Milan Momcilovic scored 18 points as No. 7 Iowa State dominated No. 1 Houston 69-41 Saturday night in the Big 12 tournament final in front of a largely partisan Iowa State crowd in Kansas City, Mo.
Iowa State is the only school to have played in the tournament title game and never lost. The Cyclones are now 6-0 all-time in tournament championship games.
It was expected to be a defensive struggle between the two best scoring defenses in the Big 12 and two of the top five in Division I, but this game was all Iowa State. The Cyclones held Houston to just 26.8 percent shooting (15 of 56) from the field.
The Cyclones shot 25 of 50 against the nation’s best field-goal percentage defense. No. 2-seed Iowa State (27-7) also got 16 points from Keshon Gilbert and 13 from Hason Ward. Gilbert was named tournament MVP.
No. 2 UConn 73, No. 10 Marquette 57
Donovan Clingan put up 22 points and 16 rebounds, Tristen Newton and Jaylin Stewart each drilled three critical 3-pointers and the Huskies pulled away from the Golden Eagles to win the Big East championship game in New York.
The top-seeded Huskies claimed their first Big East tournament title since 2011, before the university left the conference from 2013-2020. After sweeping third-seeded Marquette during the regular season, UConn avenged a semifinal loss to the Golden Eagles in last year’s tournament.
Newton had 13 points, 10 assists and five rebounds for UConn (31-3), which will be in the mix for the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Kam Jones tallied 13 points and eight rebounds and David Joplin added 12 points and six boards for the Golden Eagles (25-9), who reached the final despite star guard Tyler Kolek sitting out all week with an oblique injury.
Wisconsin 76, No. 3 Purdue 75 (OT)
Max Klesmit’s floater bounced in for the decisive basket with 4.8 seconds remaining and the fifth-seeded Badgers upset the top-seeded Boilermakers in Minneapolis to advance to the Big Ten tournament title game.
Chucky Hepburn had 22 points and three steals and AJ Storr scored 20 points for Wisconsin (22-12), but Klesmit was the hero with 12 points. A last-second 3-point attempt by Purdue’s Lance Jones missed everything as the buzzer sounded.
Zach Edey recorded 28 points, 11 rebounds and three blocked shots for the Boilermakers (29-4). He also became Purdue’s all-time leading scorer with 2,339 career points, surpassing legend Rick Mount (1967-70), who scored 2,323 points in three seasons for the Boilermakers.
NC State 84, No. 4 North Carolina 76
DJ Horne scored 29 points as the Wolfpack, seeded 10th, pulled off their improbable fifth victory in five days, beating the top-seeded Tar Heels to win the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament for the first time since 1987.
For North Carolina (27-7) — No. 4 in the AP poll — the loss snapped an eight-game winning streak. While RJ Davis — the ACC Player of the Year — and Armando Bacot stuffed the stat sheet, only one other Tar Heel scored in double figures. Davis finished with 30 points on 10-of-26 shooting while Bacot had 18 points and 12 rebounds.
The play of DJ Burns Jr., who had 20 points and a career-high-tying seven assists, also helped power the Wolfpack (22-14). North Carolina State is the lowest-seeded team to ever win the conference tournament. Mohamed Diarra had a game-high 14 rebounds and 11 points, while Michael O’Connell chipped in 10 points.
No. 12 Auburn 73, Mississippi State 66
Five players scored in double figures as the Tigers got past the Bulldogs to earn a spot in the championship game of the Southeastern Conference tournament in Nashville, Tenn.
The fourth-seeded Tigers (26-7) will play sixth-seeded Florida for the SEC tournament title Sunday. The ninth-seeded Bulldogs (21-13) will wait for a possible at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament when the 68-team field is unveiled Sunday.
Chad Baker-Mazara scored 14 points to lead Auburn, while Jaylin Williams and Denver Jones each added 13. Johni Broome and reserve Tre Donaldson tallied 10 points apiece. Freshman guard Josh Hubbard scored a game-high 20 points for Mississippi State but hit only 6 of 17 field goal tries.
No. 13 Illinois 98, Nebraska 87
Terrence Shannon Jr. set a Big Ten tournament record with 40 points and the second-seeded Fighting Illini recovered from a 15-point, second-half deficit to post a victory over the third-seeded Cornhuskers in Minneapolis to reach the conference title game.
Shannon’s career-high output included 22 points in the second half. The Fighting Illini (25-8) outscored the Cornhuskers 58-36 in the second half after trailing by 11 at the break. Marcus Domask added 16 points, eight assists and seven rebounds for Illinois, which will face fifth-seeded Wisconsin in Sunday’s championship game.
Quincy Guerrier added 13 points and Luke Goode had 12 on four 3-pointers for the Illini. Brice Williams scored 23 points for Nebraska (23-10), which played in the Big Ten semis for the first time.
–Field Level Media
