KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Arizona’s Jaden Bradley answered a tying 3-pointer by Iowa State guard Tamin Lipsey with a fall-away jumper at the buzzer, sending the second-ranked Wildcats to an 82-80 victory over the No. 7 Cyclones in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals Friday night.
Bradley finished with 15 points, and Anthony Dell’Orso matched a career-best with six 3-pointers and scored 26 points for the tournament’s top seed. The Wildcats (31-2) advanced to play fifth-ranked Houston in Saturday night’s championship game.
Ivan Kharchenkov also had 17 points for Arizona. Tobe Awaka added 10 points and 10 rebounds.
It looked as if the game was headed to overtime after Lipsey, who had been 1 for 10 from the field, drilled a 3-pointer from the wing with 15.2 seconds to go. Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd chose not to call a timeout and Bradley calmly walked the ball up the floor, then drove to his right and hit the winner before his teammates jumped from the bench on top of him.
Milan Momcilovic matched a career-high eight 3-pointers and scored 28 points for the No. 5 seed Cyclones (27-7). All-Big 12 forward Joshua Jefferson had 21 points, Killyan Toure added 12 and Lipsey finished with eight points and seven assists.
NO. 1 DUKE 73, CLEMSON 61
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Cameron Boozer had 24 points, 14 rebounds and five assists and Duke ran out to a 19-point halftime lead and held on to beat Clemson to advance to the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament championship game.
Cayden Boozer, who is starting for the injured Caleb Foster, set a career high with 16 points and Nikolas Khamenia chipped in with 14 points for the Blue Devils.
Duke (31-2) will play for its second straight ACC Tournament title and third in the last four years on Saturday night against No. 10 Virginia, an 84-62 winner over Miami in the other semifinal.
RJ Godfrey had 18 points for Clemson (24-10).
Cameron Boozer, the ACC player of the year, showed off his diverse skillset, scoring from the low post, mid-range and from deep where he knocked down three 3s. He even ran the point at times and was dominant on the boards, helping Duke outrebound Clemson 41-27.
NO. 3 MICHIGAN 71, OHIO ST. 67
CHICAGO (AP) — Aday Mara scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half, helping Michigan hold off Bruce Thornton and Ohio State for a victory in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
Elliot Cadeau had 15 points, seven assists and three steals for Michigan in its fifth consecutive win. Trey McKenney scored 12 points, and Morez Johnson Jr. finished with 11.
Mara anchored a strong defensive effort that shut down Ohio State in the final minutes. It was the first game of the tournament for the top-seeded Wolverines (30-2), while the Buckeyes (21-12) advanced with a 72-69 victory over Iowa on Thursday.
Michigan is going for its second straight Big Ten tourney title and fifth overall. It will face No. 23 Wisconsin on Saturday after the Badgers rallied for a 91-88 overtime win over No. 9 Illinois in the second quarterfinal of the day.
Thornton scored 22 points for Ohio State, and Devin Royal had 13. It was the Buckeyes’ third loss of the season against the Wolverines.
Ohio State grabbed its first lead of the game when Royal’s 3-pointer from the top of the key made it 61-60 with 5:40 left.
Mara’s layup lifted Michigan to a 67-64 advantage with 2:56 to go. Royal and Thornton then missed jumpers for Ohio State before Yaxel Lendeborg made a free throw for the Wolverines with 1:24 remaining.
The Buckeyes pulled within two on Royal’s two foul shots in the final seconds, but Lendeborg responded with two free throws to help close it out.
Lendeborg, the Big Ten player of the year, was held to six points. But he also had six assists and five rebounds.
NO. 4 FLORIDA 71, KENTUCKY 63
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Alex Condon scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Florida took the first step toward defending its Southeastern Conference Tournament title by beating Kentucky in the quarterfinals.
The Gators (26-6) never trailed and were tied only once while winning their 12th straight game. The regular-season SEC champions, who are seeking a sixth tournament title overall, will play No. 22 Vanderbilt in Saturday’s semifinals.
Thomas Haugh added 13 points for Florida, and Xaivian Lee had 11.
Kentucky (21-13) now has one more loss all-time (32) than titles (31) in this tournament. The ninth-seeded Wildcats played their third game in as many days after opening the tournament Wednesday morning, a first for a program that last won this event in 2018.
Denzel Aberdeen led Kentucky with 17 points, reserve Mouhamed Dioubate scored 14 and Otega Oweh added 10.
NO. 5 HOUSTON 69, NO. 14 KANSAS 47
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kingston Flemings scored 21 points, fellow freshman Chris Cenac Jr. had 17 points and 14 rebounds, and Houston rolled past poor-shooting and lackluster Kansas in the semifinals of the Big 12 Tournament.
The second-seeded Cougars (28-5) held the third-seeded Jayhawks without a field goal for more than 10 minutes at point in the game, ultimately breezing into another championship matchup with second-ranked Arizona on Saturday night.
Houston beat the Wildcats 72-64 last year for its first Big 12 Tournament title.
Darryn Peterson had 14 points to lead the Jayhawks (23-10), who had beaten the Cougars in their only regular-season matchup. But the Jayhawks were a whole lot better that night in Allen Fieldhouse than they were at T-Mobile Center, where they were 6 for 31 from the field in the second half and shot 24.6% overall in their lowest-scoring game of the season.
NO. 6 UCONN 67, GEORGETOWN 51
NEW YORK (AP) — Braylon Mullins scored 15 of his 21 points in the first half, Jayden Ross hit a couple of momentum-stunting 3-pointers in the second, and UConn defeated Georgetown to set up a showdown of the top two seeds in the Big East Tournament final.
The second-seeded Huskies (29-4) will face regular-season conference champion and 13th-ranked St. John’s in the title game Saturday night after the Red Storm beat Seton Hall 78-68 in the other semifinal.
Like St. John’s, UConn has yet to trail in either of its first two games this week at Madison Square Garden. Mullins scored five of the team’s first seven points to go up 7-0, and the closest 11th-seeded Georgetown (16-18) got after that was down three at the 7 1/2-minute mark.
UConn led by 11 at halftime, despite not attempting a free throw to that point, and finished with assists on 21 of its 28 field goals. Without leading scorer KJ Lewis, who was ruled out for the season with a left ankle injury, the Hoyas were ultimately overmatched by a stacked opponent they played tight in January and again in February.
UCLA 88, NO. 8 MICHIGAN STATE 84
CHICAGO (AP) — Donovan Dent had 23 points and 12 assists, Trent Perry added 22 points and UCLA held off Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals despite losing star Tyler Bilodeau to a leg injury.
Bilodeau had to be helped off the court late in the first half and spent the second on the sideline with his right knee wrapped. The Bruins led by 15 early in the second half and withstood several big pushes down the stretch to advance to a semifinal matchup with No. 18 Purdue, which beat No. 11 Nebraska 74-58.
They were clinging to an 82-80 lead when Brandon Williams scored on a fast-break layup to make it a four-point game with 25 seconds remaining. Carson Cooper made a layup for Michigan State with 12 seconds left. UCLA’s Trent Perry immediately answered with two free throws.
Jeremy Fears Jr. then drove for a layup to cut it to 86-84 with six seconds remaining. But Perry sealed the win with two free throws.
NO. 10 VIRGINIA 84, MIAMI 62
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Virginia beat Miami to advance to the ACC Tournament championship game for the first time since 2023.
Mailk Thomas scored nine of his 15 points in the second half for the Cavaliers, who improved to 29-4 under first-year coach Ryan Odom.
Tru Washington scored 13 points and Shelton Henderson added 12 for Miami, which shot just 39% from the field and was outrebounded 35-24.
Virginia broke open a tightly contested defensive game with a 13-2 run over the final 2:47 of the first half for a 38-23 lead at the break. Chance Mallory closed out the run with a running 3-pointer to beat the buzzer following a Miami turnover.
The Hurricanes never recovered.
The lead grew to 18 points six minutes into the second half as Miami struggled to find lanes to attack the basket against the taller Cavaliers. Miami couldn’t hit from deep, missing 10 of its first 11 shots from behind the 3-point line.
NO. 18 PURDUE 74, NO. 11 NEBRASKA 58
CHICAGO (AP) — Fletcher Loyer scored 19 points, Braden Smith collected 10 more assists and Purdue beat Nebraska in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
C.J. Cox and Oscar Cluff each had 12 points for the Boilermakers, and Trey Kaufman-Renn finished with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Smith set a Big Ten Tournament record and matched a career high with 16 assists in an 81-68 victory over Northwestern on Thursday. The senior guard needs 22 more assists to break Bobby Hurley’s NCAA record of 1,076 assists in 140 games for Duke from 1989-93.
Purdue (25-8) advanced to the Big Ten semifinals for the fourth time in the last five years, bouncing back nicely after closing the regular season with four losses in six games. It will play UCLA on Saturday.
Pryce Sandford scored 15 points for Nebraska, which dropped to 6-14 all-time in the Big Ten tourney. Rienk Mast finished with 11.
NO. 13 ST. JOHN'S 78, SETON HALL 68
NEW YORK (AP) — Zuby Ejiofor scored 20 points and St. John’s beat Seton Hall to reach the Big East Tournament title game for the second consecutive season.
Joson Sanon added 15 points off the bench for the defending champion Red Storm (27-6), who will face sixth-ranked and second-seeded UConn on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
St. John’s, outright regular-season champions each of the past two years, has never won back-to-back Big East Tournament crowns. The program has advanced to the semifinals in all three seasons under Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino after failing to do so at all from 2001-23.
Bryce Hopkins had 13 points and seven rebounds for the Johnnies, who improved to 10-1 as the top seed in this event. Dillon Mitchell provided 13 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Budd Clark paced the fourth-seeded Pirates (21-12) with 17 points and 11 assists. Seton Hall was trying to reach the final for the first time since a 74-72 loss to Villanova in 2019.
St. John’s has won six straight matchups in the Hudson River rivalry, its longest streak since winning 15 in a row from 1982-88.
MISSISSIPPI 80, NO. 15 ALABAMA 79
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — AJ Storr scored 17 points, Ilias Kamardine added 16 and 15th-seeded Mississippi upset second-seeded Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinals.
Mississippi (15-19) won for the third time in three days in the tournament after losing 12 of the final 13 regular-season games. The Rebels advanced to the semifinals Saturday against the winner of the final quarterfinal matchup between No. 17 Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Labaron Philon led Alabama (23-9) with 28 points. Aden Holloway added 18 points and Aiden Sherrell had 14. Philon was five for seven from 3-point range and shot 9 of 16 overall.
Philon cut Mississippi’s lead to a point with two free throws with 13.4 seconds remaining. Mississippi’s Eduardo Klafke missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 9.4 seconds remaining. Alabama went the other way on the rebound, but turned the ball over under its own basket.
NO. 23 WISCONSIN 91, NO. 9 ILLINOIS 88, OT
CHICAGO (AP) — Nick Boyd scored a career-high 38 points, John Blackwell added 31 and Wisconsin rallied from 15 down in the second half to beat Illinois in overtime in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
It was tied at 80 in overtime when Boyd scored in the paint and Austin Rapp nailed a 3 to give Wisconsin a five-point lead with 2:33 remaining.
The Badgers were up by four with about a minute left when Boyd rebounded a missed 3 by Rapp. That led to two free throws for Blackwell, making it 87-81 with 46 seconds left.
Illinois got within 90-88 on David Mirkovic’s layup with six seconds remaining. Wisconsin’s Braeden Carrington then missed a free throw and hit the second to make it a three-point game before Illinois’ Keaton Wagler missed a long 3 at the buzzer.
The Badgers (24-9) advanced to the semifinals against No. 3 Michigan on Saturday. The Wolverines, seeking their second straight Big Ten Tournament title, held off Ohio State 71-67.
Boyd surpassed his previous high of 36 points in a win against Providence on Nov. 27. Blackwell, coming off a career-best 34 a day earlier against Washington, became Wisconsin’s all-time leading scorer in Big Ten Tournament games with 144 points.
NO. 22 VANDERBILT 75, NO. 25 TENNESSEE 68
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Duke Miles scored a season-high 30 points as Vanderbilt beat Tennessee to advance to the Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinals.
The fourth-seeded Commodores (25-7) came in with its highest seeding since winning the 2012 SEC Tournament. They will play regular-season SEC champ Florida, a 71-63 winner over Kentucky, on Saturday.
Tyler Tanner added 19 points for the Commodores, who won their third straight.
No. 25 Tennessee (22-11) lost to Vanderbilt for the second time in a week and leaves well short of the tournament title game where the Vols lost to Florida last year.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie led Tennessee with 21 points. Nate Ament, who had 27 points in the second round, missed his first eight shots. He finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds. J.P. Estrella added 12 points and Jaylen Carey 10.
_____
