UConn continues title defence, off to Sweet 16 by topping Northwestern

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NEW YORK — Donovan Clingan, Tristen Newton and top overall seed UConn overwhelmed an undermanned Northwestern team 75-58 on Sunday night to sail into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

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Newton had 20 points and 10 assists, and Clingan finished with 14 points, 14 rebounds and eight blocks as the Huskies (33-3) led wire-to-wire and became the first defending national champions to reach the regional semifinals since Duke in 2016.

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Connecticut built a 30-point cushion and matched a program record for wins set by the 2013-14 national championship squad. It will play Thursday night in the East Region semifinals against No. 5 seed San Diego State or 13th-seeded Yale in Boston, about a 135-km drive from UConn’s campus.

Undersized and overmatched, Boo Buie and the ninth-seeded Wildcats (22-12) were buried under a dizzying display of dunks, blocks, alley-oops and layups.

They made a late push that prompted Huskies coach Dan Hurley to call a timeout with 5:26 remaining, but Northwestern never got the margin under 16.

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MIDWEST REGION

PURDUE 106, UTAH STATE 67

Zach Edey had 23 points and 14 rebounds, and No. 1 seed Purdue cruised into the Sweet 16 by pounding eighth-seeded Utah State with an impressive offensive performance in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Trey Kaufman-Renn added 18 points and eight boards for Purdue (31-7), which broke the school’s single-season record for victories. Fletcher Loyer had 15 points, and Braden Smith had all six of his assists in the second half when the Boilermakers shot 65.2% from the field before pulling the starters.

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Purdue also set a school record for most points in a March Madness game. Next up is fifth-seeded Gonzaga in the Midwest Region semifinals in Detroit.

Great Osodor, the Mountain West Player of the Year, had 14 points and six rebounds for Utah State. The Aggies (28-7) were outrebounded 49-26, and they headed home still in search of the program’s first regional semifinal since 1970.

SOUTH REGION

MARQUETTE 80, COLORADO 77

Tyler Kolek had 21 points and 11 assists, and David Joplin made two free throws with 7.4 seconds left to help Marquette finally put away Colorado.

In their third season under coach Shaka Smart, the second-seeded Golden Eagles (27-9) reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013 by outlasting the 10th-seeded Buffaloes (26-11) and their dynamic offence.

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Kam Jones scored 18 points and Joplin finished with 14 for Marquette, which shot 61.8% from the field but still couldn’t shake Colorado until the closing seconds. Chase Ross made a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 2:53 left and finished with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

KJ Simpson scored 20 points and Tristan da Silva had 17 for Colorado, which trailed by 11 at halftime but rallied to take a 55-54 lead just over five minutes into the second half. Kolek put the Golden Eagles back on top with a short jumper and Marquette never trailed again, but Colorado tied it twice, the last time on a 3-pointer by da Silva with 4:02 remaining.

The Buffs trailed 79-77 and had to foul three times before putting Joplin on the line for a 1-and-1. He knocked down both and set up a South Region semifinal meeting with No. 11 seed North Carolina State in Dallas on Friday.

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DUKE, 93, JAMES MADISON 55

Jared McCain scored 22 of his 30 points in the first half and set a Duke record for an NCAA Tournament game with eight 3-pointers as the Blue Devils ended 12th-seeded James Madison’s dream season with a second-round victory.

The fourth-seeded Blue Devils (26-8) are headed to the Sweet 16 to face the winner of Houston-Texas A&M in the South Region semifinals Friday in Dallas.

McCain and Duke emphatically ended the nation’s longest active winning streak at 14 games, taking a 22-point lead into halftime and never letting the advantage slip below 20 in the second half. The rugged defence JMU used to beat Wisconsin in the first round didn’t seem to bother the Blue Devils at all.

The Dukes (32-4) finished with a program record for victories. Terrence Edwards Jr. led JMU with 13 points.

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McCain made his eighth 3 with 11:59 left in the second half, holding the follow-through and making the score 66-39.

The charismatic freshman from California broke a school record set by Quinn Cook in a stunning first-round loss to Mercer in 2014.

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WEST REGION

CLEMSON 72, BAYLOR 64

Chase Hunter had 20 points and six assists, and No. 6 seed Clemson held off third-seeded Baylor for a victory in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Tigers advanced to the Sweet 16 for the second time in coach Brad Brownell’s 14 seasons. They also made it in 2018, when they lost to Kansas in the third round.

Joseph Girard III scored 13 points for the Tigers (23-11), and Ian Schieffelin and PJ Hall each had 11.

Next up for Clemson is No. 2 seed Arizona in the West Region semifinals in Los Angeles.

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RayJ Dennis led Baylor with 27 points, including 21 in the second half. Ja’Kobe Walter added 20 points, but the Bears (24-11) lost in the second round of the NCAA tourney for the third straight year.

ALABAMA 72, GRAND CANYON 61

Mark Sears had 26 points and 12 rebounds, Mouhamed Dioubate scored all nine of his points in the final 5 1/2 minutes, and fourth-seeded Alabama used a late surge to beat No. 12 seed Grand Canyon.

Sears carried the Crimson Tide (23-11) for the better part of 35 minutes before getting some unexpected help from Dioubate. The 6-foot-7 freshman scored more than nine points only twice all season but made the most of his chance to contribute in the final minutes of a physical game with Alabama in foul trouble and without starter Latrell Wrightsell Jr., who suffered a head injury in the first half.

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Alabama advanced to the Sweet 16 for the 10th time overall and third time in the last four seasons under coach Nate Oats. The Crimson Tide will play in a regional semifinal in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1990-91; last year, Alabama was a No. 1 seed and fell to eventual national runner-up San Diego State.

This time, it’ll be the Tide trying to take down top-seeded North Carolina on Thursday in a West Region semifinal Los Angeles.

Sears made 8 of 18 shots and cheekily waved goodbye in the final seconds to the Grand Canyon “Havocs” fans who filled Spokane Arena. Dioubate also grabbed five rebounds in his 12 minutes and played solid defence on Grand Canyon star Tyon Grant-Foster.

Grant-Foster scored 29 points, one off his career high, but didn’t score in the final 4:40. The Lopes shot 32%, including a brutal 3 of 17 to begin the game. Grand Canyon (31-4) also couldn’t find anything from beyond the 3-point arc, going 2 of 20.

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