Dylan Darling’s 3-pointer misses in final seconds, St. John’s falls to Duke in Sweet 16

After sending St. John’s to the Sweet 16 with a buzzer-beating layup, Dylan Darling had a chance to be the hero again.

The Central Valley High grad took the ball up the floor with only seconds remaining in the fifth-seeded Red Storm’s Sweet 16 matchup against No. 1 seed Duke. Darling used a nifty crossover to throw off his defender, then put up a game-tying 3-point attempt as the clock ticked under four seconds.

But Darling’s 3 grazed off the side of the rim and the Blue Devils survived, outlasting St. John’s 80-75 on Friday at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

Darling lifted St. John’s past fourth-seeded Kansas 67-65 with a layup – his only basket of the game – as time expired on Sunday in the second round, so the 6-foot-1 guard from Spokane called his own shot in crunch time again on Friday despite his relatively quiet scoring night.

“We did not necessarily want that shot, but that’s OK,” St. John’s coach Rick Pitino said during his postgame news conference. “He had a slight opening and he had the gumption to take it. I never look at offense as a reason you lose. … I always look at defense, and we couldn’t guard them to the basket. That’s the reason we lost the game. Simple as that. We made our mistakes. It’s no one’s fault. They all tried their tails off to win this game. Very proud of them, each and every one of them.”

“It wasn’t that he didn’t run the play correctly. It’s just that he missed the shot.”

Darling finished with eight points on 3 of 7 shooting (2 of 5 from 3-point distance), adding three assists with a steal and no turnovers. He sat on the bench for a couple of extended stretches in the second half due to foul trouble.

Darling hit a 3 about five minutes into the game to stop a Duke run and cut the Blue Devil lead to 11-7. He knocked down a triple to end another Duke spurt with around three minutes left in the first half, trimming the St. John’s deficit to 35-31. Darling also converted a midrange jumper midway through the second half to extend the Red Storm lead to 57-49.

Darling had to take a seat for a few minutes down the stretch after picking up his fourth foul. He reentered the game with about three minutes remaining and played tough defense on Caleb Foster, but the Duke guard fought through Darling’s pressure for a difficult layup to put the Blue Devils ahead 77-72 with 1:27 remaining.

Darling, a junior, capped his first season at St. John’s with per-game averages of 6.9 points, 2.6 assists and 2.5 rebounds. He shot 39.7% from the field and 27.7% from 3-point range, and earned recognition from Pitino throughout the year for his clutch play. Darling appeared in 35 games, starting 15 for a Red Storm team that went 30-7, finished atop the powerhouse Big East Conference and made its first Sweet 16 appearance since 1999.

Darling started all three of St. John’s NCAA Tournament games. He had started just nine games before moving into the starting lineup for good during the team’s run through the Big East Tournament.

The Class 4A Player of the Year and Greater Spokane League MVP as a senior at CV, Darling began his collegiate career at Washington State, then transferred to Idaho State for the 2024-25 season. He claimed Big Sky Conference MVP, then headed to New York City for one of the best seasons in St. John’s history.

Iowa State forward Blake Buchanan

The former Lake City High star recorded eight points (3 of 3), three rebounds, two assists and two steals for the second-seeded Cyclones in their 76-62 loss to No. 6 seed Tennessee on Friday in the Sweet 16 at United Center in Chicago.

The 6-10 junior averaged 9.3 points, six rebounds, four assists and 2.3 steals across Iowa State’s three NCAA Tournament games.

Buchanan started all but one game this season in his first year with the Cyclones (29-8), posting per-game averages of 8.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 0.9 blocks and 0.8 steals while shooting 63% from the field.

A Class 5A champion and the Idaho Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior at Lake City, Buchanan was one of the state’s most highly touted recruits of all time. He played two seasons at Virginia before transferring to Iowa State.

Purdue center Oscar Cluff

The former Washington State big man (2023-24), now a senior starter for second-seeded Purdue, registered 11 points (4 of 7), six rebounds and two assists in the Boilermakers’ 79-77 win over No. 11 seed Texas on Thursday in the Sweet 16 at SAP Center in San Jose.

The 6-11 Australia native fouled out with 11 seconds left, giving up an and-1 to Texas’ Dailyn Swain that tied the game before Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn beat the buzzer with a tip-in.

Purdue (30-8) will take on No. 1 seed Arizona (35-2) at 5:50 p.m. on Saturday in the Elite Eight.

UCLA guard Charlisse Leger-Walker

Arguably the best player in Washington State women’s basketball history and now a standout guard for No. 1 seed UCLA, Leger-Walker is headed to the Elite Eight.

The senior from New Zealand tallied four points (2 of 7) and a game-high eight assists, adding two steals and a block during the Bruins’ 80-56 win over fourth-seeded Minnesota on Friday in the Sweet 16 at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.

UCLA (34-1) will face No. 3 seed Duke (27-8) at noon on Sunday in the Elite Eight.

Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd

For the first time under Lloyd, the Wildcats are moving on to the Elite Eight.

No. 1 seed Arizona routed fourth-seeded Arkansas 109-88 on Thursday in the Sweet 16 in San Jose.

Lloyd, the former longtime Gonzaga assistant (2001-21), hadn’t made it past the Sweet 16 in his four prior seasons at Arizona. The Wildcats were knocked out in the Sweet 16 in 2022, 2024 and 2025, and stunned by Princeton in the first round in 2023. But this Arizona team is Lloyd’s best yet.

Lloyd’s Arizona staff includes former GU assistants TJ Benson, Ken Nakagawa, Evan Manning and Liam Lloyd, a former Gonzaga Prep star and the head coach’s son.

Houston coach Kelvin Sampson

Sampson’s Cougars had championships aspirations again this season after finishing as the national runner-up last year, but Houston stumbled in the Sweet 16.

The second-seeded Cougars’ offense sputtered during a second-half stretch and No. 3 seed Illinois pulled away for a 65-55 Sweet 16 win on Thursday at the Toyota Center in Houston.

Sampson, who got his Division I head-coaching start at Washington State (1987-94), has led Houston to eight NCAA Tournament appearances since he took the job in 2014. Houston reached the national title game last year and made appearances in the Final Four and Elite Eight in 2021 and 2022, respectively. The Cougars bowed out in the Sweet 16 in 2019, ’23, ’24 and this year. A national title is just about the only distinction that has eluded Sampson during his Hall of Fame career.