March Madness: Michigan beats buzzer to send Houston packing

Here is a roundup of Saturday's action from the NCAA men's basketball tournament

EAST REGIONAL

• Villanova 81, Alabama 58
• Texas Tech 69, Florida 66

SOUTH REGIONAL

• Kentucky 95, Buffalo 75
• Loyola Chicago 63, Tennessee 62

MIDWEST REGIONAL

• Duke 87, Rhode Island 62
• Kansas 83, Seton Hall 79

WEST REGIONAL

• Gonzaga 90, Ohio State 84
• Michigan 64, Houston 63

West

Michigan uses miracle to beat Houston

Freshman guard Jordan Poole squared up and drained a long three-pointer at the buzzer, giving third-seeded Michigan a heart-stopping 64-63 victory over No. 6 seed Houston in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night.

Devin Davis had a chance to seal the win for the Cougars, but he missed a pair of foul shots with 3.6 seconds left. The Wolverines (30-7) called timeout to set up a final play, and Muhammad-Ali Abdur Rahkman found Poole on the wing, and the youngster's shot hit nothing but net.

The officials reviewed it to make sure, but Poole had clearly gotten the shot away.

Abdur-Rahkman and Moe Wagner scored 12 points apiece to lead Michigan, but it was the unheralded freshman the stole the show. His flair for the dramatic sent coach John Beilein's team to Los Angeles for a West Regional semifinal against North Carolina or Texas A&M next week.

Gonzaga goes up early, holds on late

Zach Norvell Jr. had 28 points, Rui Hachimura added 25 and Gonzaga is headed back into the Sweet 16 with a 90-84 victory over Ohio State in the West Region on Saturday night. Norvell hit the late tie-breaking three-pointer against UNC-Greensboro in the opening round to help the Zags advance.

The confident freshman made 6 of 11 from the arc against Ohio State to lead Gonzaga (32-4) into the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight season — two wins from a return trip to the Final Four. T

he Bulldogs jumped out to a big early lead, withstood a second-half Ohio State charge and made the big plays down the stretch to earn a spot in the West Region semifinals against the Xavier-Florida State winner in Los Angeles.

South

Loyola Chicago stuns Tennessee in final seconds

Sister Jean's prayers were answered again in another heart-stopper, and the Loyola-Chicago Ramblers are going to the Sweet 16, just as they did the last time they were in the NCAA Tournament 33 years ago.

Clayton Custer bounced in a jumper with 3.3 seconds left, and 11th-seeded Loyola beat SEC-co champion Tennessee 63-62 in a South Region second-round game.

Custer's winner came two days after Donte Ingram's buzzer-beating 3 for Loyola, surely to the delight of Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, the 98-year-old nun, team chaplain and primary booster watching from her wheelchair on a platform near the main TV cameras.

The Ramblers (30-5), who won the Missouri Valley tournament, broke the school record for wins set by the 1963 NCAA championship team. Loyola will play the Cincinnati-Nevada winner in the regional semifinals Thursday in Atlanta.

Tennessee (26-7) took its only lead of the second half on three-point play with 20 seconds remaining.

Gilgeous-Alexander leads Kentucky

Kentucky put an end to any upset talk on its watch Saturday, getting 27 points and a near-perfect shooting game from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in a 95-75 pullaway from 13th-seeded Buffalo.

Gilgeous-Alexander went 10 for 12 and made both of his 3-point attempts to send fifth-seeded Kentucky (26-10) to the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.

Coming into the day, the basketball world was still reverberating from Maryland-Baltimore County's 16 vs. 1 stunner over Virginia the night before. Villanova and Duke both rolled early; the evening slate started with Kentucky, and the Wildcats, with their all-freshman starting lineup, trailed only once: 2-0.

Buffalo (27-9), which got here with a 21-point blowout over Arizona, twice trimmed a double-digit lead to five midway through the second half.

Gilgeous-Alexander answered both times — once with a 3-pointer to extend the lead to eight, then again a few minutes later with a three-point play that started a 12-2 run and put the game away.

East

Texas Tech marches on

Keenan Evans, who has said he treats every game like senior night and doesn't want to be done, scored 22 points and hit a tie-breaking three-pointer with less than three minutes left as third-seeded Texas Tech beat Florida 69-66 on Saturday night.

While the next loss will end All-Big 12 guard Evans' career, high-flying freshman Zhaire Smith is just getting started.

Smith had 18 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, and was on the receiving end of an alley-oop pass from Evans with 29 seconds left for a punctuating dunk to send the Red Raiders (26-10) to Boston.

Chris Chiozza then drove for a layup for the Gators with 25 seconds left, and Evans tried to split a double-team on the inbound. Florida gathered the ball after a wild scramble, and Egor Koulechov and KeVaughn Allen both had three-pointer attempts in the final 10 seconds that came up short.

Villanova puts field on notice

Mikal Bridges hit five threes, scored 23 points and helped No. 1 seed Villanova put the field on notice that it's the team to beat with an 81-58 win over ninth-seeded Alabama (20-16) on Saturday.

The Wildcats (32-4) are in the Sweet 16 for the first time since they won the 2016 national championship and look every bit the favourite to make it two in three years.

Villanova plays Friday in Boston against the Marshall-West Virginia winner.

After a tense first half in a round that has given the program fits, the Wildcats hit their first six threes in the second and put on a thrashing up there among the most dominant under coach Jay Wright.

The Wildcats lost in the first weekend as a 1 or 2 seed in 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2017.

Midwest

Kansas survives Seton Hall scare

Malik Newman scored 28 points, Udoka Azubuike stood toe-to-toe with Seton Hall's bruising Angel Delgado, and No. 1 seed Kansas held off the plucky Pirates 83-79 on Saturday night to send the Jayhawks to their third consecutive Sweet 16.

Svi Mykhailiuk added 16 points and Lagerald Vick had 13 for the Jayhawks (29-7), who converted on every crucial play down the stretch to advance to the semifinals of the Midwest Region.

They'll take on the winner of Sunday's game between Auburn and Clemson in Omaha, Nebraska.

Delgado finished with 24 points and 23 rebounds in a virtuoso effort for the No. 8 seed Pirates (22-11), who had snapped a four-game NCAA Tournament skid in the opening round.

Khadeen Carrington finished with 28 points, many of them on three-pointers in the closing minutes, and Myles Powell added 14 as the pair of guards tried in vain to keep Seton Hall alive.

Duke books spot in Sweet 16

Duke has a Sweet 16 berth in the bag.

Marvin Bagley III had 22 points and nine rebounds to lead No. 2 seed Duke past seventh-seeded Rhode Island 87-62 on Saturday.

The Blue Devils (28-7) are in the Sweet 16 for third time in four years.

Duke plays Friday against the Michigan State-Syracuse winner.

Rhode Island (26-8) defeated Oklahoma in overtime to advance to the second round for the second straight season. E.C. Matthews led the Rams with 23 points.

This one was never in doubt. Trent hit three threes in the first half and the Blue Devils raced to a 45-28 lead.​