Miami 63, Illinois 59
Miami's defensive focus seemed to fade in and out as the game went on. At times Illinois was getting to the rim with ease. At other times Miami was forcing tough looks. Miami was never able to get it together enough to pull away, but they executed down the stretch, and combined with a blatantly missed out-of-bounds call in their favor in the last minute, it was enough to get Miami into the Sweet 16.
Illinois executed their game plan on defense well: keep Miami's point guard Shane (son of Barry) Larkin out of the paint. But enough other players on the Hurricanes stepped up (namely Rion Brown with his game-high 21 points, and no I didn't misspell his name, his parents did) to pull out the win anyway.
Duke 66 Creighton 50
Honestly I was surprised Creighton was in this as long as they were. Creighton's a one-man team, and Duke is too good defensively to let one man beat them. Doug McDermott was hounded all night. He ended up with 21 points but on 4/16 shooting. No one else reached double figures for the Bluejays, and as a team they only shot 2/19 from behind the arc. That made Duke's win (cue Agent Smith voice) inevitable.
No comments:
Post a Comment