Third-seeded Kentucky knocked out by Oakland
Jack Gohlke made 10 3-pointers and 14th-seeded Oakland delivered the first true shock of this year’s March Madness, beating South Region third-seeded Kentucky 80-76 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night in Pittsburgh.
The Grizzlies (24-11) sent the Wildcats (23-10) to another early March exit behind Gohlke, a graduate transfer who finished with 32 points. Trey Townsend had 17 points for the Horizon League champions. DQ Cole added 12, including a 3 from the corner with 28 seconds left that gave Oakland a four-point lead.
Antonio Reeves led Kentucky with 27 points, but the Wildcats spent most of the night trying — and failing — to chase down Gohlke.
The 6-foot-3 guard who came to the Grizzlies this season after playing for Division II Hillsdale College made 10 of 20 3-point attempts, seven in the first half.
Oakland never trailed over the final 14:32 to give the program its first victory in the round of 64.
The Wildcats came in as 13½ point favorites, according to FanDuel Sportsbook, but with a poor recent track record in March under John Calipari. Kentucky hasn’t advanced past the tournament’s opening weekend since 2019, a long stretch for Calipari and the second-winningest program in NCAA history.
N.C. STATE 80, TEXAS TECH 67 »
Ben Middlebrooks scored 21 points and the 11th-seeded Wolfpack (23-14) surged past the sixth-seeded Red Raiders (23-11).
N.C. State, which won five games in five days in the ACC Tournament, won its first March Madness game in nine years.
OREGON 87, SOUTH CAROLINA 73 »
Jermaine Couisnard scored a career-high 40 points to haunt the sixth-seeded Gamecocks — his former team — while leading the No.11 seed Ducks to victory.
Couisnard, who spent three years at South Carolina before transferring following the 2022 season, made five 3-pointers and went 14 of 22 from the field to pace Oregon (24-11).
The Ducks improved to 8-0 in first-round NCAA Tournament games under coach Dana Altman.
Oregon center N’Faly Dante added 23 points.
South Carolina (26-8) had too many offensive droughts to keep up with the Ducks, who defeated top-seeded Arizona last week on the way to a surprising Pac-12 Tournament title.
TENNESSEE 83, SAINT PETER’S 49 »
Dalton Knecht scored 23 points and the second-seeded Volunteers (25-8) shot 64% in the first half to build a huge lead before beating the 15th-seeded Peacocks (19-14).
Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 23 points and Trey Alexander had 19 as the Bluejays opened with a win over the Zips.
Third-seeded Creighton (249) got all it could handle in the first half from 14th-seeded Akron (24-11).
CREIGHTON 77, AKRON 60 »
Max Abmas and Dylan Disu each scored 12 points, and the No. 7-seeded Longhorns held the Rams to 11 points in the first half en route to the win.
Colorado State (25-12), which held Virginia to 14 first-half points in their First Four game on Tuesday, jumped out to an 8-2 lead before the wheels came off.
The Rams missed 18 of their next 19 shots and scored just three points over the final 15½ minutes of the first half. Texas (21-12) closed the half on a 25-3 run to take a 27-11 lead into the locker room.
TEXAS 56, COLORADO ST.44 »
GONZAGA 86, MCNEESE ST. 65 »
Graham Ike scored 16 points and Anton Watson added 13 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists to power the fifth-seeded Bulldogs (26-7) over the No. 12 seed Cowboys (30-4).
Ike made all six of his field goals and all four free throws while grabbing 10 rebounds.
NORTH CAROLINA 90, WAGNER 62 »
(21-14),
Michigan State (20-14) improved to 20-6 in March Madness openers under Izzo, who is making his 26th straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
DaRon Holmes II and the seventhseeded Flyers staged a huge rally, closing with a 24-4 run to erase a 17-point deficit and beat the 10thseeded Wolf Pack (26-8).
Holmes, the Atlantic 10 player of the year, finished with 18 points, including a three-point play with 2:01 remaining that gave Dayton its first lead since the first half.
Dayton (25-7) trailed 5639 with 7:36 remaining but responded with a 17-0 run.