The 2023 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament continued Thursday with the Sweet 16.
The first team to punch their ticket to the Elite Eight was No. 3 Kansas State, as the Wildcats outlasted No. 7 Michigan State in overtime. Meanwhile, No. 4 UConn had its way with No. 8 Arkansas.
Later on, No. 9 Florida Atlantic pulled off another upset, defeating No. 4 Tennessee, while Gonzaga took down No. 2 UCLA in dramatic fashion.
Follow along with the most up-to-date bracket here.
Here are the highlights!
FINAL: No. 3 Gonzaga 79, No. 2 UCLA 76
Key UCLA absence
UCLA forward Adem Bona was seen in sweatpants before tip-off and didn’t play.
He cannot be stopped
Drew Timme was toying with UCLA, as the forward scored 15 of Gonzaga’s first 19 points.
Bruins in a groove
UCLA took an eight-point lead when Tyger Campbell found Jaime Jaquez for the inside bucket.
Get out and shoot
Campbell got the steal and then hit a 3-pointer to give UCLA a 36-29 advantage.
UCLA took a 46-33 lead into the halftime break.
Narrowing the gap
Gonzaga was gnawing away at UCLA’s lead thanks to an 8-0 run, which included a post bucket from Timme.
LEAD CHANGE
Gonzaga took the lead midway through the second half when Malachi Smith got a bucket off the dribble.
Spinning and winning
Timme had himself a game. The Gonzaga senior pulled off another nifty post bucket, giving the Bulldogs a four-point lead. He finished the night with 36 points.
Building the lead
Julian Strawther stretched Gonzaga’s lead to six points on a 3-ponter with 4:16 remaining in the second half.
Smith later hit a 3-pointer of his own, putting Gonzaga up 10 points and capping off a 22-4 run.
Mayhem
Gonzaga led by eight with 1:04 remaining in the second half. Then chaos ensued.
UCLA went on a 10-1 run, which saw Jaquez convert an and-1, Gonzaga miss three free throws and Amari Bailey hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 13 seconds remaining.
Then Strawther saved the Bulldogs on the next possession, hitting a 3-pointer with 7.2 seconds remaining, putting them up for good …
… though, Campbell later got off a would-be game-tying 3-pointer. The shot bounced off the rim as Gonzaga held on to win and move on to the Elite Eight.
FINAL: No. 9 Florida Atlantic 62, No. 4 Tennessee 55
Feelin’ it
Tennessee’s Santiago Vescovi was feeling it early, as he made a 3-ball from yards behind the arc.
Making it happen
Tennessee’s Uros Plavsic muscled his way through the paint for an and-1 bucket and then successfully pump-faked an FAU defender.
Staying in it
With the shot clock winding down, FAU’s Michael Forrest sunk an open 3-ball.
Tennessee led 27-22 at halftime.
Mine!
Jonas Aidoo corralled the offensive rebound over a pair of Owls and placed it back up and in.
They’re hootin’
Forrest hit a pair of 3-pointers midway through the second half, the second one shown below, to give FAU the lead. Furthermore, Forrest went on an 8-0 run by himself.
A couple minutes later, Alijah Martin hit a 3-pointer to give the Owls a seven-point lead.
Back in it
Tennessee cut FAU’s lead in half when Josiah-Jordan James hit a 3-pointer with 3:36 remaining in the second half.
FAU puts it away
Despite occasional spurts from the Volunteers, though, it wasn’t enough to mount a comeback.
FINAL: No. 3 Kansas State 98, No. 7 Michigan State 93
Oop it up!
Kansas State won the opening tip and Markquis Nowell quickly turned it into two points by lobbing a pass to Keyontae Johnson for the alley-oop slam.
Moments later, Mady Sissoko was on the receiving end of an alley-oop to help Michigan State score its first points of the game.
Trading buckets
Joey Hauser and Jaden Akins did much of the scoring for Sparty in the first 10 minutes, while Johnson and David N’Guessan scored their fair share of points for the Wildcats.
No one stopping Nowell
Nowell was dropping dimes all over the place in the first half, recording 10 assists in the first 20 minutes to give Kansas State a 43-38 lead going into the halftime break.
Dizziness
With the shot clock winding down, Nowell gathered the loose ball and knocked down a 3-pointer while falling to his right.
3s and 3s
Akins, Tyson Walker and Hauser were draining the long ball for Michigan State in the second half.
Nowell the maestro
Nowell is a walking highlight reel. His latest dimes went to Cam Carter and Johnson.
He drained it
Ismael Massoud hit this 3-pointer from Queens.
The Kansas State forward’s 3-ball gave the Wildcats a 5-point lead in what was a back-and-forth second half.
WE’RE GOING TO OT
With five seconds remaining in the second half, Walker attacked the rack and got the layup to go off the glass for Michigan State, forcing overtime.
MSU back in front
Walker gave Michigan State its first lead of overtime with yet another 3-ball.
It’s just absurd
Nowell racked up his 18th assist of the game and third of overtime when he threw an alley-oop from just beyond midcourt to Johnson, who executed the reverse slam. The sensational alley-oop gave the Wildcats a two-point lead with 56.2 seconds remaining in overtime.
K-State gets the stop
Down three in the closing seconds, Michigan State was unable to get off a shot to tie the game, as Kansas State played swarming defense. Nowell eventually stole the ball and ran out the clock for the Wildcats.
FINAL: No. 4 UConn 88, No. 8 Arkansas 65
Setting the tone
UConn scored the first four points of the game before Arkansas’ Anthony Black pulled off a physical and-1 off the dribble. Later, Nick Smith also pulled off a physical and-1 for the Razorbacks.
Oooh the passing
Directly after forcing a turnover, the Huskies put on a passing clinic. Alex Karaban began the fastbreak with a line-drive pass down the court to Andre Jackson, who then lobbed the alley-oop to Donovan Clingan.
HUGE UConn run
The Huskies went on a 14-0 run late in the first half to go up 34-17. Adama Sanogo capped off the run for UConn by getting an inside bucket, forcing Arkansas to call timeout.
The Huskies led 46-29 at halftime.
All Huskies
UConn picked up where it left off after the break, building a lead that grew to as much as 29 points. After Arkansas cut the lead to 19, Jordan Hawkins hit a pair of 3-pointers, one of them shown below, to get UConn’s lead back up to 25.
UConn coasted the rest of the way, winning by 23.
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