Michigan knocks off Tennessee
INDIANAPOLIS — Eli Brooks returned for one final college season with the goal of helping Michigan reach the Final Four.
Defying expectations, the Wolverines are halfway there.
Brooks scored seven of his 23 points in the final 3½1/2 minutes and the 11th-seeded Wolverines booked the most surprising of their five straight Sweet 16 appearances, beating third-seeded Tennessee 78-68 on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
“I’m just trying to live in the moment right now and cherish the time we have with the people in my life right now at Michigan and enjoy the process of going through this tournament again and having that chance of getting our last goal,” said Brooks, a fifth-year senior.
Hardly a conventional Cinderella given its resources and pedigree, Michigan (19-14) has the worst record of any team left in the field and did the bare minimum to secure an at-large berth. The Wolverines hadn’t won two straight games since mid-February.
Still, coach Juwan Howard’s squad has plenty of talent and elevated its play down the stretch against the Southeastern Conference champion Vols, who led by six points with 8½ minutes left before going cold.
Next up for the Wolverines is either second-seeded Villanova or longtime rival Ohio State, the No. 7 seed, on Thursday in the South Region semifinals at San Antonio.
“Making it to the Sweet 16 is, as literal as it is, sweet because nobody believed in us,” said sophomore big man Hunter Dickinson, who led Michigan with 27 points and 11 rebounds.
Kennedy Chandler had 19 points and Josiah-Jordan James had 13 for Tennessee (27-8), which had a seven-game winning streak snapped. Two days after shooting a school tourney record 60 percent from the field, the Vols shot 41.8 percent and came up short again in the postseason.
SAINT PETER’S 70 MURRAY STATE 60
The Peacocks broke the hearts of Kentuckians yet again, getting 17 points from KC Ndefo to beat the Racers at Indianapolis and complete their rise from obscurity into the Sweet 16.
Two days after tossing eighttime national champion Kentucky out of the bracket, the tiny Jesuit school from Jersey City, N.J, became the third 15 seed to advance to a regional semifinal, joining Oral Roberts last year and Florida Gulf Coast in 2013.
Saint Peter’s (21-11) ended a 21-game winning streak and a memorable season for Murray State (31-3), located 265 miles from Lexington in Kentucky’s southwestern corner.
Doug Edert came off the bench to score 13 points for the Peacocks, including some big baskets late.
GONZAGA 82, MEMPHIS 78
Drew Timme scored 21 of his 25 points in the second half, and the top overall seeded Bulldogs rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to beat the No. 9 seeded Tigers at Portland, Ore.
Trailing at the half for only the fourth time this season, Gonzaga leaned on its star junior to reach its seventh straight Sweet 16. The Bulldogs (28-3) will face No. 4 seed Arkansas in the West Region semifinals on Thursday in San Francisco.
Andrew Nembhard added 23 points for the Bulldogs, and Rasir Bolton scored 17. Gonzaga never trailed after a basket from Timme and Bolton’s 3-pointer with 10 minutes remaining that made it 61-57 although Memphis (22-11) did pulled even at 66.
Nembhard’s 3 helped the Bulldogs rebuild a 76-69 lead.
UCLA 72, SAINT MARY’S 56
Tyger Campbell scored 16 points and the fourth-seeded Bruins completed a more conventional path to the Sweet 16, beating the fifth-seeded Gaels at Portland, Ore. UCLA (27-7), which went all the way from the First Four to the Final Four last season, will face eighth-seeded North Carolina on Friday in the East Region semifinals in Philadelphia. The Tar Heels are the more surprising half of that blueblood pair after they beat defending champion Baylor earlier Saturday.
The Bruins lost star Jaime Jaquez Jr. to a right ankle injury with 6:58 in the game. He winced as he was helped off the court by teammates and later returned to the bench with his ankle wrapped in ice. Jaquez finished with 15 points, all in the first half.
Logan Johnson scored 18 points for Saint Mary’s (26-8).
ARKANSAS 53
NEW MEXICO STATE 48
Au’Diese Toney’s fastbreak dunk capped the decisive run with about six minutes left and launched the fourth-seeded Razorbacks to the Sweet 16 for a second consecutive year with a win at Buffalo, N.Y., over the No. 12 seeded Aggies.
JD Notae scored 18 points before fouling out with 1:22 left and Jaylin Williams had 10 points and 15 rebounds for the Razorbacks (27-8). Notae’s replacement, Chris Lykes, hit all four free-throw attempts in the final 10 seconds to secure the win after the Aggies closed within two points on Teddy Allen’s 3-pointer with 12 seconds left.
PROVIDENCE 79, RICHMOND 51
Noah Horchler scored 16 points and the Friars had their best 3-point shooting performance of the season (54.5 percent) in routing the 12th-seeded Spiders at Buffalo, N.Y. to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 25 years.
Fourth-seeded Providence (27-5) will face Kansas, the top seed in the Midwest Region, in Chicago next week.