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Tennesee, Duke Survive Scares; 12th Seeded Ducks Advance

Tennessee avoided one of the biggest meltdowns in NCAA Tournament history Sunday, letting a 25-point lead slip away before SEC player of the year Grant Williams asserted himself in overtime for an 83-77 victory over Iowa.

 

Tenth-seeded Iowa (23-12) nearly pulled off another historic comeback , sending it overtime tied at 71 - the first overtime game in this year's tournament. The last time the teams played also was in the NCAA Tournament, with Tennessee rallying from a 12-point deficit to a 78-65 overtime victory in the First Four at Dayton in 2014.

 

Grant Williams had a pair of free throws, two jumpers, and a strip in overtime that helped the Vols pull it out and match their school record for wins in a season. He finished with 19 points and seven rebounds.

 

Zion Williamson had 32 points and helped rally the Blue Devils from behind in the final minute for a 77-76 victory Sunday to reach the Sweet 16.

 

Aubrey Dawkins finished with 32 points for the Knights, but his tip-in try just missed in the final seconds.

 

Zion made a layup over Fall with 14.4 seconds left to draw Duke within a point as Fall fouled out on the play. Williamson missed the free throw, but RJ Barrett scored on a putback to put the Blue Devils (31-5) ahead.

 

Ninth-seeded UCF (24-9) had a final chance. Two of them, actually, from in close.

 

B.J. Taylor missed a short jumper, and Dawkins failed on his tip attempt with less than two seconds left, the ball spinning off the rim. Duke got the rebound, ran out the clock and moved on to the Sweet 16 for 27th time and fourth time in the past five years.

 

Ehab Amin's 3-pointer ended a run of 14 straight points for UC Irvine and provided the pivotal spark that helped the Ducks became the lone double-digit seed to advance to next weekend by beating UC Irvine 73-54 on Sunday night.

 

Payton Pritchard led 12th-seeded Oregon (25-12) with 18 points, Louis King added 16 and Amin had 12 points and three steals. The Ducks have won 10 straight after a lackluster start to the season and will play top-seeded Virginia in the South Regional semifinal on Thursday.

 

After going more than seven minutes without scoring to start the second half and squandering all of a 12-point lead, Oregon used a 15-3 run to take control and end a 17-game winning streak for the 13th-seeded Anteaters (31-6).

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