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No. 3 seed U.C.L.A. beat No. 14 seed Wyoming, 69-48.
The Bruins will meet Texas in the second round.
No. 6 seed Oregon routed No. 11 seed South Dakota, 67-47.
Erin Boley led Oregon with 22 points.
The Pac-12 is 5-1 in the first round of the women’s tournament with a 28.6-point average margin of victory. Only Arizona State is not advancing.
With an abysmal 1 point in its second quarter against Oregon in the first round of the women’s tournament, South Dakota set an N.C.A.A. tournament record on Monday night — not a good one.
One is now the fewest number of points scored by a team in a quarter since the N.C.A.A. switched from 20 minute halves to 10-minute quarters for the 2016 season, according to the organization’s records. Before Monday night, there was a three-way tie for 2 points in a quarter: Hampton in 2017, Georgia in 2018 and Little Rock in 2019.
South Dakota missed all 21 of its shots in the second quarter. The 1 point? A free throw made by center Hannah Sjerven with four seconds left on the clock.
The Coyotes were also among the lowest scorers in a half of a tournament game with 9 for the first half. According to the same N.C.A.A. records, the lowest scoring half was 8 points, set by Prairie View in the first half of a game against Baylor in 2011.
Luckily, South Dakota escaped lowest-points-ever territory in the third quarter; by the middle of the fourth, they even dented Oregon’s early lead. Not enough — the Ducks won easily, 67-47.
Curious? The lowest score by a team in the tournament was 26 points by Kansas State in a game against UConn, which had 72, on March 19, 2012, according to the N.C.A.A.
The men’s tournament will carry on without Kansas.
Third-seeded Kansas, which had reached the Sweet 16 six times since 2011, collapsed Monday and never led Southern California, the No. 11 seed in the West region.
The ultimate end was looking awfully clear by halftime, and at the end of the shellacking, the scoreboard read 85-51. The Mobley brothers of U.S.C. had combined for 27 points, but six other U.S.C. players scored at least 5 each. The Trojans will meet seventh-seeded Oregon in next weekend’s round of 16.
For Kansas, Monday’s defeat by 34 points was its biggest loss on record in an N.C.A.A. tournament and broke a mark set in 1940, when Indiana beat the Jayhawks by 18 in the title game.
No. 6 seed Southern California trounced No. 3 seed Kansas, 85-51.
The Trojans never trailed and shot 61.1 percent on 3-pointers.
South Dakota, ranked 31st in the country in field-goal percentage, managed just 1 point in the second quarter and 9 total for the first half against Oregon. The Coyotes missed all 21 shoots in the second quarter, and were 1 of 2 on free throws.
You know how you turn off the football game and grouse when Alabama gets into a rhythm again and coolly disassembles another team? The basketball team would like a word, too.
The Crimson Tide, seeded second in the East region, trampled No. 10 Maryland, 96-77, and vaulted into the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2004.
Maryland kept the game competitive for the first 10 minutes or so on Monday. But it did not come close to lasting on a night when Alabama hit 16 of its 33 3-point shots. Alabama was also perfect from the free-throw line, the bench chipped in for 39 points and the team from Tuscaloosa had 15 offensive rebounds.
Next up for Alabama: U.C.L.A., the region’s 11th seed. With Maryland’s exit, Michigan became the last Big Ten team standing in the men’s tournament after the conference set a league-record by sending nine teams to Indianapolis.
No. 2 seed Alabama rolls past No. 10 seed Maryland, 96-77.
The Crimson Tide were never really threatened and led by as many as 23 points.
No. 2 seed Louisville romped past No. 15 seed Marist, 74-43.
No Marist player scored more than 8 points.
Even though Bradley, a No. 11 seed, was routed by sixth-seeded Texas, Lasha Petree was tonight’s biggest scorer. She scored more than half of Bradley’s points: 33 out of 62. Longhorn junior Charli Collier, who has averaged a double-double the past two seasons, had 23 points and 15 rebounds in their 81-62 win.
No. 6 seed Texas routed No. 11 seed Bradley, 81-62.
Charli Collier, a top W.N.B.A. prospect, had 23 points and 15 rebounds.
The Pac-12 lost a game in the men’s basketball tournament, and it took much longer than, well, almost anyone expected it would.
Florida State, the No. 4 seed, ousted No. 5 seed Colorado from the bracket on Monday night, relying on a redshirt junior guard to steer around Buffaloes, 71-53.
The guard, Anthony Polite, had a career-best 22 points. No other Florida State player recorded more than 11, but F.S.U. got 26 from its bench.
The Seminoles will meet Michigan, the East region’s top seed, over the weekend. But Colorado’s loss was the first for the Pac-12 during this tournament after Oregon, Oregon State and U.C.L.A. advanced to the round of 16. Southern California is playing against Kansas on Monday night.
Not long before the end of its men’s tournament run, Colorado’s basketball program said on Twitter that it had been “shocked and saddened” by the fatal attack at a grocery store near the campus in Boulder. School officials posted little about the game on social media and instead directed fans to radio and television broadcasts, as well as a website with statistics.
No. 4 seed Florida State stopped No. 5 seed Colorado, 71-53.
Anthony Polite scored 22 points.
Texas senior and projected No. 1 W.N.B.A. draft pick Charli Collier has 23 points and 15 rebounds, making this her 17th game this season with over 20 points. The No. 6 seed Longhorns lead No. 11 seed Bradley 76-57 late in the fourth quarter.
A lot has changed since the last time Oregon and South Dakota met in the postseason.
The Ducks and Coyotes met at the Women’s National Invitational Tournament semifinals, South Dakota believing it had been snubbed for an N.C.A.A. tournament bid.
This time around, Oregon’s coach, Kelly Graves — who was in his first postseason run with the Ducks back in 2016 — is leading a group that has higher expectations. They’ve become a national powerhouse.
The second time they meet is on a national stage too; this one, in Texas, is just a bit bigger.
“We have a very challenging draw, there’s no question. They’re a really good team,” said Coach Dawn Plitzuweit, who took over at South Dakota after that 2016 season. “We’re excited to play against them, but we understand we’re going to have to play at the best of our ability and be willing to modify how we do things in order to have a chance to compete against them.”
The personnel has changed for both teams, but the history still carries — South Dakota won that battle, 88-54, on the way to a W.N.I.T. championship.
Oregon is the favorite this time, coming in as a No. 6 seed to the No. 11 seed of the Coyotes. South Dakota is led by senior guard Hannah Sjerven, who averages 17.2 points and 9.8 rebounds.
Both teams are chasing a different type of a title this time around.
Wyoming won its first tournament in the Mountain West — or any other conference — to make it to the national tournament. It’s the second time it has reached the tournament, period, also having received an at-large bid in 2008.
Behind Wyoming natives McKinley Bradshaw, Emily Buchanan, Jaye Johnson, Tommi Olson and Paige Toomer, this year’s team is already the most successful in Cowgirls history dating back to 1973.
“I’m just happy for them,” Wyoming Coach Gerald Mattinson told reporters following the Cowgirls’ conference championship win over Fresno State. “I’m happy for this program. I’m happy for the state, you know, our fans. They’re so devoted and they care so much about, so deeply about this program and about the players that we have now, and the players that have gone through here.”
No. 5 seed Missouri State easily defeated No. 12 seed U.C. Davis, 70-51.
Jasmine Franklin had 17 points and 17 rebounds.
It was messy, but No. 1 Michigan is still in the mix.
Although the Wolverines danced toward elimination in the men’s tournament on Monday night, when it traded leads with eighth-seeded Louisiana State six times, the East region’s top seed seized control for good during a 9-0 run in the second half and ultimately prevailed, 86-78.
At halftime, Michigan led by only 1. But Chaundee Brown Jr., a senior guard, proved electrifying after the intermission, scoring 14 of his 21 points in the second. In the first 25 games of Michigan’s season, he had averaged 7.4 points. Part of his magic on Monday came at the free-throw line, where he sank all six tries and pushed his success rate skyward from the 69 percent mark where it stood at the start of the night.
Michigan’s victory was a balm of sorts for the Big Ten, which set a conference record this year when it sent nine teams to the men’s tournament. But two of its mightiest contenders, No. 1 seed Illinois and No. 2 seed Iowa, have fallen since Sunday morning. By Monday night, only Michigan and Maryland were still in the tournament field, though the Terrapins were playing No. 2 Alabama when the buzzer sounded at the Michigan contest.
In the round of 16, Michigan will play the winner of the Colorado-Florida State game.
Top-seeded Michigan helf off No. 8 seed Louisiana State, 86-78.
Michigan used a big run in the second half to not only come back, but also take over.
Wake Forest transfer Chaundee Brown has come up huge for No. 1 seed Michigan, scoring 21 points on 6-of-9 shooting as the Wolverines lead L.S.U. 82-72. He is one of a number of transfers playing a key role in this tournament. Kentucky transfer Johnny Juzang is averaging 22.3 points for U.C.L.A.
No. 2 seed Texas A&M narrowly escaped No. 15 seed Troy in a grueling but high-scoring game that could have easily been the first victory for a No. 15 seed in women’s tournament history. The teams both shot 42 percent and Troy outrebounded the Aggies 48 to 42 en route to Texas A&M’s eventual 84-80 win.
“As good a team as Texas A&M is, the No. 15 seed had them on the ropes,” said Troy Coach Chanda Rigby, her voice shaking slightly as she spoke with reporters. “It seemed like we just kept getting called for foul after foul, but we kept battling until the very end.”
The Trojans stayed close from the start, trading the lead with the Aggies for much of the first quarter. Once Texas A&M senior center Ciera Johnson started dominating in the paint, the Aggies began to pull away but never had a truly comfortable lead.
Troy kept shooting: Its senior Alexus Dye earned her 22nd double-double of the season — the most in Division I — with 26 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out late in the fourth quarter, and junior forward Felmas Koranga, the first N.C.A.A. Division I women’s player born in Kenya, scored 20 points.
Tied at 77-77 with 1:37 left, the final stretch was a saga filled with improbable shots that kept the Trojans into the game until the very end, and questionable foul calls that helped seal their fate. Troy’s jump ball with 22.8 seconds left stayed with the Trojans, and Janiah Sandifer missed an open 3-point shot from the corner that would have given Troy the lead.
Texas A&M made their free throws for a 4-point lead, but then senior Aaliyah Wilson committed a 3-point foul with 4.6 seconds left. The Trojans made two of the three free throws to tighten the score, and when the Aggies inbounded the ball they appeared to commit a backcourt violation but it was not called.
“It just looked like she touched it and then it went in the backcourt,” Rigby said. “We had all the momentum at that point. If we had gotten that call, I don’t think there’s any way we would have lost the game.”
The no-call meant Troy had to foul, Texas A&M’s Destiny Pitts hit two free throws, and the Aggies escaped with one of the tightest wins of the tournament so far.
Bradley did not score until almost halfway through the first quarter, but continued on a 7-0 run once it did. Texas followed up with a 13-0 run of its own and leads 19-7 going into the second quarter.
No. 7 seed Iowa State beat No. 10 seed Michigan State, 79-75.
Ashley Joens scored 33 points and had nine rebounds.
No. 2 seed Texas A&M stopped an upset bid by 15th-seeded Troy, 84-80.
No teams seeded No. 15 have ever won in the tournament.
More often than not over the last two decades, Creighton has surfaced in the N.C.A.A. men’s tournament. But look in the record book and you will not see a Bluejays team in the Sweet 16 since Nixon’s era.
That changed Monday, when fifth-seeded Creighton plowed past No. 13 seed Ohio, 72-58, in Indianapolis. While not quite a display of start-to-finish dominance — Ohio held a narrow lead at the beginning of the game — the ultimate margin was a welcome change for the Bluejays, who beat U.C. Santa Barbara by only a point in the first round.
The scoring hardly came from just one man on the floor. Marcus Zegarowski, a junior guard, led Creighton with 20 points. But four other Bluejays — Mitch Ballock, Christian Bishop, Damien Jefferson and Denzel Mahoney — all scored 10 or more.
Ohio had advanced to Monday’s game after upsetting fourth-seeded Virginia, the 2019 national champion.
No. 5 seed Creighton stopped No 13 seed Ohio, 72-58.
Ohio had a late surge but never really threatened Creighton.
Maryland is known for its offensive star power, from sophomore scorer Ashley Owusu to freshman Angel Reese.
Perhaps it’s easy to overlook how well Mimi Collins has played, but she’s the pace setter for the Terrapins offense. In Maryland’s 98-45 opening round win against Mount Saint Mary’s on Monday, she delivered another 12 points, shooting 3 for 6 and hitting all six of her free throws. She also had five rebounds in her 24 minutes.
Her all-around play makes it difficult to zero in on her, and with so many other elite shooters on the floor, Collins has somehow become the Terps’ secret weapon.
“She’s making her right plays at the right time of what is needed,” said Terps Coach Brenda Freese. “Just seeing her round in the form for that consistency factor that we needed on both ends of the floor — her toughness, her rebounding.”
Collins, who finished as an all-Big Ten honorable mention, transferred from Tennessee, where she averaged 5.5 points as a freshman. In her first year with the Terps, she’s fifth on the squad with 10.7 points, as a part of a group that has five players averaging at least 10 points each.
“As the future goes or anybody who is watching the tournament, don’t sleep on Maryland,” Collins told reporters this week.
Owusu led Maryland’s scoring with 20 points on Monday, adding eight rebounds and seven assists in the process. Chloe Bibby picked up 11 assists to lead the Terps in that department.
“I love the fact that everyone was able to get in and play,” said Freese. “All significant minutes, that just helps us to be able to advance and continue to have fresh legs.”
At one point in the first half, the Terps went on an 18-0 run, and the defense was the focal point of a game where they led for all but 20 seconds.
“We came in as a group and talked about defensive intensity,” said Owusu. “I thought we came out a little bit flat. We wanted to go on a run and play great defense.”
Hang on, Ohio is making a late charge. Down by 20, they’ve crawled within 65-56 with 2:26 left.
No. 2 seed Texas A&M is tied with No. 15 seed Troy, 73-73, midway through the fourth quarter. If the Trojans pull off the win, it will be the first victory for a No. 15 seed in the women’s tournament ever.
Ohio’s Ben Vander Plas just blew a shoe ala Zion Williamson. He’s lacing up a new right shoe that’s a different color.
No. 11 seed U.C.L.A. was on the bubble before the men’s tournament. Now the Bruins are in the Sweet 16.
Coach Mick Cronin’s team won its third N.C.A.A. tournament game on Monday with a 67-47 domination of No. 14 Abilene Christian, which had toppled No. 3 seed Texas in the first round.
Behind 17 points from Kentucky transfer Johnny Juzang, a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds from Cody Riley and 10 points and seven rebounds from Jaime Jaquez Jr., the Bruins advanced to face the Alabama-Maryland winner in the regional semifinal.
U.C.L.A., which has won 11 N.C.A.A. championships in its storied history, became the fifth program to advance from a play-in game to the regional semifinal and the first since Syracuse in 2018. Syracuse is back in the round of 16 again this year as a No. 11 seed under coach Jim Boeheim.
Athens, Ohio’s favorite son is at Hinkle supporting the Bobcats. Joe Burrow, an all-state basketball player himself at Athens High, is here with his father, Jimmy, and Ohio football coach Frank Solich. (Burrow’s other school, Louisiana State, is about to tip off against No. 1 seed Michigan.)
No. 11 U.C.L.A. trounced No. 14 Abilene Christian, 67-47.
The Bruins will play the Maryland-Alabama winner.
The third upset of the 2021 women’s tournament, like the first two, came from a mid-major conference. The 12th-seeded Ohio Valley Conference champions Belmont took down No. 5 seed Gonzaga, 64-59, in the school’s first N.C.A.A. tournament victory. Destinee Wells, a 5-foot-6 freshman guard, had 25 points and seven assists and was the only Bruin to score in double digits.
Belmont and Gonzaga traded scoring runs in the first half, and Gonzaga led by as many as 11 points — but never in the fourth quarter. By then, Wells and the Bruins’ tireless veterans Jamilyn Kinney and Conley Chinn had claimed a lead that they showed no interest in ceding. The Bruins had 25 points off of Gonzaga’s 20 turnovers, capitalizing on every mistake that the higher-seeded school made.
“All those Power 5 conferences thought she was too small,” Belmont Coach Bart Brooks said after the game. “There’s nothing small about that young lady.”
When Gonzaga senior Abby O’Connor hit a 3-point shot that brought the Zags within 2 points with 3:58 left, Belmont clamped down on defense and just kept scoring, allowing Gonzaga just 2 more points in the entire game.
“We got our mojo going on defense, and found a way to make a couple of tough baskets,” said Brooks. “This is the moment of a lifetime.”
You’ve heard it many times: an exasperated cry from a basketball fan: “They missed the layup!”
Throwing the ball away, a bad foul, traveling: None of them cause quite as much anguish as the missed layup. Because layups go in every time, right?
It happened to Texas Tech in the second round of the men’s tournament on Sunday. Trailing by 2, and looking for an upset of third-seeded Arkansas, Kyler Edwards of Texas Tech drove to the basket and missed a layup with 3 seconds left.
It happened to Stephen F. Austin in the first round of the women’s tournament on Sunday. Down 2 in overtime, Avery Brittingham missed a layup and then a tip shot with one second on the clock, ending a bid to defeat fifth-seeded Georgia Tech.
The word “layup” has moved beyond basketball to be used as a term for anything that’s simple. “He really doesn’t have the ability or the willingness to unify us, because that would a layup,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said in January about President Biden, while criticizing Biden’s approach toward Democrats considering whether to impeach his predecessor, Donald J. Trump.
But truthfully, a layup isn’t always a gimme, whether for President Biden or a supremely talented basketball player. It’s more like a 6-foot putt than a tap-in.
Even in the N.B.A., the home of the world’s best players, shots in the “restricted area,” four feet from the basket or less, go in at a rate ranging from 70 percent for the Miami Heat to 60 percent for the Charlotte Hornets.
The best college team in the country in converting shots “at the rim” has been Gonzaga, at only 73 percent before its second-round win on Monday, according to Hoop-Math. Many teams are down in the 60s or even the 50s.
A “layup” is usually defined as a shot coming from the side and using the backboard. Statistics specifically for layups are hard to come by, in part because there is no codified definition; the N.B.A. and Hoop-Math stats include other kinds of close-in shots as well. But N.C.A.A. players have been missing those other kinds of shots at key moments too.
With U.C. Santa Barbara trailing Creighton by 1 with 2 seconds left, Amadou Sow missed a close-in shot. The box score listed it as a layup, and it did go off the glass, but he didn’t exactly “lay” it there. That didn’t make the miss hurt any less.
The misses are all the more painful because many of the legendary shots of the N.C.A.A. tournament were, depending on how closely you define it, layups. Danny Ainge went coast to coast and ended with a finger roll floater to beat Notre Dame in 1981. Tyus Edney’s run against Missouri in 1995 ended with a shot from a few feet away.
When we think of a layup, we may think of a player sailing in uncontested to gently drop the ball off the glass and into the rim. But most of the time, layups are vigorously contested by defenders, making them a lot harder to execute than their name suggests.
Edwards of Texas Tech was defended closely by Justin Smith of Arkansas, who jumped with arm extended to foil the so-called easy shot. Several players surrounded Brittingham of Stephen F. Austin, all with their arms up as she shot.
Even the players, who make, and miss, layups every game tend to think of short shots as virtual sure things. “Amadou was wide open,” said JaQuori McLaughlin of U.C.S.B. “So I made the right pass right there, and he’s money in the paint.”
But he wasn’t. And that shouldn’t be such a surprise.
No. 7 Northwestern got past No. 10 seed Central Florida, 62-51.
Lindsey Pulliam led Northwestern with 25 points.
No. 11 seed U.C.L.A. used an 18-0 run to take a 31-21 halftime lead over No. 14 seed Abilene Christian, which stunned No. 3 seed Texas in the first round. The Bruins are attempting to become the ninth play-in team to advance to the Sweet 16, and the first since Syracuse in 2018.
No. 12 seed Belmont upset No. 5 seed Gonzaga, 64-59.
Belmont locked down Gonzaga late to put the game away.
No. 2 seed Maryland easily beat No. 15 seed Mount St. Mary’s, 98-45.
Ashley Owusu finished with 22 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.
Drew Timme and No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga rolled into the Sweet 16 and now stand four victories shy of the first undefeated season since Indiana in 1976.
Timme, the 6-foot-10 sophomore from Richardson, Texas, went for a career-high 30 points with 13 rebounds as the Bulldogs eliminated No. 8 seed Oklahoma, 87-71, to advance to face the Creighton-Ohio winner. Oklahoma had recruited Timme while in high school, and it was easy to see why.
“It was just a great game plan and we just took what the defense gave us,” Timme said in a television interview. “It feels great to come out on top, especially against such a good team like Oklahoma.”
Corey Kispert and Jalen Suggs each scored 16 points, and Joel Ayayi added 12. Gonzaga was also fortunate to avoid an injury to the freshman star Suggs when he was pushed by Elijah Harkless on a breakaway late in the game and went flying toward a stanchion. Suggs, a projected N.B.A. lottery pick, was angry but OK after the play.
The Bulldogs have noticed that No. 1 seed Illinois and No. 2 seeds Ohio State and Iowa are both out of the tournament. Ohio State lost to No. 15 seed Oral Roberts in the first round, while in the second round Illinois lost to No. 8 seed Loyola-Chicago and Iowa fell to No. 7 seed Oregon.
“The first round was crazy with all the upsets and stuff,” Timme said. “It’s a level playing field so we’ve got to bring it every single game.”
He said the team is not considering its undefeated record. “When you get to March, it’s 0-0, that’s your record. We’re treating every game like we’re a 16 seed,” he said.
No. 1 seed Gonzaga got past No. 8 seed Oklahoma, 87-71.
Gonzaga led by as many as 19 points in the second half.
No. 1 Gonzaga rolls into the Sweet 16 with an 87-71 win over No. 8 Oklahoma and is now four wins from the first unbeaten season since Indiana in 1976. The Bulldogs (28-0) have averaged 95 points this season in wins over Kansas, West Virginia, Iowa and Oklahoma.
Wright State junior Angel Baker led the Raiders to their first N.C.A.A. women’s tournament victory with 26 points, 12 rebounds and four steals in a 66-62 upset of Arkansas. The 5-foot-8 guard was steady throughout, scoring consistently from the beginning until she hit a clutch 3-point shot with 29 seconds left.
It was just the seventh time in the tournament’s history that a No. 13 seeded team has beaten a No. 4 seed; the last time was in 2012, when Marist beat Georgia. This was the Raiders’ third tournament appearance and the second upset of the day after No. 11 seed Brigham Young University defeated No. 6 seed Rutgers.
“Definitely feel like we were underestimated coming in as a 13 seed, but a lot of teams don’t realize numbers don’t mean anything,” Baker said after the game. “We stepped up and got the W.”
The Raiders led from the end of the first quarter until late in the fourth, surviving a late comeback from the Razorbacks fueled by senior Chelsea Dungee, who had 27 points.
Wright State averages just four made 3-pointers a game, but shot 50 percent from behind the arc. Arkansas, which designed its offense around its 3-point shooters, made just 7 of 21 3-point attempts.
Wright State held Arkansas to just 35 percent shooting. Earlier in the season, the Razorbacks had beaten both No. 1 seed UConn — UConn’s sole loss of the season so far — and No. 2 seed Baylor. It was the fourth-seeded team’s first trip to the tournament since 2015.
At the end of the closely fought game, though, it was the Horizon League champions who hit their free throws and wound up moving on to the second round.
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