Another prayer answered as Loyola-Chicago lives on
DALLAS — Another NCAA Tournament prayer was answered for Loyola-Chicago as the Ramblers are set to bring Sister Jean to the Sweet 16.
Clayton Custer’s jumper took a friendly bounce off the rim and in with 3.6 seconds left, and 11thseeded Loyola beat Tennessee 63-62 in a South Regional secondround game Saturday night.
Custer’s winner came two days after Donte Ingram’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer lifted Loyola over Miami, 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 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 Cincinnati-Nevada winner in the regional semifinals Thursday in Atlanta.
No. 3 seed Tennessee (26-7) took its only lead of the second half on three-point play by Grant Williams with 20 seconds remaining. After Loyola almost lost the ball on an out-of-bounds call confirmed on replay, Custer dribbled to his right, pulled up and let go a short jumper that hit the front of the rim, bounced off the backboard and went in.
A last-gasp shot from the Vols’ Jordan Bone bounced away, and Custer threw the ball off the scoreboard high above the court as he was mobbed by teammates in the same spot that the Ramblers celebrated Ingram’s dramatic winner. KENTUCKY 95, BUFFALO 75
The Wildcats put an end to any upset talk on its watch, getting 27 points and a near-perfect shooting game from Shai GilgeousAlexander in routing the 13thseeded Bulls at Boise, Idaho.
Gilgeous-Alexander went 10-for-12 and made both of his 3-point attempts to lift fifth-seeded Kentucky (26-10) to the Sweet 16 for a second straight year.
Kentucky, with its all-freshman starting lineup, trailed only once at 2-0.
Buffalo (27-9) twice trimmed a double-digit deficit to five midway through the second half.
Gilgeous-Alexander answered both times — with a 3-pointer with a three-point play that started a 12-2 run that put the game away.