Top seed UConn streamrolls Northwestern to reach Sweet 16 in ...

NEW YORK — Donovan Clingan, Tristen Newton and top overall seed UConn overwhelmed an undermanned Northwestern team 75-58 on Sunday night to sail into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament.

Newton had 20 points and 10 assists, and Clingan finished with 14 points, 14 rebounds and eight blocks as the Huskies (33-3) led wire-to-wire and became the first defending national champions to reach the regional semifinals since Duke in 2016.

Connecticut built a 30-point cushion and matched a program record for wins set by the 2013-14 national championship squad. It will play Thursday night in the East Region semifinals against No. 5 seed San Diego State or 13th-seeded Yale in Boston, about an 85-mile drive from UConn’s campus.

The Huskies beat a fifth-seeded San Diego State squad 76-59 in last year’s national championship game. They lost Adama Sanogo, Jordan Hawkins and Andre Jackson Jr. to the NBA from that talented team, but this balanced and focused group has looked even more dominant as it attempts to become the first program to repeat as NCAA champion since Florida in 2007.

Yale, the Huskies’ in-state neighbor located about 60 miles south, won the most recent matchup between the schools, 45-44 at Storrs in December 2014 – against a UConn team coming off a national title the previous season.

Sound familiar?

Undersized and overmatched, Boo Buie and the ninth-seeded Wildcats (22-12) were buried under a dizzying display of dunks, blocks, alley-oops and layups.They made a late push that prompted Huskies Coach Dan Hurley to call a timeout with 5:26 remaining, but Northwestern never got the margin under 16.

MARQUETTE 81, COLORADO 77: Tyler Kolek had 21 points and 11 assists, and David Joplin made two free throws with 7.4 seconds left to help the Golden Eagles (27-9) finally put away the Buffaloes (26-11) in Indianapolis.

In their third season under Coach Shaka Smart, the second-seeded Golden Eagles reached the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013 by outlasting the 10th-seeded Buffaloes and their dynamic offense.

Kam Jones scored 18 points and Joplin finished with 14 for Marquette, which shot 61.8% from the field but still couldn’t shake Colorado until the closing seconds. Chase Ross made a tiebreaking 3-pointer off a pass from Kolek with 2:53 left and finished with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

KJ Simpson scored 20 points and Tristan da Silva had 17 for Colorado, which trailed by 11 at halftime but rallied to take a 55-54 lead just over five minutes into the second half. Kolek put the Golden Eagles back on top with a short jumper and Marquette never trailed again, but Colorado tied it twice, the last time on a 3-pointer by da Silva with 4:02 remaining.

The Buffs trailed 79-77 and had to foul three times before putting Joplin on the line for a 1-and-1. He knocked down both and set up a South Region semifinal meeting with No. 11 seed North Carolina State in Dallas on Friday.

Playing his second game since an oblique injury that sidelined him for six contests, Kolek was efficient for the Golden Eagles, shooting 10 of 14 from the floor and routinely finding open teammates.

PURDUE 106, UTAH 67: Zach Edey had 23 points and 14 rebounds, and the Boilermakers (31-7) cruised into the Sweet 16 by pounding the Aggies (28-7) with an impressive offensive performance in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis.

Trey Kaufman-Renn added 18 points and eight boards for Purdue, which broke the school’s single-season record for victories. Fletcher Loyer had 15 points, and Braden Smith had all six of his assists in the second half when the Boilermakers shot 65.2% from the field before pulling the starters.

Purdue also set a school record for most points in a March Madness game. Next up is fifth-seeded Gonzaga in the Midwest Region semifinals in Detroit.

Great Osodor, the Mountain West Player of the Year, had 14 points and six rebounds for Utah State. The Aggies were outrebounded 49-26, and they headed home still in search of the program’s first regional semifinal since 1970.

DUKE 93, JAMES MADISON 55: Jared McCain scored 22 of his 30 points in the first half and set a Duke record for an NCAA Tournament game with eight 3-pointers as the Blue Devils (26-8) ended 12th-seeded James Madison’s dream season with a win over the Dukes (32-4) second-round victory in New York.

The fourth-seeded Blue Devils are headed to the Sweet 16 to face the winner of Houston-Texas A&M in the South Region semifinals Friday in Dallas.

McCain and Duke emphatically ended the nation’s longest active winning streak at 14 games, taking a 22-point lead into halftime and never letting the advantage slip below 20 in the second half. The rugged defense JMU used to beat Wisconsin in the first round didn’t seem to bother the Blue Devils at all.

The Dukes finished with a program record for victories. Terrence Edwards Jr. led JMU with 13 points. Attention for the Sun Belt champions now turns to fourth-year coach Mark Byington, who has been speculated to be a candidate to fill the vacancy at West Virginia.

NOTES

MICHIGAN: The lure of Michigan became apparent to Dusty May not in the last few days, but almost 20 years ago when he was just starting his coaching career.

He was an assistant at Eastern Michigan then and quickly realized Michigan’s logo – the famed block M – was something that people took enormous pride in being associated with. And when Michigan offered him a chance to wear it, he couldn’t say no.

May was announced as the new coach at Michigan on Sunday, agreeing to a five-year contract worth almost $19 million, the school said. He leaves Florida Atlantic after six seasons, highlighted by a Final Four run a year ago and more wins in the last two years than almost anyone nationally.

“This place allowed me to be extremely selective, to take the job that was the perfect fit,” May told The Associated Press. “I would never feel any remorse if I was at FAU forever. I almost wanted these other jobs to go away, to get filled, so I wouldn’t have a decision to make.”

The deal with Michigan was done Saturday night, one day after FAU lost to Northwestern in the NCAA Tournament. May brought players at his now-former school in for a series of team and individual meetings on Sunday morning, saying afterward those talks were “extremely tough.”

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