PITTSBURGH – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – DJ Burns Jr. had six points and one crucial assist in overtime and No. 11 seed North Carolina State outlasted No. 14 Oakland 79-73 on Saturday to secure an improbable Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament’s South Region.
Burns finished with 24 points, 11 rebounds and four assists for the Wolfpack (24-14), who won their seventh straight postseason game between the ACC and NCAA tournaments. Michael O’Connell had 12 points and a season-high eight assists, and DJ Horne, Casey Morsell and Mohamed Diarra each supplied 11 points.
Oakland (24-12) clawed back in the final minutes of regulation before its underdog story ended with an 11-1 NC State run in overtime. Trey Townsend scored 24 of his 30 points after halftime and grabbed 13 rebounds.
Jack Gohlke, Oakland’s first-round hero who made 10 3-pointers against Kentucky, went 6-for-17 from deep Saturday to finish with 22 points and eight rebounds for the Golden Grizzlies.
West Region
No. 1 North Carolina 85, No. 9 Michigan State 69
RJ Davis scored 20 points and the Tar Heels shrugged off a slow start and a couple of shaky moments to defeat the Spartans in Charlotte.
Armando Bacot added 18 points and seven rebounds and Harrison Ingram had 17 points as the Tar Heels delighted a partisan crowd and were sent off to the West Coast with momentum after two games in their home state.
North Carolina (29-7) goes on to face Alabama or Grand Canyon in the Sweet 16 on Thursday night in Los Angeles. Tyson Walker scored 24 points Malik Hall added 17 for Michigan State (20-15), which began the season ranked No. 4 in the country.
No. 2 Arizona 78, No. 7 Dayton 68
Caleb Love scored 19 points and the Wildcats earned a Sweet 16 spot with a victory over the Flyers in Salt Lake City.
Pelle Larsson had 13 points, seven rebounds and six assists, and Keshad Johnson recorded 13 points and seven rebounds for Arizona (27-8). Jaden Bradley added 12 points, three steals and three blocked shots.
Daron Holmes II had 23 points, 11 rebounds and three steals for Dayton (25-8).
Midwest Region
No. 2 Tennessee 62, No. 7 Texas 58
Dalton Knecht churned out 18 points to help Volunteers coach Rick Barnes defeat his former Longhorns in Charlotte.
Knecht, who provided seven of his team’s final 15 points, clinched the outcome by sinking both ends of a 1-and-1 with 3.8 seconds to play. Tennessee (26-8) won despite shooting just 33.8 percent for the game and will face No. 3 Creighton on Friday.
Reserve Chendall Weaver and Tyrese Hunter both had 13 points to lead Texas (21-13), which is coached by former Barnes assistant Rodney Terry. The Longhorns shot 36.4 percent.
No. 3 Creighton 86, No. 11 Oregon 73 (2 OT)
Steven Ashworth scored 21 points and ignited the game-winning, 15-point run to propel the Bluejays past the Ducks in Pittsburgh.
Trey Alexander tallied 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists, while Ryan Kalkbrenner had 19 points, 14 boards and five blocks for Creighton (25-9). The Blue Jays escaped a tough second half and will play No. 2 seed Tennessee in the Sweet 16.
Oregon’s two-man wrecking crew of Jermaine Couisnard and N’Faly Dante ran out of gas in the second overtime. Couisnard finished with 32 points and eight rebounds, and Dante racked up a career-high 28 points and 20 rebounds for the Ducks (24-12).
No. 5 Gonzaga 89, No. 4. Kansas 68
Anton Watson scored 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting and the Bulldogs delivered a massive second-half knockout punch in routing the Jayhawks in Salt Lake City.
Nolan Hickman had 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting as Gonzaga reached its ninth consecutive Sweet 16. The Bulldogs blew the game open with a 32-4 burst over a 12-plus minute stretch of the second half.
Hunter Dickinson scored 15 points and KJ Adams Jr. and Dajuan Harris Jr. added 10 points apiece for the Jayhawks (23-11). Harris added 11 assists, and Kansas again played without All-American Kevin McCullar Jr. (knee). Gonzaga will face either No. 1 Purdue or No. 8 Utah State in the Sweet 16.
East Region
No. 2 Iowa State 67, No. 7 Washington State 56
Tamin Lipsey scored 15 points and the Cyclones reached the Sweet 16 for the second time in three seasons with a victory over the Cougars in Omaha, Neb.
Curtis Jones added 14 points for Iowa State, which won for the ninth time in its past 10 games. Keshon Gilbert and Milan Momcilovic added 10 points apiece.
Jaylen Wells scored 20 points for Washington State. Myles Rice added 13 points.
No. 3 Illinois 89, No. 11 Duquesne 63
Terrence Shannon Jr. scored a game-high 30 points and Marcus Domask added 22 to help the Fighting Illini cruise past the Dukes in Omaha, Neb., and into the Sweet 16.
Illinois (28-8) advanced to face No. 8 Iowa State in Boston on Thursday. It’s the Illini’s first appearance in the Sweet 16 since 2005.
Saturday marked the final game for Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot, who is retiring at season’s end. Dambrot guided the 11th-seeded Dukes to an Atlantic 10 tournament championship to clinch the school’s first NCAA Tournament berth since 1977. Jimmy Clark III paced Duquesne with 14 points, and Fousseyni Drame followed with 13.
–Field Level Media