The 12th-seeded Liberty Flames went punch for punch with 5th-seeded Mississippi State Friday night in San Jose before finally closing out with the win. The victory made them the third 12-seed to advance in this year’s tournament after Oregon took out Wisconsin earlier in the day, and Murray State dispatched Marquette on Thursday. In other action, North Dakota State actually looked ready to give top-seeded Duke a scare by hanging with the Blue Devils throughout the first half, but a second-half takeover by freshman phenom Zion Williamson quickly put the Bison to bed.
Liberty never panicked as the game went on, despite falling behind several times. But it seemed every time Flames’ fell behind, Caleb Homesley would manage to hit a three to bring them right back in it.
Ohio State and Iowa State went back and forth in Tulsa, with Kaleb Wesson scoring 21 points to help his Buckeyes win 62-59. The Cyclones had a chance to tie it with seconds left but Nick Weiler-Babb missed the deep three.
Despite Liberty’s heroics, it was technically the 13th-seeded Anteaters of UC Irvine who pulled the biggest upset of the day with a 70-64 win over #4 Kansas State. The win was UC Irvine’s 17th straight but first in NCAA tournament history.
The 10th-seeded Iowa Hawkeyes upset the 7th-seed Cincinnati Bearcats 79-72 on the strength of Luke Garza’s 20 points. Cincinnati entered the game with confidence after winning the AAC tournament last week but were unable to hold off the Hawkeyes despite leading for most of the game.
No. 1 Virginia must have had flashbacks to last year’s debacle as they fell behind early to No. 16 Gardner-Webb before turning back into one of the best teams in the nation in the second half.
Virginia’s possible elite eight opponent, Tennessee, faced a tough 15th-seeded Colgate team that kept things close throughout. But the Volunteers’ experience came through for them in the end, as they calmly held on for a 77-70 victory.
Oregon continued their hot streak by taking down Ethan Happ and the Wisconsin Badgers, 72-54. In a much closer game than the final score indicated, the Ducks used their stifling defense to keep their run alive after they made the tournament by winning the Pac-12 tournament just last week.
Another Pac-12 team advanced thanks to the #9-seeded Washington Huskies’ 78-61 victory over #8 Utah State, which makes it two Pac-12 teams into the round of 32 less than a week after some pundits predicted it’d be a one-bid, one and done tournament for the conference just a few weeks ago.
Elite eight darkhorse Buffalo easily handled their first test in taking down Arizona State 91-74 thanks to shooting north of 60% in the second half. They advance to face Texas Tech.
Eighth-seeded Oklahoma cruised past ninth-seed Ole Miss 95-72 after opening the game on a 12-0 run.
Houston recovered nicely from their conference tournament championship loss to Cincinnati, and now find themselves where the Bearcats do not: into the round of 32 after a dominating performance in knocking off Georgia State 84-55.
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Jarrett Culver scored 29 points to lead Texas Tech into the next round with a 72-57 win against Northern Kentucky. They’ll need their elite defense to show up again if they hope to stop a Buffalo team that put up 91 in their opener later in the day.
Duke started off with some jitters of their own and actually went into the half only up by 4 before putting away the North Dakota State Bison in the second half. Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett had 25 and 26 points respectively.
The UCF Golden Knights advanced to face Duke on Sunday with a solid 73-58 victory over VCU. The matchup will pit 7’6, 310-pound senior Tacko Fall against Zion Williamson for a spot in the Sweet 16.
16th-seeded Iona actually held a 38-33 lead at halftime after the No.1-seeded UNC Tar Heels started slow, but a strong second-half performance on both offense and defense quickly got Roy Williams’ squad back on top.
Virginia Tech raced out to a big lead over the Saint Louis Billikens before suddenly forgetting how to shoot in the second half. The 4th-seeded Hokies needed turnovers to finish off the game, scoring 25 points off Saint Louis miscues.
