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Yesterday:
Things are falling into place rapidly now. The NIT final four is set after Temple blasted Louisiana Tech and Trey Freeman hit a buzzer-beating three to give Old Dominion a win over Murray State. The best-of-three CBI finals are ready to go as well, with Louisiana-Monrow and Loyola-Chicago advancing to the championship. Another heartbreaker settled the CIT quarterfinal match between UT-Martin and Eastern Kentucky; UTM's Marshun Newell sank a three with 3.3 seconds to play, and UTM stole the inbound pass to seal the one-point victory. Especially devastating for the Colonels: they'd fought back from a 14-point first-half hole.
The men's Division II quarterfinals saw familiar faces advance, with the only tight contest being between Indiana (PA) and Azusa Pacific. Wednesday's results:
NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENT | |||||||
ROUND | RESULT | HIGH SCORER | |||||
OLD DOMINION REGION | |||||||
FINAL | (1) Old Dominion 72, (3) Murray State 69 | Trey Freeman (ODU), 25 | |||||
TEMPLE REGION | |||||||
FINAL | (1) Temple 77, (3) Louisiana Tech 59 | Quenton DeCosey (TMP), 21 | |||||
COLLEGE BASKETBALL INVITATIONAL | |||||||
SF | (S2) Louisiana-Monroe 71, (E3) Vermont 65 |
Majok Deng (ULM), 22 Tylor Ongwae (ULM), 22 |
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SF | (MW1) Loyola (IL) 63, (W1) Seattle 48 |
Devon Turk (LOY), 15 Earl Peterson (LOY), 15 |
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COLLEGEINSIDER.COM TOURNAMENT | |||||||
QF | Tennessee-Martin 70, Eastern Kentucky 69 | Twymond Howard (UTM), 23 | |||||
NCAA DIVISION II MEN'S TOURNAMENT | |||||||
QF | (SC1) Tarleton State 77, (SA4) Mount Olive 59 | Mike Moore (MOC), 18 | |||||
QF | (A3) Indiana (PA) 69, (W1) Azusa Pacific 65 | Troy Leaf (APU), 29 | |||||
QF | (S1) Florida Southern 81, (E1) Southern New Hampshire 70 | Kevin Capers (FSC), 28 | |||||
QF | (MW1) Bellarmine 92, (C2) Minnesota State-Moorhead 75 | Jake Thelen (BU), 26 |
Tonight:
The Big Dance resumes tonight with four Sweet Sixteen contests. The party starts in Cleveland as Wichita State takes on Notre Dame, and nobody wants to miss that one, especially to watch Wisconsin play basketball, right? The Big 12 will also try to represent as West Virginia faces unbeaten Kentucky; while we'll obviously be pulling for our conference brethren here, Arizona-Xavier may be a more compelling visual feast.
The second CIT quarterfinal is tonight, as well as the now-televised Division II semifinals. We're obviously all going to be focused on the Division I tournament, but if you've got any interest in seeing how quality D-II squads look against one another, this is a pretty decent chance. There are no flukes in this Final Four. Tonight's schedule:
NCAA DIVISION I MEN'S TOURNAMENT | |||||||
ROUND | TIME (CT) | TEAM | - | TEAM | LOCATION | NETWORK | ANNOUNCERS |
MIDWEST REGION | |||||||
SF | 6:15pm | (7) Wichita State | vs | (3) Notre Dame | Cleveland OH | CBS | PBP: Marv Albert Color: Len Elmore Chris Webber SLR: Lewis Johnson |
SF | 8:45pm* | (5) West Virginia | vs | (1) Kentucky | Cleveland OH | CBS | PBP: Marv Albert Color: Len Elmore Chris Webber SLR: Lewis Johnson |
WEST REGION | |||||||
SF | 7:47pm | (4) North Carolina | vs | (1) Wisconsin | Los Angeles CA | TBS | PBP: Kevin Harlan Color: Dan Bonner Reggie Miller SLR: Rachel Nichols |
SF | 10:17pm* | (6) Xavier | vs | (2) Arizona | Los Angeles CA | TBS | PBP: Kevin Harlan Color: Dan Bonner Reggie Miller SLR: Rachel Nichols |
* - time approximate; tipoff 30 minutes after conclusion of previous game | |||||||
COLLEGEINSIDER.COM TOURNAMENT | |||||||
ROUND | TIME (CT) | TEAM | - | TEAM | LOCATION | NETWORK | ANNOUNCERS |
QF | 7:30pm | Evansville | vs | Louisiana-Lafayette | Lafayette LA | College Insider | PBP: Steve Peloquin |
NCAA DIVISION II MEN'S TOURNAMENT | |||||||
ROUND | TIME (CT) | TEAM | - | TEAM | LOCATION | NETWORK | ANNOUNCERS |
SF | 6:00pm | (A3) Indiana (PA) | vs | (SC1) Tarleton State | Evansville IN | CBSSN/NCAA.com | unknown |
SF | 8:30pm* | (S1) Florida Southern | vs | (MW1) Bellarmine | Evansville IN | CBSSN/NCAA.com | unknown |
* - time approximate; tipoff 30 minutes after conclusion of previous game |
Last night:
Southern Miss is living dangerously. For the third straight game, the Golden Eagles had to fight back from a double-digit deficit. Last night, they not only managed that, they ended up winning by double digits. Their reward is a spot in the WNIT quarterfinals. Earning a place in the WBI Championship Game: the Siena Saints, easily skating past Mercer.In the Division II Final Four, our local heroes have fallen. Emporia State put up a good fight, but couldn't get past the Vulcans of California. For Cal-PA, it was actually respite; their last two tournament games have gone to overtime. In the late game, Cal Baptist -- the fifth seed from the West Region, and therefore somewhat analogous to a 10 or even an 11 seed the way you're used to thinking of things -- advanced to the championship game. In the process, they shattered the nation's longest winning streak (33 games) by taking down South Atlantic top seed Limestone. As a result, we've got a Cal vs Cal battle on Friday night for the Division II title. Last night's results:
WOMEN'S NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENT | |||||||
ROUND | RESULT | HIGH SCORER | |||||
3 | Southern Mississippi 76, Eastern Michigan 65 | Tamara Jones (USM), 23 | |||||
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL INVITATIONAL | |||||||
ROUND | RESULT | HIGH SCORER | |||||
E FINAL | Siena 65, Mercer 64 | Precious Bridges (MER), 29 | |||||
NCAA DIVISION I WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT | |||||||
SF | (A1) California (PA) 51, (C2) Emporia State 46 | Kelly Moten (ESU), 17 | |||||
SF | (W5) California Baptist 85, (SA1) Limestone 62 | Courtney Nelson (CBU), 20 |
Tonight:
The women's docket tonight is almost entirely WNIT, with the games most of interest to our readers being Missouri at Michigan and Duquesne at West Virginia. Also, Oral Roberts takes on Louisiana-Lafayette tonight to see who gets to travel to Siena for the WBI title game. The schedule:
WOMEN'S NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENT | |||||||
ROUND | TIME (CT) | TEAM | - | TEAM | LOCATION | NETWORK | ANNOUNCERS |
R3 | 6:00pm | Saint John's | vs | Villanova | Philadelphia PA | BEDN ($) | PBP: Nick Mantegna Color: Scott Greene |
R3 | 6:00pm | North Carolina State | vs | Temple | Philadelphia PA | Temple | unknown |
R3 | 6:00pm | Missouri | vs | Michigan | Ann Arbor MI | none | n/a |
R3 | 6:00pm | Duquesne | vs | West Virginia | Morgantown WV | WVU | PBP: Jeff Culhane Color: Meg Bulger |
R3 | 7:00pm | Mississippi | vs | Middle Tennessee State | Murfreesboro TN | MTSU | PBP: Dick Palmer Color: Duane Hickey |
R3 | 9:00pm | Northern Colorado | vs | UCLA | Los Angeles CA | Pac-12 | PBP: Dave Marcus |
R3 | 9:00pm | Saint Mary's (CA) | vs | Sacramento State | Sacramento CA | Big Sky | PBP: Andrew Tomsky |
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL INVITATIONAL | |||||||
ROUND | TIME (CT) | TEAM | - | TEAM | LOCATION | NETWORK | ANNOUNCERS |
W FINAL | 5:00pm | Oral Roberts | vs | Louisiana-Lafayette | Lafayette LA | ULL ($) | PBP: Steve Peloquin |