Gonzaga Beats St. John’s in NCAA

Gonzaga University played spoiler in St. John’s University’s return to the national men’s college basketball tournament after a nine-year absence.
Gonzaga, seeded 11th in the Southeast Region, knocked off sixth-seeded St. John’s 86-71 in the last of yesterday’s three upsets in Denver, where No. 13 Morehead State shocked Louisville 62-61 and No. 12 Richmond ousted Vanderbilt 69-66.
“They’ve had a wonderful year,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said of St. John’s. “But I couldn’t be happier for our guys to move on and get another chance to play again.”
University of Kentucky coach John Calipari heaved a sigh of relief after his Wildcats escaped with a 59-57 win against Princeton University yesterday in Tampa, Florida, to avoid their biggest upset loss in a record 51 trips to the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament.
Thirteen of yesterday’s 16 games were won by favorites, including double-digit victories by Pittsburgh, Florida, San Diego State, Brigham Young, Connecticut and Wisconsin.
Morehead State pulled the tournament’s first major upset as a 10 1/2-point underdog. The Morehead, Kentucky- based school beat two-time national champion and Southwest Region No. 4 seed Louisville on a 3-pointer with 4.2 seconds left.

Big East Record

Gonzaga capped the day by beating St. John’s, one of a record 11 teams in the tournament from the Big East Conference. The Spokane, Washington-based Bulldogs, making their 13th straight NCAA tournament appearance, held a 41- 18 rebounding advantage and hit 54 percent of their shots.
Gonzaga advances to play Brigham Young, the No. 3 seed in the Southeast, which beat Wofford 74-66 behind a 32- point performance by Jimmer Fredette, the nation’s leading scorer.
“I’m just excited we’re able to live another day,” Fredette said after hitting 10 of 25 shots.
Pittsburgh was the only No. 1 regional seed in action yesterday, beating the University of North Carolina- Asheville 74-51 in the Southeast Regional. The other three top seeds begin tournament play today, when 16 more games are scheduled.
Ohio State, the No. 1 seed in the East region, meets Texas-San Antonio in Cleveland, and Southwest top seed Kansas plays Boston University in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Defending champion Duke, the top team in the West, meets Hampton University in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Butler Advances

Butler University, which lost to Duke in last year’s NCAA tournament championship game, advanced yesterday with a 60-58 win against Old Dominion on Matt Howard’s layup as time expired. Eighth-seeded Butler next faces Pittsburgh.
Seventh-seeded Temple University also won in the final second, beating 10th-seeded Penn State 66-64 on a contested jump shot by Juan Fernandez with 0.4 seconds on the clock.
The Owls move on to a matchup with No. 2 San Diego State, which beat Northern Colorado 68-50 in Tucson, Arizona, for the first tournament win in school history.
Florida, the No. 2 seed in the Southeast, routed California-Santa Barbara 79-51 and will face No. 7 UCLA, which held off No. 10 Michigan State 78-76 in Tampa.
Southeast No. 4 seed Wisconsin beat Belmont 72-58 in Tucson and next plays No. 5 Kansas State, a 73-68 winner against Utah State.

Huskies Cruise

Big East tournament champion Connecticut, seeded third in the West, rolled past Bucknell 81-52 in Washington as Kemba Walker had 18 points and 12 assists. The Huskies, who are 16-1 in tournament openers since 1990, advance to play Cincinnati, which defeated Missouri 78-63. Connecticut’s 29-point margin of victory was the biggest in yesterday’s games.
“I didn’t think it was going to be this easy, especially when I was back in my hotel room watching all the games, watching some upsets,” said Connecticut’s Alex Oriakhi, who scored nine points. “I was a little bit nervous, to be honest. I’m just happy we pulled it off and we won by a lot.”
Kentucky fought past Princeton on Brandon Knight’s driving layup with two seconds left and next plays West Virginia, which rallied for an 84-76 victory against Clemson.
Darius Miller scored 17 points and Josh Harrellson added 15 as Kentucky overcame a five-point second-half deficit against the Ivy League’s tournament representative.
While Princeton came up short, Morehead State’s win means a 13th seed has now won in 20 of the last 27 NCAA tournaments.
Thanks to Richmond, No. 12 seeds have pulled at least one upset in 21 of the last 23 tournaments. Morehead State and Richmond will play in the next round.