Kansas State has advanced to the sweet 16 in the NCAA mens basketball tournament. The Wildcats ended Cinderellas run by defeating Maryland Baltimore County 50-43 Sunday night.
Maryland Baltimore County is the first 16 seed to defeat a number 1 seed when they defeated Virginia in the first round. Kansas State was scoreless for the first 6 minutes of the game but rallied to take a 25-20 lead and halftime and never trailed in the 2nd half. The Wildcats biggest lead was by 9 in the 2nd half. Coach Bruce Weber said they keep playing well defensively.
Barry Brown led the offense with a game high 18 points.
Makol Mawien added 11 points. Xavier Sneed scored 6 of his 8 points in the 2nd half and 4 came in the final 5 minutes of play.
Kansas State is making their 17th sweet 16 appearance will play Kentucky Thursday night in Atlanta with tip-off set for 8:37p.
The other South Regional Semi-Final has Nevada playing Loyola Chicago.
While 16th-seeded UMBC’s historic Cinderella run came to an end on Sunday, that didn’t mean the day’s 2nd Round action didn’t feature plenty of upset excitement.
7th-seeded Nevada came back from 22 points down in the 2nd half to knock off 2nd-seeded Cincinnati 75-73 and return to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2004.
9th-seeded Florida State turned around a 12-point 2nd-half deficit of its own to out score top-seeded Xavier 75-70.
Earlier, perennial powers couldn’t take advantage of playing close to home, as Texas A&M delivered a haymaker in Charlotte–beating defending-champion North Carolina by twenty one, 86-65. And Syracuse ground out a two-point win 55-53 over 3rd-seeded Michigan State in Detroit.
West Virginia defeated Marshall 94-71.
Clemson out scored Auburn 84-53.
Purdue held off Butler 76-73.
The Kansas Jayhawks will play their Midwest Regional semi-final in Omaha against Clemson. That game will tip-off at 6:07p Friday night. The other Midwest Regional semi-final has Duke playing Syracuse.
In the other regional semi-finals:
Thursday in the West Regional Michigan plays Texas A&M and Gonzaga plays Florida State.
Friday in the East Regional Villanova plays West Virginia and Texas Tech faces Purdue.
