Knights seize lead and never look back in First Four rout
Ansley Almonor scored 23 points, and the Fairleigh Dickinson men routed Texas Southern, 84-61, in a First Four clash Wednesday night in Dayton, Ohio, to earn their first NCAA tournament win since 2019.
The Knights held a 14-2 lead after a 12-0 run in the opening 3:29 and never surrendered the lead. Grant Singleton scored seven points during a 19-6 run in which the Knights led by 18 points at the end of the first half.
Jordan Gilliam made a jumper that got Texas Southern as close as 10 points with 10:01 left in the second half. The Tigers shot 42 percent from the field and went 1 for 17 from beyond the arc.
Fairleigh Dickinson shot 50 percent and advanced to the East Region to play top-seeded Purdue in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday.
Joe Munden Jr. scored 17 points and Demetre Roberts added 15 for Fairleigh Dickinson (20-15).
John Walker III led Texas Southern (14-21) with 22 points.
LLARIZONA STATE 98, NEVADA 73: DJ Horne had 20 points and the Sun Devils (23-12) raced to a commanding halftime lead and scored the most points ever in a First Four game in routing the Wolf Pack (22-11) in Dayton.
Desmond Cambridge Jr. — a Nevada transfer — scored 17 points as Arizona State led 53-26 at the half and then kept up the pressure to advance as a No. 11 seed to face TCU in a West Region first-round game Friday in Denver.
LLCINCINNATI 81, VIRGINIA TECH 72: David Dejulius scored a game-high 21 points as the Bearcats (22-12) eliminated the Hokies (19-15) in the opening round of the NIT in Cincinnati.
Bulldogs send Illini packing
Jessika Carter had 22 points, nine rebounds and four blocks, Anastasia Hayes added 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists, and the Mississippi State women upended Illinois, 70-56, in a First Four matchup in South Bend, Ind.
Mississippi State (21-10) advanced to the field of 64 to take on No. 6 seed Creighton. The Bulldogs improved to 14-3 in the NCAA tournament since the 201617 season.
Cook, averaging 18.2 points per game, scored 21 points for the Fighting Illini (22-10).
LLSACRED HEART 57, SOUTHERN 47: Kelsey Wood had her second double-double of the season, Ny’ceara Pryor had 11 points, eight rebounds and a career-high 10 assists, and the Pioneers (19-13) turned back the Jaguars (18-15) to earn their first NCAA tournament victory in a First Four battle in Stanford, Calif.
Sacred Heart advanced to play fifth-ranked and top-seeded Stanford in the first round Friday.
Boston joins elite company
Aliyah Boston is now a member of the elite three-timers club.
The South Carolina star was honored for the third straight year as an all-american by the Associated Press. She is just the 10th player to earn that honor three times.
Boston was joined on the first team by Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist, LSU’S Angel Reese and Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes. Boston and Clark were unanimous choices by the 28-member national media panel that votes in the AP top 25.
The AP second team was headlined by Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley, who was the ACC player of the year for the second straight season. She was joined by Cameron Brink of Stanford, Diamond Miller of Maryland, Olivia Miles of Notre Dame and Alissa Pili of Utah.