Gohlke, Oakland shock Kentucky 80-76
PITTSBURGH » Jack Gohlke made 10 3-pointers and 14th-seeded Oakland delivered the first true shock of this year’s March Madness, beating third-seeded Kentucky 80-76 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night.
The Grizzlies (24-11) sent the Wildcats (23-10) to another early March exit behind Gohlke, a graduate transfer who finished with 32 points, and some late shot-making by his teammates. Trey Townsend had 17 points for the Horizon League champions. DQ Cole added 12, including a 3 from the corner with 28 seconds left that gave the Grizzlies a four-point lead.
Antonio Reeves led Kentucky with 27 points. Tre Mitchell added 14 and Rob Dillingham scored 10, but the Wildcats and their roster stacked with NBA prospects spent most of the night trying — and failing — to chase down Gohlke.
The 6-foot-3 guard who came to the Grizzlies this season after playing for Division II Hillsdale College made 10 of 20 3-point attempts, seven in the first half. His only other points came after he was fouled — while attempting a 3.
Gokhle cooled off a bit over the final 20 minutes while often getting picked up at halfcourt, but his teammates helped pick up the slack. Oakland never trailed over the final 14:32 to give the program its first victory in the round of 64.
The Wildcats came in as 13 1/2 point favorites, according to Fanduel Sportsbook, but with a poor recent track record in March under John Calipari. Kentucky hasn’t advanced past the tournament’s opening weekend since 2019, an uncomfortably long stretch for Calipari and the second-winningest program in NCAA history.
Calipari said his job is to take the pressure off his young roster’s shoulders and place them on his. It must have felt awfully heavy at times while Gohlke and the Bulldogs kept pace with the second-highest-scoring team in the country.
NO. 11 OREGON 87, SOUTH CAROLINA 73 » Jermaine Couisnard swears it wasn’t personal and he wasn’t seeking revenge against South Carolina.
He got some anyway. Couisnard scored a career-high 40 points — the most for an Oregon player in NCAA Tournament history — and he haunted his former team while leading the Ducks to an 87-73 victory in the first round of the Midwest Region on Thursday.
Couisnard, who spent three years at South Carolina before transferring in part because of a coaching change following the 2022 season, made five 3-pointers, dropped all seven free throws and went 14 of 22 from the field to pace the 11th-seeded Ducks (24-11).
“He was really feeling it,” said Oregon coach Dana Altman. “He had a couple 3s that were tough, and that really got him going. He got in the paint and finished some tough shots. He just had it going. Those are games every player dreams of, getting it going and getting it going in the NCAA Tournament is a really good feeling.”
With his grandmother and parents watching from the front row, Couisnard put on quite a show while also exchanging a few words with some former teammates.
“It was fun, man,” the smooth guard said. “Those guys kind of made me. I grew a lot. I learned a lot when I was there. So I appreciate those guys more than anything.”
NO. 11 DUQUESNE 71, NO. 6 BYU 67 » As his players celebrated around him after springing the first big upset of the NCAA Tournament, Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot joked that they had refused to let their retiring coach reach “the promised land” with their down-to-the-wire win over BYU.
The promised land is a better description for the second round of the NCAA tourney anyway.
Dae Dae Grant scored 19 points, including four clinching free throws in the final 10 seconds, and the No. 11 seed Dukes held on after blowing a 14-point lead in a 71-67 victory over the sixth-seeded Cougars on Thursday.
Jakub Necas added 12 points and Jimmy Clark III had 11 for the Atlantic 10 tourney champs, who won four games in four days there just to qualify for their first dance in 47 years, and now have their first win on the NCAA stage since 1969. The Dukes (2511) will play third-seeded Illinois for a spot in the Sweet 16 on Saturday.
“I’m trying to retire,” the 65-year-old Dambrot said, “but if we keep winning games, they’re going to make me an old man.”
NO. 9 MICHIGAN STATE 69,
NO. 8 MISSISSIPPI STATE 51 » Michigan State coach Tom Izzo won his 20th firstround game in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.
This one, he said, might have been the most impressive, even to former Spartans greats like Draymond Green.
Tyson Walker scored 19 points and the ninth-seeded Spartans improved to 20-6 in March Madness openers under Izzo with a 69-51 win over eighth-seeded Mississippi
State on Thursday. It was Izzo’s 26th straight NCAA Tournament appearance — an NCAA Division I record for a coach at one school.
“I thought this was one of the better first game performances of a team that was, and deservedly so, seeded a little lower,” Izzo said. “We brought everything from the get-go. We moved the ball well. We shot the ball well. We rebounded the ball.”
Izzo’s win was his 56th overall in the tournament, trailing only three coaches for victories at one school. He noted that while the game was sloppy at times, former players Green, Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson would have enjoyed the “tough, rugged nature” of the Spartans’ win.
NO. 1 NORTH CAROLINA 90, NO. 16 WAGNER 62 » Elliot Cadeau saw Jae’lyn Withers running the court and sent a lob his way in transition. Withers vaulted skyward to grab the ball with two hands and stuff it through for North Carolina.
And he played with the kind of zip — in his hometown and in his first NCAA Tournament game — that the West Region’s No. 1 seed will need to help Armando Bacot inside and keep the Tar Heels advancing.
Bacot had 20 points and 15 rebounds and Withers turned in a solid all-around performance, sending UNC to a 90-62 victory over 16thseeded Wagner in Thursday’s first round.
Withers, a 6-foot-9 transfer from Louisville, had a season-high 16 points and matched his best rebounding work with 10 boards for the region’s headliner. That helped the Tar Heels (28-7) finish the game shooting 55% from the field against a short-handed upstart aiming to pull off only the third opening-round takedown of a 1-seed in March Madness history.
“I think he did set the tone,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said, adding: “J-wit, his energy and effort on both ends of the floor really ignited us and got us the lead going into halftime. He came off the bench and his production was real.”
NO. 3 CREIGHTON 77, NO. 14 AKRON 60 » Creighton leaned on experience from past trips through March to make sure this one didn’t start with a stumble.
Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 23 points and Trey Alexander had 19 as the Bluejays, who came within seconds of making the Final Four a year ago, opened the NCAA Tournament with a 77-60 win over Akron in the Midwest Region on Thursday.
No. 3 seeded Creighton (24-9) got all it could handle in the first half from No. 14 seed Akron (24-11), the Mid-american Conference tourney champion which came in as a 10 1/2-point underdog, according to Fanduel Sportsbook.
However, the Bluejays
flexed their Big East muscles after halftime and pulled away to advance to the second round and a matchup with No. 11 seed Oregon on Saturday at PPG Paints Arena. The Ducks advanced with an 87-73 victory over South Carolina.
This was the start Creighton was hoping for. A year ago, the Bluejays’ season ended with a heartbreaking 57-56 loss to San Diego State — Creighton committed a foul in the closing seconds — in the South Region final. Much of that squad came back for coach Greg Mcdermott to try and make another deep run, and the Bluejays have taken the first step.
NO. 3 ILLINOIS 85, NO. 14 MOREHEAD STATE 69 >> Marcus Domask posted the NCAA Tournament’s first triple-double since 2019 and Terrence Shannon scored 26 points, helping No. 3 seed Illinois pull away from No. 14 Morehead State for an 85-69 first-round win on Thursday.
Domask had 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in his first career triple-double. It was the first triple-double in the NCAA tourney since Ja Morant accomplished the feat and the 10th ever.
“It’s definitely a cool accomplishment to have my name up there with some of the greats, and so few have done it so far,” Domask said. “At this point in my career I’m past the personal accolades. At this point in March, it’s all about winning. That’s all I’m trying to do.”
Dain Dainja scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half as the Illini shook off the pesky Eagles. Dainja went 9 for 9 from the field and matched his career high with eight rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench. NO. 2 ARIZONA 85, NO. 15
LONG BEACH STATE 65 >> Turns out, there’s no such thing as job security when you’re coaching against Arizona.
Dan Monson learned that lesson Thursday in an 85-65 loss to the Wildcats in the NCAA Tournament that slammed shut his 17-year tenure at Long Beach State.
Second-seeded Arizona scored 16 straight points over a five-minute stretch to turn a tight game into a laugher. At the end, Monson walked slowly off the court for the final time and blew three kisses to his school’s small, tear-stained cheering section in the corner of the arena.
“It’s a range of emotions,” said the 62-year-old coach, who learned last week that this would be his final season with the Beach. “Mostly proud. Proud of my tenure. I’m proud of doing it the right way. Proud of the student-athletes that came in as young men, left as men.”
Kylan Boswell scored 20 points for the second-seeded Wildcats (268), who made 13 3-pointers, the program record for March Madness.
NO. 7 DAYTON 63, NO. 10 NEVADA 60 >> Daron Holmes II and seventh-seeded Dayton staged a huge March Madness rally, closing with a 24-4 run to erase a 17-point deficit and beat 10th-seeded Nevada 63-60 in the West Region on Thursday.
Holmes, the Atlantic 10 player of the year, finished with 18 points, including a three-point play with 2:01 remaining that gave Dayton its first lead since the first half.
The Flyers (25-7) trailed 56-39 with 7:36 remaining but responded with a 17-0 run that included two 3-pointers by Koby Brea, who finished with 15 points.
Enoch Cheeks’ layup with 34 seconds left gave Dayton the lead for good, and he made two free throws for the final margin. He scored 12 points as the Flyers picked up their first NCAA Tournament win in nine years.
Dayton, which made its final seven baskets, will face No. 2 seed Arizona in the second round Saturday. NO. 7 TEXAS, 56, NO. 11 COLORADO STATE 44 >> Max Abmas and Dylan Disu each scored 12 points, and No. 7 seed Texas held Colorado State to 11 points in the first half en route to a 56-44 victory on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Longhorns (21-12) will meet the winner of second-seeded Tennessee and No. 15 St. Peter’s on Saturday.
Isaiah Stevens and Joel Scott paced the Rams (2511) with 10 points each. The Rams shot 29% from the field.
Colorado State, which held Virginia to 14 first-half points in their First Four game on Tuesday, jumped out to an 8-2 lead before the wheels came off.
The Rams missed 18 of their next 19 shots and scored just three points over the final 15 1/2 minutes of the first half. Texas closed the half on a 25-3 run to take a 27-11 lead into the locker room after Abmas hit from downtown at the buzzer.
Colorado State became only the 10th team in tournament history to score 11 points or less in the first half. The last time it happened was in 2008 when UNLV led Kent State 31-10 at halftime in a first-round game.