ATLANTA (AP) -Tennessee is still alive for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. It sure wasn’t easy.
Chris Lofton hit a 3-pointer with 11.4 seconds remaining and the fourth-ranked Volunteers survived South Carolina’s bid for a huge upset, sending Dave Odom into retirement with an 89-87 victory over the Gamecocks in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament Friday.
Tennessee (29-3) already claimed its first SEC championship in 41 years and hopes to lock up a top seed by winning the league tournament. South Carolina (14-18) made it tough in Odom’s final game; the coach announced in January he would step down at the end of the season.
Wayne Chism led the Volunteers with 23 points, helping them dominate on the inside. Lofton was held to 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting, but the senior guard came through when it counted.
Tennessee will face Arkansas in Saturday’s semifinals.
Devan Downey scored 26 points and Zam Fredrick had 24 for the Gamecocks.
Arkansas 81, No. 18 Vanderbilt 75
ATLANTA (AP) – Darian Townes and Gary Ervin each scored 18 points and Arkansas dominated inside to advance to the SEC tournament semifinals.
The Razorbacks (21-10) rolled to a 45-24 rebounding edge and outscored the Commodores 50-20 in the paint.
Alex Gordon led Vanderbilt (26-7) with 22 points. He had two 3-pointers and another long jumper in the final minute.
The Commodores rallied to tie it twice in the second half, the last time at 58-58 on a 3-pointer by Gordon. But Ervin answered with back-to-back baskets, including a 3.
The Razorbacks made 10 of 12 free throws in the final minute.
Conference USA
No. 2 Memphis 69, Southern Miss. 53
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Derrick Rose scored 25 points and Memphis advanced to the Conference USA tournament championship for a fourth straight year with its 41st consecutive league victory.
Memphis (32-1), which will play either UTEP or Tulsa on Saturday, is looking to add a third straight tournament title to the third consecutive outright regular-season championship it clinched less than a week ago on this same court.
Chris Douglas-Roberts added 14 points for Memphis.
Sai’Quon Stone led Southern Miss (19-14) with 14 points, and Jeremy Wise and R.L. Horton each had 12. The Golden Eagles, who led only once at 3-2, hit their first 18 free throws and finished 24-of-26 at the line.
Atlantic Coast Conference
No. 1 North Carolina 82, Florida State 70
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Tyler Hansbrough scored 22 points to lead North Carolina to the win in the ACC tournament quarterfinals.
Wayne Ellington added 19 points for the top-seeded Tar Heels (30-2), who have won nine straight games and 12 of 13. North Carolina, the defending tournament champion, will face Virginia Tech in Saturday’s semifinals.
Jason Rich scored 23 points for the ninth-seeded Seminoles (19-14), who again proved to be a pesky opponent for the Tar Heels. The Seminoles trailed 43-38 with about 14 minutes left before North Carolina finally took control.
The Tar Heels shot 53 percent for the game, including 6-for-13 from 3-point range.
Big 12
No. 6 Texas 66, Oklahoma St. 59
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Damion James had 23 points and 11 rebounds and D. J. Augustin powered a crucial second-half run for Texas.
Augustin, the quick and crafty point guard who led the conference in assists and was second in scoring, finished with 24 points for the Longhorns (27-5). He had eight points and an assist in a 14-0 run at the start of the second half.
Top-seeded Texas, the regular-season co-champions with Kansas, will meet the winner of the Colorado-Oklahoma game in Saturday’s semifinals.
Ibrahima Thomas had 19 points for Oklahoma State (17-15), which led 33-32 at halftime.
Big Ten
No. 8 Wisconsin 51, Michigan 34
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Joe Krabbenhoft scored 12 points and Michael Flowers keyed Wisconsin offensively and defensively in the lowest-scoring game in Big Ten tournament history.
The Badgers (27-4) will play No. 19 Michigan State in Saturday’s semifinals.
Wisconsin and Michigan combined for the fewest points in the 11-year history of the Big Ten tournament, “beating” the 89 scored by Michigan and Minnesota in the first round last year. Michigan’s 34 points were also the fewest ever by a team, falling short of the 40 scored last year by Minnesota.
Flowers scored 11 points and completely flustered Michigan’s leading scorer, Manny Harris, who managed only four points on 1-of-12 shooting.
No. 19 Michigan St. 67, Ohio St. 60
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Drew Neitzel scored 28 points and Travis Walton hit five free throws in the final minute for Michigan State.
Neitzel hit six 3-pointers but the fourth-seeded Spartans (25-7) couldn’t pull away until late in the game with a 3-pointer by Durrell Summers, a steal by Neitzel and another basket by Summers. Ohio State managed only one free throw over a span of more than 4 minutes, and the Spartans took their biggest lead at nine points during the late string of free throws by Walton, his only points of the game.
Kosta Koufos scored 19 points and David Lighty had 12 for fifth-seeded Ohio State (19-13), which won the conference tournament last year.
The Buckeyes beat Michigan State 63-54 in the final game of the regular season.
Patriot League
American 52, Colgate 46
WASHINGTON (AP) – Garrison Carr scored 17 points and American earned its first trip to the NCAA tournament since the school joined Division I in 1967.
Brian Gilmore scored 11 and wrestled away a key steal in the final 20 seconds for the top-seeded Eagles (21-11), whose only previous berth in an NCAA tournament came as a Division II school in 1960.
American had fallen at the final huddle three times since joining the Patriot League in 2001, losing the 2002 championship game at home and the 2003 and 2004 title games on the road. For coach Jeff Jones, the victory achieved the goal envisioned when the former Virginia coach was hired eight years ago by the school located in the affluent northwest corner of the nation’s capital.
Kyle Roemer scored 17 points for the third-seeded Raiders (18-14).
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