Auburn knocks off No. 1 seed North Carolina
Auburn insisted all along that it wouldn’t change its style against up-tempo North Carolina.
Turns out the SEC tournament champs can run a bit, too.
Auburn earned its second trip to the Elite Eight by coasting to a to a 97-80 victory over the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region on Friday night in Kansas City, Missouri. The triggerhappy Tigers overcame an early deficit with a hotshooting second to return to the region final for the first time in 33 years.
North Carolina (29-7) was the first top seed eliminated from this year’s NCAA Tournament. Auburn (29-9) tied its 199899 mark for most wins in a season.
The Tar Heels’ bevy of athletes could do nothing to slow down Auburn, which got 20 points and 11 boards from Chuma Okeke before he left with a gruesome knee injury late in the game.
The big forward certainly didn’t do it alone as the Tigers had six in doublefigures scoring, and they knocked down 17 of 37 3-pointers in a virtuoso shooting performance.
Malik Dunbar finished with 13 points, Bryce Brown and Danjel Purifoy scored 12 apiece, and Jared Harper scored nine while dishing out 11 assists in Auburn’s latest takedown of college hoops royalty.
It was Kansas last week. It was North Carolina on Friday night.
It might be Kentucky next— the second-seeded Wildcats played No. 3 Houston in the second game in Kansas City for the right to face arguably the hottest team in the NCAA Tournament.
Coby White and Cameron Johnson had 15 points apiece for North Carolina, which had won 10 of its last 11 with the lone loss coming to Duke in the semifinals of the ACC Tournament.
Auburn-Carolina was the track meet everyone anticipated from the opening tip, the only difference that the Tar Heels preferred to go to the basket while the Tigers kept pulling up for 3s.
Early on, they didn’t make nearly enough.
Yet they managed to track down all the long boards, allowing coach Bruce Pearls’ team to hang tough on the glass against the team with nation’s No. 1 rebounding differential. That in turn gave them second and third chances down floor, and allowed Auburn to take a 41-39 lead into the break.
The Tigers’ run eventually reached 14-0 spanning halftime, giving them the first double-digit lead of the game.
Roy Williams finally relented and called timeout, and the genteel North Carolina coach with the aw-shucks disposition spent most of it savagely ripping into his bench.
EAST REGIONAL
No. 2 Michigan State 80, No. 3 LSU 63: For all of Michigan State’s veteran experience, its freshmen led the way into the Elite Eight.
Aaron Henry scored a career-best 20 and fellow frosh Gabe Brown had 15 as the second-seeded Spartans beat third-seeded LSU 80-63 to move on to the NCAA Tournament’s East Region final in Washington.
Coach Tom Izzo’s upperclassman-heavy team is one victory away from its first Final Four appearance since 2015.
Michigan State took it to LSU on the glass, outrebounding the Tigers 3420. At halftime, Michigan State had as many offensive rebounds as LSU had total boards, at times making it look like 5-on-4 when the ball came off the rim.
It didn’t bounce off the rim much for the Spartans early as they took advantage of an LSU defense that left them uncontested 3-point shots. Michigan State had five 3s in the first 10 minutes alone, and LSU never adjusted defensively.
Tremont Waters scored 10 points during a 13-0 LSU run spanning the first half into the second to cut the deficit to four. Then Michigan State blew the game wide open with 3pointers. The Spartans hit four of their first five 3point attempts out of halftime.
Henry did his best Draymond Green impression as the do-it-all 6-foot-6 forward was all over the offensive end. He had eight rebounds and six assists and was 9 of 14 from the floor.
Brown came in averaging 2 points a game and scored more than he had in his past 11 games combined. Brown had just five points in the Spartans’ past 12 games, but became a central figure against LSU.
Standout point guard Cassius Winston went toe-to-toe with Waters and finished with 17 points as one of four Michigan State players in double figures.
Michigan State faces the winner of the matchup between overall top seed Duke and No. 4 seed Virginia Tech in the regional final Sunday. This is Michigan State’s fifth Elite Eight appearance in the past 11 years and 10th under Izzo.
SOUTH REGIONAL
Late Thursday — No. 3 Purdue 99, No. 2 Tennessee 94 (OT): Down two to Tennessee with 2.7 seconds left, Purdue narrowly avoided a five-second call before Carsen Edwards took a pass in the corner and heaved up a three-point attempt that bounced off the rim.
But a whistle gave Edwards and the Boilermakers a reprieve.
Lamonte’ Turner bumped into Edwards after he released the shot and the Big Ten’s leading scorer went to the line for three free throws with 1.7 seconds left. Edwards missed the first, steadied himself, and knock down the next two to force overtime. Given a second chance to put away the Volunteers, the Boilermakers got it done.
Edwards finished with 29 points as Purdue advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000, beating Tennessee after blowing an 18-point lead in Louisville, Kentucky.
“When I got to the free throw line, I was struggling all game,” said Edwards, an 85.2 percent shooter who went 8 of 14 at the line in the game. “Being able to hit the last two was just a blessing. Just an opportunity, stepped up to get us some more time to play.”
The third-seeded Boilermakers (26-9) will play top-seeded Virginia, a 53-49 winner over Oregon, on Saturday night in the South Regional final for their first trip to the Final Four since 1980.
WEST REGIONAL
Late Thursday — No. 3 Texas Tech 63, No. 2 Michigan 44: More than 24 minutes into the game, the nation’s best defense had yet to allow its 20th point.
Yes, Texas Tech makes it tough on people. One more clamp-down job like this and the Red Raiders will be D-ing up in the Final Four.
Jarett Culver’s 22 points were a mere subplot in third-seeded Tech’s takedown of No. 2 Michigan in the West Region in Anaheim, California — a victory that set up an intriguing Elite Eight showdown against Gonzaga, which boasts the country’s leading offense.
Texas Tech (29-6) is back to this point for the second year in a row thanks to a shut-down job of epic proportions. The Raiders held an efficientif-not-spectacular Michigan (30-7) offense to 16 field goals, 32 percent shooting and only a single three-point basket on 19 attempts — a clanker by C.J. Baird in mop-up duty that drooled in with 21.8 seconds left.