Who needs 3s? Not Kentucky in 78-73 win over Davidson

“They’re real good. But they put on their shorts just like we put on our shorts”, Harris said. It is the first time in an NCAA Tournament game that a Mid-American Conference team has gone over 100 points. “When we were down 11, that didn’t faze us because we know we are strong and can go 40 minutes deep”.

As usual, Kentucky is one of the most talented teams in the nation and defensively, they defend the perimeter as well as any team in the nation. The team ended its NCAA record streak of consecutive games with a 3-pointer made (1,047, spanning to 1988).

All those are, by far, the highest numbers freshmen have produced in John Calipari’s nine seasons at Kentucky.

“I don’t know if it’s whining or telling the truth”, he said. Then-coach Bob McKillop is still the coach, and his system still emphasizes avoiding turnovers and passing fluidly to set up open shots. “They didn’t fall tonight”. If those shots are contested and aren’t falling, Duke could get start to press the issue and get sloppy.

“I’m not going to overdo a game”, Oats said Friday afternoon. But they’re pretty mediocre at shooting, entering the night with the country’s No. 142 effective field goal percentage.

Clark, who had lost four times to Kentucky in his two seasons at Missouri before transferring to Buffalo, had 13 points in the first half. “It gave us a little bit of confidence to finish the game”, Perkins said. “We tried to make it a different kind of game and try to get to the rim”.

The Wildcats’ team of freshman soon to turn pro shredded the UB defense inside and outside in scoring a 95-75 victory in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. In the upset of Virginia, UMBC cashed 12 of 24 three-point shots. The Wildcats made 10 of their first 14 shots of the second half to overcome a double-digit deficit. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander would hit five straight free throws and the Kentucky lead grew to 11 points.

Finally, UB put the 6-3 Massinburg on Gilgeous-Alexander, and Massinburg “held” him to 10 second-half points. After a Buffalo basket at the other end, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put in an easy layup, giving United Kingdom a 16-9 advantage.

Kitija Laksa led South Florida (26-8) with 28 points and Maria Jespersen added 23 points and 11 rebounds.

On the brink of a breakout during the past six games, Hamidou Diallo broke through against the Bulls and scored 22 points to go along with eight rebounds. “That’s what we did today (and) I can’t feel better about this one”. Davidson would eventually tie the game at 52 after another Gudmundsson three-pointer.

The Buffalo Bulls pulled off the tournament’s first big – but not biggest – shocker when they took down four seed Arizona 89-68 in a massive blowout. “It’s March and no team wants to go home”.

“Yeah, after the Florida game we got kinda smacked”, forward Kevin Knox said, “We just came in together and just decided we’ve got to step it up before the tournament”.