Oregon 69, Saint Joseph's 64
Oregon watched the rest of its conference get kicked out of the NCAA Tournament and faced a seven-point deficit with five minutes to play with the rest of the country watching to see if the Ducks were about to be the first No. 1 seed to be sent home.
Dillon Brooks and Tyler Dorsey refused to see the Ducks, and to a lesser degree the Pac-12 Conference, wiped out from the NCAAs on the opening weekend.
Brooks carried Oregon with 25 points, Dorsey hit key shots in the closing minutes and the Ducks advanced to the regional semifinals with a 69-64 win over No. 8 seed Saint Joseph's in the second round of the West Regional on Sunday night.
Oregon will face No. 4 seed Duke in the regional semifinals on Thursday.
Wisconsin 66, Xavier 63
Xavier coach Chris Mack has been around basketball long enough that he has developed a feeling — call it intuition — when it comes to whether buzzer-beating shots have beaten the buzzer.
U.S. & World
He never wished it was more wrong than Sunday night.
After his second-seeded Musketeers squandered a nine-point lead in the closing minutes, Mack watched as Bronson Koenig took an inbounds pass and buried a 3-pointer on the final play of the game to give Wisconsin a 66-63 victory and a spot in the Sweet 16.
Wisconsin will play sixth-seeded Notre Dame on Friday in Philadelphia.
Texas A&M 92, Northern Iowa 88
Northern Iowa appeared all but ready to book its plane tickets to California for next week's Sweet 16.
That was before Texas A&M put together the biggest last-minute comeback in NCAA Division I history.
Led by Alex Caruso's 25 points and 22 more from Danuel House in the second half and overtimes, the third-seeded Aggies (28-8) rallied from 12 points down with 44 seconds remaining in regulation — 10 down with less than 30 seconds — to defeat the Panthers 92-88 in double overtime on Sunday night.
Texas A&M faces second-seeded Oklahoma in the Sweet 16 next week.
Maryland 73, Hawaii 60
Melo Trimble scored 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds as Maryland beat Hawaii 73-60 on Sunday to advance to the round of 16 of the NCAA Tournament.
Diamond Stone added 14 points for fifth-seeded Maryland (27-8), which advanced to the round of 16 for the eighth time in the past 22 years.
Mike Thomas had 19 points and 11 rebounds for 13th-seeded Hawaii (28-6), which won a tournament game for the first time this season.
Maryland will play Kansas next Thursday in the round of 16.
Syracuse 75, Middle Tennessee 50
After suffocating No. 15 seed Middle Tennessee State with their trademark zone defense in a 75-50 thrashing on Sunday night to punch their ticket to the Sweet 16, the only thing the No. 10 seed Syracuse Orange are focused on is just how much farther they can go in the NCAA Tournament.
Michael Gbinije poured in 23 points and Tyler Lydon added 14 against Middle Tennessee State, but the game hinged on a 21-2 run midway through the second half that cracked open what had been a close affair.
The Blue Raiders (25-10), who shredded so many brackets with their upset of second-seeded Michigan State, made things tough on Syracuse for a while. They led early in the second half and still trailed just 40-39 with 16:02 to go, but proceeded to make one of their next 16 field-goal attempts.
Darnell Harris wound up leading Middle Tennessee State with 11 points, while Reggie Upshaw — who had 21 in that landmark victory over the Spartans — was held to two on 1-for-10 shooting.
The Orange will join five other ACC schools, a record from a single conference, in the next round when they play Gonzaga on Friday in Chicago.
Oklahoma 85, VCU 81
Buddy Hield scored 19 of his 36 points in the final eight minutes to help No. 2 seed Oklahoma hold off No. 10 seed VCU 85-81 on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Hield, who didn't score for more than 10 minutes to start the game, made 9 of 12 shots in the second half after going 2 for 8 in the first. The senior guard posted at least 30 points for the 11th time this season.
Jordan Woodard scored 17 points and Isaiah Cousins added 15 for the Sooners (27-7), who advanced to the Sweet 16 for the second straight year.
Melvin Johnson scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half, JeQuan Lewis scored 22 points and Michael Gilmore added 12 for VCU (25-11), which was trying to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since its Final Four run in 2011.
Oklahoma will play in the Sweet 16 Thursday in Anaheim, California.
Norte Dame 76, SF Austin 75
Rex Plfueger tapped in a miss with 1.5 seconds left and Notre Dame survived a valiant effort by No. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin 76-75 on Sunday to reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season.
With 17.5 seconds left, sixth-seed Notre Dame grabbed an SFA rebound down one and put it in the hands of Demetrius Jackson. The point guard drove to the basket and missed. Zach Auguste followed for the Irish (23-11) but could not convert. The ball slipped off the rim and with one hand Pflueger flipped it in for his only basket of the game.
A long heave from Stephen F. Austin (28-6) went wide and Notre Dame celebrated by swarming Pflueger.
The Irish advance to play either Wisconsin or Xavier Friday in the East Regional at Philadelphia.
Villanova 87, Iowa 68
Josh Hart scored 19 points and second-seeded Villanova advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2009 with an 87-68 rout of seventh-seeded Iowa on Sunday in the South Regional.
Villanova led 54-29 at halftime and by as many as 34 points in the second half. The closest Iowa (22-11) got was 16 points in the final minutes.
Ryan Arcidiacono scored 16 points, Kris Jenkins 15 and Jalen Brunson 12. Ochefu had six points and 11 rebounds.
The Wildcats took command about 12 minutes in. While Villanova was hitting almost every shot it took — the Wildcats made seven of their first 10 3-point attempts — Iowa couldn't come up with a basket to stem the tide. Jarrod Uthoff led Iowa with 16 points. Nicolas Baer had 15 and Peter Jok 11.
The Wildcats (31-5) will meet third-seeded Miami on Thursday in Louisville, Kentucky. Iowa last reached the Sweet 16 in 1999.
