No. 1 seed Houston holds off Gonzaga comeback

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — LJ Cryer matched a career high with 30 points, including two free throws with 14.2 seconds left, and No. 1 seed Houston held on to beat eighth-seeded Gonzaga 81-76 on Saturday night to reach the Sweet 16 for the sixth straight NCAA Tournament.

J’Wan Roberts added 18 points, and Milos Uzan made two last free throws with 2.1 seconds left to give the Cougars (32-4) their 15th consecutive win and push them into a regional semifinal against fourth-seeded Purdue on Friday night in Indianapolis.

Houston also ended Gonzaga’s run of nine straight Sweet 16s, which had been the longest active streak in the nation.

Gonzaga (26-9) was trailing 76-67 with just over 2 minutes to go when Graham Ike made two free throws to start its comeback, most of it coming at the foul line. And when Uzan turned the ball over and Khalif Battle made two free throws of his own, the Bulldogs had pulled to 77-76 with 21 seconds remaining.

Houston got the ball to Cryer, who was fouled, and he made both of his free throws to extend the lead. At the other end, Ja’Vier Francis stuffed Battle’s tying 3-point try, and Uzan knocked down his foul shots to seal the win.

Ike finished with 27 points to lead the Bulldogs. Battle had 17.

PURDUE 76, MCNEESE 62

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Trey Kaufman-Renn had 22 points and 15 rebounds, and Purdue used a fast start to roll to a win over McNeese in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.

Fletcher Loyer added 15 points. C.J. Cox finished with 11 points for the Boilermakers (24-11), who advanced through the Midwest Region to the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.

Sincere Parker had 17 points to lead McNeese (28-7). Javohn Garcia added 12 points as the Cowboys came up short in their bid to give the Southland Conference its first Sweet 16 team since Louisiana Tech in 1985.

TENNESSEE 67, UCLA 58

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Chaz Lanier made 4 of 5 3-pointers and finished with 20 points, and No. 2 seed Tennessee advanced to a program-record third straight Sweet 16, beating seventh-seeded UCLA.

The Volunteers (29-7) will play either sixth-seeded Illinois or No. 3 seed Kentucky, who play Sunday in Milwaukee. The Midwest Region semifinals will be Friday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Lanier also set the Tennessee single-season record for 3s with 120, topping the 118 by Chris Lofton in 2007-08. Lofton was in the stands at Rupp Arena to witness Lanier’s performance.

Zakai Zeigler added 15 points for Tennessee, and Jordan Gainey had 13 points to help the Vols take a 19-point lead with 5:15 left.

EAST

BYU 91, WISCONSIN 89

DENVER (AP) — BYU withstood a ferocious charge from Wisconsin’s John Tonje to hold off the Badgers for a victory that sends the program to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2011.

Tonje finished with 37 points, including eight during a desparate comeback down the stretch. But trailing by two, he shot a fadeaway air ball just before the buzzer that allowed the Cougars to escape.

Tonje was the first player to crack 30 points this year in March Madness.

Richie Saunders scored 25 for the sixth-seeded Cougars.

SOUTH

MICHIGAN 91, TEXAS A&M 79

DENVER (AP) — Michigan is going back to the Sweet 16 a year after a 24-loss season, using Roddy Gayle’s surge to beat Texas A&M.

Gayle scored 21 of his season-high 26 points in the second half to help the restocked Wolverines overcome a 10-point deficit and advance to Atlanta to face the Auburn-Creighton winner in the South Region.

Vladislav Goldin had 23 points and 12 rebounds as fifth-seeded Michigan (27-9) overcame another big day for Pharrel Payne, who led Texas A&M with 26 points on 10-of-13 shooting.

AUBURN 82, CREIGHTON 70

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said a trip to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament was no sure thing, and experienced Creighton made his top-seeded team work for it before the Tigers found their defensive mojo in the second half and closed out the ninth-seeded Bluejays.

Tahaad Pettiford scored 16 of his 23 points after halftime and Chad Baker-Mazara added 17 points for Auburn, which held Creighton scoreless for more than six minutes during a 10-0 second-half run. Pettiford scored six points during that burst to push the Tigers to a 68-54 lead.

The No. 1 overall seed in the tournament, Auburn (30-5) moves on to the South Region semifinals in Atlanta next weekend, where it will face No. 5 seed Michigan. Pearl’s team was upset in the first round by Yale last year and he had not taken Auburn past the second round since it reached its only Final Four in 2019. This time, his goal is the Tigers’ first-ever national title.

Creighton under coach Greg McDermott had reached the Sweet 16 in three of the previous four years. Fifth-year senior center Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 18 points in his final game for the Bluejays (25-11).

The 7-foot-1 Kalkbrenner banked in a 3-pointer to open the scoring for Creighton and came out on top statistically against 6-10 Auburn All-American Johni Broome, who had eight points on 4-of-13 shooting and 12 rebounds. Auburn also got 15 points from Denver Jones.

WEST

ARKANSAS 75, ST. JOHN’s 66

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) —John Calipari is heading to the Sweet 16 for the 16th time, guiding the Arkansas Razorbacks past nemesis Rick Pitino and second-seeded St. John’s to bring his fourth school to the NCAA Tournament’s second week.

Billy Richmond III scored 16 points and Karter Knox had 15 for the 10th-seeded Razorbacks, who sent Kansas and their Hall of Fame coach Bill Self home from the “Region of Coaches” in the first round.

But the victory over his longtime rival was especially sweet for Calipari.

Zuby Ejiofor had 23 points and 12 rebounds for Big East champion St. John’s (31-5) — an unprecedented sixth school Pitino has taken to the tournament. His history in Providence — the Friars reached the 1987 Final Four in his tenure — gave him a home-court advantage.

But in a poor-shooting foulfest, Arkansas (22-13) barely did enough to eliminate St. John’s — making the Red Storm the first team seeded No. 4 or higher to exit what’s been a chalky tournament so far.

TEXAS TECH 77, DRAKE 64

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Darrion Williams scored a season-high 28 points, JT Toppin had 25 points and 12 rebounds, and No. 3 seed Texas Tech dominated No. 11 seed Drake in the paint on its way to a victory in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Elijah Hawkins added 16 points for the Red Raiders (27-8), who denied the Bulldogs their first Sweet 16 trip in more than five decades and will play No. 10 seed Arkansas in the West Region semifinals Thursday night in San Francisco.

Bennett Stirtz scored 21 points and Daniel Abreu added 15 for Drake (31-4), which was outscored 50-20 inside by the bigger, stronger Red Raiders, and had its eight-game winning streak come to an end.

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness