The Latest on the NCAA Tournament (all times Eastern):
8:45 p.m.
No. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin has a 30-27 halftime lead over Big 12 runner-up Texas Tech.
Kevon Harris hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to put the Lumberjacks back in the lead. SFA led for 15 minutes in the first half.
This is a matchup of former junior college colleges who used to have meals together at McDonald’s on recruiting trips. Chris Beard is in his second season at Texas Tech, like Kyle Keller at Stephen F. Austin.
All-Big 12 guard Keenan Evans had only four points – on four free throws while going 0-for-4 from the field. But he had the highlight assist, starting the alley-oop play that ended with a 360-degree dunk by Zhaire Smith.
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8:40 p.m.
Rob Gray has shot sixth-seeded Houston to a 39-29 lead over San Diego State at halftime of their opening-round game in the West Region.
The Cougars’ star guard hit a 3-pointer from about 30 feet as the shot clock wound down, and just before the halftime buzzer, to finish with 16 points. He also has five rebounds.
Houston struggled early against the Aztecs’ length, especially 6-foot-11 forwards Malik Pope and Jalen McDaniels. But the Cougars finally had success getting to the rim late in the half, allowing them to draw away to their biggest lead of the game.
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7:45 p.m.
Tournament betting favorite Villanova is rolling against Radford in the first round.
The top-seeded Wildcats thrashed No. 16 Radford in the first half of their NCAA Tournament game.
The Wildcats lead 44-23.
It could have been much worse. At one point, Big East player of the year Jalen Brunson had 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting. Radford? Just 10 points on 4 of 20 from the floor.
Villanova started the game shooting 81 percent. For those who struggle with math, that’s a crisp 81 percent.
Radford won a First Four game to advance to Pittsburgh. The Wildcats just won the Big East Tournament in New York. With more shooting performances like this one, they’ll win much, much more in March.
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6:40 p.m.
Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann gave a special shoutout after his fifth-seeded Buckeyes beat No. 12 seed South Dakota State 81-73, saying his players were motivated by bracketeers saying they would lose.
Holtmann said in a postgame TV interview Thursday that he gets the hoopla over upsets and his team may have fed into it with some mixed results.
But fans weren’t fading the Buckeyes nearly as much as he thinks – more than three-fourths picked Ohio State to win in the first round, better backing than fellow No. 5 seed Clemson.
The upset many fans called was Loyola of Chicago, which beat Miami on a last-second 3-pointer to reward 36 percent of the brackets filled out on ESPN and Yahoo.
5:30 p.m.
Loyola Chicago’s Donte Ingram drained a 3-pointer with 0.3 seconds left to help the 11th-seeded Ramblers defeat No. 6 seed Miami 64-62 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Miami had one last chance, but the Hurricanes had to go the length of the court and couldn’t get a shot off.
The Ramblers won the Missouri Valley Tournament to reach the NCAAs for the first time since losing to Patrick Ewing and Georgetown in the Sweet 16 in 1985. It was Loyola’s 11th straight win.
Loyola advanced to play No. 3 seed Tennessee on Saturday.
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5:20 p.m.
Seton Hall and North Carolina State have decided defense is optional in their first-round game.
Desi Rodriguez poured in 14 points, Khadeem Carrington added 13 and the Pirates shot 61 percent from the field in taking a 51-41 lead over the Wolfpack into halftime.
Seton Hall scored on its first eight possessions, building an early led it kept most of the half.
Al Freeman led three Pirates in double-figures scoring with 14 first-half points.
The winner gets top-seeded Kansas in the Midwest Region’s second round Saturday.
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5:15 p.m.
The first No. 12 seed over a No. 5 upset in this NCAA Tournament could be in the making in Boise.
South Dakota State, behind big man Mike Daum, was tied at 43 with Ohio State at halftime on Thursday in the West Region.
Daum has 17 points for the Jackrabbits. Keita Bates-Diop leads the Buckeyes with 17.
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5 p.m.
Kansas expects to have injured big man Udoka Azubuike for more regular minutes when the top-seeded Jayhawks play the Seton Hall-North Carolina State winner in the second round on Saturday.
The 7-footer played only three minutes, pulling down one rebound without taking a shot, in their 76-60 victory over Penn in the Midwest Region’s opening round. He played wearing a hefty brace on his left knee, where he strained a ligament in practice last week.
Jayhawks coach Bill Self said he could have played ”max five or six minutes,” but that he held him out in the second half as Kansas pulled away. The hope is to have him 80 percent for practice Friday.
”At first I was kind of getting used to my legs but after that I was fine,” Azubuike said. ”I’m going to practice tomorrow and hopefully play much more on Saturday.”
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5 p.m.
Marvin Bagley III scored 22 points and second-seeded Duke dominated from start-to-finish in a 89-67 win over No. 15 Iona in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday
The Blue Devils (27-7) will play Rhode Island in the Midwest Regional on Saturday.
The seventh-seeded Rams (26-7) beat Oklahoma 83-78 in overtime to advance.
Duke never left any doubt and is it starts it quest to win its first national championship since 2015. They led by 17 points late in the first half and got every Blue Devil played a role.
Trevon Duval scored 19 points, and Grayson Allen and Gary Trent Jr. each scored 16 points. Duval, Trent and Allen each hit four 3-pointers.
The Gaels (20-14) clapped toward their fans as they walked off the court. Roland Griffin led them 21 points.
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4:15 p.m.
Loyola-Chicago is all even with Miami at halftime of its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 33 years.
Miami’s Dejan Vasiljevic hit a jump-hook in the lane with one second remaining to tie the score at 28.
The 11th-seeded Ramblers won the Missouri Valley Tournament to reach the NCAAs for the first time since losing to Patrick Ewing and Georgetown in the Sweet 16 in 1985. They have a boisterous group of fans wearing maroon-and-gold scarves in a section across the American Airlines Center court from their team’s bench.
Burly center Cameron Krutwig leads Loyola-Chicago with eight points at halftime.
Sixth-seeded Miami is in its third straight NCAA Tournament under coach Jim Larranaga. He took No. 11 seed George Mason to the Final Four in 2006.
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4:05 p.m.
Devonte Graham ignited a sluggish Kansas offense midway through the first half, pouring in 29 points and lifting the top-seeded Jayhawks to a tough, grind-it-out 76-60 victory over No. 16 Pennsylvania in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.
Lagerald Vick added 14 points for the Jayhawks (28-7), who trailed the Ivy League champs by 10 in the early stages before going on a 19-2 run late in the first half to take control.
Graham, perhaps atoning for a miserable performance in last year’s tournament loss to Oregon, also had six rebounds and six assists as the Jayhawks cruised into a second-round matchup with eighth-seeded Seton Hall or No. 9 seed North Carolina State in the loaded Midwest Region.
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4 p.m.
With their coach’s connections to the NBA, the Marshall Thundering Herd players think their offense is the most fun in the nation.
Coach Dan D’Antoni is the older brother of Houston Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni. Before he got the Marshall job, Dan was an assistant under his brother at various stops in the NBA.
Guard Jon Elmore said Thursday as Marshall prepared for Friday’s game against Wichita State that his team runs a lot of NBA plays.
”Everything Houston does we do, the D’Antonis of course, and you will see Golden State running our plays and we will run their plays. Then you will see Cleveland running some of that stuff and it’s very pro-oriented,” Elmore said.
Elmore says he thinks the style surprises opponents.
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3:45 p.m.
Gonzaga’s Zach Norvell Jr. hit a 3-pointer with 22 seconds left to break a tie with UNC Greensboro, lifting the Zags to a 68-64 first round win and avoiding an embarrassing NCAA Tournament exit for a team that made the final last year.
UNC Greensboro made its run midway through the second half as it pushed Gonzaga to the brink of elimination.
The game coincided with top-seeded Kansas pulling away from Penn. The Ivy League champs made an early push, but Kansas rallied to retake the lead before halftime. The Jayhawks led 69-56 with less than four minutes left.
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3:30 p.m.
CBS analyst Kenny Smith took aim at the NCAA early in Thursday’s broadcast for what he called a ”predatory” environment disguised as amateurism.
The former NBA and North Carolina star said after the first game of this year’s tournament that the current system takes advantage of the players. Co-host Charles Barkley pushed back, saying that paying players would lead to problems between the stars who generate revenue and their less-talented teammates.
But even the fact that they were discussing it was unusual. Networks often balk at criticizing their sports partners for fear of jeopardizing deals that run into the billions of dollars.
CBS is paying more than $10.8 billion to broadcast the tournament for 14 years through 2024.
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3:25 p.m.
No. 13 seed UNC Greensboro has erased a double-digit deficit against No. 4 seed Gonzaga to tie the game at 60 with four minutes remaining in Boise.
Francis Alonso is doing most of the damage. He has 16 points heading into the homestretch.
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3 p.m.
Kansas star Devonte Graham caught fire midway through the first half, pouring in 18 points to help the top-seeded Jayhawks overcome a sluggish start and take a 33-26 lead over Penn into halftime.
The Jayhawks trailed the No. 16 seed Quakers 21-11 with 7 minutes left in the half, misfiring on seven of their first eight 3-point attempts and failing to slow down Penn’s inside-outside offense.
Graham started the comeback with a putback off a missed layup in transition, then knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to cap a 19-2 run that gave Kansas a 30-23 lead in the final minute.
The Big 12 player of the year added three free throws with 3.6 seconds left heading into halftime.
No team seeded 16th has ever beaten a 1 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
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2:45 p.m.
Rhode Island is into the round of 32 for the second straight season.
The seventh-seeded Rams held off Oklahoma star Trae Young and the 10th-seeded Sooners 83-78 in overtime.
E.C. Matthews led the Rams (26-7) with 16 points, including a 3-pointer with 31 seconds left in the extra period that gave Rhode Island the cushion it needed to move on. Freshman guard Fatts Russell scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half for the Rams.
Young, the nation’s leading scorer, led the Sooners (18-14) with 28 points and seven assists but also finished with six turnovers. The freshman took and missed a pair of deep 3-pointers with the Sooners holding the lead early in overtime. The balanced Rams responded behind Matthews.
Rhode Island will play the winner of Duke and Iona on Saturday.
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2:35 p.m.
Gonzaga is slowly figuring out the UNC-Greensboro defense and slowly building a lead.
The Bulldogs scored the last five points of the first half to take a 32-23 lead into the locker room.
Greensboro’s defense is as good as advertised. Gonzaga has made only 37 percent of its shots. But the Spartans are 0 for 13 from 3-point range and are shooting 28 percent overall.
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