Hope Your Bracket Had Some Upsets!
17 Mar, 2016
The Ivy League has produced its share of surprise winners in the NCAA Tournament. It can add Yale to that list of bracket spoilers.
Makai Mason had a career-high 31 points, including six of Yale’s final nine points, and the No. 12 seed Bulldogs held on to upset No. 5 seed Baylor 79-75 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.
Yale (23-6) earns its first NCAA Tournament victory. It comes in its first appearance since 1962.
“This was bigger than us, and we wanted to do it for all the Yale faithful out there,” said senior Justin Sears. “”It’s great right now. I don’t think it’s really hit us how big this is yet.”
Afterward, the Bulldogs celebrated like a team that had been waiting 54 years to play in the big dance.
When the final horn sounded, coach James Jones walked across the floor with his arms raised. Stopping in front a cheering throng of Yale fans, he slammed both hands down on the scorer’s table before again lifting his arms high.
“The guys in this locker room have known,” said Yale guard Nick Victor. “People outside, they always thought we couldn’t win this one. We knew from the start that we could do this.”
The Bulldogs controlled the game from the opening tap, and suffocated a Baylor defense with its quickness and nullified its advantage inside with methodical movement on offense.
Mason was the catalyst, connecting on nine of his 18 field goal attempts, and going a perfect 11 for 11 from the free throw line.
“I kind of just felt in the zone, I guess,” Mason said. “I guess I thought if I missed it, I’m sure our coach would have screamed at me…Luckily, I was able to knock it down.”
For Baylor (22-12), it is the second straight first-round exit from the tournament. The Bears lost on a last-second 3-pointer last year in a Georgia State’s memorable victory.
Taurean Prince led Baylor (22-12) with 28 points. Johnathan Motley finished with 15 points and seven rebounds.
“We just got outrebounded and they played harder than us the whole 40 minutes,” Prince said.
A big comeback for Little Rock, 85-83 over Purdue in 2OT
DENVER — Little Rock looked all but finished. An underappreciated but no-longer-unknown guard named Josh Hagins wasn’t quite done playing.
The 6-foot-1 senior made a 3-pointer from the edge of the half-court logo to send the game into overtime, a high looper off glass to send it into double-overtime, and kept right on scoring – 31 points in all – until his team had beaten Purdue 85-83 and grabbed a spot in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
“Don’t ever count the little guys out,” first-year coach Chris Beard shouted toward press row as he ran off the court after his team joined Yale as the day’s second No. 12 seed to beat a 5.
Hard to blame anyone who did, though.
The Trojans (30-4) were trailing by 13 and going nowhere with 3:33 left in regulation. Suddenly, the champions of the Sun Belt Conference started making shots and injecting the madness into this March.
Trailing 68-64 with 33 seconds left, Hagins missed a 3 badly, but it rimmed sharply to the corner, and into the hands of 6-foot-11 Lis Shoshi. His 3-point attempt struck iron, bounced straight up and dropped.
Vince Edwards, who led the Boilermakers (26-9) with 24 points, hit two free throws to extend the lead back to three. Then Hagins worked the ball across half court looking only for one thing – a shot. Working against Purdue’s P.J. Thompson, Hagins couldn’t find room until he backed to the edge of the “March Madness” logo, about 30 or 35 feet away, and launched. It went, and the game moved to overtime, tied at 70.
On Little Rock’s last possession in the first extra period, Purdue tried to stop Hagins with Rapheal Davis, but he didn’t have any luck, either. Hagins drove, stopped on a dime and arched a shot that kissed off glass to tie things at 75.
In the second overtime, Hagins opened with a pull-up 12-footer that gave the Trojans a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
Other Hagins highlights: A dribble drive to the baseline, then a fadeaway pull-up – a la Isaiah Thomas – for an 83-79 lead with 1:01 left. Hagins also made the game’s last free throw, and after the buzzer sounded, Beard went to center court and kissed the floor.
Purdue walked off in shock. Senior A.J. Hammons finished his college career with 16 points, 15 rebounds and six blocked shots. When he hit two free throws with 3:33 left, Purdue looked as if it would be moving on.
Instead, it’s Little Rock celebrating its first tournament victory since 1986 and getting ready for a Saturday meeting with Iowa State.
And it’s Purdue going home, wondering what the heck just happened.
”We got complacent with our lead,” Boilermakers coach Matt Painter said. “We didn’t put our foot down and take control of the lead and keep it going, stay strong.”
CBSNEWS
Image SI Now
Mentioned In This Post:
