NCAA MEN’S BASKETBALL ROUNDUP
No. 8 Cincinnati 56, No. 21 Houston 55
Gary Clark put Cincinnati ahead for good with a free throw with 4.3 seconds remaining and the Bearcats held on Sunday for a victory over Houston in the American Athletic Conference championship at Orlando. Clark finished with 20 points and the league regular-season champions rescued themselves for the second straight day with a stellar second-half performance, limiting Houston to 20 percent shooting and 18 points after halftime. Cincinnati (30-4) earned the AAC's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament with its first conference tournament championship since the Bearcats won Conference USA in 2004. Houston (26-7), which split a pair of games against Cincinnati during the regular season, lost for just the third time in its last 15 games and is headed to the NCAA Tournament, too. Rob Gray led the Cougars with 17 points but missed a long 3-pointer in the closing seconds, then had a turnover that cost Houston a chance to try to win the game after Clark made one of two free throws after rebounding Gray's miss. Corey Davis Jr., who had 15 points for Houston, went scoreless after helping the Cougars to a 37-35 halftime lead. Devin Davis added 13, including a jumper and layup that turned a one-point deficit into a 55-52 lead with 1:34 remaining. Kyle Washington's 3-pointer tied the game for the final time, setting the stage for a suspenseful finish. Houston made just 6 of 30 shots in the second half. Gray finished six of 22 from the field after scoring 33 in the Cougars' victory over Wichita State in the semifinals. His unforced error, a wild pass behind teammate Galen Robinson Jr., sailed out of bounds with 1 second left. Cincinnati didn't shoot the ball much better after halftime, going six for 18. That didn't stop the Bearcats from getting it done on the other end, though. The Bearcats rallied from a 13-point halftime deficit to beat Memphis 70-60 in Saturday's semifinals, outscoring the Tigers 41-18 in the final 20 minutes. Houston becomes the fourth team coach Kelvin Sampson has led to the NCAA Tournament, joining Washington State, Oklahoma and Indiana. The Cougars appeared in the NIT the past two seasons. Cincinnati, meanwhile, will receive its eighth straight NCAA berth under coach Mick Cronin, who is in his 12th season with the Bearcats.
Davidson 58, No. 25 Rhode Island 57
Still looking for its first victory in the NCAA Tournament since a guy by the name of Stephen Curry led the way, Davidson is goin' dancin' as the Atlantic 10 champion after beating Rhode Island in the conference final behind Kellan Grady's 17 points. Bubble teams across the land could not have been pleased to see Davidson (21-11) pull through, because the Wildcats were not going to get to join in the March Madness fun with a loss Sunday. The top-seeded Rams (25-7), though, will be in the bracket despite being defeated, so they will take a bid from someone. Davidson won despite going nearly 13 minutes in the second half without making a field goal, a 0-for-11 drought that somehow did not prevent it from celebrating at game's end. The Wildcats haven't been to the NCAAs since 2015 — and haven't won a March Madness game since the Curry-led 2008 squad pulled off victories over Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin before bowing out against Kansas in the Elite Eight. Peyton Aldridge, the A-10 co-player of the year, added 13 points and seven rebounds Sunday for third-seeded Davidson, which was playing in its first conference final since joining the league in 2014 from the Southern Conference. E.C. Matthews led the way with 20 points and eight rebounds for Rhode Island, which was trying to win a second consecutive conference tournament title. When Matthews sank a 3-pointer with a little more than 3 minutes left, it closed an 11-point run that put Rhode Island ahead 56-52. That coincided with Davidson's long stretch without a bucket.
Grady ended that gap by hitting a baseline floater to give Davidson the lead at 58-57 with 74 seconds to go — and neither team would score again.
It was a rough shooting day for both teams, particularly in the second half, when Davidson made 29 percent and Rhode Island 31 percent.
Kentucky 77, No. 13 Tennessee 72
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 29 points to lead Kentucky to its fourth straight Southeastern Conference Tournament championship with a win over Tennessee.
The championship is the 31st in tournament history for the fourth-seeded Wildcats (24-10), who have won seven of their past eight games since a fourgame losing streak last month. It's also their first victory in three tries this season against the No. 2 seed Volunteers (25-8).
Penn 68, Harvard 65
Darnell Foreman scored 19 points, AJ Brodeur had 16 points and 10 rebounds and Penn earned its first NCAA Tournament berth since 2007 with a win over Harvard in the Ivy League Tournament title game. Ryan Betley added 17 points for the Quakers (248), who will be making their 24th appearance in the NCAAs. Senior Caleb Wood, a junior college transfer, drilled two straight 3-pointers, getting fouled on the second, to put Penn ahead 63-60 with 3:42 remaining. Betley followed with a 3-point play, before Harvard's Christian Juzang pulled the Crimson to 66-63 with a 3-pointer with 47.6 seconds to go. Harvard trimmed Penn's lead to 66-65 on two Justin Bassey foul shots with 14.6 seconds left. But after Betley hit two free throws, Bassey and Juzang both missed potentially game-tying threes in the final seconds, and Penn fans stormed the court for a celebration a decade in the making. Chris Lewis led Harvard (18-13) with 16 points, while Bassey had 15 and Seth Towns, the league's player of the year, finished with 13. Harvard and Penn proved to be the top two teams in the Ivies this year after sharing the regular-season title with 12-2 conference records and then dominating Cornell and Yale, respectively, in Saturday's Ivy League Tournament semifinal games.
Georgia St. 74, Texas-Arlington 61
D'Marcus Simonds scored 27 points and Georgia State defeated Texas Arlington to win the Sun Belt Conference Tournament championship. No. 2 seed Georgia State (24-10) will be making its fourth NCAA Tournament appearance and first since 2015. Fourth-seeded UT Arlington, which upset Sun Belt regular-season champion Louisiana-Lafayette in the semifinals, fell to 21-13. The Panthers, who set school records for 3-point percentage and 3-pointers made this season, connected on 8 of 17 from beyond the arc. The Mavericks made 4 of 25 3-pointers and shot 29.8 percent (17 of 57) from the floor.