Syracuse, Kansas are finished early
Sean Kilpatrick keyed Cincinnati’s early threepoint barrage and scored 18 points as the Bearcats held on for a 71-68 victory over No. 2 Syracuse on Friday night in the semifinals of the Big East tournament.
The fourth-seeded Bearcats (24-9) will meet Louisville in Saturday night’s championship game at Madison Square Garden.
To get there, they ended the 11-game winning streak of the top-seeded Orange (31-2). They did it with a strong shooting performance over the opening 14 minutes of the game when they took a 17-point lead, and then by holding on as Syracuse was able to get within one point in the final seconds.
This was Cincinnati’s seventh win over a ranked team this season, the most in the country.
The loss shouldn’t hurt the Orange’s chances of getting a No. 1 seeding in the NCAA tournament, but it did keep Syracuse from getting a chance to play for a sixth Big East title and first since 2006.
In other conference tournaments:
Big 12: Baylor 81, Kansas 72: Baylor sharpshooter Brady Heslip hit a pair of three-pointers to keep No. 3 Kansas at bay, and Perry Jones III finished with 18 points as the No. 12 Bears beat the Jayhawks to reach the title game at Kansas City, Mo. No team from Texas has ever won the Big 12 tournament. Quincy Miller added 13 points and eight rebounds, and Pierre Jackson had 11 points and seven assists for the Bears (27-6), who will play No. 5 Missouri for the championship. Tyshawn Taylor had 20 points for Kansas (26-6).
Mountain West: San Diego State 79, Colorado State 69: Jamaal Franklin, playing most of the second half with three fouls, scored 19 points and Chase Tapley had 10 of his 17 in the first five minutes of the second half to lead the top-seeded Aztecs (26-6) into the championship game at Las Vegas. San Diego State will play New Mexico, which upset Nevada Las Vegas, 72-67.
ACC: Duke 60, Virginia Tech 56: Tyler Thornton scored a career-high 13 points, Austin Rivers hustled for a clinching threepoint play and the Blue Devils survived an ugly performance in a quarterfinal at Atlanta. Seeking their fourth straight tournament title, the Blue Devils (27-5) advanced to the semifinals against No. 17 Florida State. Duke didn’t put away the 10th-seeded Hokies (16-17) until the closing seconds, even though Virginia Tech went more than eight minutes without making a field goal in the second half.
Big Ten: Michigan 73, Minnesota 69 (OT): Trey Burke scored seven of his career-high 30 points in the extra five minutes, and the Wolverines (24-8) used a late flurry of three-pointers in a quarterfinal at Indianapolis. The second-seeded Wolverines will face archrival Ohio State, which easily handled Purdue, 88-71.
SEC: Kentucky 60, Louisiana State 51: Michael Kidd-gilchrist scored 19 points and helped the No. 1 Wildcats overcome some early sloppiness against the 17-point underdogs in the quarterfinal matchup at New Orleans. Terrence Jones added 15 points and 11 rebounds, including a 9-0 run by himself that gave the Wildcats (31-1) the lead for good as they extended their winning streak to 23 games.
Atlantic 10: Massachusetts 77, Temple 71: Jesse Morgan scored 21 points, Chaz Williams had 20 and the Minutemen used a 15-0 run at the start of the second half to surprise the top-seeded Owls in the quarterfinals at Atlantic City, N.J.