San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
JUZANG MOVES BRUINS ON
No. 11 UCLA 73, No. 6 BYU 62
UCLA is suddenly one of the hottest teams in the NCAA Tournament after backing into it with four straight losses.
Johnny Juzang is suddenly one of its hottest players, too.
After helping the No. 11 seed Bruins (20-9) rally past Michigan State in the First Four, Juzang poured in 27 points against sixth-seeded BYU (20-7) on Saturday night, carrying his team to a 73-62 victory and the second round of the East Region.
“This is what we live for. This is the height of college basketball,” Juzang said, “and playing for the Bruins — I’m from Los Angeles. Playing with a lot of guys I’ve known, we’re all brothers here. So putting on this jersey with my brothers, coming out, playing for the home team — I’m just trying to make everybody on the team proud.”
Juzang didn’t do it alone. Jules Bernard scored 16 points, most of them as BYU tried to rally in the second half, and Jaime Jaquez Jr. added 13 as the Bruins advanced to play No. 14 seed Abilene Christian — which upset third-seeded Texas about 30 minutes after UCLA had wrapped up its own win — on Monday night for a spot in the Sweet 16.
“I owe (assistant coach) Darren Savino lunch. He’s scouting Abilene Christian and he told me they would win,” UCLA coach Mick Cronin said. “Abilene Christian is really, really good. That’s all I can say.”
Still, the Bruins should be favored in a game for the first time in quite a while.
“Look,” Cronin said, “we had some tough times late in the year, but playing good teams, it can either kill you or it makes you better. You’re finding out that the Pac-12 not being ranked all year was an absolute joke.”
Alex Barcello led the Cougars with 20 points. Brandon Averette added 15 points and Matt Haarms finished with 11 points and 10 boards as BYU — which fell to Gonzaga for the third time this season in the Mountain West finals — suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time in 60 games.
No. 1 Michigan 82, No. 16 Texas Southern 66: Juwan Howard won his first NCAA Tournament game since taking over as Michigan’s coach, guiding Mike Smith (18 points) and the Wolverines (21-4) to a victory over Texas Southern (17-9).
No. 2 Alabama 68, No. 15 Iona 55: Herb Jones scored 20 points and Alabama (25-6) pried open a tight game to beat coach Rick Pitino’s underdogs from Iona (12-6).
No. 14 Abilene Christian 53, No. 3 Texas 52: Abilene Christian and its frantic, havoc-causing defense sent Shaka Smart and Texas (23-5) out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round yet again.
Joe Pleasant, a 58.8 percent foul shooter on the season, made a pair of free throws with 1.2 seconds left as the Wildcats (24-4) shocked their instate rivals in the first meeting ever between the two schools.
No. 4 Florida State 64, No. 13 Unc-greensboro 54: Raiquan Gray scored 17 points and Florida State (17-6) began what it hopes will be another deep run under coach Leonard Hamilton, holding off UNC Greensboro (21-9).
No. 5 Colorado 96, No. 12 Georgetown 73: Chances are, you can fit Colorado’s entire NCAA Tournament history on the back of an old Patrick Ewing jersey. And now, Ewing is part of that history, too.
The Buffaloes used an early 3point barrage to parlay their highest seeding ever at March Madness into a first-round win over one of the biggest names in the game. It was a thumping of Georgetown (13-13), the program Ewing starred for in the 1980s and now coaches.
Led by Jabari Walker’s 5-for-5 shooting clinic from 3-point range, the fifth-seeded Buffs (23-8) made 16 3-pointers and shot 64 percent from long range.
No. 8 LSU 76, No. 9 St. Bonaventure 61: Freshman Cameron Thomas scored 27 points in another impressive performance and his LSU teammates provided the rebounding muscle, leading the Tigers (19-9) past St. Bonaventure (16-5).
No. 10 Maryland 63, No. 7 Connecticut 54: Eric Ayala scored 23 points and Maryland (17-13) clamped down on defense down the stretch to beat Uconn (15-8).