D4 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, MARCH 7 , 2022
College BasketballASSOCIATED PRESSDre’una Edwards hit a three-
pointer from the top of the key
with 4.2 seconds left, and K en-
tucky rallied from 15 points down
to upset top-ranked South Caro-
lina, 64-62, on Sunday in Nashville
to win its first SEC women’s tour-
nament championship since 1982.
Kentucky hadn’t even reached
this game since 2014. These sev-
enth-seeded Wildcats (19-11) won
their 10th straight game with this
the biggest yet after knocking off
sixth-ranked LSU and No. 18 Ten-
nessee to get to this champion-
ship.
“Nope! We are not on the bub-
ble,” second-year Kentucky coach
Kyra Elzy said. “We have our ticket
punched! We are going!”
The Wildcats not only snapped
South Carolina’s 18-game winning
streak this season, they also ended
the Gamecocks’ quest for a third
straight SEC tournament title for
the regular season champs with
Kentucky’s fourth win in as many
days.
South Carolina (28-2) led 45-30
with 4:45 left in the third quarter,
seemingly minutes from cutting
down the nets again. But the
Gamecocks didn’t score after Ali-
yah Boston’s jumper with 5:04 re-
mained that put them up 62-53.
l STANFORD 73, UTAH 48 :
Haley Jones scored 19 points,
Cameron Brink added 16, and the
No. 2 Cardinal won its second
straight Pac-12 tournament in Las
Vegas.
The Cardinal (28-3) shut down
the Utes (20-11) defensively in the
second half to pull away from a
two-point game at halftime. The
reigning national champions won
their 20th straight game in cap-
turing their 15th Pac-12 tourna-
ment in 21 tries.
l N.C. STATE 60, MIAMI 47:
The third-ranked Wolfpack com-
pleted its chase of a third straight
ACC tournament championship,
ending the Hurricanes’ upset-
filled run in Greensboro, N.C.
Elissa Cunane had 17 points and
eight rebounds despite exiting the
game for a stretch in the second
half with an apparent left-ankle
injury for the top-seeded Wolf-
pack (29-3).
N.C. State never gave Miami
(20-12) a chance to repeat its im-
probable quarterfinal comeback
win against No. 4 Louisville.l BAYLOR 82, TEXAS TECH
57: NaLyssa Smith had a career-
high 35 points with 12 rebounds in
her senior day game for the No. 5
Bears (25-5, 15-3 Big 12), and Bay-
lor clinched the outright Big 12
title by defeating the Red Raiders
(11-18, 4-14) in Waco, Tex.
l CONNECTICUT 71, MAR-
QUETTE 51: Evina Westbrook
scored 14 points, and the No. 7
Huskies (24-5) cruised into the Big
East championship game by beat-
ing the Golden Eagles (21-10) in
Uncasville, Conn.
l IOWA 74, INDIANA 67:
Monika Czinano had 30 points
and 10 rebounds and Caitlin Clark
scored 18 as the No. 12 Hawkeyes
(23-7) won their second Big Ten
tournament title in four years by
beating the No. 14 Hoosiers (21-8)
in Indianapolis.
It’s the first time Iowa has
claimed regular season and tour-
nament titles in the same season.
l FLORIDA GULF COAST 71,
NORTH FLORIDA 60: Kendall
Spray scored a season-high
24 points, and the No. 22 Eagles
(27-2) defeated the Ospreys ( 13-17)
in an Atlantic Sun tournament
quarterfinal in Fort Myers, Fla.Wisconsin men fall short
Wisconsin lost leading scorer
Johnny Davis when he was injured
on a flagrant foul in the second
half, and the No. 10 Badgers
missed their chance to clinch the
Big Ten title outright by falling to
Nebraska, 74-73, in Madison, Wis.
Wisconsin (24-6, 15-5) now
must settle for sharing the title
with No. 20 Illinois, which beat
No. 24 Iowa on Sunday night. Illi-
nois will be the top seed in the Big
Ten tournament that begins
Wednesday at Indianapolis.
The Cornhuskers improved to
10-21, 4-16.
l MEMPHIS 75, HOUSTON
61: Tyler Harris scored 15 points
and Landers Nolley and Lester
Quinones added 11 each to lead the
Tigers (19-9, 13-5 American Ath-
letic Conference) past the No. 14
Cougars (26-5, 15-3) in Memphis.
l ILLINOIS 74, IOWA 72: In
Champaign, Ill., Kofi Cockburn
had 21 points and 14 rebounds,
and the No. 20 Illini (22-8, 15-5 Big
Ten) beat the No. 24 Hawkeyes
(22-9, 12-8) to win a share of the
regular season conference title.
l MICHIGAN 75, OHIO
STATE 69: DeVante’ Jones scored
21 points, and the Wolverines
( 17-13, 11-9 Big Ten) rallied in the
second half to beat the No. 23
Buckeyes (19-10, 12-8) in Colum-
bus, Ohio.ROUNDUPWildcats rule the SEC,shock No. 1 GamecocksKENTUCKY 64,
SOUTH CAROLINA 62BY ANDREW GOLDENIf the Navy men’s basketball
team was to advance to its first
Patriot League tournament cham-
pionship game in more than two
decades, it was going to have to
sweat it out for five more minutes.
After a tight second half in
which neither team built more
than a seven-point lead, the sec-
ond-seeded Midshipmen did just
that, taking control in overtime to
hold off No. 3 seed Boston Univer-
sity, 85-80, at Alumni Hall and
advance to the conference title
game for the first time since 2001.
“2001? I was 2 years old,” senior
guard John Carter Jr. said. “The
way the game played out, it was
kind of how you want it. It’s stress-
ful for us, but you wouldn’t want it
any other way.”
Behind Carter, who scored 19 of
his 21 points after halftime, and
fellow senior guard Greg Sum-
mers, who also scored 21, the Mids
kept pace with Terriers senior
guard Javante McCoy, who scored
26 of his 30 points in the second
half and overtime.
Two weeks ago, Navy Coach Ed
DeChellis changed the combina-
tion of the door to the team’s
locker room to a code that includ-
ed “1998” — a reminder of the
most recent time the Mids made
the NCAA tournament. (They lost
to Holy Cross in the Patriot
League title game in 2001 and to
Lafayette in 2000.) Now the Mid-
shipmen (21-10) are a win away
from reaching that goal — and
they have an opportunity to make
up for the heartbreak of last sea-
son, when they lost to Loyola
(Md.) in the Patriot League quar-
terfinals as the top seed.
At 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, theMids will face top-seeded Colgate
(22-11), which defeated Lehigh in
Sunday’s other semifinal. The
Raiders have beaten Navy twice
this season, including a 74-69 vic-
tory Feb. 26 in Hamilton, N.Y.
“This is the best time of the
year,” DeChellis said. “We look
forward to playing on Wednesday
night and being on national TV
again and seeing if we can get
something special done.”
Sunday’s game turned into a
shootout but started as a defen-
sive battle. Navy, which has built
its identity around a scoring de-
fense that entered Sunday ranked
sixth in the nation, held the Terri-
ers to 23 first-half points on
32 percent shooting.
Navy led 27-23 after a slow-
paced opening 20 minutes, but
that changed after halftime. The
Terriers (21-12) made 7 of 12 shots
to open the half and took a 40-39
lead, their first since 6-5.
But Navy kept pace, and nei-ther team led by more than three
points until the Mids grabbed a
65-60 lead with 22 seconds re-
maining. Navy led 68-65 after
Sean Yoder split a pair of free
throws, but McCoy hit a three-
pointer with four seconds left to
force overtime.
McCoy picked up where he left
off and scored 10 of his team’s
12 points in overtime. But Carter
and Summers stayed aggressive
on the other end, combining for 13
of the Mids’ 17 and a victory.
Here’s what else to know about
Navy’s overtime thriller:Bench picks up the slack
In the first half, Carter, the
Mids’ leading scorer at 13.2 points
per game, had just two on 1-for-4
shooting as the Terriers forced
him to give up the ball in the
paint.
But the bench picked up the
slack by scoring 21 first-half
points. The unit finished with 43,and five of the six reserves who
played scored. Summers led the
way and said contributing offen-
sively has been a talking point
among the bench players.
“We want to come in and make
an instant impact on the floor,” he
said.Navy keys in on Mathon
BU forward Sukhmail Mathon,
the Patriot League player of the
year who racked up 42 points in
the team’s first two meetings,
didn’t have the same success Sun-
day. He scored 14 points on 4-for-
10 shooting as the Mids focused
their defensive efforts on him.
In the first half, he was able to
establish a post presence and
score eight points. In the second,
DeChellis said, the Mids changed
their approach because he didn’t
like the one-on-one matchups
Mathon was getting. On seeming-
ly every second-half possession,
Navy sent a double team at Ma-thon and forced him to pass or
take a contested shot. He went 2
for 7 in the second half.
“He’s player of the year, right?”
DeChellis said. “There’s a reason
he’s player of the year. He’s a really
good player.”Free throw success
In the quarterfinals against
American, Navy went 24 for 37
(64.9 percent) on free throws,
which helped the Eagles mount a
comeback. Carter said after that
game that Navy had to convert
those shots if it wanted to be a
championship team.
Navy, which entered the day
ranked 338th out of 350 Division I
teams at 64.9 percent from the
line, made the shots it needed to
make Sunday: The Mids finished
20 for 25 (80 percent).Mids advance to their first Patriot League final since 2001
NAVY 85,
BOSTON U. 80 (OT)MARK HUMPHREY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dre’una Edwards’s t hree-pointer with 4.2 seconds left launched
No. 7 seed Kentucky to its first SEC tournament title since 1982.PHOTOS BY CARLOS OSORIO/ASSOCIATED PRESSForward Gabe Brown finished with 10 points in 32 minutes on his senior day as Michigan State pounced on Maryland early and held on.
Patriot League final
Navy at Colgate
Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., CBSSNsaid. “They came out making a lot
of shots early. We struggled offen-
sively because they were making
shots early. We weren’t getting
stops.”
As the first half wore on, the
Terps showed some offensive
progress, but they struggled to
make up such a large deficit,
particularly without perimeter
shooting. Maryland missed its
first 13 attempts from three-point
range; with five minutes to go
until halftime, the Terps faced a
20-point deficit.Ayala from deep
Ayala’s outside shooting pro-
vided a glimmer of hope. He made
a pair of three-pointers to start
the second half and maintained
that form, even though Maryland
could never push ahead.
Over four years at Maryland,
Ayala had made five three-point-
ers in a game five times. Against
the Spartans, he did so in the first
nine minutes of the second half.
After scoring two points in the
first half, Ayala finished with 19
on 7-for-18 shooting, including a
5-for-12 mark from three.
“That’s who Eric Ayala is,” Rus-
sell said. “He takes and makes
tough shots.... He kept us in it.”First-round bye
Before tip-off, the Terps se-
cured a first-round bye in the Big
Ten tournament. Penn State suf-
fered a 59-58 loss to Rutgers,
which meant Maryland could fin-
ish no worse than a tie for 10th in
the Big Ten. The Terps ultimately
won a three-way tiebreaker with
Penn State and Northwestern.
The Terps had hoped for a
first-round bye — a stark adjust-
ment from their lofty preseason
expectations — and they achieved
that goal. But in doing so, they
earned another game against the
Spartans, and a repeat of Sun-
day’s result would end Maryland’s
season.bench players.
Here’s what else to know from
Maryland’s loss:Rough start
Hakim Hart’s layup ended
Maryland’s dreadful field goal
drought to start the game, but
that basket didn’t come until
11:01 remained in the first half
and merely cut the Terps’ deficit
to 18-3. Maryland missed its first
14 attempts from the field, with
the only point during that stretch
coming from Hart at the free
throw line.
Michigan State made 7 of
11 shots to start the game and got
a jolt of energy from Marcus
Bingham Jr. three-pointers on
back-to-back possessions that
forced Manning to call a timeout
less than three minutes in.
“They were energetic,” Russelles talk. Trying to make adjust-
ments while they’re on a run and
you can’t hear anything, it’s diffi-
cult.”
Still, the Terps rallied with a
19-2 run that cut their deficit to
61-58.
“We were right there,” Ayala
said.
But then the Spartans surged
once more. With just under two
minutes to go, Michigan State
senior Gabe Brown smiled while
skipping down the court after
junior Malik Hall made a layup
and drew a foul. The free throw
extended Michigan State’s lead to
75-62 — too much for Maryland to
overcome.
Hall, who scored a team-high
17 points, led the Spartans’ effort
off the bench. Michigan State got
33 points from its reserves. The
Terps only got six from theirv ictory that made Tom Izzo the
winningest coach in Big Ten his-
tory.
Barring a stunning run in the
conference tournament, Mary-
land’s tumultuous season will end
in a few days. As the No. 10 seed,
the Terps (15-16, 7-13) will face the
seventh-seeded Spartans again at
6:30 p.m. Thursday in Indianapo-
lis. Maryland has lost to Michigan
State (20-11, 11-9) twice this sea-
son, but the Terps and interim
coach Danny Manning found op-
timism in Sunday’s second half, in
which they outscored Michigan
State 41-31.
After a disastrous first half —
Michigan State scored the first
14 points and had an 18-1 lead —
Manning said he told his team,
“We have to do a better job win-
ning the fight.” His Terrapins,
who trailed 46-26 at halftime,
challenged Michigan State with
disruptive defense and strong
shooting from senior Eric Ayala,
who finished with a game-high
19 points.
“We’ve been fighting all year,”
Manning said. “That’s one thing
we’re proud of as a staff. These
guys have continued to show grit
and determination.”
Ayala made back-to-back
three-pointers to start the second
half, and Maryland’s defense
forced four straight empty pos-
sessions before Izzo called a time-
out. The Terps had managed to
cut their deficit in half with
10 straight points, but then the
Spartans made two straight shots
from deep. A few minutes later,
after Izzo’s timeout ignited a 10-0
run, Michigan State had a
2 0-point lead again.
In a packed arena on senior
day, those hot stretches are hard
to stop “because it’s so loud in
there,” Maryland point guard
Fatts Russell said. “I couldn’t even
hear my teammates or my coach-
MARYLAND FROM D1
Down 18-1, Terps fight back, fall short
Guard Tyson Walker, right, finished with 13 points for the
Spartans, while Maryland’s Fatts Russell c ountered with 16 points.