Michigan St. eliminates Marquette
Tyson Walker scored 23 points and No. 7 seed Michigan State beat second-seeded Marquette 69-60 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday in Columbus, Ohio, sending coach Tom Izzo’s squad back to the Sweet 16 for the first time in four years.
Joey Hauser — a Marquette transfer — scored 14 and A.J. Hoggard 13 as Michigan State (21-12) took over in the last three minutes.
Izzo, the 68-year-old Hall of Fame coach, reached his 15th regional semifinal and won his record 16th March Madness game with a lower-seeded team — one more than Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, who retired after this season. His Spartans will play in the Sweet 16 in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
“It means everything,” said Walker, who played two years at Northeastern before transferring to Michigan State. “Just growing up, seeing everything, playing at the Garden. Just to make those shots, look over see my dad, see how excited he was. That means everything. And I just owe Coach some pizza now. And a cab ride.”
This one was particularly meaningful. Izzo became the face of a grieving school where three students were killed in a campus shooting Feb. 13.
“It’s been a long year,” an emotional Izzo said in a courtside interview. “I’m just happy for our guys.”
Olivier-Maxence Prosper led Marquette (29-7) with 16 points and Kam Jones had 14 points, including three three-pointers, for the Big East champions.
Michigan State led by 12 in the first half, but Ben Gold and Prosper made back-to-back threes to help the Golden Eagles close within 33-28 at halftime. Prosper hit two more threes in the first minute of the second half to give Marquette its first lead of the day. Michigan State grabbed back the lead with an 8-0 run and didn’t relinquish it.
Back-to-back baskets by Hoggard and then Walker, both times as the shot clock expired, gave the Spartans a 60-55 lead with 2:20 left.
Kansas State 75, Kentucky 69
Markquis Nowell scored 23 of his 27 points after halftime, and the third-seeded Wildcats (25-9) overcame a horrid start from outside by hitting two clutch threes while topping the sixth-seeded Wildcats (2212) in Greensboro, North Carolina. Ismael Massoud buried a three from the right wing at the 2:21 mark that gave Kansas State the lead for good.
Creighton 85, Baylor 76
Ryan Nembhard had a careerhigh 30 points and the No. 6 seed Bluejays (23-12) found their shooting touch to upset the third-seeded Bears (23-11) in Denver. With Baylor heavily focused on containing big man Ryan Kalkbrenner, Nembhard and the Bluejays went to work from outside, shooting 45.8% from three-point range.
Miami 85, Indiana 69
Isaiah Wong and Jordan Miller led a decisive second-half spurt for the fifth-seeded Hurricanes (27-7), who rolled over the fourth-seeded Hoosiers (23-12) in Albany, New York. All-American Trayce Jackson-Davis had 23 points and eight rebounds for Indiana.
UConn 70, Saint Mary’s 55
Adama Sanogo scored 24 points and Jordan Hawkins delivered from the three-point line in the second half as the No. 4 Huskies (27-8) pulled away for a victory over the fifth-seeded Gaels (27-8) in Albany.
Gonzaga 84, TCU 81
With Drew Timme scoring 28 points, the third-seeded Bulldogs (29-5) moved on to the Sweet 16 for the eighth consecutive season by beating the sixth-seeded Horned Frogs (22-12) in Denver.
Xavier 84, Pittsburgh 73
Jack Nunge scored 18, Adam Kunkel added 15 on five first-half threes, and the No. 3 seed Musketeers (27-9) dumped the 11th-seeded Panthers (24-12) in Greensboro.
Florida Atlantic 78, Fairleigh Dickinson 70
Johnell Davis scored 29 points,as the ninth-seeded Owls (33-3) ended the magical moment of the 16thseeded Knights (21-16) in Columbus.