MICHIGAN STATE 70, MINNESOTA 50
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Michigan State is back in the Sweet 16
for the first time since 2015 after rolling past Minnesota 70-50 in the second
round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night.
The Spartans (30-6) made nine of their first 10 shots on
their way to building a 20-point lead in the first 14 minutes. Minnesota
managed to pull within single digits briefly in the second half before Big Ten
player of the year Cassius
Winston took matters into his hands.
Xavier
Tillman had 14 points, Winston added 13 with nine assists, and
the Spartans shot 57.1 percent.
Amir Coffey had
25 points to lead the 10th-seeded Gophers (23-14), who shot a season-worst 30.5
percent and made only 2 of 22 3-pointers.
Forward Jordan Murphy,
the Gophers' No. 1 all-time rebounder and No. 2 scorer, was limited to four
minutes because of back problems.
GONZAGA 83, BAYLOR 71
SALT LAKE CITY -- Brandon
Clarke had five monster dunks, five blocks, and matched a
career high with 36 points, leading top-seeded Gonzaga past Baylor in the
second round of the West Region.
Ninth-seeded Baylor (20-14) scored the first 10 points of
the second half to draw within six and keep the game in range. But Gonzaga held
on and Clarke's easy bucket put the Bulldogs up 13 with less than four minutes
left.
Clarke, who hit 15 of 18 shots, also had eight rebounds and
two steals and lifted his season blocks total to 110, best in the nation.
Baylor's Mark Vital finished
with 17 points and eight rebounds but was hampered by foul trouble.
FLORIDA STATE 90, MURRAY STATE 62
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Mfiondu
Kabengele scored 22 points, Terrance Mann added 18 and Florida
State slammed Murray State to advance to the West regional semifinal of the
NCAA Tournament.
Florida State (29-7) is in the Sweet 16 for the second
consecutive year, the first time FSU has pulled that off since 1992-93.
Murray State point guard Ja Morant,
who posted a triple-double against Marquette in the first round, dazzled for a
half against FSU, going 5 for 5 from 3-point range. He finished with 28 points,
but the 12th-seeded Racers (28-5) were no match for the Seminoles, who hit
eight of their first 11 shots from behind the arc and led by 16 at halftime.
PURDUE 87, VILLANOVA 61
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Carsen
Edwards scored a career-high 42 points, and Purdue eliminated
Villanova in the most lopsided tourney loss by a defending champ in nearly
three decades.
The last time a defending champ was beaten that badly was
when Loyola-Marymount ran past Michigan 149-115 in 1990.
Matt Haarms added
18 points and nine rebounds for the Boilermakers (25-9), who advanced to their
third straight Sweet 16.
Eric Paschall had
19 for Villanova (26-10), which saw its quest for a third national title in the
last four seasons fall short. Fellow senior Phil Booth scored
15 points, putting him over 1,500 for his career.
Edwards has battled a sore back and had been in a recent shooting
slump, making just 7 of 23 shots from the field in Purdue's first-round win
over Old Dominion.
He found the bottom of the net early and often against
Villanova, making 12 of his 21 shots, including 9 of 16 from behind the arc.
AUBURN 89, KANSAS 75
SALT LAKE CITY -- Bryce Brown made
eight of his first nine shots and finished with 25 points to lift the
fifth-seeded Tigers over Kansas.
This was a wire-to-wire runaway against the fourth-seeded
Jayhawks, an injury riddled group that came into the NCAA Tournament without a
conference title for the first time in 15 seasons.
Auburn alum Charles Barkley went nuts while watching in the
TV studio, as the Tigers (28-9) rolled two days after barely hanging on for a
one-point win over New Mexico State.
Jared Harper had
18 for the Tigers, who will play either North Carolina or Washington on Friday
in the Midwest Region semifinals.
Led by Brown's 7-for-11 effort from 3, the Tigers made 13
from behind the arc on 30 attempts.
Dedric Lawson led
the Jayhawks (26-10) with 25 points and 10 rebounds.
MICHIGAN 64, FLORIDA 49
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Jordan Poole scored
19 points and Michigan is back in the Sweet 16 for the third consecutive year
after pulling away from Florida in the second round.
Michigan (30-6), the No. 2 seed in the West Region, has
reached the Sweet 16 five times in seven years.
Zavier
Simpson had nine points, nine rebounds and nine assists, while
7-foot-1 Jon Teske had
eight points to go with 10 rebounds for the Wolverines.
The 10th-seeded Gators (20-16) shot just 29 percent in the
second half and were held to their lowest point total of the season. Michigan
outscored the Gators 13-5 to end the game.
Jalen Hudson had
11 points for the Gators, who kept it close in the first half by making 6 of 12
3-pointers.
KENTUCKY 62, WOFFORD 56
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Kentucky ended Wofford's season in the
NCAA Tournament with a stifling defensive effort on Fletcher
Magee in the second round.
Reid Travis scored
14 points, including two huge free throws with 17.8 seconds left, to help seal
the victory for second-seeded Kentucky (29-6). The graduate student, a transfer
from Stanford, also grabbed 11 rebounds to help hold off the upstart Terriers
(30-5).
Two days after setting the NCAA Division I record for career
3-pointers, Magee stunningly went 0 of 12 from beyond the arc. He made seven 3s
on Thursday in Wofford's victory over Seton Hall.
Nathan Hoover had
19 points and Cameron
Jackson 11 for the Terriers. Magee finished with eight points
on 4-of-17 shooting.
The Wildcats had a two-point lead at halftime. The Terriers
briefly recaptured the lead early in the second half, but Kentucky went ahead
for good with 14 1/2 minutes remaining and doggedly protected their advantage
the rest of the way.
LSU 69, MARYLAND 67
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Tremont
Waters drove by three defenders and scooped in a banking layup
with 1.6 seconds remaining to give third-seeded LSU the victory over
sixth-seeded Maryland in the second round.
Skylar Mays,
who scored 16 points, hit a huge 3-pointer with 40 seconds remaining that put
the Tigers (28-6) up 67-64.
Jalen Smith answered
on the other end, sending the packed crowd into a frenzy and prompting LSU to
call timeout. Interim coach Tony Benford called a final play for Waters, and he
delivered a trip to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2006.
Waters finished with 12 points and five assists.
Smith led Maryland with 15 points. Bruno Fernando added
10 points and 15 rebounds.
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