West Virginia holds off pesky Bucknell
Coach Bob Huggins has spent the past 10 seasons establishing West Virginia’s reputation on playing a stifling press defense.
The Mountaineers performance on Thursday left Huggins relatively unimpressed despite opening the NCAA Tournament with an 86-80 win over Bucknell on Thursday.
“Well, we weren’t very good today,” Huggins said.
It wasn’t easy for the 63-year-old coach to stomach watching West Virginia pull ahead by double digits in each half only to allow the Bison to mount a comeback .
Nathan Adrian scored 12 points and had 10 rebounds, while Tarik Phillip scored 16 points, including hitting all four free throws in the final minute to secure the victory.
Even Huggins’ players acknowledged they can play better.
“We’ve got to get our heads right and play defense like we know how to,” Adrian said. “We’ve got to play a little better defense, but we’ll fix it.”
At least, West Virginia (27-9) avoided a repeat of last year’s first-round meltdown when the third-seeded Mountaineers lost to Stephen F. Austin .
The win sets up a meeting against the region’s fifthseeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish, who hung on for a 60-58 win over Princeton.
Kimbal Mackenzie made 5 of 7 3-point attempts and led the Patriot League-champion Bison with 23 points. Bucknell (26-9) entered the tournament having won six straight and 14 of 16.
Credit Bucknell for not collapsing.
Trailing 27-12 in the first half, the Bison closed West Virginia’s deficit to 36-33 on Avi Toomer’s layup.
Then after Elijah Macon completed a three-point play to put the Mountaineers up 45-33 in the opening seconds of the second half, Bucknell eventually closed the margin to 63-60 on Mackenzie’s contested 3-point basket from the left corner with 8:58 left.
“We’ve been down a couple of times. We’ve been down big. And we know we’re a mentally tough team that was able to fight back,” Mackenzie said. “We had a lot of weapons and we didn’t panic.”
Bucknell won twice this season when trailing by 11 or more points. Bonzie Colson scored 18 points and Notre Dame survived a first-round NCAA Tournament scare by pulling out a 60-58 win over Princeton. The West Region’s 12th-seeded Tigers had a chance to pull ahead on their final possession, but Devin Cannady missed an open 3-pointer just before the final horn. Notre Dame’s Steve Vasturia pulled down the rebound and was fouled. The Fighting Irish (26-9) nearly squandered an 11-point second half lead. Guard Matt Farrell scored 16 points, but missed the front end of a one-and-one with Notre Dame up 59-58. Spencer Weisz led the Tigers with 15 points. The Ivy League champion Tigers (23-7) had a 19-game winning streak going into the NCAA Tournament.
Jordan Mathews scored 16 points to help Gonzaga slowly pull away from South Dakota State for a 66-46 victory and avoid the first 1 vs. 16 upset in the history of the NCAA Tournament. It looked possible for a while. The Jackrabbits (18-17), champions of the Summit League, led for the first 17 minutes of Thursday’s game in the West region and stayed in range for most of the game. They did it without a breakout game from Mike Daum. The nation’s second-leading scorer finished 7 for 16 from the floor with 17 points — more than eight below his average. Daum did a nice job on Gonzaga’s 7-foot-1 center, Przemek Karnowski, holding him to four points over the first 32 minutes. But Karnowski, who finished with 10 points, scored three straight buckets for the Bulldogs (33-1) to help them expand the lead to 20 with 5 minutes left, and it was over.
Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett sounded relieved to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night and grateful, even, to be done with Virginia Commonwealth. Jock Landale had 18 points and 13 rebounds as seventh-seeded Saint Mary’s (29-4) held on against No. 10 VCU (26-9) in the opening round. “They’re hard to put away,” Bennett said. “We’re happy to get this one done. “We did a really good job of handling their pressure. ... They just keep coming, they’re so quick and aggressive. ... It’s hard to play against (them). Pressure’s hard to play against.” Dwayne Bacon scored 25 points and Jonathan Isaac added 17 points and 10 rebounds to help the third-seeded Florida State Seminoles hold off No. 14 Florida Gulf Coast. The Seminoles (26-8), making their first appearance since 2012 in the NCAAs, advanced on in the West Region. The Eagles (26-8) saw their tournament hopes end in the first round for the second straight year.