THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH ••  |  Sunday, March 12, 2017 C11
No. 23 Iowa State 80 / No. 11 West Virginia 74
Cyclones beat Mountaineers for Big 12 title Kentucky
By Dave Skretta
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. —
Monte Morris scored 17 points,
Deonte Burton and Matt
Thomas helped him deal with
West Virginia’s attacking
defense, and No. 23 Iowa State
beat the No. 11 Mountaineers
80-74 on Saturday night for
the Cyclones’ third Big 12
Tournament title in four years.
Burton had 16 points and
Thomas finished with 12 for
the fourth-seeded Cyclones
(23-10), who will enter the
NCAA Tournament as one of
the nation’s hottest teams.
They’ve won nine of their last
10 games, with their only loss
during that stretch coming a
week ago in Morgantown.
They avenged that defeat in a
big way at the Sprint Center.
Iowa State has never lost in
four appearances in the Big 12
title game, while the Moun-
taineers (26-8) remain without
a conference tournament title
of any kind since winning the
Big East in 2010.
College basketball roundup
Tatum leads Duke past Notre Dame for ACC title
The Associated Press
Jayson Tatum took over
in the final three minutes,
making key plays on both ends
of the floor, and No. 14 Duke
became the first team to win
the Atlantic Coast Conference
Tournament with four wins
in four days by rallying to beat
No. 22 Notre Dame 75-69 on
Saturday night.
The freshman forward
finished a spectacular week
in Brooklyn with 19 points
and eight rebounds for the
fifth-seeded Blue Devils (27-
8). Duke won its first ACC
Tournament championship
since 2011 and its 20th overall,
most in league history.
Bonzie Colson was a beast
for third-seeded Notre Dame
(25-9), with 29 points and
nine rebounds.
AAC
No. 12 SMU 70, UCF 59: Sterling
Brown scored 22 points and No.
12 SMU (29-4) beat UCF (21-11)
in the semifinals of the American
Athletic Conference Tournament.
Semi Ojeleye added 17 points,
and Shake Milton had 14 of his
16 points in the second half for
the Mustangs. They are back in
the championship game after
missing last year’s tournament
because of NCAA sanctions. The
Mustangs won the title in 2015.
SMU has won 15 straight games
Iowa State’s Monte Morris celebrates after making a basket during the first
half against West Virginia in the Big 12 tournament championship game
Saturday in Kansas City, Mo. [Charlie Riedel/the associated press]
Jevon Carter had 18 points
for West Virginia, which will
no doubt rue its 8-for-17
shooting from the foul line. Esa
Ahmad, Daxter Miles Jr. and
Elijah Macon finished with 10
and 25 of its last 26 after a 4-3
start to their season. B.J. Taylor
had 20 points, and Nick Banyard
16 for the Knights. They had won
six in a row.
No. 15 CINCINNATI 81, CONNECTI-
CUT 71: Gary Clark scored 25
points to lead Cincinnati (29-4)
over UConn in the American
Athletic Conference semifinals.
Jacob Evans added 21 points
and Troy Caupain had 18 for
the Bearcats (29-4), who will be
seeking their first AAC title today
against SMU. The Huskies finish
their season 16-17, their first
losing campaign in 30 years.
Big east
No. 2 Villanova 74, Creighton
60: Josh Hart scored 29 points
and No. 2 Villanova (31-3) beat
Creighton (25-9) to win the Big
East Tournament and probably
lock up the overall No. 1 seed in
the NCAA Tournament. Hart, the
conference player of the year,
became just the third player to
win the tournament MVP award
twice, joining Patrick Ewing of
Georgetown and Peyton Siva of
Louisville.
Mountain West
Nevada 79, Colorado State 71:
Jordan Caroline had 23 points
and 10 rebounds as Nevada
(28-6) beat Colorado State
(23-11) in the Mountain West
points apiece.
The No. 2-seeded Moun-
taineers had been a scourge
for the Cyclones the past two
years, winning the last four
meetings in relatively easy
Conference championship game
to earn its first NCAA Tourna-
ment berth in 11 years. The
top-seeded Wolf Pack claimed
the league’s automatic bid for
their first trip to the NCAAs
since winning the 2006 Western
Athletic Conference Tournament.
America East
Vermont 56, Albany 53: Ver-
mont (29-5) capped off a perfect
America East season with the
conference tournament cham-
pionship. Junior forward Payton
Henson converted a three-point
play with 39 seconds remaining
to propel the Catamounts over
Albany (21-13) in the America
East men’s basketball champi-
onship game. The top-seeded
Catamounts secured a berth in
the NCAA Tournament with their
21st consecutive victory.
MEAC
North Carolina Central 67,
Norfolk State 59: Patrick Cole
scored 18 points and grabbed
eight rebounds, Dajuan Graf
added 17 points, and North
Carolina Central (25-8) beat
Norfolk State (17-16) in the
championship game for the
Eagles’ second NCAA Tourna-
ment spot in four years. After a
back-and-forth first half, NCCU
used a 19-0 run in the second
half to pull away as the Spar-
tans missed 14 straight shots
and committed five turnovers
fashion. But the hallmark of
those games had been their
ability to get easy baskets
against an Iowa State team that
doesn’t always play defense.
There were no easy buckets
Saturday night.
Iowa State threw down its
own half-court press against
Press Virginia, and caused 10
first-half turnovers that gave
the sea of red inside Sprint
Center reason to stand from its
seats.
The biggest roars from the
Cyclones faithful came late in
the half, when Bowie came off
the bench to score 10 points in
quick succession. He checked
out to a standing ovation, and
Morris took over from there,
hitting Iowa State’s final three
baskets of the half for a 35-29
lead.
After drilling a long 3 as time
expired, Morris rode an imagi-
nary horse off to the locker
room. The whooping and hol-
lering continued in the second
half, when Burton hit a pair of
3s and Thomas hit another,
pushing Iowa State’s lead to 10.
during an 11-minute stretch.
Bryan Gellineau hit a foul-line
jumper with 3:20 left to finally
end the drought at 62-48 with
3:29 to go.
SWAC
Texas Southern 53, Alcorn
State 50: Kevin Scott had 15
points and 12 rebounds and
top-seeded Texas Southern (24-
11) beat Alcorn State (18-14) to
win the Southwestern Athletic
Conference Tournament title.
Marvin Jones added 14 points
on 6-of-7 shooting, and Demon-
trae Jefferson had 13 points for
Texas Southern. The Tigers won
the title for the third time in the
last four years.
Big sky
North Dakota 93, Weber State
89, OT: Quinton Hooker scored
28 points and North Dakota (22-
10) beat Weber State (19-13) in
overtime and earn its first NCAA
Tournament bid. Top-seeded
North Dakota rallied with a 20-9
run to force overtime after fall-
ing behind 72-61 with 7:26 left.
Conference USA
Middle Tennessee 83, Marshall
72: Giddy Potts matched his
season high with 30 points to
lead Middle Tennessee (30-4)
its second straight Conference
USA Tournament championship,
beating Marshall (20-15).
SEC tournament
roundup
outlasts
Alabama
in semis
The Associated Press
De’Aaron Fox scored
a career-high 28 points,
including seven straight
down the stretch, and Malik
Monk added 20 to lift No.
8 Kentucky past Alabama
79-74 in the Southeastern
Conference Tournament
semifinal on Saturday.
The Wildcats shot 52
percent from the floor and
69 percent from the line
after missing numerous
chances that left openings
for the pesky Crimson Tide
to stay close. But Kentucky
converted chances when
needed, hitting 13 of 17
free throws in the final six
minutes with Fox making 5
of 7 in particular and 11 of 15
overall.
Bam Adebayo had 10
points and nine rebounds to
send top-seeded Kentucky
(28-5) to today’s champion-
ship game against Arkansas.
Dazon Ingram had
17 points for No. 5 seed
Alabama (19-14), which
outrebounded Kentucky
33-28, but couldn’t get
the basket when needed to
overcome the Wildcats.
Another slow start dug
a 17-7 hole before the
Wildcats answered with 11
straight points for the lead.
Monk got out of his funk
after two subpar games to
shoot 6 of 14 with a pair of
3-pointers. Derek Willis
added a pair of key 3s as
well.
Arkansas 76, Vanderbilt
62: Moses Kingsley had 12
points and 13 rebounds as
the third-seeded Arkansas
Razorbacks beat Vanderbilt
in the Southeastern Confer-
ence Tournament semifinals.
The Razorbacks (25-8) won
their third straight to reach
the championship for the
seventh time. Arkansas
simply smothered Vanderbilt,
especially in the paint where
the Razorbacks had a 46-16
scoring edge. Jaylen Barford
led Arkansas with 18 points.
Dusty Hannahs added 16 and
Daryl Macon 15. Playing a third
game in as many days took its
toll on seventh-seeded Vander-
bilt (19-15). The Commodores
saw a three-game winning
streak end after reaching the
semifinals for the first time
since 2013.