Villanova upset by N.C. State
VVillanova went from a top seed to No. 1-and-done.
N.C. State is back in the Sweet 16, attacking one of the top teams in the nation for 40 minutes and stunning Villanova 71-68 on Saturday night. The Wolfpack went wild as the final horn sounded and danced around the court in celebration.
No, it wasn’t quite Jim Valvano’s mad dash after the Wolfpack won the 1983 national championship. But the Wolfpack (22-13) have designs on their own big March run. They will move on to Syracuse, New York to play the winner of the Louisville-Northern Iowa game.
N.C. State guards Cat Barber and Desmond Lee shared a long embrace after buzzer. Barber pounded his chest and said, “all heart!”
Lacey led them with 17 points and Barber had 13, each coming with big buckets to hold off a late Villanova charge.
The Wildcats saw a 16-game winning streak end and have not reached the second weekend since 2009.
The Wildcats come up empty after storming their way to pair of Big East titles and a 41-point victory in the NCAA Tournament opener.
Dylan Ennis was nearly unconsolable, his arms crossed over his head in disbelief. Ennis missed a 3-pointer after an N.C. State turnover with 20 seconds left that would have put the Wildcats ahead.
Darrun Hilliard scored 27 points and gamely rallied the Wildcats in the final minutes. He hit 3-pointers that brought them to within four, within two with 41.1 seconds left and 69-68 with 1.2 seconds left.
Ralston Turner sealed the win with free throws and N.C. State was back in the Sweet 16 for only the third time since 1989 (2012, 2005). They hadn’t defeated a top seed since that memorable night in 1983 when they upset Houston.
Malik-Adbul Abu had 13 points, 12 rebounds and absolutely destroyed the Wildcats inside.
Yet for the all the Wolfpack did right to keep the `Cats on their heels, they never went on that decisive run that would have ended a comeback threat. Barber lost the ball and N.C. State’s ninth turnover led to Josh Hart’s three-point play with 3:51 left.
The Wolfpack didn’t have to win with authority, though they just had to win.
Desmond Lee’s three-point play stretched the lead back to seven and put them minutes away from the signature win under coach Mark Gottfried. Wins over Duke, North Carolina and Louisville in ACC play let them know they could knock off the elite.
Gottfried also has a knack for pulling off March upsets he led eighth-seeded Alabama to a win over No. 1 Stanford in the second round of the 2004 tournament.
Abu rocked the rim with a dunk for a 40-33 lead and the Wolfpack soon stretched that to 45-33. The Wildcats kept missing from every angle layups, mid-range jumpers, everything as their season started slipping away.
Ennis converted a 3-point play and Phil Booth followed with a 3-pointer only to give one of them one right back on Lacy’s basket-and-free throw on the other end.
The Wolfpack found the open spaces Villanova could not, like when Lennard Freeman had an easy path to the glass for a putback that snuffed a small Nova rally.
The Wildcats played like a tight team all too painfully aware of recent March failures. The Wildcats missed 4 of their first 5 shots from within 2 feet and missed 11 of their first 13 overall.
They shot a season-high 63 percent in the tournament against Lafayette. Against the Wolfpack, they fired `em early in the shot clock, got stuffed at the rim and twice airballed 3-point attempts.
Arizona 73, Ohio State 58: Arizona avenged one heartbreaking NCAA Tournament loss. One more win, and the Wildcats will get a chance to make up for another one.
Gabe York made five 3-pointers and finished with 19 points, T.J. McConnell turned in a terrific all-around performance, and second-seeded Arizona advanced to the Sweet 16 for the third straight year with a 73-58 victory over Ohio State.
“We won our way,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said, proudly.
McConnell had 19 points, six assists, six rebounds and five steals to help the second-seeded Wildcats (33-3) overcome a sluggish start. The senior’s steady hand created all kinds of space for York and other shooters to bust the Buckeyes’ zone defense, which they rarely used during the regular season but broke out for the NCAA tournament.
The Pac-12 champions went ahead by 15 points with 6:34 remaining before holding off No. 10 seed Ohio State (24-11), which eliminated Arizona in the regional semifinals two years ago. Next up for the Wildcats is sixth-seeded Xavier, where Miller was the head coach from 2004-09, in the West Regional semifinals Thursday in Los Angeles.
They also remain on track for a rematch against Wisconsin in the regional final. The Big Ten champion Badgers, who ousted Arizona in an overtime thriller in last year’s regional final, are the top seed in the West.
“We’ve weathered a couple of storms,” Miller said. “I think we’ve learned in this region, this tournament, a couple things this week leading to L.A. that we have to make sure we’re sharp and ready to go. Now that we have two more games on a neutral court, I think it becomes easier to go out there and be yourself.”
The Buckeyes gave the Wildcats all they could handle, even with standout freshman and likely NBA lottery pick D’Angelo Russell struggling with his shot. Russell scored nine points and made just 3 of 19 shots after going for 28 points in Ohio State’s overtime win over VCU in its tournament opener.
Kentucky 64, Cincinnati 51: Aaron Harrison scored 13 points, Trey Lyles added 11 with 11 rebounds and top-ranked Kentucky outworked eighth-seeded Cincinnati for a 64-51 victory Saturday to remain undefeated and reach the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.
Despite the Wildcats’ sixth straight double-digit win, they faced their toughest test in a while and didn’t seem totally in control until the final minutes.
The Wildcats (36-0) succeeded by making life difficult on both ends for Cincinnati, holding the Bearcats to 32 percent shooting including just 24 percent in the second half. Kentucky blocked six shots after halftime and came up with several key rebounds.
Troy Caupain had 13 points for Cincinnati (23-11).
Xavier 75, Georgia State 67: Jalen Reynolds and Myles Davis came off the bench for a combined 38 points as sixth-seeded Xavier end the biggest feel-good story of the NCAA Tournament with a 75-67 victory over Georgia State.
The Musketeers (23-13) advanced to the Sweet 16 for the third time in six years under coach Chris Mack. They’ll face No. 2 seed Arizona a 73-58 winner over Ohio State in the West Regional semifinals in Los Angeles.
No. 14 seed Georgia State (25-10), whose injured coach Ron Hunter worked the sideline in a rolling chair, upset No. 3 seed Baylor Thursday. Hunter, who tore his Achilles tendon celebrating his team winning the Sun Belt Conference title, and his son and star player, RJ, became the darlings of the tournament.
UCLA 92, UAB 75: Tony Parker led five Bruins in double figures with a career-high 28 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as 11th-seeded UCLA beat 14th-seeded UAB 92-75 on Saturday to advance to its second straight Sweet 16.
The Bruins (22-13), the team many thought shouldn’t had even been in the field of 68, have won six of their last seven games in earning their first consecutive Sweet 16 berths since reaching the Final Four three straight seasons between 2006 and 2008. They will play either Gonzaga or Iowa on Friday in the South Regional semifinal in Houston.
UCLA improved No. 11 seeds to a perfect 5-0 against 14 seeds in the NCAA Tournament, and the Bruins didn’t need any questionable calls to win the program’s second game as a double-digit seed.