NCAA Tournament roundup: Michigan State marches on, beats Minnesota to reach Sweet 16

Michigan State is back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2015 after rolling past Minnesota 70-50 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night in Des Moines, Iowa.

The Spartans (30-6) made nine of their first 10 shots on their way to building a 20-point lead in the first 14 minutes. Minnesota managed to pull within single digits briefly in the second half before Big Ten player of the year Cassius Winston took matters into his hands.

Xavier Tillman had 14 points, Winston added 13 with nine assists, and the Spartans shot 57.1 percent.

Amir Coffey had 25 points to lead the 10th-seeded Gophers (23-14), who shot a season-worst 30.5 percent and made only 2 of 22 3-pointers.

Forward Jordan Murphy, the Gophers’ No. 1 all-time rebounder and No. 2 scorer, was limited to four minutes because of back problems.

Gonzaga 83, Baylor 71

Brandon Clarke had five monster dunks, five blocks, and matched a career high with 36 points, leading top-seeded Gonzaga past Baylor in the second round of the West Region in Salt Lake City.

Ninth-seeded Baylor (20-14) scored the first 10 points of the second half to draw within six and keep the game in range. But Gonzaga held on and Clarke’s easy bucket put the Bulldogs up 13 with less than four minutes left.

Clarke, who hit 15 of 18 shots, also had eight rebounds and two steals and lifted his season blocks total to 110, best in the nation.

Baylor’s Mark Vital finished with 17 points and eight rebounds but was hampered by foul trouble.

Florida State 90, Murray State 62

Mfiondu Kabengele scored 22 points, Terrance Mann added 18 and Florida State slammed Murray State to advance to the West regional semifinal of the NCAA Tournament in Hartford, Connecticut.

Florida State (29-7) is in the Sweet 16 for the second consecutive year, the first time FSU has pulled that off since 1992-93.

Murray State point guard Ja Morant, who posted a triple-double against Marquette in the first round, dazzled for a half against FSU, going 5 for 5 from 3-point range. He finished with 28 points, but the 12th-seeded Racers (28-5) were no match for the Seminoles, who hit eight of their first 11 shots from behind the arc and led by 16 at halftime.

Purdue 87, Villanova 61

Carsen Edwards scored a career-high 42 points, and Purdue eliminated Villanova in the most lopsided tourney loss by a defending champ in nearly three decades in Hartford, Connecticut.

The last time a defending champ was beaten that badly was when Loyola-Marymount ran past Michigan 149-115 in 1990.

Matt Haarms added 18 points and nine rebounds for the Boilermakers (25-9), who advanced to their third straight Sweet 16.

Eric Paschall had 19 for Villanova (26-10), which saw its quest for a third national title in the last four seasons fall short. Fellow senior Phil Booth scored 15 points, putting him over 1,500 for his career.

Edwards has battled a sore back and had been in a recent shooting slump, making just 7 of 23 shots from the field in Purdue’s first-round win over Old Dominion.

He found the bottom of the net early and often against Villanova, making 12 of his 21 shots, including 9 of 16 from behind the arc.

Auburn 89, Kansas 75

Bryce Brown made eight of his first nine shots and finished with 25 points to lift the fifth-seeded Tigers over Kansas in Salt Lake City.

This was a wire-to-wire runaway against the fourth-seeded Jayhawks, an injury riddled group that came into the NCAA Tournament without a conference title for the first time in 15 seasons.

Auburn alum Charles Barkley went nuts while watching in the TV studio, as the Tigers (28-9) rolled two days after barely hanging on for a one-point win over New Mexico State.

Jared Harper had 18 for the Tigers, who will play either North Carolina or Washington on Friday in the Midwest Region semifinals.

Led by Brown’s 7-for-11 effort from 3, the Tigers made 13 from behind the arc on 30 attempts.

Dedric Lawson led the Jayhawks (26-10) with 25 points and 10 rebounds.

Michigan 64, Florida 49

Jordan Poole scored 19 points and Michigan is back in the Sweet 16 for the third consecutive year after pulling away from Florida in the second round in Des Moines, Iowa.

Michigan (30-6), the No. 2 seed in the West Region, has reached the Sweet 16 five times in seven years.

Zavier Simpson had nine points, nine rebounds and nine assists, while 7-foot-1 Jon Teske had eight points to go with 10 rebounds for the Wolverines.

The 10th-seeded Gators (20-16) shot just 29 percent in the second half and were held to their lowest point total of the season. Michigan outscored the Gators 13-5 to end the game.

Jalen Hudson had 11 points for the Gators, who kept it close in the first half by making 6 of 12 3-pointers.

Kentucky 62, Wofford 56

Kentucky ended Wofford’s season in the NCAA Tournament with a stifling defensive effort on Fletcher Magee in the second round in Jacksonville, Florida.

Reid Travis scored 14 points, including two huge free throws with 17.8 seconds left, to help seal the victory for second-seeded Kentucky (29-6). The graduate student, a transfer from Stanford, also grabbed 11 rebounds to help hold off the upstart Terriers (30-5).

Two days after setting the NCAA Division I record for career 3-pointers, Magee stunningly went 0 of 12 from beyond the arc. He made seven 3s on Thursday in Wofford’s victory over Seton Hall.

Nathan Hoover had 19 points and Cameron Jackson 11 for the Terriers. Magee finished with eight points on 4-of-17 shooting.

The Wildcats had a two-point lead at halftime. The Terriers briefly recaptured the lead early in the second half, but Kentucky went ahead for good with 14 1/2 minutes remaining and doggedly protected their advantage the rest of the way.

LSU 69, Maryland 67

Tremont Waters drove by three defenders and scooped in a banking layup with 1.6 seconds remaining to give third-seeded LSU the victory over sixth-seeded Maryland in the second round in Jacksonville, Florida.

Skylar Mays, who scored 16 points, hit a huge 3-pointer with 40 seconds remaining that put the Tigers (28-6) up 67-64.

Jalen Smith answered on the other end, sending the packed crowd into a frenzy and prompting LSU to call timeout. Interim coach Tony Benford called a final play for Waters, and he delivered a trip to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2006.

Waters finished with 12 points and five assists.

Smith led Maryland with 15 points. Bruno Fernando added 10 points and 15 rebounds.