Mississippi State knocks off Tennessee in SEC quarterfinal
Bulldogs will face Auburn in semifinal
Cameron Matthews and Josh Hubbard each scored 18 points and ninth-seeded Mississippi State dominated top-seeded Tennessee 73-56 in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinals in Nashville, Tennessee.
The victory should push the Bulldogs firmly off the NCAA Tournament bubble with their second win over the fifth-ranked Volunteers, the SEC’s regular-season champions. They will play in the semifinals Saturday for the first time since winning this event in 2009, meeting Auburn.
The Bulldogs held AP SEC Player of the Year Dalton Knecht to 14 points. Tennessee hurt its hopes for the first No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament in program history.
More SEC No. 12 Auburn 86, No. 15 South Carolina 55:
Johni Broome had 18 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Tigers to a romp, similar to Auburn’s 40-point victory in the regular season over the Gamecocjks.
Big Ten quarterfinals No. 3 Purdue 67, Michigan State 62:
Zach Edey had 29 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks for the Boilermakers (29-3), who recovered from a blown 12-point lead in Minneapolis. Tyson Walker had 15 points for the Spartans (19-14) in Tom Izzo’s 1,000th game as their head coach.
Wisconsin 70, Northwestern 61:
AJ Storr scored a career-high 30 points, Steven Crowl added 19 and No. 5 seed Wisconsin beat No. 4 seed Northwestern. Wisconsin advances to play top seed and third-ranked Purdue in the semifinals on Saturday. The Badgers lost both regular-season meetings with the Boilermakers.
American quarterfinal South Florida 81, East Carolina 59:
Kobe Knox had 17 points as top-seeded USF advanced to the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament in Fort Worth, Texas.
Knox had six rebounds for the Bulls (24-6), who will face UAB in a semifinal today. Selton Miguel scored 17 points.
The Pirates (15-18) were led by RJ Felton, who finished with 16 points, two steals and two blocks.
Conference USA semifinals Western Kentucky 85, Middle Tennessee State 54:
Don McHenry had 18 points for WKU in Huntsville, Alabama.
The Blue Raiders (14-19) were led by Jestin Porter, who posted 14 points.
Third-seeded Western Kentucky (21-11) will face No. 5 seed Texas El Paso in the championship game Saturday.
UTEP 65, Sam Houston 63:
Corey Camper Jr. had 19 points, five rebounds and three steals in UTEP’s victory.
Camper added five rebounds and three steals for the Miners (18-15). Tae
Hardy scored 18 points and added five rebounds for the Miners (18-15). Lamar Wilkerson finished with 14 points for the Bearkats (21-12).
Women CAA quarterfinals Stony Brook 61, Campbell 52:
The top-seeded Seawolves (26-3) led the eighth-seeded Camels (17-14) wire-to-wire in the first Coastal Athletic Association quarterfinal at the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington. CAA Player of the Year Gigi Gonzalez led a balanced scoring effort for the Seawolves with 13 points.
North Carolina A&T 55, Hofstra 40:
Jordyn Dorsey scored 15 points as the fourth-seeded Aggies (20-10) knocked off the 13th-seeded Pride (11-21) to earn a semifinal appearance against Stony Brook. Zyheima Swint scored 10 for the Pride, a team that ousted fifth-seeded William & Mary on Thursday.
A&T trailed 24-18 at halftime but shut down Hofstra after that. The Aggies went ahead for good late in the third quarter.
Late Thursday MEN Atlantic 10 quarterfinals St. Bonaventure 75, Loyola Chicago 74, 2 OTs:
Reserve Daryl Banks had 22 points and eight rebounds as the seventh-seeded Bonnies (20-12) edged the secondseeded Ramblers (23-9) in a thriller to move to a Saturday semifinal against Duquesne. Banks was 12 for 12 at the free-throw line.
Philip Alston scored 22 for Loyola Chicago, which shared the regular-season title with Richmond. On the game’s final play, Des Watson shot an airball on a win-or-lose 3-pointer from well beyond the arc.
Duquesne 65, No. 24 Dayton 57:
Jimmy Clark III scored 16 points and sixthseeded Duquesne held off star big man DaRon Holmes II and third-seeded Dayton. Holmes scored 21 of his 24 points in the second half, but the Flyers struggled from the field and now will have to rely on an at-large bid to make the NCAA Tournament.
Dayton came in with a NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) ranking of 21, and no other team in the A-10 is ranked higher than 70. All four top seeds in the conference tourney lost in the quarterfinals.
Duquesne is seeking its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1977.
Conference USA quarterfinal Texas El Paso 66, Liberty 57:
Zid Powell had 13 points and seven rebounds in UTEP’s victory in Huntsville, Alabama.
Kaden Metheny led the Flames (18-14) with 20 points. Joseph Venzant added 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks. Kyle Rode also had 10 points and five assists.
Big East quarterfinals Providence 78, No. 8 Creighton 73:
Devin Carter had 22 points and 11 rebounds as Providence secured a huge victory for its postseason résumé. Josh Oduro added 17 points and nine boards for the seventhseeded Friars, who recovered in the final five-plus minutes after squandering a 13-point lead in the second half. Ryan Kalkbrenner had 19 points and 12 rebounds for the second-seeded Bluejays.
No. 10 Marquette 71, Villanova 65, OT:
Kam Jones scored 18 points, Oso Ighodaro’s only basket was a huge one with 18 seconds left in overtime, and Marquette rebounded from having a potential game-winning buzzer-beater waved off in regulation to beat sixthseeded Villanova. Eric Dixon led Villanova with 19 points.
Big 12 quarterfinals No. 7 Iowa State 76, Kansas State 57:
Robert Jones scored 18 points, Tre King added 16 and Iowa State harried Kansas State into 20 turnovers. The second-seeded Cyclones were clinging to a 40-39 lead with about 16 minutes to go when the Wildcats’ turnovers really began to pile up. Tylor Perry had 18 points for 10th-seeded Kansas State.
No. 14 Baylor 68, Cincinnati 56:
RayJ Dennis shook off a tough start to score 13 points, and Jalen Bridges added 12 points and eight rebounds for the Bears. Dan Skillings Jr. had 15 points for the No. 11 seed Bearcats, who were playing their third game in three days.
Pac-12 quarterfinal No. 22 Washington State 79, Stanford 62:
Isaac Jones scored 16 points and was among six Cougars in double figures as their team shot 50.8% from the field. Myles Rice and Jaylen Wells each scored 14.
Mountain West quarterfinal Colorado State 85, No. 23 Nevada 78:
Jalen Lake scored 16 points, Isaiah Stevens added 15 and the Rams (24-9), the No. 7 seeds, never trailed after the 17:06 mark of the first half. Nique Clifford had 14 points and nine rebounds for CSU. Jared Lucas led the secondseeded Wolf Pack (26-7) with 18 points.