Heels upset defending champs
North Carolina 93, Baylor 86 (OT):
RJ Davis scored a career-high 30 points with a nifty layup while being fouled in overtime, and eighth-seeded North Carolina blew a 25-point second-half lead but still found a way to beat defending champion Baylor in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday in Fort Worth, Texas.
Brady Manek had a season-high 26 points before getting ejected because of a flagrant foul midway through the second half, right after his 3-pointer had given the Tar Heels (26-9) their largest lead.
A year after going out in the first round of the tourney in retiring coach Roy Williams’ final game, Davis, Armando Bacot and these Tar Heels (26-9) are headed to Philadelphia and a Sweet 16 for first-year coach Hubert Davis.
Davis got his only points in overtime on the off-balance layup with 1:18 left and added the free throw for a 91-85 lead.
Kansas 79, Creighton 72: Remy Martin scored 20 points, Ochai Agbaji put Kansas ahead for good with his first basket early in the second half, and the Jayhawks held off Creighton in Fort Worth, Texas.
Martin hadn’t led top-seeded Kansas (30-6) in scoring all season as the fifthyear senior transfer from Arizona State battled a sore knee, but he’s done it in both NCAA Tournament games.
The shorthanded Bluejays (23-12) stayed close with an uncharacteristically hot showing from 3-point range. One of the worst teams in the country from beyond the arc, ninth-seeded Creighton went 12 of 28.
The biggest came from freshman Trey Alexander, who swished an offbalance heave from well behind the line as the shot clock was about to expire. Keyshawn Feazell’s bucket soon after got Creighton within one in the final two minutes.
Michigan 76, Tennessee 68: Eli Brooks put Michigan ahead for good with a three-point play and delivered four critical points in the final minute, and 11th-seeded Michigan booked the most surprising of its five straight trips to the Sweet 16 by beating No. 3 seed Tennessee in the second round.
Brooks finished with 23 points, including a looping, improvised hook shot and two free throws as the Wolverines (19-14) put away the Volunteers, who had a six-point lead with 81/2 minutes left but then went four minutes without scoring. Their cold shooting continued until it was too late.
Big man Hunter Dickinson had 27 points and two of his 10 rebounds in the closing seconds for the Wolverines, whose five straight Sweet 16 appearances are the most in Division I. Gonzaga is the only other team to make it four straight times. Michigan will face either second-seeded Villanova or longtime rival Ohio State, the No. 7 seed, in Thursday’s East Region semifinals in San Antonio,
Texas.
Providence 79, Richmond 51: Noah Horchler scored 16 points and Providence had its best 3-point shooting performance of the season, routing 12thseeded Richmond to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 25 years.
The fourth-seeded Friars (27-5) will face Kansas, the top seed in the Midwest Region, in Chicago next week.
Providence has made living this season on winning the close ones, 16 in all by single digits. The Friars talked this week about being well aware of their skeptics and motivated by being called the luckiest team in America.
UCLA 72, Saint Mary’s 56: Tyger Campbell scored 16 points and fourthseeded UCLA completed a more conventional path to the Sweet 16, beating fifth-seeded Saint Mary’s.
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.
Saint Peter’s 70, Murray State 60: Saint Peter’s broke the hearts of Kentuckians yet again, getting 17 points from KC Ndefo to beat Murray State and complete its rise from obscurity into the Sweet 16.
Two days after tossing eight-time national champion Kentucky out of the bracket, the tiny Jesuit school from Jersey City, New Jersey, 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 southeastern corner.
Arkansas 53, New Mexico State 48: Au’Diese Toney’s fastbreak dunk capped the decisive run with about six minutes left and launched fourth-seeded Arkansas to the Sweet 16 for a second consecutive year following a 53-48 win over No. 12 seed New Mexico State on Saturday night.
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 freethrow attempts in the final 10 seconds to secure the win after the Aggies closed within two points on Teddy Allen’s 3pointer with 12 seconds left.
The Razorbacks advance to play the winner of the game between top-seeded Gonzaga and No. 9 Memphis at the West Regional site in San Francisco on Thursday.