BUZZER-BEATER FOR RAMBLERS
Loyola Chicago beats Miami on Ingram’s long three-pointer.
Wes Clark scored 25 points, Jeremy Harris added 23 and No. 13 seed Buffalo pulled off the biggest upset of the NCAA Tournament’s opening round, rolling over No. 4 seed Arizona, 89-68, in the South Regional at Boise.
With Arizona’s loss, the Pac-12 has no teams remaining in the tournament. It’s the first time since 1986 that no team from the conference reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
The smaller Bulls (27-8) used their quickness to zip around the Wildcats (27-8), scoring at the rim and on kickout three-pointers.
Defensively, Buffalo neutralized Arizona’s size inside by collapsing on the paint, forcing the Wildcats to shoot from the perimeter. Arizona went 2 for 18 from beyond the three-point arc, while the Bulls knocked down 15 of 30.
CJ Massinburg had 19 points and Buffalo shredded Arizona’s defense at a 55% clip for the program’s first NCAA Tournament win.
Loyola-Chicago 64, Miami 62: Donte Ingram picked the perfect spot for this game-winning shot.
Ingram hit a three-pointer from the March Madness logo just before the buzzer, lifting the 11th-seeded Ramblers (29-5) over the No. 6 seed Hurricanes (22-10) in a thriller in Dallas.
“Well, it’s pretty simple to know why we call it March Madness,” said Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga, left holding his head in stunned disbelief after Ingram’s shot.
The long shot from well beyond the key came with just a split-second left, and was set up by a pass from Marques Townes.
It happened after Lonnie Walker IV missed a free throw with a chance to give Miami a three-point lead with nine seconds remaining.
“I thank Marques for making that pass,” said Ingram, who was 3 of 8 from three-point range and scored 13 points. “Any one of us could have hit that shot, but I was just fortunate enough to be in the position.”
Loyola (29-5) , with an 11game winning streak that is its longest since winning the NCAA title, was boosted by a pregame prayer from its team chaplain, 98-year-old Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt.
She’s held that post for more than two decades and, sitting courtside in her wheelchair, got hugs from the Ramblers when it was over.
“I just gave a big sigh of relief and said, ‘Thank God,’ ” she said about Ingram’s shot.
Kentucky 78, Davidson 73: Fifth-seeded Kentucky (25-10) topped No. 12 seed Davidson (21-12) in a battle of Wildcats despite failing to make a single three-pointer, snapping a nation-best streak of 1,047 games with a three that began in 1988.
Kentucky went 0 for 6 from behind the line and didn’t even try one over the final 8:46.
It’s such an overlooked piece of history that not even Wildcats coach John Calipari knew about it until it was pointed out in the postgame news conference.
Reporter: “It’s been 30 years since Kentucky didn’t make a three.”
Calipari: “Thirty? I was 9 years old.” Actually, he was 29. But all kidding aside, Calipari insists his team is not that bad at outside shooting, even if the effort on this night added a few more gray hairs.
“We only took six,” he said. “If we’d taken six more, we would’ve been 6 for 12.”
Tennessee 73, Wright State 47: Admiral Schofield had 15 points and 12 rebounds as the third-seed Volunteers (25-8) beat the 14th-seed Raiders (25-9) with coach Rick Barnes back in familiar territory in Dallas.
Lamonte Turner had 19 points and a career-high nine assists for Tennessee (26-8), SEC co-champions in the regular season after being picked in the preseason to finish 13th in the 14-team league. Grant Williams added 14 points and nine rebounds.
Barnes is 5-0 in NCAA Tournament games at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, about a three-hour drive from the University of Texas. He led the Longhorns to 16 appearances in 17 years, with four NCAA wins in the home arena of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, before joining Tennessee.