Virginia, Duke fall in semis
Marcus Paige made two free throws with 3.9 seconds left to help No. 19 North Carolina top No. 3 Virginia, 71-67, on Friday night in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament semifinals.
Paige also made a huge shot to beat the clock in the final minute, helping the fifth-seeded Tar Heels (24-10) hold off Virginia (29-3), the tournament’s top seed and reigning champion.
North Carolina will face No. 11 Notre Dame, which toppled No. 2 Duke, 74-64, to reach the tournament final for the first time.
Bonzie Colson scored 17 points as the Fighting Irish (28-5) shot 50%, led by 17 and held off a comeback by the Blue Devils, who got 28 points from freshman Jahlil Okafor. It was Notre Dame’s second win over Duke this season.
Other tournaments
Aaron Harrison and Karl-Anthony Towns each scored 13 points and No. 1 Kentucky improved to 32-0 by defeating Florida, 64-49, in the Southeastern Conference quarterfinals. The Wildcats will play Auburn (15-19) in the semifinals. KT Harrell scored 15 straight points for the Tigers, including a three-pointer in the final second of regulation to force overtime, and the 13th-seeded Tigers upset No. 4 seed Louisiana State, 73-70.
Wayne Selden Jr. scored 20 points and ninth-ranked Kansas turned up its suffocating defense to beat No. 16 Baylor, 62-52, in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament. Perry Ellis returned from an injury to add 11 points for the topseeded Jayhawks (26-7), though their leading scorer limped off the floor after getting tangled up late. Kansas will face No. 13 Iowa State, which held off No. 15 Oklahoma, 6765. The Cyclones (24-8) rallied from a double-digit deficit for the fourth straight game, then watched the Sooners’ Ryan Spangler miss a point-blank layup at the buzzer.
Sam Dekker scored 17 points, Frank Kaminsky added 16 points and 12 rebounds and No. 6 Wisconsin defeated Michigan, 71-60, in the Big Ten quarterfinals. The topseeded Badgers (29-3) will play Purdue in the semifinals. Dez Wells scored 22 points, Melo Trimble added 17 and No. 8 Maryland won its first Big Ten tournament game, beating Indiana, 75-69. The Terrapins (27-5) will face Michigan State, which got 23 points from Denzel Valentine in a 76-67 victory over Ohio State.
Ryan Boatright made a stepback three-pointer with twotenths of a second on the clock to keep defending national champion Connecticut’s NCAA hopes alive with a 57-54 win over Cincinnati in the American Athletic Conference quarterfinals.
Tyler Kalinoski beat the clock with a driving layup to cap Davidson’s comeback and give the No. 24 Wildcats a 67-66 victory over La Salle in the Atlantic 10 quarterfinals.