The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Loyola-Chicago marches into Sweet 16
SOUTH REGION
NO. 11 LOYOLA-CHICAGO 63, NO. 3 TENNESSEE 62: At Dallas, Sister Jean’s prayers were answered again in another heart-stopper, and the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers are going to the Sweet 16, just as they did the last time they were in the NCAA Tournament 33 years ago.
Clayton Custer bounced in a jumper with 3.3 seconds left, and 11th-seeded Loyola beat SEC-co champion Tennessee 63-62 in a South Region second-round game on Saturday.
Custer’s winner came two days after Donte Ingram’s buzzer-beating 3 for Loyola, surely to the delight of Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the 98-year-old nun, team chaplain and primary booster watching from her wheelchair on a platform near the main TV cameras.
The Ramblers (30-5), who won the Missouri Valley tournament, broke the school record for wins set by the 1963 NCAA championship team. Loyola will play the CincinnatiNevada winner in the regional semifinals Thursday in Atlanta.
Tennessee (26-7) took its only lead of the second half on three-point play with 20 seconds remaining.
NO. 5 KENTUCKY 95, NO. 13 BUFFALO: At Boise, Id., Kentucky put an end to any upset talk on its watch Saturday, getting 27 points and a near-perfect shooting game from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in a 95-75 pullaway from 13thseeded Buffalo.
Gilgeous-Alexander went 10 for 12 and made both of his 3-point attempts to send fifth-seeded Kentucky (2610) to the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.
Coming into the day, the basketball world was still reverberating from Maryland-Baltimore County’s 16 vs. 1 stunner over Virginia the night before. Villanova and Duke both rolled early; the evening slate started with Kentucky, and the Wildcats, with their allfreshman starting lineup, trailed only once: 2-0.
It wasn’t a runaway until the last 7 minutes.
Buffalo (27-9), which got here with a 21-point blowout over Arizona, twice trimmed a double-digit lead to five midway through the second half.
EAST REGION
NO. 1 VILLANOVA 81, NO. 9 ALABAMA 58: Pittsburgh, Penn., Jay Wright had some late-night restlessness because he could not turn off the TV as long as Virginia and UMBC were still playing. He met his Villanova team in the morning and the players at the breakfast tables were buzzing over basketball’s biggest upset.
The reverberation from the 16-over-1 stunner was felt by another tourney top seed.
“There was a lot of attention with that,” guard Donte DiVincenzo said. “We’re a 1 seed so it was more attention for us.”
In the March spotlight, Villanova showed how a No. 1 seed takes cares of business.
Mikal Bridges hit five 3s, scored 23 points and helped Villanova put the field on notice that it’s the team to beat with an 81-58 win over ninth-seeded Alabama on At Saturday.
The Wildcats (32-4) are in the Sweet 16 for the first time since they won the 2016 national championship. Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Phil Booth — and yes, The Big Ragu — look every bit the favorite to make it two in three years.
Villanova plays Friday in Boston against the Marshall-West Virginia winner.
MIDWEST REGION
NO. 2 DUKE 87, NO. 7 URI 62: At Pittsburgh, Penn., Mike Krzyzewski might want to stop worrying about his team’s inexperience. The loaded if young Blue Devils hardly seemed intimidated by NCAA Tournament’s bright lights.
If anything, they’re thriving under them.
Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year Marvin Bagley scored 22 points to go with nine rebounds, fellow freshman big man Wendell Carter Jr. added 13 points and secondseeded Duke rolled by seventh-seeded Rhode Island 87-62 in the second round on Saturday to earn the program’s 26th trip to the Sweet 16. Freshmen guards Gary Trent Jr. and Trevon Duval combined for 29 points and 11 assists for the Blue Devils.
Duke (28-7) will play either Michigan State or Syracuse in the Midwest Regional semifinals in Omaha, Nebraska on Friday. The victory gave Krzyzewski 1,098 wins during his Hall of Fame career, breaking a tie with Tennessee women’s coach Pat Summitt for the most ever by an NCAA basketball coach.