No. 1 seed Michigan cruises past Florida St.
INDIANAPOLIS — Hunter Dickinson scored 14 points and top-seeded Michigan took the inside route to the Elite Eight, pounding away in the paint Sunday for a 76-58 takedown of surprisingly helpless Florida State.
Franz Wagner had 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Wolverines, who scored their first 30 points of the second half from close range to lead coach Juwan Howard and Co. to a victory in the only “chalk” meeting between a 1 and 4 seed of the second weekend.
Michigan (23-4) moved to the regional finals for the first time since 2018. The Wolverines will play the winner of Sunday’s later Ucla-alabama game.
Badly off target most of the night, Florida State didn’t eclipse the 20-point mark until M.J. Walker (10 points) hit a jumper with 27 seconds left in the first half.
Other lowlights for the Seminoles:
— 14 turnovers, including 10 in the first half that led to 16 Michigan points.
— No 3-pointers over the first 24 minutes, and only 5 of 20 for the game; four of the makes came from Rice transfer Malik Osborne,
who led the Seminoles with 12 points.
— Foul trouble for Walker, Anthony Polite and Raiquan Gray. Adding to the trouble, Walker, the team’s leading scorer this season, rolled his ankle at the 14-minute mark of the second half. By the time he came back eight minutes later, the Seminoles (18-7) trailed by 19.
Much of the credit for the Seminoles’ off night goes to Michigan. The Wolverines have big men in 7-foot-1 Dickinson and 6-9 Wagner, the likes of whom FSU hasn’t faced much.
NO. 1 GONZAGA 83 NO. 5 CREIGHTON 65
Drew Timme scored 22 points and the top-seeded Bulldogs did what they’ve done throughout this unblemished season, rolling past the fifth-seeded Bluejays at Indianapolis with versatile offense and efficient defense. Andrew Nembhard added 17 points for the Bulldogs (29-0), who have won a school-record 33 consecutive games and extended their Division I record to 26 straight double-digit wins.
Gonzaga did it this time on a quiet day for star Jalen Suggs, who finished with nine points. The Bulldogs methodically built a 10-point halftime lead and pushed ahead by 20 on Suggs’ layup with 11:22 left. The Zags will face sixth-seeded Southern California or seventhseeded Oregon on Tuesday in the West regional final.
Marcus Zegarowski scored 19 points to lead the Bluejays (22-9), who were trying to reach their first Elite Eight since 1941, when only eight teams played in the NCAA Tournament.
NO. 3 ARKANSAS 72 NO. 15 ORAL ROBERTS 70
The maddest of the mad just about happened late Saturday night in Indianapolis, and it felt like a parade of goose bumps followed the nation’s leading scorer as he scrambled down the right side with the score 72-70 and the last three seconds ticking.
Max Abmas of that No. 15 seed Oral Roberts — Oral Roberts! — frantically reached what appeared to be a plausible shot on the right wing, just beyond the arc. He went up and let it fly. The electronic red that marks 0:00 lit up as the ball flew.
The ball smacked the rim, and the large group of scattered fans who had made their famed pig noises exhaled, then exulted. Arkansas, a No. 3 seed that spent much of the evening chasing the underdog and weathering another 25 points from Abmas, would win this South Region semifinal 72-70 and make off for the Elite Eight.
It would reach this rare juncture in the second year since coach Eric Musselman left Nevada, and for the first time since the great Nolan Richardson sat in style and authenticity on the sideline for a run to the 1995 title game against UCLA. And it would celebrate not only its comeback from 12 points down with 15:26 to play, but its winning possession when Davonte Davis stepped around a defender and made a tough 12-footer from the left of the key with three seconds left.
No team seeded lower than No. 12 had ever made the Elite Eight. But that didn’t quite happen, because Arkansas found itself and its lopsided advantage under the boards.
The Razorbacks had a game tied at 70, and they had Jalen Tate dribbling on the left side. He finally made his way toward the lane, then passed to Davis, who navigated a tough spot for a tough shot, 3.1 seconds to the end.