Hot Blazers burn way into Big Dance
FORT WORTH — Alejandro Vasquez sank five three-pointers on his way to scoring a career-high 29, Yaxel Lendeborg finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds and UAB cruised to a wire-to-wire 85-69 victory over Temple on Sunday in the championship game of the American Athletic Conference Tournament, earning the Blazers a spot in the NCAA Tournament for a 17th time.
Vasquez opened the scoring with a three-pointer two minutes into the game and the fourth-seeded Blazers (23-11) never looked back, heading to the Big Dance on a fivegame win streak. Vasquez had 21 points by halftime to lead UAB to a 43-27 advantage.
Vasquez accounted for nearly half of UAB’s first-half output, hitting all five of his three-point attempts on 7-for9 shooting. The Blazers shot 52% in the first half and made 7 of 13 from beyond the arc.
Hysier Miller hit two three-pointers and had 16 points at the break for Temple. Miller hit 4 of 8 shots, while the rest of the Owls made 5 of 22. Temple shot 30% overall and missed 10 of 12 from distance.
Vasquez made 11 of 16 shots, missing his only three-point attempt in the second half, for UAB. Eric Gaines added 15 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds and 5 steals. Christian Coleman scored 15 on 7-for-12 shooting.
Miller scored a career-high 32 to lead 11th-seeded Temple (16-20). He made 9 of 18 shots with four three-pointers and 10 of 11 foul shots. Shane Dezonie added 11 points, four rebounds and four assists off the bench.
Coach Adam Fisher’s Owls had won five in a row entering play and hadn’t lost since a 100-72 setback to UAB. After that loss a gambling investigation was announced due to unusual betting.
ATLANTIC 10 CHAMPIONSHIP DUQUESNE 57, VCU 51
BROOKLYN — Duquesne earned an NCAA Tournament bid for the first time in 47 years, beating fifth-seeded seeded VCU to win the Atlantic 10 Tournament championship.
The sixth-seeded Dukes (24-11) led by 14 at the half, but bringing home that long-awaited invite to March Madness was a struggle. Duquesne scored only 21 points and shot 5 for 29 from the field in the second half, but the small Catholic school in Pittsburgh will head into the NCAA Tournament with an eight-game winning streak.
Coach Keith Dambrot, who coached LeBron James for two years in high school, and the Dukes matched a program record for victories set in 1953-54, when Dambrot’s father, Sid, played for Duquesne.
The last time Duquesne won the A-10 and went to the NCAA Tournament was in 1977, when future NBA All-Star Norm Nixon and the Dukes beat Villanova in the title game.
Joe Bamisile led fifth-seeded VCU (2213), which was trying to repeat as A-10 tournament champs, with 20 points.
IVY LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP YALE 62, BROWN 61
NEW YORK — Matt Knowling hit a jumper at the buzzer and Yale closed the game on an 8-1 run to beat Brown in the championship game of the Ivy League Tournament at Francis S. Levien Gymnasium, sending the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time.
Kino Lilly Jr. sank two free throws to give the fourth-seeded Bears (13-18) a 60-54 lead with 27 seconds remaining. Bez Mbeng answered with a three-point play for No. 2 seed Yale (22-9) to make it a one-possession game. Nana Owusu-Anane hit the second of two free throws for Brown, but John Poulakidas buried a three-pointer and the Bulldogs trailed 61-60 with 14 seconds left.
Poulakidas fouled Malachi Ndur, who missed two foul shots to set the stage for Knowling.
It was a tough finish for the Bears, who beat Yale 84-81 in the final game of the regular season. Brown won six in a row to end the season and grab the tourney’s fourth and final berth. The Bears beat top-seeded Princeton 90-80 in the semifinals in search of their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1986. Their only other trip to the Big Dance came in 1939.
Yale, which knocked off No. 3 seed Cornell 69-57 to reach the final, last appeared in the NCAA tourney in 2022. The Bulldogs have won 3 of 5 championships since the Ivy began playing a four-team league tournament.