Men's College Basketball

NCAA bracket scores 2018: Sunday’s second round highlights and scores

All the best from Sunday’s 16 Big Dance showdowns.

Updated Mar 19, 2018, 12:00 AM UTC

NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament-Second Round-Cincinnati Bearcats vs Nevada Wolf Pack

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Cincinnati 71, Nevada 67, 3:53 2H

The Wolfpack comeback is on, even as Jared Cumberland fouls out with 17 points. Should be another one that goes down to the wire!

Cincinnati 71, Nevada 65, 5:16 2H

The Bearcats have managed to create some breathing room after Nevada’s big run, but the Wolfpack is still fighting here.

Cincinnati 65, Nevada 59, 7:37 2H

The Wolfpack has gone on a 16-0 run to give Nevada some life late in this second half. Cody Martin has 16 points in this game so far.

Clemson 27, Auburn 15 7:30 2H

Clemson gets out to a 12-point lead midway through the first half. Elijah Thomas and Gabe DeVoe have combined for eight points so far tonight.

Cincinnati 56, Nevada 37 15:40 2H

The Bearcats continue to move right along and hold Nevada at bay. Cincy’s Jacob Evans has 17 points on the day so far.

Texas A&M 86, UNC 65 Final

The upset is complete. The Aggies shock the Tar Heels and advance to the Sweet Sixteen, where they will face No. 3 Michigan. TAMU’s TJ Starks finished with 21 points, and Tyler Davis added 18 more. Joel Berry II had 21 on the night. What a surprise!

Texas A&M 79, UNC 60, 3:06 2H

The Aggies are just about to book their tickets to the Sweet Sixteen!

Clemson 0, Auburn 0, 19:34 1H

We’re all tipped off here in San Diego between these two Tiger teams.

Cincinnati 44, Nevada 32 Halftime

A nice start for the Bearcats early on. Cincy’s Jacob Evans has 15 points in the first half so far.

Texas A&M 62, UNC 39, 12:47 2H

Yup, this is happening, folks. The Tar Heels are also struggling significantly from beyond the arc, to say the least.

Cincinnati 31, Nevada 18, 7:50 1H

The Bearcats are starting just as fast as they want to be early, holding a nice lead in the first half.

Texas A&M 53, UNC 33, 15:54 2H.

The Aggies stayed hot out of recess, ringing up three quick threes on a 9-5 run to rip off a cool 20-point advantage at the under-16 timeout.

Texas A&M 42, UNC 28, Halftime.

Texas A&M 28, UNC 20, 5:49 1H

Uhh, the Aggies are on a 15-0 run, what’s happening?

Texas A&M 23, UNC 20, 8:25 1H

The Aggies take a lead here thanks to some nice shooting from Tyler Davis, who has eight points already in this half.

UNC 18, Texas A&M 13, 11:59 1H

The local UNC crowd is giving the Tar Heels some extra juice. It’s pretty loud from the sound of it.

Texas A&M 3, North Carolina 2

We’re underway here in Charlotte between the No. 7 Aggies and No. 2 Tar Heels.

Syracuse 54, Michigan State 53, Final

Paschal Chukwu missed the second free throw to give Michigan State one final Hail Mary shot attempt. It’s no good, and Syracuse pulls off the upset!

Syracuse 54, Michigan State 53, 2.4 seconds left

Another Syracuse inbound sends Paschal Chukwu to the line.

Syracuse 52, Michigan State 51, :07, 2H

Sparty makes free throws to pull within one. Syracuse inbound coming.

Syracuse 52, Michigan State 49, 7.8 seconds, 2H

Michigan State gets the ball back with a chance to tie it up here.

Syracuse 52, Michigan State 49, :45 2H

Syracuse takes a three-point lead with less than a minute left on a Tyus Battle jumper. Get to a TV now, folks!

Syracuse 50, Michigan State 48, 3:36 2H

The Orange have retaken a lead, and the Orange shows some life late here in this second half. This one looks like it’ll come down to the wire!

Michigan State 46, Syracuse 43, 5:53 2H

Syracuse’s shooting woes continue — the Orange has made just 13 field goals and 15 free throws so far. Meanwhile, everything seems to be swinging Sparty’s way:

Michigan State 38, Syracuse 34, 14:37 2H

Jim Boeheim is getting a bit frustrated with his team on offense during a timeout. The Orange is shooting at 42 percent.

Michigan State 25, Syracuse 22, Halftime

Both teams were neck and neck for most of the first half. Syracuse shot 40% from the field, while Michigan State shot just over 28%.

The half ended on this insane three-point shot from MSU’s Matt McQuaid.

Michigan State 22, Syracuse 19, 1:26 1H

This game continues to be a low-scoring one, and players on both teams are still in the single digits.

Syracuse 10, Michigan State 9, 11:211 2H

We’re underway here in Detroit between the Spartans and Orange, and this one is low-scoring early.

Final: Purdue 76, Butler 73

Dakota Mathias’ shooting carried Purdue late. Butler had a chance to tie it in the final seconds but missed a half-court shot. Shades of Gordon Hayward.

Purdue 73, Butler 67, 3:38 2H

A Ryan Cline three-pointer gives the Boilermakers a nice lead, but the Bulldogs aren’t exactly going away just yet.

Purdue 61, Butler 55, 9:49 2H

The Boilermakers have shut down Butler’s offense, with the Bulldogs going scoreless for a 2 minute and 52-second stretch midway through the quarter. If Purdue keeps distancing itself from the Bulldogs, this one could be over early.

Purdue 45, Butler 45, 16:10 2H

The second half is underway here, and for now, this one looks just as close as the end of the first half.

Purdue 40, Butler 36, Halftime

Butler came out strong at the start, but Purdue did a nice job of battling back and making shots late in the first half. The Boilermakers’ scoring effort is led by Vincent Edwards and Carsen Edwards, who have combined for 23 points so far. Butler’s Kelan Martin has 14 points. Also notable: Matt Haarms’ flow is incredible.

Purdue 40, Butler 34, :15 1H

A Carsen Edwards three-pointer gives Purdue a nice six-point lead right before halftime.

Purdue 35, Butler 32 1:29, 1H

The Boilermakers have their biggest lead of the day as the first half winds down.

Purdue 33, Butler 32, 2:18, 1H

Carsen Edwards’ goes to the free throw line and gives Purdue its first lead of the day at 31, 30 but the Bulldogs convert down at the other end to take back the lead. This won’t be the last lead change we see of the half, folks.

Butler 28, Purdue 26, 3:48, 1H

The Boilermakers are right back in this thing, and they could lead or tie it on the next possession. Carsen Edwards has six points for Purdue in the half so far.

Butler 26, Purdue 20, 6:36 1H

The Bulldogs are coming out strong early, but Purdue can still tie things up. Butler’s Kelan Martin has 10 points already.

Sunday will see the conclusion of the 2018 NCAA tournament’s round of 32, by which point we’ll know the full Sweet 16 field. This year’s Big Dance has been rife with drama, as No. 13 Buffalo took down No. 4 Arizona on opening night.

Buffalo’s 24 hours as tournament sweetheart ended on Friday night, though, as the UMBC Retrievers tattooed No. 1 overall seed Virginia, 74-54, thus completing the first upset of a No. 1 seed in March Madness history. There’s much to love about this Retrievers outfit, not least their snarky Twitter account and the very real fact that they could actually run into the Sweet 16. They get No. 9 Kansas State on Sunday, and the Wildcats are a bit banged up.

Elsewhere, No. 10 Butler will take on No. 2 Purdue, who may have lost Isaac Haas for the remainder of the Dance, after he fractured his right elbow on Friday. It was reported Saturday that Haas may in fact try to play through the injury, which sounds like no fun at all.

One of the more interesting rock fights involves No. 13 Marshall and No. 3 West Virginia, in-state rivals that stopped their annual meeting some three years ago. The Herd and Mountaineers tip in the late game, which feels appropriate, since this one is going to heat up in a hurry.

We’re live-blogging all of Sunday’s highlights and scores here, so check back early and often to stay up on all the March Madness happenings. Here’s the full schedule for Sunday: