North Carolina guard R.J. Davis and forward Armando Bacot celebrate Saturday during a 93-86 win over Baylor in the second round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in Fort Worth, Texas. Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press
FORT WORTH, Texas — So much for the idea that North Carolina is soft against top-tier competition. These Tar Heels are going to the Sweet 16 after knocking off the defending champions.
No, it wasn’t easy. The Tar Heels blew a 25-point second-half lead after Brady Manek was ejected for a wild elbow and starting guard Caleb Love fouled out, and they had some issues when top-seeded Baylor turned up the full-court pressure. But they never fell behind, played with poise in overtime and pulled out a 93-86 victory Saturday in the second round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
“All year we’ve just been hearing different things about us, how we’re a soft team, how we don’t like to fight,” All-Atlantic Coast Conference power forward Armando Bacot said. “Today, I think we really showed that we can fight. To persevere in a moment like that and just come together, I’m just so proud of everyone.”
RJ Davis scored a career-high 30 points, including a nifty layup while being fouled in overtime, and Bacot made the tiebreaking free throws after missing three in the final 38 seconds of regulation. Bacot had 15 points and 16 rebounds, along with three blocked shots.
A year after losing in the first round of the tourney in coach Roy Williams’ final game, the Tar Heels (26-9) pulled off a shocker for his successor, Hubert Davis, whose team moves on to the East Region semifinals in Philadelphia.
“Baylor’s a great team. They’re the defending national champions, and they did not want to go home,” Hubert Davis said. “They stepped up their effort, but we stepped up our effort as well and we were able to make the plays we needed to make to win the game.”
Davis got his only points in overtime on an off-balance layup with 1:18 left and added the free throw for a 91-85 lead.
Adam Flagler had 27 points for Baylor (27-7), which made only one field goal in overtime. James Akinjo scored 20 points, while Jeremy Sochan had 15 points and 11 rebounds.
The Tar Heels won as a No. 8 seed over a top seed for the third time. They did so on the way to the Final Four in 2000, 10 years after beating top-seeded Oklahoma when Davis was a player for Dean Smith.
Baylor lost in the second round for the second time in the last three NCAA tourneys. The Bears, who fell to top-seeded Gonzaga in the round of 32 three years ago, were trying to match the biggest comeback ever in an NCAA Tournament game.
Manek, a graduate transfer from Oklahoma, was ejected with 10:08 left after his left elbow to the face of Sochan as they were battling underneath the Baylor basket. Manek had just drained a 3-pointer that put the Tar Heels ahead 67-42.
With Manek out and Love fouling out soon after that, the Tar Heels committed 10 turnovers as Baylor made a furious rally.
The Bears got within 76-73 with 1:48 left on a three-point play by Akinjo, who converted another three-point play with 16 seconds left to tie the game at 80-80. North Carolina had one more shot, but Davis’ 3-point try hit the front of the rim.
UCLA 72, SAINT MARY’S 56: Tyger Campbell scored 16 points and fourth-seeded UCLA (27-7) completed a more conventional path to the Sweet 16, beating fifth-seeded Saint Mary’s (26-8) in the second round in Portland, Oregon.
UCLA, which went all the way from the First Four to the Final Four last season, will face eighth-seeded North Carolina on Friday in the East Region semifinals in Philadelphia.
The Bruins lost star Jaime Jacquez Jr. to a right ankle injury with 6:58 remaining. He finished with 15 points, all in the first half.
SAINT PETER’S 70, MURRAY STATE 60: No. 15 Saint Peter’s (21-11) broke the hearts of Kentuckians yet again, getting 17 points from KC Ndefo in a win over seventh-seeded Murray State (31-3) at Indianapolis for an unlikely trip to the Sweet 16.
Two days after tossing eight-time national champion Kentucky out of the bracket, the tiny Jesuit school from Jersey City, New Jersey, became the third No. 15 seed to advance to a regional semifinal, joining Oral Roberts last year and Florida Gulf Coast in 2013.
Saint Peter’s ended a 21-game winning streak and a memorable season for Murray State, located 265 miles from Lexington in Kentucky’s southeastern corner.
Doug Edert came off the bench to score 13 points for the Peacocks, including some big baskets late. Saint Peter’s built a 13-point lead early in the second half and never trailed, but Murray State still made it tense. Justice Hill hit a 3-pointer to get the Racers within 59-57 with 4:07 left. Edert followed with a 3 and a layup, and the Peacocks closed it out at the free-throw line.
MIDWEST REGION
KANSAS 79, CREIGHTON 72: Remy Martin scored 20 points, Ochai Agbaji put Kansas ahead for good with his first basket early in the second half, and the top-seeded Jayhawks held off ninth-seeded Creighton at Fort Worth, Texas, to advance to the Sweet 16.
Martin hadn’t led top-seeded Kansas (30-6) in scoring all season as the fifth-year senior transfer from Arizona State battled a sore knee, but he’s done it in both NCAA Tournament games.
The short-handed Bluejays (23-12) stayed close with an uncharacteristically hot showing from 3-point range. One of the worst teams in the country from beyond the arc, Creighton was 12 of 28.
The Bluejays had a chance to go ahead in the final minute, but Trey Alexander’s errant pass went off Alex O’Connell’s hands, leading to a breakaway dunk for Agbaji, who scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half.
Creighton, which reached the Sweet 16 last year, had just six players in its rotation after losing 7-footer Ryan Kalkbrenner to a knee injury late in overtime of a 72-69 win over San Diego State on Thursday.
PROVIDENCE 79, RICHMOND 51: Noah Horchler scored 16 points and fourth-seeded Providence (27-5) had its best 3-point shooting performance of the season, routing 12th-seeded Richmond (24-13) in Buffalo, New York, to advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 25 years.
The fourth-seeded Friars will face Kansas, the top seed in the Midwest Region, in Chicago next week.
Providence controlled the game from the start and went up 21 on the Spiders less than two minutes into the second half when Horchler swished a 3 from the corner. The Friars shot 52% from the field, and a season-best 54.5% from 3-point range. They came in shooting 34.3% from long range.
SOUTH REGION
MICHIGAN 76, TENNESSEE 68: Eli Brooks put Michigan ahead for good with a three-point play and delivered four critical points in the final minute, and 11th-seeded Michigan (19-14) booked the most surprising of its five straight trips to the Sweet 16 by beating No. 3 seed Tennessee (27-8) in Indianapolis.
Brooks finished with 23 points, including a looping, improvised hook shot and two free throws as Michigan put away the Volunteers, who had a six-point lead with 8 1/2 minutes left but then went four minutes without scoring.
Michigan big man Hunter Dickinson had 27 points and 10 rebounds.
WEST REGION
GONZAGA 82, MEMPHIS 78: Drew Timme scored 21 of his 25 points in the second half, and top overall seed Gonzaga (28-3) rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to beat No. 9 seed Memphis (22-10) in Portland, Oregon.
Trailing at the half for only the fourth time this season, Gonzaga leaned on its star junior to carry the Bulldogs into their seventh straight Sweet 16. They will face No. 4 seed Arkansas in the West Region semifinals on Thursday in San Francisco.
Andrew Nembhard added 23 points, Rasir Bolton scored 17 and Gonzaga never trailed after a basket from Timme and Bolton’s 3-pointer with 10 minutes remaining that made it 61-57.
But Memphis didn’t go away. The Tigers pulled even at 66 on a DeAndre Williams basket. After Nembhard’s 3 put the Bulldogs up 76-69, the Tigers still made it a one-possession game with 32 seconds left on a Lester Quinones 3-pointer.
Nembhard, the only consistent free-throw shooter for Gonzaga on the night, made four at the foul line in the final 25 seconds.
ARKANSAS 53, NEW MEXICO STATE 48: Au’Diese Toney’s fast-break dunk capped the decisive run with about six minutes left and launched fourth-seeded Arkansas (27-8) to the Sweet 16 for a second consecutive year following a win over No. 12 seed New Mexico State (27-7) in Buffalo, New York.
JD Notae scored 18 points before fouling out with 1:22 left and Jaylin Williams had 10 points and 15 rebounds for the Razorbacks. Notae’s replacement, Chris Lykes, hit all four free-throw attempts in the final 10 seconds to secure the win after the Aggies closed within two points on Teddy Allen’s 3-pointer with 12 seconds left.
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