Saturday afternoon brought two blood feuds to the 2016 NCAA Tournament. In the former, basketball blue-blood No. 4 Duke fended off actual blue-blood No. 12 Yale, and in the latter, No. 5 Indiana’s crimson trumped No. 4 Kentucky’s blue.
NCAA bracket 2016: Duke, Indiana move on to Sweet Sixteen
The Blue Devils fended off pesky Yale, and Indiana got revenge on Kentucky.
The latter game was the better one, if only barely.
After a back-and-forth slugfest led to a 50-50 tie in the second half, Indiana took over, going on a 12-2 run that gave the Hoosiers a lead to defend for the rest of the evening. They did so despite heroics from Kentucky’s Tyler Ulis, who led all scorers with 27 points, and some shaky work at the free throw line, where misses let the Wildcats close to within two points in the final minute.
Possibly awaiting the Hoosiers? No. 1 North Carolina.
But a pair of clutch freebies by Thomas Bryant with 10.4 seconds left pegged Indiana to a four-point lead, and Jamal Murray came up empty on the subsequent trip. More free throws pushed the Hoosiers to a 73-67 win, revenge for a Sweet Sixteen loss to the ‘Cats in the 2012 NCAA Tournament, and safe passage to the Sweet Sixteen in 2016’s edition of March Madness.
Earlier, the Blue Devils’ 71-64 victory over the Bulldogs seemed precariously close to being the NCAA Tournament’s greatest comeback (and collapse) ever at junctures in the second half. Duke built a 27-point lead before halftime on the back of white-hot shooting, but Yale was able to slice that lead to four points twice in the second half before a couple of stops shut the door on an improbable comeback.
Grayson Allen had 29 points and Brandon Ingram added 25 for the Blue Devils, who also managed to keep first-round hero Makai Mason in check, allowing him to score just eight points.
Duke moves on to a Sweet Sixteen game against either No. 1 Oregon or No. 8 Saint Joseph’s.
Saturday’s final scores:
No. 3 Miami 65, No. 11 Wichita State 57
No. 4 Duke 71, No. 12 Yale 64
No. 5 Indiana 73, No. 4 Kentucky 67
In progress:
No. 4 Iowa State vs. No. 12 Arkansas-Little Rock, TNT
No. 1 Virginia vs. No. 9 Butler, TBS
Still to come:
Approximately 7:45 p.m., CBS (Jim Nantz, Grant Hill, Bill Raftery, Tracy Wolfson)
No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 9 Connecticut
Approximately 8:40 p.m., TNT (Andrew Catalon, Steve Lappas, Jamie Erdahl)
No. 3 Utah vs. No. 11 Gonzaga
Approximately 9:40 p.m., TBS (Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, Dan Bonner, Lewis Johnson)
No. 1 North Carolina vs. No. 9 Providence
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Watch No. 11 Northern Iowa stun No. 6 Texas with this amazing buzzer beater from half court
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