The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Kansas, Michigan win with big second halves
Josh Jackson scored 14 of his 23 points in the second half to help Kansas pull away late and reach the Sweet 16 for a second straight year with a 90-70 victory over Michigan State on Sunday in the Midwest Region at Tulsa, Okla.
Frank Mason III added 20 points for the top-seeded Jayhawks (304), who have advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in nine of coach Bill Self ’s 14 seasons.
Devonte’ Graham added 18 points for the Jayhawks, who shot 53.1 percent (34 of 64).
Miles Bridges scored 22 points to lead ninth-seeded Michigan State (20-15) despite leaving briefly in the first half with an injury. Nick Ward had 13 points.
The Spartans played like anything but an underdog well into the second half against the regular-season Big 12 champions, closing Kansas’ lead to 54-53 following Alvin Ellis’ basket.
Jackson took over from there, scoring eight of the next 10 points for the Jayhawks as they pushed their lead back to 64-57. He put the exclamation point on his strong second half with a drive down the middle of the lane for a powerful one-handed dunk with 2:05 remaining.
Michigan 73, Louisville 69: Moe Wagner, a 6-foot-11 sophomore forward, scored a careerhigh 26 points and capped a second-half comeback with a 3-pointer as the seventh-seeded Wolverines (26-11) made the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2014.
His contribution in the game at Indianapolis was unexpected given that he scored six points in the NCAA opener and totaled 35 in Michigan’s four Big Ten Tournament victories. The Wolverines have won seven in a row overall.
“He’s got the mentality where he wants to make the play,” said senior point guard Derrick Walton Jr., who drove in for Michigan’s final basket with 29 seconds left and finished with 10 points and six assists. “He just makes the right play at all times. He has the calls to make the big plays, so we feed off him because he’s not afraid of anything.”
Michigan trailed 45-36 with 16:09 to play. But Wagner made a layup that started a 17-6 run. It gave Michigan its first lead since the opening minutes. When Wagner knocked down a 3-pointer with 6:39 to go to break a 55-55 tie, Michigan never trailed again.
Second-seeded Louisville (259) got 19 points from Donovan Mitchell. “We made some poor switches,” coach Rick Pitino said. “Probably the weakness of our team this year has been our defense.”
Louisville forced only six Michigan turnovers, and the Cardinals were 5 of 20 on 3-pointers.
Oregon 75, Rhode Island 72: At Sacramento, Calif., Tyler Dorsey hit a contested go-ahead 3-pointer with 38.4 seconds left, sending the third-seeded Ducks (31-5) to the Sweet 16 for the second straight year. Dorsey also tied the game with a 3 with 1:45 remaining on the way to 27 points. He made 9 of 10 shots with four 3-pointers. Dillon Brooks scored 19 despite shooting 7 for 20.
Stanford Robinson matched his career high of 21 points, but the No. 11 seed Rams (25-10) saw their nine-game winning streak end.
Oregon again failed to secure key defensive rebounds without big man Chris Boucher, who tore his ACL in the Pac-12 Tournament.