Edey, No. 1 Purdue pound No. 8 Utah State
INDIANAPOLIS – Zach Edey once again dominated with 23 points, 14 rebounds, three blocks and two steals to lead the top-seed Purdue Boilermakers to a 106-67 second-round Midwest rout of No. 8 seed Utah State on Sunday.
Purdue (31-4) advances to play No. 5 seed Gonzaga on Friday in Detroit.
Lance Jones and Trey KaufmanRenn sparked a 20-6 uprising to open the second half, turning a 16-point lead to 30. Purdue didn’t let its foot off the gas in the second half, building the lead as high as 41.
Kaufman-Renn finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, while Fletcher Loyer added 15 points for Purdue went 8-of-14 from 3-point range in the second half to put the game away.
Great Osobor had 14 points and Josh Uduje added 13 for Utah State (28-7), which fell to 7-25 all-time in NCAA Tournament play and fell a round shy of reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1970.
Purdue thrilled the heavily-partisan crowd of 16,770 that turned out to watch them advance to the Sweet 16 for the second time in three years.
Utah State provided some resistance early on, taking leads of 14-10 and 20-17.
But after Uduje hit a 3-pointer with 9:21 left in the first half to put the Aggies ahead 23-21, Utah State missed its next 12 shots from the field while Purdue caught fire behind Edey, Jones and Kaufman-Renn.
Purdue went on a run of 18-1 to take a 39-24 lead. Jones ended the first-half scoring when he banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to put the Boilermakers up 49-33.
Jones opened the second half with a trey as well, just 13 seconds in.
After Purdue’s Braden Smith stole a pass from Ian Martinez, Smith found Kaufman-Renn cutting to the basket for a layup.
On the next possession, KaufmanRenn’s two-handed slam ignited the Purdue fans, putting the Boilermakers up 56-33 and sparking a desperate timeout from Utah State head coach Danny Sprinkle just 73 seconds into the half.
No. 2 Marquette 81, No. 10 Colorado 77: Tyler Kolek recorded 21 points, 11 assists five rebounds to lead second-seeded Marquette to an 81-77 victory over 10th-seeded Colorado on Sunday in a South Region second-round game.
David Joplin secured the win by making two free throws with 7.4 seconds remaining to send the Golden Eagles (27-9) to the Sweet 16. Marquette will face No. 11 North Carolina State on Friday in Dallas.
Kam Jones scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half to lead the Golden Eagles to an 11-point lead at halftime.
Tristan da Silva’s 3-pointer from the top of the circle tied the game for Colorado at 74-74 with 4:02 remaining.
Coming out of a timeout, Chase Ross hit a 3-pointer from the left wing to give Marquette the lead before KJ Simpson answered to draw the Buffs within one.
Kolek drove the paint with a onehanded floater to give the Golden Eagles a 79-76 left.
Cody Williams had a chance to bring Colorado back within one with 21.2 seconds left but converted only the back end of two free throws.
Simpson, who won Friday’s game with a buzzer-beating sideline jumper, led Colorado (26-11) with 20 points. da Silva added 17 for the Buffaloes, who fell just short of reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1969.
Marquette raced out to a 22-11 lead thanks to red-hot shooting. The Golden Eagles sank 16 of 21 shots from the field to start the game and ended the half 19 of 28 from the floor.
The Golden Eagles hit their first 12 attempts from inside the arc and finished the first half 13-of-15 from 2-point range.
Jones led the way with 16 points in the first half, shooting 6-of-9, including four 3-pointers.
But Marquette ended the half on an 8-2 run on baskets by four different players and led 45-34 at the break.
The Buffs picked up momentum in the opening minute of the second half as Jones committed his third personal foul. Colorado went on a 21-9 run to take its only lead at 55-54 on Simpson’s fourth 3-pointer.