PITTSBURGH – Jack Gohlke drilled 10 3-pointers en route to 32 points and DQ Cole buried the final triple of the game to clinch No. 14 seed Oakland’s 80-76 upset of No. 3 seed Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament’s South Region on Thursday.
The Golden Grizzlies (24-11) led for nearly the entire second half and went shot for shot with the heavily favored Wildcats (23-10) down the stretch. Oakland advances to the Round of 32 for the first time since joining Division I while handing Kentucky its second first-round exit in three years.
Gohlke, a graduate transfer from Division II Hillsdale, earned his place in NCAA Tournament lore. All 20 of his field-goal attempts came from 3-point range, and he came one shy of tying the tournament single-game record of 11 triples set by Jeff Fryer of Loyola Marymount in 1990.
Oakland, the Horizon League champion, will face No. 11 NC State in the second round Saturday. Antonio Reeves scored 27 points and went 5-for-9 on 3-point shots in his attempt to carry Kentucky back from the dead. Tre Mitchell had 14 points and 13 rebounds.
South Region
No. 11 North Carolina State 80, No. 6 Texas Tech 67
Ben Middlebrooks scored a career-high 21 points, Mohamed Diarra added a career-best 17 points plus 12 rebounds and the Wolfpack continued their surprising March by taking down the Red Raiders in Pittsburgh.
DJ Horne tallied 16 points, six rebounds and five assists and D.J. Burns Jr. scored 16 for NC State (23-14), which only made it this far by winning five games in five days to capture the ACC tournament title, where it was the 10th seed. Now, the Wolfpack will play No. 14 seed Oakland on Saturday with a Sweet 16 berth from the South Region on the line.
Joe Toussaint led Texas Tech (23-11) with 16 points. Pop Isaacs scored 12, and Darrion Williams finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and six assists.
West Region
No. 1 North Carolina 90, No. 16 Wagner 62
RJ Davis scored 22 points and Armando Bacot had a double-double in the first half as the Tar Heels routed the Seahawks in Charlotte.
Bacot finished with 20 points and 15 rebounds, Jae’Lyn Withers notched 16 points and 10 rebounds off the bench and Cormac Ryan posted 13 points for the top-seeded Tar Heels, who shot 55 percent from the field.
North Carolina (28-7) will meet ninth-seeded Michigan State in the second round Saturday. Melvin Council Jr. and Julian Brown both had 18 points for Wagner (17-16), which defeated Howard 71-68 in Tuesday night’s First Four in Dayton, Ohio. Keyontae Lewis added 13 points.
No. 2 Arizona 85, No. 15 Long Beach State 65
The Wildcats took control with a 17-2 run over the first four minutes of the second half and cruised past Beach in the first-round game in Salt Lake City.
Kylan Boswell led Arizona (26-8) with 20 points and Caleb Love added 18 points and 11 rebounds. Oumar Ballo had 11 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots for the Wildcats.
Long Beach State (21-15) couldn’t keep up in the second half as Arizona found its rhythm on offense. Beach got 14 points and 15 rebounds from Aboubacar Traore and 14 points from Amari Stroud off the bench.
No. 7 Dayton 63, No. 10 Nevada 60
DaRon Holmes II scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the Flyers stormed back to beat the Wolf Pack in Salt Lake City.
Dayton (25-7) erased a 17-point deficit in the second half to rally for its first tournament win since the 2014-15 campaign. Koby Brea finished with 15 points on five 3-pointers, and Enoch Cheeks chipped in 12 points.
Jarod Lucas scored 17 points to lead Nevada (26-8), which recorded the eighth-most victories in program history but failed to advance out of the first round. Kenan Blackshear and Nick Davidson finished with 15 points apiece.
No. 9 Michigan State 69, No. 8 Mississippi State 51
Tyson Walker scored 19 points and the Spartans never trailed in claiming a victory against the Bulldogs in the first-round matchup.
Michigan State (20-14) meets top-seeded North Carolina in the second round on Saturday. Jaden Akins racked up 15 points, joining Walker with three 3-pointers, and Malik Hall added 10 points.
Josh Hubbard scored 15 points for Mississippi State (21-14), which shot 37 percent from the field and made only 6 of 27 attempts from 3-point range. The Bulldogs ended up with a season-low point total.
Midwest Region
No. 2 Tennessee 83, No. 15 Saint Peter’s 49
Dalton Knecht poured in 23 points and the Volunteers quickly snuffed out any hopes the Peacocks had of making another deep Cinderella run into the postseason with the first-round blowout.
Jonas Aidoo posted 15 points and Zakai Zeigler provided 11 points and 10 assists for the Volunteers, who led by as many as 29 points in the first half. Tennessee (25-8) takes on seventh-seeded Texas (21-12) on Saturday.
Latrell Reid scored 17 points and Marcus Randolph followed with nine for Saint Peter’s (19-14), which reached the Elite Eight as a No. 15 seed two years ago. The Peacocks were winners of eight of their past 10 games prior to Thursday.
No. 3 Creighton 77, No. 14 Akron 60
Ryan Kalkbrenner racked up 23 points and eight rebounds, Baylor Scheierman added 15 points and 13 boards and the hot-shooting Bluejays took care of Akron in Pittsburgh.
The Bluejays (24-9) shot 56.5 percent overall and a season-high 58.8 percent from 3-point range (10 of 17) to advance out of the first round for the fourth straight tournament. They will face No. 11 Oregon in the next round. Trey Alexander scored 19 points and Mason Miller and Steven Ashworth each supplied 10. Enrique Freeman powered Akron (24-11) with 21 points and 14 rebounds.
No. 4 Kansas 93, No. 13 Samford 89
Hunter Dickinson registered 19 points, 20 rebounds and four blocked shots to help the Jayhawks escape an upset bid by the Bulldogs in Salt Lake City.
KJ Adams Jr. scored 20 points and Nicolas Timberlake added 19 for Kansas (23-10). Johnny Furphy added 16 points and eight rebounds for the Jayhawks, who never trailed but nearly let a 22-point, second-half lead slip away.
Achor Achor recorded 23 points and eight rebounds for Samford (29-6). The Bulldogs’ A.J. Staton-McCray appeared to make a clean block of a Timberlake shot with 14.7 seconds left, but a foul was called and Timberlake hit two free throws to give Kansas a three-point lead.
No. 5 Gonzaga 86, No. 12 McNeese 65
Graham Ike and Anton Watson had double-doubles and the hot-shooting Bulldogs routed the Cowboys in the first round in Salt Lake City.
Ike finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Watson had 13 points, 13 rebounds, nine assists and two steals for the Bulldogs (26-7).
Christian Shumate had 19 points and 11 rebounds and Shahada Wells scored 19 points for McNeese, which entered the tournament on an 11-game winning streak.
No. 11 Oregon 87, No. 6 South Carolina 73
Jermaine Couisnard dropped a career-high 40 points against his former team as the Ducks toppled the Gamecocks in Pittsburgh.
Couisnard spent three seasons with the Gamecocks before transferring to Oregon ahead of the 2022-23 season. He shot 14 of 22 on Thursday, making 5 of 9 from beyond the arc and adding six assists and four rebounds. N’Faly Dante provided 23 points, six rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Oregon (24-11), will face No. 3 seed Creighton on Saturday.
Meechie Johnson poured in 24 points, Ta’Lon Cooper had 15 and B.J. Mack scored 13 for South Carolina (26-8), which suffered a field-goal drought of 8:21 at the end of the first half and could not recover.
No. 7 Texas 56, No. 10 Colorado State 44
Max Abmas and Dylan Disu scored 12 points apiece and the Longhorns overcame offensive struggles to control the Rams in in Charlotte.
Chendall Weaver came off the bench for Texas (21-12) to add 11 points, making 5-of-7 shots when most other players had trouble converting. The game was defined by miserable shooting along with turnovers, with Colorado State committing 19 to 12 for the Longhorns.
Isaiah Stevens and Joel Scott each had 10 points for No. 10 seed Colorado State (25-11), which was playing for the second time in three nights. Despite missing 41 shots from the floor, the Rams collected only 13 offensive rebounds on its 29.3 percent shooting from the field.
East Region
No. 2 Iowa State 82, No. 15 South Dakota State 65
Milan Momcilovic scored 19 points to help the Cyclones thump the Jackrabbits in Omaha, Neb.
Tamin Lipsey added 17 points and seven assists for the Cyclones (28-7), who won their fourth straight game and eighth in their last nine. Keshon Gilbert had 15 points and three steals. Iowa State will face No. 7 Washington State on Saturday.
Zeke Mayo scored 19 points and William Kyle III had 14 for the Jackrabbits (22-13), who had an eight-game winning streak snapped. They are 0-7 all-time in NCAA Tournament play.
No. 3 Illinois 85, No. 14 Morehead State 69
Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 26 points, Dain Dainja had 17 of his 21 points after halftime and Marcus Domask notched a triple-double to lift the Illini past the Eagles.
Illinois (27-8) pulled away thanks a 20-3 run midway through the second half to go ahead 68-51. Dainja scored 10 points during the surge and finished 9-for-9 from the floor. Illinois advanced to face 11th-seeded Duquesne in the second round on Saturday. Domask finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
Riley Minix, an NAIA transfer and the Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year, scored a game-high 27 points, giving him 20-plus points in 13 of 14 games to close the season. Jordan Lathon followed with 23 points for the Eagles (26-9) to go with seven rebounds.
No. 11 Duquesne 71, No. 6 BYU 67
Dae Dae Grant scored 19 points and the Dukes picked up their first NCAA Tournament victory since 1969 by knocking off the Cougars in Omaha, Neb.
Jakub Necas added 12 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots and Jimmy Clark III tallied five of his 11 points in the final 88 seconds as Duquesne (25-11) won its ninth consecutive game. The contest was the Dukes’ first in the NCAA Tournament since the Norm Nixon-led team played in the 1977 tourney.
Jaxson Robinson scored 25 points off the bench for BYU (23-11). Spencer Johnson had 11 points and 16 rebounds.
No. 7 Washington State 66, No. 10 Drake 61
Isaac Jones recorded 20 points and 11 rebounds and Isaiah Watts made the go-ahead shot to help the Cougars beat the Bulldogs in Omaha, Neb.
Jaylen Wells added 17 points and nine rebounds as the Cougars (25-9) won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since 2008. Washington State will face No. 2 seed Iowa State on Saturday.
Atin Wright scored 20 points for the Bulldogs (28-7). Tucker DeVries had 14 points and six assists and Darnell Brodie contributed 13 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots.
–Field Level Media