Sunday tourney recap

by:Ricki Barker03/22/15

@RickiBarkerKSR

ncaaLOGO_20120307044517_640_480 The NCAA Tournament is always chock full of crazy upsets and Cinderella stories. If you haven't been chained to your couch the whole day, you may have missed some of the action. Not to worry, here's a short recap of some of the major games: (1) Duke beat (8) San Diego St. 68 to 49

With top ranked seeds No.1 Villanova and No. 2 Virginia and Kansas out of the tourney, it can give any top seed a pause. However, Duke showed Sunday that they are not the Blue Devils of last year, who were knocked out by Mercer.

Duke dominated San Diego St. the entire game, never surrendering the lead. Jahlil Okakor was a force to be reckoned with, finishing with 26 points on 12-of-16 shooting, six rebounds and three blocks.  Duke forced 11 Aztec turnovers and finished the game with seven steals.

(7) Wichita St. beat (2) Kansas 78 - 65 Wichita State had a good shooting day, hitting 49 percent of their attempts and getting easy looks at the basket despite the Jayhawk's efforts on defense. Kansas, who may have been the weakest of the 2 seeds, only shot 20 of 57 from the field against a firm Shocker defense. This marks the second time in three years Wichita State is playing in the Sweet 16. This makes Kansas' sixth first-weekend loss as a Top-2 seed, the most in NCAA Tournament history. The Shockers and the Wildcats are now one win away from meeting again in the tourney, but this time Kentucky will be fighting for perfection. (7) Michigan St. beat (2) Virginia 60 - 54 This is will make the fourth straight season Michigan State has made Sweet Sixteen. The Cavaliers was the top remaining seed in the Each Region after No.1 Villanova's loss to NC State Saturday. The Spartans successfully held Virginia in a defensive battle. The Spartans had an early 10-0 run thanks to senior guard Travis Trice who knocked down a pair of threes to go along with a layup and a dunk.

Michigan State is 2nd team in NCAA Tournament history to defeat the same top-2 seed in back-to-back years (Florida over UCLA, 2006, 2007)

(3) Oklahoma beat (11) Dayton 72 - 66

The Sooners are headed to the Sweet 16 for the first time in six years. It also marks the first time a coach in NCAA history, Lon Kruger, has taken four different schools to the regional semifinals.

Dayton held Oklahoma close throughout the game, but The Flyers started to show signs of fatigue around the 10-minute mark. Oklahoma

Dayton's momentum slowly started fading away around the 10-minute mark, at which point they held a seven-point edge, 56-49. Oklahoma then went on an 8-0 run, forcing five turnovers and clinching the win.

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2024-04-24