Xavier 67, Notre Dame 63
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Tu Holloway banked in the go-ahead shot over Jack Cooley with 21.3 seconds left, helping Xavier rally for the win.
Holloway finished with 25 points on 10-for-15 shooting, including a flurry that helped the 10th-seeded Musketeers (22-12) rally from a 10-point second-half deficit against the seventh-seeded Fighting Irish (22-12). His final points came when he rounded a screen from Kenny Frease and sent a high-arcing shot over Cooley’s outstretched arm for the 64-63 lead.
Cooley finished with 18 points on 8-for-8 shooting for the Fighting Irish, who couldn’t slow Holloway in the second half.
Dezmine Wells finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds for Xavier, which will play No. 15 seed Lehigh in Sunday’s third round.
Kansas 65, Detroit 50
OMAHA, Neb. — Thomas Robinson had 16 points and 13 rebounds, and second-seeded Kansas rolled to the victory.
Elijah Johnson added 15 points and Tyshawn Taylor had 10 for the Jayhawks (28-6), who toyed with the Titans (22-14) for the first 15 minutes before ramping up the defense and making sure they didn’t accompany fellow No. 2 seeds Missouri and Duke on the way out of the NCAA tournament.
Kansas advanced to play No. 10 seed Purdue on Sunday.
Doug Anderson led the Horizon League-champion Titans with 15 points before fouling out with 11:06 left. Ray McCallum, the son of the Detroit coach, added eight on 4-for-15 shooting.
Lehigh 75, Duke 70
GREENSBORO, N.C. — C.J. McCollum scored 30 points and Lehigh (27-7) upset Duke to become the second No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 during a wild Friday in the NCAA tournament.
The Mountain Hawks are the sixth 15 seed overall to pull off the trick. Norfolk State edged Missouri 86-84 in the West Regional earlier in the day, and No. 14 seed Ohio knocked off Michigan to add to the madness.
Duke dropped its first tournament game for just the second time in the past 16 years, and this one occurred just 55 miles from its campus. The Blue Devils also dropped their opener against 11th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth in 2007.
Norfolk State 86, Missouri 84
OMAHA, Neb. — Kyle O’Quinn had 26 points and 14 rebounds and made several big plays in the closing minutes to help No. 15 seed Norfolk State stun second-seeded Missouri on Friday in the West Regional.
Pendarvis Williams and Chris McEachin each added 20 points for the MEAC champion Spartans (26-9), who made their first trip to the NCAA tournament a memorable one.
They became the fifth No. 15 seed to topple a No. 2 and the first since fellow conference member Hampton knocked off Iowa State in 2001.
O’Quinn had a chance to put the game away when he went to the foul line with 3.8 seconds to go, but the 70 percent free throw shooter missed both.
Missouri called a timeout with 2.9 seconds to go and got the ball in the hands of Phil Pressey, but his long 3-pointer from the wing bounced off the back iron as the final buzzer sounded.
Michigan State 89, LIU 67
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Draymond Green scored 24 points in a triple-double, Derrick Nix added 18 points and top-seeded Michigan State fought off the upset bug that took down two No. 2 seeds in the NCAA tournament, advancing in the West Regional with a win over LIU Brooklyn on Friday night.
The Spartans (28-7) finally put away the pesky No. 16 Blackbirds (25-9) with a 14-4 run midway through the second half.
Michigan State will play Saint Louis in the third round Sunday.
Green added 12 rebounds and 10 assists. The Big Ten’s player of the year also provided some encouraging [—] and a few choice words for his teammates in the second half when LIU was giving the Spartans all they could handle.
Jamal Olasewere scored 17 for LIU.
South Florida 58, Temple 44
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Victor Rudd Jr. and Anthony Collins each scored 17 points, and the South Florida Bulls shook off a frigid first 20 minutes, upsetting fifth-seeded Temple 58-44 Friday night in the Midwest Regional.
The No. 12 seeded Bulls (22-13) took it to the Atlantic 10 regular season champ with their bruising, Big East-style play and held Temple 20 points below its previous season low in scoring.
That allowed the Bulls, who beat California 65-54 in Dayton on Wednesday night, to overcome a first half in which they went nearly 16 minutes without a field goal and missed 22 straight. In their third NCAA tournament, the Bulls will play No. 13 seed Ohio, a 65-60 winner over Michigan, on Sunday.
Khalif Wyatt led Temple (24-8) with 19 points, and Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson had 10.
Purdue 72, St. Mary’s 69
OMAHA, Neb. — Lewis Jackson made the go-ahead free throws with 22.8 seconds left after Saint Mary’s had rallied from 11 points down late to take its first lead, and the Boilermakers defeated the Gaels in the Midwest Regional on Friday night.
Jorden Page made a 3-pointer with 44.2 seconds left to finish a 14-2 run that brought the Gaels back from a 66-55 deficit with 4:24 to play.
Purdue’s Terone Johnson and Saint Mary’s Clint Steindl were called for traveling before Jackson made his free throws. Page badly missed what would have been a go-ahead 3 with 10 seconds left, and Robbie Hummel made two free throws for a three-point lead.
Rob Jones, who had 23 points, missed a 3 at the buzzer for the seventh-seeded Gaels (27-6).
St. Louis 61, Memphis 54
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Kwamain Mitchell scored 22 points, including three big 3-pointers, and Saint Louis rode its gritty defense to a victory over Memphis on Friday night in a West Regional second-round game.
Mitchell closed the first half by banking in a 3-pointer, then nailed two others to help the ninth-seeded Billikens (26-7) overturn an eight-point deficit in the second half. They advanced to play the winner of LIU Brooklyn and top-seeded Michigan State on Sunday.
Brian Conklin added 16 points, including five free throws in the final minute to salt the game away.
Will Barton had 16 points for the eighth-seeded Tigers (26-9), who had won 20 of their last 23 games.
Ohio 65, Michigan 60
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Walter Offutt grabbed a loose ball, was fouled by Evan Smotrycz and sank both of his free throws with 6.8 seconds left to preserve Ohio’s 65-60 upset of Michigan in the second round of the NCAA tournament’s Midwest Regional.
The 13th-seeded Bobcats (28-7) had the Wolverines on their heels throughout the game, but Michigan’s Trey Burke hit a 3 with 4:12 left to cut it to 63-60. But the Wolverines missed their final five shots, four by Burke.
Fourth-seeded Michigan (24-10) got the rebound on Burke’s third miss, a 3-point shot with 22 seconds left, but Smotrycz lost control of the ball, and Offutt grabbed it.
North Carolina 77, Vermont 58
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Tyler Zeller had 17 points and 15 rebounds to help North Carolina beat Vermont on Friday in its NCAA tournament opener despite playing without injured starter John Henson.
Freshman forward James Michael McAdoo added a season-high 17 points for the top-seeded Tar Heels (30-5), who pushed ahead by double figures late in the first half and then broke the game open after halftime.
Sandro Carissimo had 11 points for the 16th-seeded Catamounts (24-12), who beat Lamar in one of Wednesday’s First Four games. That earned them a trip to Greensboro to face the Tar Heels in front of a home-state crowd wearing plenty of light blue.
The Tar Heels didn’t turn in a rousing performance, but they had a danger-free afternoon and advanced to face Creighton on Sunday in the third round of the Midwest Regional. They also bought Henson another two days to recover from a sprained left wrist.
Georgetown 74, Belmont 59
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Jason Clark scored 21 points, Otto Porter added 16 and Georgetown’s ruthless defense bottled up Belmont’s shooters during an NCAA tournament win Friday, sending the Hoyas into the next round after early exits the past two years.
Henry Sims had 15 points for the third-seeded Hoyas (24-8), who shot 62 percent from the floor and play No. 11 seed North Carolina State in the third round of the Midwest Regional.
Georgetown’s previous two seasons ended with embarrassing first-round losses to Virginia Commonwealth and Ohio. The Hoyas weren’t going to let that happen a third time to a pesky underdog.
The Bruins (27-8) had their 14-game winning streak stopped and fell to 0-5 in NCAA appearances.
Blake Jenkins scored 17 to lead Belmont, which went just 10 of 27 on 3-pointers.
Creighton 58, Alabama 57
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Creighton’s drought in the NCAA tournament is over.
Doug McDermott scored 16 points and the Bluejays overcame an 11-point deficit in the second half to beat Alabama 58-57 Friday for their first tournament victory in 10 years.
Alabama had a chance to win during the frantic final seconds, but Josh Jones blocked Trevor Releford’s 3-point attempt from the top of the key as time expired.
Releford sat on the floor after the shot looking for a foul call, but it never came.
McDermott, the MVP of the Missouri Valley Conference and the nation’s third-leading scorer at 23.2 points per game, was held scoreless for more than 14 minutes but then scored nine points down the stretch.
Florida 71, Virginia 45
OMAHA, Neb. — So much for Virginia’s vaunted defense shutting down Florida’s up-tempo offense.
Even on a day when the Gators couldn’t find the basket with their 3-pointers, they had no trouble beating the Cavaliers in the NCAA Midwest Regional.
Bradley Beal had 14 points and 11 rebounds, reserve Casey Prather scored a career-high 14 and Florida pulled away in the second half.
The Gators finished the first half on a 17-4 run to shake off a slow start and get out to a 30-22 lead. They shot 70 percent in the second half and pushed their advantage to more than 20 points with 8 minutes left.
No. 7 seed Florida (24-10), which made it to the regional finals last season, came into the game averaging a nation-leading 9.9 3-pointers a game but made just 4-of-23. The Gators were 24-of-30 from inside the arc, though.
Mike Scott had 15 points for Virginia (22-10), which was in the tournament for the first time since 2007.
Florida State 66, St. Bonaventure 63
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Bernard James scored 19 points and Florida State barely avoided a big upset, rallying to beat St. Bonaventure on Friday in the NCAA tournament.
The third-seeded Seminoles (25-9) shook off a slow start and won their sixth straight game, including their run to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship last week. They play sixth-seeded Cincinnati, a 65-59 winner over Texas, on Sunday in the third round of the East Regional.
Andrew Nicholson scored 20 points and Demetrius Conger had 14 for No. 14 seed St. Bonaventure (20-12), which was trying to win an NCAA tournament game for the first time since 1970.
Florida State used a 16-2 run to take its first lead with 5:15 left on a 3-pointer by Ian Miller. The Seminoles led as much as 60-52 on a dunk by Okaro White with 2:47 left.
North Carolina State 79, San Diego State 65
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Richard Howell doubled his average with 22 points and 11th-seeded North Carolina State used its muscle inside and sticky defense to upset San Diego State 79-65 on Friday in a second-round East Regional game.
The Wolfpack (23-12) advances to play the winner of Belmont-Georgetown on Sunday at Nationwide Arena.
Lorenzo Brown added 17 points, C.J. Leslie 15 and Scott Wood 10 for the Wolfpack, who are now 12-5 in their first NCAA games. N.C. State has won at least a game in seven of their last eight trips.
Jamaal Franklin had 23 points, and Chase Tapley 19 for the Aztecs (26-8).
Cincinnati 65, Texas 59
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — With Texas shooting poorly, Cincinnati grabbed a comfortable lead early — maybe a little too comfortable.
The Bearcats faded but still managed to withstand a late rally by Texas to win 65-59 on Friday in the second round of the NCAA tournament’s East Regional.
Sixth-seeded Cincinnati (25-10) jumped out to a 16-2 lead while Texas opened the game 1 of 14 and hit 16 percent for the entire first half.
After trailing 31-17 at halftime, the young Longhorns attacked, hitting five of their first seven from 3-point range and shooting 50 percent for the second half. They found the paint a bit more friendly too, after being shut down there in the first half.
With 3:44 to play, Texas’ Jonathan Holmes hit a layup to tie the game 52-52, but the Longhorns couldn’t take the lead. Cincinnati’s Yancy Gates hit a shot over Clint Chapman’s head with 1:11 to put Cincinnati ahead 58-52, and the Bearcats hit five free throws in the final 36 seconds.
Gates finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds for Cincinnati. JaQuon Parker added 13 points, Dion Dixon had 12 and Cashmere Wright scored 11.
J’Covan Brown led No. 11 seed Texas (20-14) with 19 points, and Chapman had 10 points and 14 rebounds. Julien Lewis scored 14 points, and Sheldon McClellan added 10.
After drawing the early tip time in Nashville, Texas appeared to sleepwalk through much of the first half. The Longhorns got their first basket off a jumper near the free-throw line by Lewis just over 2 minutes into the game.
Texas wouldn’t score again for another 10:18. A foul by Jermaine Sanders sent Lewis to the free-throw line with 7:30 in the half.
Lewis hit both shots to make it 16-4. The crowd, which had been mostly quiet up until the point, erupted into cheers.
With 40 percent shooting before halftime, Cincinnati wasn’t doing much to impress offensively, either. What the Bearcats were doing was shutting down Texas around the basket in every way possible.
Cincinnati held a 26-18 rebounding advantage at halftime and had outscored the Longhorns 22-6 in the paint while keeping them from getting a single second-chance basket.
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