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Survive and advance. That's what No. 1 seed Arizona did Sunday night in San Diego, outlasting a tenacious TCU team in overtime 85-80 to avoid an upset in the second round and advance into the Sweet 16.
In what would have been the second-biggest upset of this year's NCAA Tournament, Arizona avoided an early exit after nearly collapsing in the second half. Up nine with under eight minutes to play in the second half, it allowed the No. 9 seed Horned Frogs to stage a furious comeback down the stretch to force an overtime period. Arizona nearly pulled off a walk-off dunk at the regulation horn but did not get it off in time.
In overtime, the best player on the court rose to the biggest of occasions as Arizona star Bennedict Mathurin, a likely NBA Draft lottery pick, scored six of Arizona's points in the extra period to finish with 30 points in the game. Big man Christian Koloko, who finished with 28 points, was the only other Arizona player to score in overtime. Koloko, in a fun twist of irony after teammate Dalen Terry's potential walk-off winning dunk in regulation was late, delivered the dagger with a put-back dunk.
The final day of the first weekend had drama elsewhere that finished differently for a pair of underdogs. In the Midwest Region, both the No. 2 seed (Auburn) and the No. 3 seed (Wisconsin) took losses to double-digit seeds Miami and Iowa State, respectively, after the stars of each team -- Jabari Smith for Auburn and Johnny Davis for Wisconsin -- both struggled.
Second round action also saw a clash of Hall of Famers between Coach K's Duke team and Tom Izzo's Michigan State team in which the Blue Devils survived a scare to keep Krzyzewski's farewell tour alive. Meanwhile, in other non-Arizona drama in the South Region, Houston advanced past Illinois in a tight one and Villanova ousted Ohio State, setting up Arizona -- which struggled with TCU's offensive rebounding prowess -- with a matchup against a Cougars team that is elite in that particular area. Villanova will get No. 11 seed Michigan in the next round.
With only 16 teams left standing in the NCAA Tournament field after a frenetic four days of the first weekend, we'll see a break in the action until things pick up again with Sweet 16 play on Thursday and Friday.
2022 NCAA Tournament TV scores
(5) Houston 68, (4) Illinois 53 | (3) Texas Tech 59, (11) Notre Dame 53 |
(2) Villanova 71, (7) Ohio St. 61 | (10) Miami 79, (2) Auburn 61 |
(2) Duke 81, (7) Michigan St. 76 | (3) Purdue 81, (6) Texas 71 |
(11) Iowa St. 54, (3) Wisconsin 49 | (1) Arizona 85, (9) TCU 80 (OT) |
All times Eastern | NCAA Tournament schedule | LIVE bracket
