credit Xavier. They played I thought a really, really good first half.”
The 7-foot-2 Clingan, who had only two points in the first half, scored 11 straight for the Huskies in a span of 3:20 as they broke it wide open.
“He’s a gentle giant, you know? He’s a Jolly Green Giant. Sometimes he’s got to get that intensity level up, get that nastiness. He’s such a sweetheart of a guy. And, yeah, he turned it up,” Hurley said.
Samson Johnson scored 12 points off the bench and Big East Freshman of the Year Stephon Castle added 10 points and eight rebounds to round out six scorers in double figures for Connecticut, seeking its first Big East Tournament title since 2011.
“We’re playing for a championship. This is one of the biggest goals that we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year. If you don’t want to win now, then you probably shouldn’t be playing,” Spencer said.
Quincy Olivari scored 17 points and Desmond Claude had 13 for ninth-seeded Xavier (16-17), which beat No. 8 seed Butler 76-72 in the first round Wednesday.
“We did the best we could,” coach Sean Miller said. “But we weren’t able to sustain it. We simply ran out of gas.”
North Carolina 92, Florida State 67
WASHINGTON >> Armando Bacot scored 14 points and grabbed 10 of his team’s 48 rebounds to Seminoles’ 22, and fourth-ranked Tarheels rolled into the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament semifinals with a victory.
Bacot got the double-double with a rebound on his final play before being pulled midway through the second half, and unanimous ACC player of the year RJ Davis scored a game-high 18 points.
Winning their sixth in a row, the Tar Heels flexed their muscles on the boards, at one point grabbing four
offensive rebounds on the same possession late in the first half. By halftime, the Seminoles had just six.
A combination of rebounding domination and some timely shooting — as Florida State went ice cold from the floor — helped UNC (26-6, 18-3 ACC) pull away. Shooting for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the ACC’s regular-season champions face Wake Forest or Pitt on Friday night with a spot in the final on the line.
Texas Tech 81, BYU 67
KANSAS CITY, MO. Pop Isaacs scored 22 points, Chance McMillian added 17 points and eight rebounds and the Red Raiders withstood a furious second-half rally by the Cougars for a victory in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament.
Kerwin Walton added 12 points and Robert Jennings and Joe Toussaint had 10 apiece for No. 4 seed Red Raiders (23-9), who led by as many as 23 in the first half before the Cougars (2310) embarked on a 15-0 second-half run to make it interesting.
Jaxson Robinson hit a pair of 3-pointers before two free throws from Richie Saunders got the Big 12 newcomers within 62-55 with 5:04 to go. But unperturbed, Toussaint answered with a 3 for Texas Tech, and when
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Trevin Knell’s answering 3 rimmed out, Darrion Williams added another to give coach Grant McCasland’s team some breathing room.
The Red Raiders advanced from there into a semifinal matchup with No. 1 Houston or TCU on Friday night.
Robinson finished with 22 points to lead the Cougars, who shot 14 of 30 from the 3-point arc in a second-round win over UCF but were just 7 of 35 against Texas Tech. Fousseyni Traore finished with 13 points and Saunders had 12.
Arizona 70, Suthern Cal 49
LAS VEGAS >> KJ Lewis led a balanced scoring attack with 15 points as the Wildcats avenged an end of the regular season loss by rolling past the Trojans 7049 Thursday in the Pac12 Tournament quarterfinals.
The top-seeded Wildcats (25-7) play the winner of the Oregon-UCLA game on Friday night. Arizona is two victories from becoming the first threepeat Pac-12 champion since the Wildcats won four straight in 1988-90 and 2002. There were no conference tournaments between 1991-2001.
Ninth-seeded USC ended its season at 15-18. The Trojans’ four-game winning streak also came to a halt.