PORTLAND, Ore. – Drew Timme gathered his Gonzaga team-mates in midfield, showed them on the scoreboard showing a 10-point halftime deficit for the top overall and expressed a few words of choice.
Timme’s goal was to spray his teammates with words. He did it with his game on the court as well.
Or as Memphis coach Penny Hardaway put it, “The Drew Timme effect came into play.”
Timme scored 21 of his 25 points in the second half, and Gonzaga struck out a 10-point halftime deficit for Saturday night in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on the 9th.
After halftime for only the fourth time this season, Gonzaga strained on his Star Junior to reach his seventh straight Sweet 16. The Bulldogs (28-3) will face the No. 4 seed Arkansas in the Western Region semifinals on Thursday in San Francisco. .
“What I said, no matter what happens, no matter what the score is, win or lose, this could very well be the last 20 minutes of basketball you’ve ever played, and go out without regret,” Timme recalled.
That was the G-rated version. But his point was made and the Bulldogs responded.
Canadian Andrew Nembhard added 23 points, Rasir Bolton shot 17 and Gonzaga was never behind after a basket from Timme and Bolton’s 3-pointer with 10 minutes remaining made it 61-57.
North Carolina 93, Baylor 86 (OT)
FORT WORTH, Texas – RJ Davis hit a career-high 30 points with a fine layup while being fouled in overtime, and eighth-placed North Carolina blew a 25-point lead in the second half but still found a way to beat defending champion Baylor in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Brady Manek had a season-high 26 points before he was sent off for a blatant foul in the middle of the second half, right after his 3-pointer gave Tar Heels (26-9) their biggest lead.
A year after going out in the first round of the tournament in the final game of coaches Roy Williams, Davis, Armando Bacot and these Tar Heels (26-9) go to Philadelphia and a Sweet 16 for first year coach Hubert Davis. North Carolina will face UCLA in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Davis, who had five 3-pointers in the rules, got his only points in overtime in the off-balance layout with 1:18 left and added the free-kick for a 91-85 lead.
Adam Flagler had 27 points for No. 1 Baylor (27-7), who shot 1-of-11 in overtime. James Akinjo had 20 points, while Jeremy Sochan had 15 points and 11 rebounds.
All-Atlantic Coast Conference Power Forward Bacot had 15 points and 16 rebounds for North Carolina.
UCLA 72, SAINT MARY’S 56
PORTLAND, Ore. – Tyger Campbell scored 16 points and the fourth seed UCLA completed a more conventional path to the Sweet 16, beating the fifth seed Saint Mary’s.
UCLA (27-7), which went all the way from the First Four to the Final Four last year, defeated two worse enemies in Akron and then the Gaels (26-8).
The Bruins have star Jaime Jaquez Jr. lost on the right ankle with 6:58 left in the game. He waved as he was helped by teammates from the court and later wrapped back on the bench with his ankle in ice. Jaquez finished with 15 points, all in the first half.
Logan Johnson scored 18 points for Saint Mary’s.
SAINT PETER’S 70, MURRAY STAT 60
INDIANAPOLIS – Saint Peter broke the hearts of the Kentuckians once again, getting 17 points from KC Ndefo for beating Murray State and completing his ascent from Darkness to Sweet 16.
Two days after he knocked eight-time national champion Kentucky out of the bracket, the small Jesuit school from Jersey City, New Jersey, became the third 15 seed to advance to a regional semifinal, last year with Oral Roberts and Florida Gulf Coast in 2013. .
Saint Peter’s (21-11) completed a 21-game winning streak and ended an unforgettable season for Murray State (31-3), 265 miles from Lexington in the Kentucky Southeast corner.
Coach Shaheen Holloway’s next task is to prepare his team for an Eastern Region semifinal Friday in Philadelphia against Texas or Purdue, who will play their second round game on Sunday.
Doug Edert came off the bench and scored 13 points for the Peacocks, including some big baskets later.
Justice Hill scored five 3-pointers for 19 points and Tevin Brown scored 14 for Murray State.
MICHIGAN 76, TENNESSEE 68
INDIANAPOLIS – Eli Brooks put Michigan ahead for good with a three-point game and delivered four critical points in the last minute, and the 11th-seeded Wolverines beat No. 3 seed Tennessee for the most surprising of their five straight trips in the Tennessee to book Sweet 16.
Brooks finished with 23 points, including a looping, improvised hookshot and two free kicks as the Wolverines (19-14) threw away the volunteers, who had a six-point lead with 8 1/2 minutes left but then four minutes without mark.
Big man Hunter Dickinson had 27 points and 11 rebounds for the Wolverines, who faced either second-seed Villanova or longtime rival Ohio State, the No. 7 seed, in Thursday’s Southern Region semifinals in San Antonio, Texas.
Kennedy Chandler had 19 points and Josiah-Jordan James had 13 for Tennessee (27-8), who had broken a seven-game winning streak.
Michigan coach Juwan Howard, who was suspended for five games at the end of the season to beat a Wisconsin assistant coach in the handshake line, showed a different side after the game.
KANSAS 79, CREIGHTON 72
FORT WORTH, Texas – Remy Martin scored 20 points, Ochai Agbaji put Kansas up for good with his first basket early in the second half, and the Jayhawks held off Creighton to advance to the Sweet 16.
Martin did not lead the top-seeded Kansas (30-6) to mark the entire season as the fifth-year senior transfer from Arizona State suffered a painful knee injury, but he did make it to both NCAA tournament games. Kansas will face fourth-seeded Providence in the Chicago regional semifinals.
The short-handed Bluejays (23-12) stayed behind with an uncharacteristically hot show from 3-point range. One of the worst teams in the country from across the arc, ninth-seeded Creighton went 12 of 28.
Arthur Kaluma scored 24 points, 4 of 10 from far for the Bluejays.
PROVIDENCE 79, RICHMOND 51
BUFFALO, NY – Noah Horchler scored 16 points and Providence had his best 3-point shooting of the season, routing Richmond to reach his first Sweet 16 in 25 years.
The fourth-seeded Friars (27-5) looked like a Juggernaut against the Spiders, posting the most lopsided NCAA tournament victory and program history.
Providence controlled the game from the start and went 21 on Richmond (24-13) less than two minutes into the second half as Horchler hit a 3 from the corner. The Friars shot 52% from the field, in a season-best 54.5% from 3. They came in shooting 34.3% from long range.
Nathan Cayo led the Spiders with 18 points on 9-of-11 shooting.
ARKANSAS 53, NEW MEXICO STAT 48
BUFFALO, NY – Au’Diese Toney’s fast-break dunk finished the decisive run with about six minutes left and fourth-placed Arkansas beat No. 12 New Mexico State to reach the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row.
JD Notae had 18 points before he left with 1:22 left and Jaylin Williams had 10 points and 15 rebounds for the Razorbacks (27-8). Notae’s replacement, Chris Lykes, struck out all four free-kicks in the final 10 seconds to secure the victory after the Aggies closed in on two points on Teddy Allen’s 3-pointer with 12 seconds left.
The Razorbacks play the top-seeded Gonzaga or No. 9 Memphis in San Francisco on Thursday.
Allen was limited to 12 points after scoring 37 in the first round against Connecticut. Johnny McCants scored 16 points and added 12 rebounds for New Mexico State (27-7). The Western Athletic Conference Champion was denied a chance to reach the Sweet 16 for the second time in school history and for the first time since 1992.
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