Martin helps Kansas hold off Creighton to reach Sweet 16

FORT WORTH – Two blueblood programs rolled into Dickies Arena out of the eight teams invited to the regional, and two bluebloods strolled out still swinging in the NCAA Tournament.

Top-seeded Kansas defeated ninth-seeded Creighton 79-72 on Saturday afternoon to advance to its first Sweet 16 since 2018. Earlier in Dickies Arena, longtime blueblood but No. 8 seed North Carolina toppled top-seeded Baylor 93-86 in overtime to advance to its first Sweet 16 since 2019.

The Jayhawks, who led nearly the entire second half, clutched a 73-72 lead with 1:44 remaining before busting the contest open by scoring the final six points on a dunk by Ochai Ogbaji following his steal, and two free throws each by Remy Martin and Jalen Wilson.

Martin led the Jayhawks with 20 points. Creighton wraps up its season at 23-12 while Kansas moves on at 30-6.

The shorthanded Bluejays stayed close with an uncharacteristically hot showing from 3-point range. One of the worst teams in the country from beyond the arc, Creighton went 12 of 28. Arthur Kaluma scored 24 points, going 4 of 10 from long range for the Bluejays.

Creighton, which reached the Sweet 16 last year, had just six players in its rotation after losing 7-footer Ryan Kalkbrenner to a knee injury late in overtime of a 72-69 win over San Diego State on Thursday.

Brent Zwerneman

TCU 69, SETON HALL 42

Mike Miles Jr. scored 21 points and the ninth-seeded Horned Frogs got their first NCAA Tournament victory in 35 years, easily dispatching the eighth-seeded Pirates on Friday night at San Diego.

The Horned Frogs’ last tournament victory was in 1987 against Marshall, when coach Jamie Dixon was a senior at his alma mater. They haven’t had many opportunities since: This was their third appearance since 1988 and second in Dixon’s six seasons.

“Well, I can’t do anything about the last 35. I’ve been saying that for a while,” said Dixon, who

led Pittsburgh to 11 NCAA trips in 13 years. “We’ve done good things since we’ve been back. Hopefully this is the start of more to come.”

Damion Baugh scored 14 points for TCU, which shot 27 of 53 (50.9 percent) from the field and led

most of the game. It also dominated inside, outscoring Seton Hall 40-14 in the paint. Sixteen of TCU’s 27 field goals were layups.

HOUSTON 82, UAB 68

Kyler Edwards scored 25 points, Fabian White Jr. added 14 and the Cougars looked like a team capable of making another deep run in March as it opened the tournament with a win over the Blazers on Friday night at Pittsburgh.

Edwards, who played three years at Texas Tech before transferring to Houston, made six 3pointers — the last an exclamation point in the final minute — and controlled the fast tempo.

Houston made it to the Final Four a year ago but doesn’t have a single starter left from that squad, which lost to eventual champion Baylor in the semifinals. But that’s hardly declawed the high-powered Cougars, who have won 10 of 11 — nine by double digits.

Coach Kelvin Sampson brought in Edwards and has two other transfer starters — Taze Moore (Cal State-Bakersfield) and Josh Carlton (Connecticut) — on a team that can dazzle on offense and play nose-to-nose defense when it needs to.

The Blazers (27-8) did all they could to stay close to Houston, but any time UAB threatened, the Cougars answered with a layup, dunk or 3-pointer.

Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press Remy Martin, right, working against Trey Alexander, had not led Kansas in scoring this season unitl the last two games.