Alijah Martin, Vlad Goldin and ninth-seeded Florida Atlantic ended up being the very first and lowest-seeded group to reach this year’s Final Four as the Owls stood up to another big video game by Kansas State’s Markquis Nowell to beat the Wildcats 79-76 on Saturday night. FAU, making simply their 2nd look in the NCAA Tournament, won the East Region at Madison Square Garden and will head to Houston to play the winner of Sunday’s South Region last in between Creighton and San Diego State. “I anticipate the prognosticators to select us 5th in the Final Four,” fifth-year FAU coach Dusty May stated. The group with the most wins in Division I this season had actually never ever won an NCAA Tournament video game prior to duping 4 straight, all by single digits, to end up being the very first No 9 seed to reach the Final Four given that Wichita State in 2013 and the 3rd to get that far given that seeding started in 1979. Nowell, the 5ft 8in New Yorker, was amazing once again at Madison Square Garden, with 30 points, 12 helps and 5 takes, coming off a Sweet 16 video game in which he set the NCAA Tournament record with 19 helps. He didn’t get enough assist this time. Nae’Qwan Tomlin was the only other gamer in double figures for Kansas State, with 14 points. Keyontae Johnson, the Wildcats’ prominent scorer, fouled out with 9 points. Martin scored 17 points, consisting of a substantial 3 down the stretch, the 7ft 1in Goldin had 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Michael Forrest made 4 clutch totally free tosses in the last 20 seconds for the Owls, who held constant as the Wildcats made a late push. Camera Carter made a three-pointer from the wing with 22.8 seconds delegated cut FAU’s cause 75-74 and Kansas State fouled and sent out Forrest to the line with 17.9 seconds left. The senior made both to make it a three-point video game. Nowell discovered Tomlin inside for a layup with 8.6 delegated cut the result in one once again, and once again K-State sent out Forrest to the line. With 6.9 left, he made them both. Without any timeouts left, Nowell hurried down the court, quit the ball to Ismael Massoud outside the three-point line, and never ever got it back. FAU’s Johnell Davis swiped it away and time went out. The Owls hurried the flooring to commemorate a historical minute for the school. FAU didn’t even have a basketball program up until the late 1980s and has actually just been a Division I school for the last 30 years. In Saturday’s other video game, Jordan Hawkins scored 20 points and UConn made their very first journey to the Final Four in 9 years with an 82-54 blowout of Gonzaga. The Huskies have actually felt right in the house in their very first extended March Madness run given that winning the 2014 championship game, playing their finest basketball of what had actually been an up-and-down season. UConn managed the typically effective Bulldogs at both ends in the West Region last. Drew Timme had 12 points and 10 rebounds for Gonzaga in his last college video game.
NCAA Tournament: FAU beat KSU to end up being very first No 9 seed in Final Four considering that 2013
