UNC ends St. Peter’s Cinderella run
PHILADELPHIA — North Carolina crushed all hope of a March Madness miracle in the early going Sunday, getting 20 points and 22 rebounds from Armando Bacot in a wire-towire 69-49 runaway over 15th-seeded St. Peter’s.
The eighth-seeded Tar Heels (28-9) made their record 21st Final Four, and next on their list is none other than archrival Duke and its soon-to-be-retiring coach, Mike Krzyzewski.
Next Saturday in New
Orleans will mark the first Final Four meeting — the first NCAA Tournament meeting, in fact — between the Tobacco Road archrivals whose campuses are separated by 11 miles.
While Coach K’s winding road to retirement has been a beauty to watch this March, nothing has captured more imaginations than the run put on by underdog St. Peter’s. The entire basketball budget for this scrappy group from Jersey City, New Jersey, is $1.6 million — or around $400,000 less than what
Tar Heels first-year coach Hubert Davis, who was sobbing as his players enveloped him after the buzzer, makes in a year.
Two nights earlier, the Peacocks (21-12) beat Purdue to become the first 15 seed to advance to an Elite Eight. They are hardly the first team to see grand plans undone by one of the country’s top-line power programs.
It got ugly early. After Carolina’s Leaky Black missed a free throw 21⁄2 minutes in, Bacot edged in for the offensive rebound and an easy putback. It gave Carolina a 7-0 lead. In its three tournament wins over Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue, St. Peter’s had never trailed by more than six.
The Peacocks, whose 10-game win streak ended, moved the ball well and got plenty of good looks over the first 10 minutes. Some shots went halfway down and rimmed out. Others bounced twice on the iron but wouldn’t fall. They trailed 21-7 after missing their first six shots, and 16
of their first 19.
Late in the first half, Daryl Banks III swooped in for what looked like a windmill jam. It got rejected — by the front of the rim. It made the Peacocks 5 for 27 on the night, and when Bacot dunked on the next possession, North Carolina led 36-15.
Fousseyni Drame led St. Peter’s with 12 points and KC Ndefo had 10.
KANSAS 76, MIAMI 50
CHICAGO — Ochai Agbaji, David McCormack and Christian Braun powered a dazzling second half for Kansas, and the top-seeded Jayhawks pounded Miami to advance to the program’s 16th Final Four.
Agbaji scored 18 points, McCormack had 15 and Braun finished with 12, helping Kansas rally after a lackluster start. The Jayhawks trailed by six points at halftime but outscored Miami 47-15 in the final 20 minutes.
Kansas (32-6), the only No. 1 seed left in the NCAA Tournament, won the Midwest for the 13th time with its ninth consecutive victory overall. Next up is the national semifinals and a matchup with Villanova on Saturday in New Orleans.
It’s the fourth Final Four for coach Bill Self in his 19 seasons at Kansas. The last time the Jayhawks made it to the semis, they lost 95-79 to coach Jay Wright and the Wildcats in 2018.
Remy Martin, the most outstanding player in the Midwest Region, finished with nine points and six rebounds for Kansas.
Kameron McGusty scored 18 points and Isaiah Wong had 15 for No. 10 seed Miami in the program’s
first appearance in the Elite Eight. The Hurricanes (26-11) were bidding to get coach Jim Larranaga back to the Final Four for the first time since he led 11thseeded George Mason there in 2006.
McGusty spent two seasons at Oklahoma before transferring to Miami, averaging 13.5 points in four
games against Kansas. And he looked comfortable playing against the Jayhawks again.
The redshirt senior guard scored 14 points to help the Hurricanes to a 35-29 halftime lead. But everything changed after the break.
With McCormack asserting himself inside and
Braun and Ogbai picking up their play on the perimeter, Kansas outscored Miami 25-7 over the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Jalen Wilson made two foul shots and Agbaji connected from 3 to lift the Jayhawks to a 54-42 lead with 10:14 left. And the Big 12 champions just kept rolling.
A dunk by Agbaji capped a 10-0 run and made it 67-46 with 4:35 left, delighting the pro-Kansas crowd at the United Center. A 3 by Agbaji extended the lead to 23 points with 1:58 remaining.
The second-half numbers told the story of Kansas’ dominance. Miami shot 21.4% (6 for 28) after the break, compared to 59.3% (16 for 27) for Kansas. The Jayhawks also outrebounded the Hurricanes 25-11 in the second half. Wilson finished with 11 rebounds to make up for a tough shooting day.