NCAA Tournament: FAU beat KSU to become first No 9 seed in Final Four since 2013
Alijah Martin, Vlad Goldin and ninthseeded Florida Atlantic became the first and lowest-seeded team to reach this year’s Final Four as the Owls withstood another huge game by Kansas State’s Markquis Nowell to beat the Wildcats 79-76 on Saturday night.
FAU, making just their second appearance in the NCAA Tournament, won the East Region at Madison Square Garden and will head to Houston to play the winner of Sunday’s South Region final between Creighton and San Diego State.
“I expect the prognosticators to pick us fifth in the Final Four,” fifth-year FAU coach Dusty May said.
The team with the most wins in Division I this season had never won an NCAA Tournament game before ripping off four straight, all by single digits, to become the first No 9 seed to reach the Final Four since Wichita State in 2013 and the third to get that far since seeding began in 1979.
Nowell, the 5ft 8in New Yorker, was incredible again at Madison Square Garden, with 30 points, 12 assists and five steals, coming off a Sweet 16 game in which he set the NCAA Tournament record with 19 assists. He didn’t get enough help this time.
Nae’Qwan Tomlin was the only other player in double figures for Kansas State, with 14 points. Keyontae Johnson, the Wildcats’ leading scorer, fouled out with nine points.
Martin scored 17 points, including a huge three down the stretch, the 7ft 1in Goldin had 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Michael Forrest made four clutch free throws in the final 20 seconds for the Owls, who held steady as the Wildcats made a late push.
Cam Carter made a three-pointer from the wing with 22.8 seconds left to cut FAU’s lead to 75-74 and Kansas State fouled and sent Forrest to the line with 17.9 seconds left. The senior made both to make it a three-point game.
Nowell found Tomlin inside for a layup with 8.6 left to cut the lead to one again, and again K-State sent Forrest to the line. With 6.9 left, he made them both.
With no timeouts left, Nowell rushed down the court, gave up the ball to Ismael Massoud outside the threepoint line, and never got it back. FAU’s Johnell Davis swiped it away and time ran out.
The Owls rushed the floor to celebrate a historic moment for the school. FAU didn’t even have a basketball program until the late 1980s and has only been a Division I school for the last 30 years.
In Saturday’s other game, Jordan Hawkins scored 20 points and UConn earned their first trip to the Final Four in nine years with an 82-54 blowout of Gonzaga. The Huskies have felt right at home in their first extended March Madness run since winning the 2014 national championship, playing their best basketball of what had been an up-and-down season. UConn controlled the usually efficient Bulldogs at both ends in the West Region final. Drew Timme had 12 points and 10 rebounds for Gonzaga in his final collegiate game.