Villanova slips past Seton Hall in Big East semis

NEW YORK — Josh Hart scored 19 points, including the game-winning basket with 9.6 seconds to play, and No. 2 Villanova beat Seton Hall 55-53 on Friday night in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament.

Hart’s three-point play on a rebound was the fifth lead change of the final 4 minutes and there were two ties.

There was almost a third as Seton Hall’s Angel Delgado, the nation’s leading rebounder, missed a shot from in close with 1 second left.

Delgado fell to the court and remained face down as his teammates tried to console him.

• No. 14 Duke 93, No. 6 North Carolina 83 — At New York: Jayson Tatum scored 24 points and Duke rallied for the win in the Atlantic Coast Conference semifinals.

Luke Kennard had 20 points for the Blue Devils (268), who will play for the title Saturday night in Brooklyn against No. 16 Florida State or No. 22 Notre Dame.

By winning the second game between the teams in seven days, fifth-seeded Duke took two of three in the season series against the topseeded Tar Heels (27-7). It was their first ACC Tournament matchup since the Blue Devils won the 2011 championship game.

• No. 8 Kentucky 71, Georgia 60 — At Nashville, Tenn.: Isaiah Briscoe and De’Aaron Fox each scored 20 points, helping Kentucky advance to the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

Coming off a double bye as the No. 1 seed, the well-rested Wildcats started both halves quickly and steadily pulled away for a double-digit win over the Bulldogs after two close victories. Kentucky (275) offset 38 percent shooting by holding Georgia to 19 of 57 from the field (33 percent).

The Wildcats will face fifth-seeded Alabama on Saturday.

• No. 11 West Virginia 51, Kansas State 50 — At Kansas City, Mo.: West Virginia’s Esa Ahmad made the second of two free throws with 20.2 seconds left, and an off-balance 3-pointer by Kansas State’s Kamau Stokes was off at the buzzer in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals.

Tarik Phillip tied the game for the Mountaineers (26-7) with a 3-pointer with 1:41 left, and the Wildcats (20-13) came up empty at the other end. Ahmad was fouled during a mad scramble for a rebound moments later, and he clanked his first free throw before making his second.

The Wildcats brought the ball up court and called timeout with 10.2 seconds left. Tightly guarded as time ran out, Stokes heaved a shot that hit off the rim.

• No. 12 SMU 81, East Carolina 77 — At Harford, Conn.: Semi Ojeleye scored a career-high 36 points, and SMU held off East Carolina in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament.

The conference’s player of the year hit 12 of his 19 shots and pulled down 12 rebounds, giving him his fifth double-double this season.

Sterling Brown added 16 points for SMU (28-4), which will play UCF in the semifinals on Saturday. The AAC’s regular-season champions have won 14 straight and 24 of their last 25 games.

• Michigan 74, No. 13 Purdue 70 in OT — At Washington: Two days after its airplane’s scary abandoned takeoff, Michigan moved into the Big Ten semifinals behind D.J. Wilson’s 26 points.

The eighth-seeded Wolverines (22-11) also got 13 points from Zak Irvin, including their first four of the extra period, against the No. 1 seed Boilermakers (25-7).

Michigan next faces No. 4 seed Minnesota, which advanced with a 63-58 victory against Michigan State.

• No. 15 Cincinnati 80, Tulsa 61 — At Hartford, Conn.: Kyle Washington scored 21 points and Jacob Evans finished with 20, powering Cincinnati to the runaway win in the American Athletic Conference quarterfinals.

Troy Caupain added 15 points for the Bearcats (28-4), who led for all but 17 seconds and by as many as 24 points. Cincinnati advances to face UConn on Saturday.

Corey Henderson Jr. had 15 points and Sterling Taplin scored 10 for Tulsa, which lost three of its final four games to finish the season 1517.

• Vanderbilt 72, No. 17 Florida 62 in OT — At Nashville, Tenn.: Riley LaChance scored five of his 18 points in overtime, and Vanderbilt topped Florida in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinals.

The Commodores (19-14) beat the Gators for the third time this season and second in seven days to earn a berth in the semifinals against Arkansas on Saturday. Firstyear coach Bryce Drew has Vanderbilt in the semifinals for the first time since 2013 with a win that should push his Commodores firmly into the NCAA Tournament for a second straight year.

Florida (24-8) fought back from an eight-point deficit to force overtime thanks to KeVaughn Allen, who made a tying 3 with 1:42 left. The Gators had the ball with the game tied at 58 but missed two shots in the final seconds of regulation.

• No. 23 Iowa State 84, YCU 63 — At Kansas City, Mo.: Deonte Burton scored 22 points, Monte Morris had 15 and Iowa State reached its third Big 12 Tournament title game in the past four seasons.

The fourth-seeded Cyclones (22-10) clearly weren’t impressed — or intimidated — by the Horned Frogs’ victory against top-ranked Kansas in the quarterfinals. Iowa State used two big firsthalf runs to assume control, and then stretched its advantage to 26 points midway through the second.

• No. 24 Wisconsin 70, Indiana 60 — At Washington: Wisconsin slowed Indiana’s offense, and Ethan Happ had 14 points and 12 rebounds to help the Badgers advance to the Big Ten semifinals.

Bronson Koenig scored 16 points to lead five Badgers in double figures. They will face Northwestern on Saturday.

• Northwestern 72, No. 25 Maryland 64 — At Washington: Northwestern roared into the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament.

Scottie Lindsey and Vic Law each scored 17 points for the Wildcats (23-10), who took control with a 20-2 run in the second half that all but silenced an arena that earlier produced the loudest cheers of the first Big Ten Tournament held in the nation’s capital.

Women

• No. 20 Drake 64, Illinois St. 40 — At Moline, Ill.: Lizzy Wendell scored 17 points and No. 20 Drake beat Illinois State 64-40 on Friday in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament quarterfinals, tying an MVC record with its 20th consecutive victory.

The Bulldogs (26-4) play the winner of No. 4 seed Southern Illinois and No. 5 seed Wichita State in a Saturday semifinal. Their victory over the Redbirds (8-23) tied the win streak record held by the 2013-14 Wichita State team.