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Texas-San Antonio’s Kalif Bakare (2) celebrates with teammates after defeating McNeese State in the Southland Conference tournament championship game Saturday, in Katy, Texas. Texas-San Antonio won 75-72 and claimed an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
AP photo
INDIANAPOLIS — Whether it’s football or basketball, Ohio State still owns the rivalry with Michigan.
And rather than a Rose Bowl bid, this time the reward might be the NCAA tournament’s top overall seed.
Jared Sullinger had 14 points and 13 rebounds and Jon Diebler scored 16 points, leading No. 1 Ohio State to a 68-61 victory over the Wolverines on Saturday. The win gave the Buckeyes a three-game season sweep of their archrivals and a date in their third straight Big Ten tournament championship game.
“You love a game with a little fight to it, especially being your archrival in Michigan,” Sullinger said. “There’s a little bad blood, but at the same it’s basketball and, you know, we came out with the win. That’s all that matters.”
The intensity of the football rivalry has rarely been matched on the basketball court.
But there was a certain buzz at Saturday’s semifinal. The highly partisan Buckeyes crowd and the small Michigan student section wearing yellow shirts in the upper deck of Conseco Fieldhouse traded cheers and jeers. The Wolverines’ pep band softly sung improvised lyrics to the tunes the Ohio State band played.
At one point, tempers even flared when Michigan’s Jordan Morgan grabbed Sullinger by the leg. Sullinger fell to the floor and William Buford and Morgan got into a brief shoving match — just like the football games.
“Will told me ‘I’ve got your back because I’m tired of you getting picked on,”’ said Sullinger, the 6-foot-9, 280-pound forward who rarely gets shoved around. “Will feels like I get picked on a lot and that people try to yank my chain and Will decided enough is enough and he decided to step in there.”
Ohio State (31-2), the regular-season league champs, will face sixth-seeded Penn State in today’s title game.
The Buckeyes, winners of six straight, join Illinois (2003-05) as the only conference teams to play in three straight championship rounds. A win would make Ohio State the first back-to-back tourney winner since Michigan State in 2000. Both of those Spartans teams reached the Final Four.
BIG EAST
No. 21 Connecticut 69, No. 14 Louisville 66
NEW YORK — Kemba Walker capped the best five days an individual and team may have ever had in college basketball, scoring 19 points to lead No. 21 Connecticut to a victory over No. 14 Louisville in the Big East championship game.
Walker, a 6-foot-1 junior guard, took home the most obvious MVP award in any conference tournament after leading the ninth-seeded Huskies (26-9) to five wins in as many days — the last four over teams ranked in the Top 25 — and the program’s seventh conference title, tying Georgetown for the most in Big East history.
He finished the five games with 130 points, 46 more than the previous record. It wasn’t just the points. He grabbed so many big rebounds, made so many key passes and clutch steals, all while exhibiting leadership good enough to take a team loaded with sophomores and freshmen to the championship.
Preston Knowles had 18 points for the third-seeded Cardinals (25-8) and his 3-point attempt at the buzzer bounced off the rim, setting off a well-deserved celebration by the Huskies.
ACC
No. 6 UNC 92, Clemson 87, OT
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Harrison Barnes ignored all the doubters, the questions about his game, even the bumpier-than-expected start to his career at North Carolina.
Those days felt long ago as the freshman put on a record-setting show that helped the sixth-ranked Tar Heels escape once again at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
Barnes set a freshman tournament record with 40 points to help North Carolina rally past Clemson in overtime in the semifinals, sending the Tar Heels back to the championship game for the first time in three years.
Barnes hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 4:13 left as part of a 9-0 spurt to open the extra period for top-seeded North Carolina (26-6), which continued its living-dangerously run in Greensboro with another big comeback. A day after rallying from 19 down in the final 10 minutes to beat Miami, the Tar Heels trailed the Tigers (21-11) by 14 in the first half and rallied from seven down in the final 4 minutes of regulation to force overtime.
“My goal was to be in the final,” Barnes said. “This is not how I imagined us doing it, but we find a way.”
The Tar Heels have won 19 of 21 games since losing to Texas on a last-second shot in December here. They’re now a win away from their 18th ACC tournament title, which would tie Duke for most all-time. They’ll face the fifth-ranked Blue Devils in today’s final, marking the first time the fierce rivals have met for the title in 10 years.
No. 5 Duke 77, Virginia Tech 63
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Nolan Smith refused to let a toe injury stop him. Virginia Tech couldn’t do it, either.
Smith scored 27 points a day after jamming his toe, and No. 5 Duke claimed a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game by beating the Hokies in the semifinals.
“At this stage,” Smith said, “no injury is going to hold me back from playing.”
Kyle Singler added 13 points and 11 rebounds and Seth Curry had 10 points for the second-seeded Blue Devils (29-4).
The two-time defending league tournament champions and reigning national champs shot 47 percent and kept the Hokies at arm’s length throughout the second half to avenge a late-season loss and set up a third meeting with bitter rival North Carolina in the title game today.
“We were matched up for the regular-season championship, and it’s the two best teams again,” Smith said.
Malcolm Delaney, who’s second to Smith in the ACC scoring race, finished with 19 points on 4-of-14 shooting for the sixth-seeded Hokies (21-11). They were just 2 of 12 from 3-point range and couldn’t get closer than 10 in the final 14 minutes.
ATLANTIC 10
Dayton 64, St. Joseph’s 61
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The only way Dayton was going to the NCAA tournament was to win the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament.
The defending NIT champion Flyers are now only one game away.
Chris Wright had 17 points, 15 rebounds and five assists and Dayton advanced to the championship game for the first time since 2004 with a victory over stubborn Saint Joseph’s.
“At the tournament, if you lose a game, you go home,” Wright said. “We know that. Coach told us to pack for Sunday before we got here. You’ve got to have faith in yourself and we do.”
Chris Johnson added 19 points for the ninth-seeded Flyers (22-12), who will play in the final today.
The Flyers last went to the NCAAs in 2009.
The Flyers were outstanding defending Saint Joseph’s guards Langston Galloway and Carl Jones. While they combined for 27 points, they were limited to 8 of 28 shooting from the field. Hawks forward Ronald Roberts also was limited, with three points and three rebounds.
Galloway had 16 points and Idris Hilliard 15 for Saint Joseph’s (11-22), which reached the semifinals with overtime wins over George Washington and Duquesne in the first two rounds.
Richmond 58, No. 24 Temple 54
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Temple’s three-year run on the boardwalk is over.
Richmond dethroned the three-time defending Atlantic 10 Conference tournament champions, getting 22 points from Kevin Anderson in a victory in the semifinals at Boardwalk Hall in this casino resort.
The win allowed the third-seeded Spiders (26-7) to avenge a loss to the No. 24-ranked Owls (25-7) in last year’s title game and a 20-point loss earlier this season.
“Getting over the hump and getting Temple is, that’s it,” Richmond senior center Dan Geriot said. “Everyone knows this boardwalk empire goes through Temple, so to beat them in a game like this, where it was gut-check time over the final 5 minutes with the game in the 50s, and for us to make the plays, just shows we are there.”
While the loss snapped Temple’s 10-game tournament winning streak in this building, it’s hardly the end of the season for the Owls. They are bound to hear their names called during the NCAA selection show today and will be headed to the tournament for a fourth straight year.
“There were a lot of sad faces in the locker room,” said senior Lavoy Allen, who had 12 points and 10 rebounds. “I would love to play (today), but unfortunately we are not playing. We just have to put it behind us.”
BIG 12
No. 2 Kansas 85, No. 10 Texas 73
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Tyshawn Taylor and Marcus Morris sparked a quick start and No. 2 Kansas raced past No. 10 Texas in the Big 12 title game, avenging one of the saddest losses the Jayhawks have experienced in years.
Texas, which dropped to 0-6 in Big 12 championship games, whittled a 48-33 halftime deficit to 66-52 with about 8 minutes left, taking advantage while Marcus and Markieff Morris sat on the bench with three fouls.
But after Taylor and J’Covan Brown swapped 3-pointers, Tyrel Reed hit an uncontested 3 and rebounded a Texas miss, leading to Markieff Morris’ tip-in for a 68-55 lead. A moment later, Reed’s steal led to Markieff Morris’ free throw.
Jordan Hamilton had 21 points for second-seeded Texas (27-7), which beat Kansas 74-63 and snapped the Jayhawks’ team-record 69-game home court winning streak on a melancholy afternoon in January.
The night before, the mother of sophomore forward Thomas Robinson had died unexpectedly. Players and coaches were up most of night trying to comfort the grieving young man, who had also lost both grandparents a few weeks earlier and was now left virtually alone with his 7-year-old sister back in Washington, D.C.
While Kansas (32-2) never tried to use Lisa Robinson’s death as an excuse for its first home loss in almost four years, a pall hung over Allen Fieldhouse that afternoon and the players did seem physically and emotionally spent.
BIG WEST
UC Santa Barbara 64, Long Beach State 56
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Orlando Johnson scored 23 points to lead UC Santa Barbara to a win over top-seeded Long Beach State in the championship game of the Big West tournament.
Fourth-seeded Santa Barbara (18-13), which beat Long Beach State in last year’s conference tournament, earned its second consecutive trip to the NCAAs.
SWAC
Alabama St. 65, Grambling 48
GARLAND, Texas — Tremayne Moorer scored 14 points and Tramaine Butler added 13, lifting Alabama State to a victory over Grambling to win the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship and a trip to the NCAA tournament.
MOUNTAIN WEST
No. 7 San Diego State 72, No. 8 BYU 54
LAS VEGAS — Billy White put on an offensive display and bedeviled national scoring leader Jimmer Fredette in leading No. 7 San Diego State past No. 8 BYU in the Mountain West Conference title game.
White had 21 points, 12 rebounds and five steals and Kawhi Leonard pitched in 20 points and eight boards.
Second-seeded San Diego State (32-2), whose only two losses were against the Cougars (30-4), finally figured out how to topple top-seeded BYU, which was playing its fifth game without star sophomore Brandon Davies, their best post player, who was suspended last week for violating the school’s honor code.
Despite 30 points from a late-charging Fredette, the Cougars fell to 3-2 without Davies, posing an intriguing conundrum for the NCAA selection committee, although their loss to the athletic Aztecs eliminated all hope of a No. 1 seed the Cougars envisioned two weeks ago after climbing to third in the rankings.
SEC
No. 15 Kentucky 72, Alabama 58
ATLANTA — Brandon Knight finally got rolling at the Southeastern Conference tournament and No. 15 Kentucky looked like a young team peaking at just the right time with a semifinal victory over Alabama.
Knight scored 10 straight points to blow it open for the Wildcats (24-8), who have won seven out of eight with their three freshmen starters. They will play in the SEC title game today against regular-season champion Florida.
Kentucky raced to a 37-21 halftime lead, even with Knight missing all four of his shots. Alabama (21-11) scored two quick baskets to start the second half before the freshman guard put an end to any thought of another big comeback by the Crimson Tide.
He knocked down his first two 3-pointers of the tournament, bolted into the lane for a layin and came off a screen to swish another jumper with a hand in his face, stretching Kentucky’s lead to 51-30.
But a potential drawback for Kentucky — no depth — became apparent in the closing minutes. Even with a big lead, coach John Calipari still had four starters and his only real backup, DeAndre Liggins, on the court.
No. 12 Florida 77, Vanderbilt 66
ATLANTA — Kenny Boynton scored 24 points, Erving Walker added 17 and No. 12 Florida recovered from another slow start to beat Vanderbilt in the Southeastern Conference semifinals.
The Gators (26-6) matched their biggest comeback of the season, overcoming a 12-point deficit early in the second half. They will meet Kentucky in the championship game today.
Florida beat the Commodores (23-10) at their 3-point game. Boynton hit five shots beyond the arc, Walker made three and the Gators finished 11 of 21 overall.
Vanderbilt was just 6 of 33, and SEC leading scorer John Jenkins had a particularly tough day. Coming off a 29-point performance in the quarterfinals, he looked as though an ailing left foot was bothering him more than it did against Mississippi State. He scored just 10 points on 3-of-15 shooting.
CONFERENCE USA
Memphis 67, UTEP 66
EL PASO, Texas — Joe Jackson made two free throws with 7 seconds left and Memphis rallied past UTEP to win the Conference USA championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
UTEP had a final chance to win at the buzzer, but Christian Polk’s jumper fell short.
After Jackson’s clutch shots gave the Tigers (25-9) their only lead of the game, UTEP pushed the ball up the floor and retained possession after a loose ball was knocked out of bounds by Memphis with 2.5 seconds left.
Miners coach Tim Floyd called timeout and set up an inbounds play from the baseline. Polk, who scored 27 points, took the pass on the right wing and got off a tough jumper from just inside the 3-point arc with three defenders running at him. The shot bounced off the front of the rim, and Memphis players rushed to the middle of UTEP’s home court to celebrate.
AMERICA EAST
Boston University 56, Stony Brook 54
BOSTON — John Holland hit two free throws with 2.4 seconds left to cap a 27-point performance and lift Boston University into the NCAA tournament with a win over Stony Brook in the America East championship game.
The second-seeded Terriers never led until Holland, whose 23 second-half points led a comeback from a 15-point deficit, made both shots after being fouled by Dallis Joyner while driving along the right baseline.
The Seawolves had one last chance, but Bryan Dougher’s 50-foot shot at the buzzer bounced off the rim. Leonard Hayes led No. 5 seed Stony Brook with 14 points but was scoreless in the second half.
Boston University (21-13) reached the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2002 and seventh time overall.
MEAC
Hampton 60, Morgan State 55
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Brandon Tunnell scored 20 points, including four free throws in the final 35 seconds, and Hampton secured its first NCAA tournament berth in five years with a victory over Morgan State in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title game.
The second-seeded Pirates (24-8) overcame poor shooting with stifling defense to hold off the fourth-seeded Bears (17-14), who had won the last two MEAC titles.
SOUTHLAND
Texas-San Antonio 75, McNeese State 72
KATY, Texas — Freshman forward Jeromie Hill scored 25 points to lead Texas-San Antonio past McNeese State in the Southland Conference title game, giving the Roadrunners an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.
IVY
Princeton 63, Harvard 62
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Princeton’s Douglas Davis hit a leaning jump shot at the buzzer to give the Tigers a trip to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2004 with a wild win over Harvard.
The Crimson, who split the regular season title with Princeton, were seeking their first NCAA bid since 1946.
Davis had 15 points to lead the Tigers (25-6), who will represent the Ivy League for the 24th time in the tournament after overcoming an eight-point second half deficit.
Keith Wright scored 16 points for Harvard (23-6), which still has a chance for an at-large bid.
Ian Hummer’s basket in the lane gave Princeton a 61-60 lead with 37 seconds left. Harvard chose not to call a timeout and Brandyn Curry found himself open for a layup that gave Harvard the lead with 11 seconds left.
Because the Ivy League is the only one in Division I without a postseason tournament, they had to play the tiebreaker to claim the automatic NCAA bid. It was the league’s first tiebreaker since 2002.
PAC-10
Washington 77, No. 16 Arizona 75
LOS ANGELES — Isaiah Thomas hit a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer, lifting Washington past No. 16 Arizona for the Pac-10 tournament championship in the first overtime title game in league history.
Thomas scored 19 of his 28 points in the first half, and freshman Terrence Ross added 16 for the third-seeded Huskies (23-10), who successfully defended their title and earned the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Pac-10 player of the year Derrick Williams had 24 points and 11 rebounds for the top-seeded Wildcats (27-7), who won the regular-season title.
Washington’s C.J. Wilcox hit a 3-pointer that tied the game 68-all with 7 seconds left in regulation.
The Huskies outscored Arizona 9-7 in overtime, taking a 73-70 lead on a basket by Wilcox before Matthew Bryan-Amaning was called for his fifth foul.
MAC
Akron 66, Kent State 65
CLEVELAND — Steve McNees blocked Carlton Guyton’s last-second 3-point shot, giving Akron a win over Kent State in overtime in the Mid-American Conference championship and the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA tourney.