The second round is upon us with 32 teams vying for their chance to make the Sweet 16. Half the Sweet 16 of the 2022 NCAA Tournament will be set by the end of the night as three one seeds will look to not fall victim to upset and punch their tickets. After great two days of basketball in the first round, the hope is that the second round brings it just as hard. The second round is always a bit of a letdown from the number of games standpoint where there are not two or three games on a time for 12 straight hours. The nice thing is the competition rises a bit as the lower seeds begin to play each other with more of the low major schools out.
Without much further ado, let’s jump into the games where we will track each game as it ends today.
No. 8 North Carolina vs. No. 1 Baylor
UNC 93 – Baylor 86
This game had it all. An absolutely stunning 45 minutes of basketball complete with a blowout, a major comeback, overtime, flagrant fouls, and deadball technicals. North Carolina prevails in a thriller and the first one seed to fall is Baylor in the second round to an extremely talented Carolina team that has played extremely well over the past few weeks. North Carolina was rolling early jumping out to a double-digit lead nearly immediately in the first half. R.J Davis couldn’t miss from three in the first half and the Tar Heels held Baylor in check, keeping them from knocking down shots to match like Baylor can do when they get going.
Brady Manek got ejected for this elbow
Manek had 26 points prior to his ejectionpic.twitter.com/ggNHNJ27M5
— Pickswise (@Pickswise) March 19, 2022
Brady Manek was massive as well as he had 26 points in 28 minutes before getting ejected for a flagrant two foul with ten minutes left for an elbow. From that point with North Carolina up 20+, Baylor turned it on. They immediately went on a nine-to-nothing run and slowly but surely chipped away at the lead. North Carolina seemed like they would be able to hold Baylor off as the comeback seemed to stall with a few minutes left but Baylor just kept ticking away and James Akinjo finished off an and-one with under twenty seconds to tie the game up and ultimately send the game to overtime.
I’m sure the whole world expected Baylor to win the game once it went to overtime, with all of the momentum on their side. North Carolina’s body language looked terrible and most of their guys seemed defeated but a three on their opening possession seemed to calm them down. From there it was all about grinding out stops and buckets and that is what they did along with knocking down some free throws to seal the deal. North Carolina now moves on in the 2022 NCAA Tournament and is two games away from another Final Four appearance in Hubert Davis’ inaugural season as head coach.
No. 9 Creighton vs. No. 1 Kansas
Kansas 79 – Creighton 72
The second one seed of the day tipped off as Creighton and Kansas took to battle in our second game of the day. Not many expected much from Creighton entering the game with all of the injuries that began to pile up for the team. They have been without point guard Ryan Nembhard for weeks now but lost their Big East Defensive Player of the Year center Ryan Kalkbrenner in the first round game vs San Diego St on Thursday. Even with the injuries they came ready to play in the first half and put up a major fight. They made eight of their first twelve threes to keep pace with Kansas. Remy Martin came in for Kansas and gave them a spark, scoring 16 first-half points to counter-balance all of the threes Creighton hit. His spark allowed Kansas to go into halftime with a tight one-point lead despite the shooting by Creighton.
The second half was mostly controlled by Kansas but every time the Jayhawks tried to pull away, Arthur Kaluma went and got a bucket in a game he ended with 24 points. Ochai Agbaji the All-American never really got going but did knock down a few key buckets in the second half to finish with 15 points on 14 shots. Kansas as the game approached five or so minutes remaining extended the lead to near double-digits and then Creighton once again went to work cutting the game to one with 90 seconds left.
The Jayhawks punch their ticket to the Sweet 16! #MarchMadness
— Def Pen Sports (@DefPenSports) March 19, 2022
Creighton threw the ball away leading to an Agbaji dunk before David McCormack all but sealed the game with a block on a layup allowing Remy Martin to go down and knock down a couple of free throws to put things on ice and send Kansas to the Sweet 16. Two tickets have been punched in the 2022 NCAA Tournament to the Sweet 16 with six more berths on the line tonight.
No. 11 Michigan vs. No. 3 Tennessee
Michigan 76 – Tennessee 68
Michigan fresh off their upset of Colorado State was looking for another upset, this time over a team many believe is a true Final Four contender, and some say favorite. Early on it seemed like they could be well on their way. Michigan jumped out to a quick 10 to 2 lead while looking quicker and up to the task. Then Tennessee woke up and was able to make the first half a back and forth affair with each team just throwing punches at each other.
Josiah-Jordan James on the fast break! #MarchMadness
— Def Pen Sports (@DefPenSports) March 19, 2022
The second half wasn’t much different. Each team just answered the other’s run time after time. Hunter Dickinson was phenomenal, drawing fouls and executing in the post meanwhile Tennessee struggled from three-point range just one game after an excellent shooting night vs. Longwood.
In the end, Michigan was the team to make the final run and got the stops down the stretch to get back to their second straight Sweet 16 under Juwan Howard. With Michigan’s win, it has made for two of the first three games of the day end in upsets and Creighton was as close as could be to pulling it off themselves.
No. 12 Richmond vs. No. 4 Providence
Providence 79 – Richmond 51
After the first three games were barnburners we’ve finally gotten our first blowout of the day. Providence had no issue in handling Richmond who has pulled off upset after upset dating back to their conference tournament. Their magical run has sadly come to an end in a fashion that will certainly sting in the present but this team will eventually look back proud at the run they had.
Noah Horchler and Providence are heating up
— Def Pen Sports (@DefPenSports) March 19, 2022
Providence simply was too much for the Spiders. The game was never all that close and was especially blown open in the second half where Providence pushed the lead to 30 at several points. Providence will now face Kansas in Chicago next weekend with a berth to the Elite Eight on the line.
No. 5 St. Mary’s vs No. 4 UCLA
UCLA 72 – St. Mary’s 56
Coming into today’s slate of games this was seen by many as the most intriguing matchup of the day. It was a great clash of styles and in reputation, with UCLA providing star power with known names coming off a Final Four appearance last season and St. Mary’s always seen as a band of unknowns every year. St. Mary’s jumped out in front early but couldn’t quite extend that lead once UCLA began to find their rhythm. The Gaels at one point in the first half not only went on a major drought of over 6 minutes but also missed six of seven layups they had attempted in the first 13 or so minutes of the game.
Johnny Juzang ?
— Def Pen Sports (@DefPenSports) March 20, 2022
When St. Mary’s couldn’t capitalize, UCLA was more than happy to. The shots began to fall for them and they never looked back as they held the lead for the final 26 minutes of the game. UCLA never truly felt much game pressure in the second half either. St. Mary’s got the game down to a one-possession game after trailing by seven at halftime before the Bruins answered right back opening their lead right back up. Juzang and the Bruins went on a wild run last year and this game seemed to be the game where they found a bit of that groove back. Throughout their first-round game against Akron and the first 10 minutes of this game, they didn’t quite seem to have it. Something seemed to click and they began to roll punching a ticket to their second straight Sweet 16 and now are two games away in the 2022 NCAA Tournament from getting back to the Final Four.
No. 15 St. Peter’s vs No. 7 Murray State
St. Peter’s 70 – Murray State 60
The 15 seed marches on! St. Peter’s after their stunning upset of Kentucky on Thursday went into the second round and beats another Kentucky-based school in Murray State. St. Peter’s never trailed and handed Murray State just its third loss of the season and became the second 15-seed in a row to make the Sweet 16 after Oral Roberts did it last year.
This Peacock went FLYING! KC Ndefo with the chase down #MarchMadness
— Def Pen Sports (@DefPenSports) March 20, 2022
Murray State looked set up to possibly make a run and make what has been a great season truly special. St. Peter’s never gave them the chance and really took it to Murray State all game long. It was never a blowout, and the Racers were always in distance till late but the Racers of Murray State were kept at a bit of distance for most of the second half without the true ability to take the lead. And with that St. Peter’s historic tournament run continues on to next week. A place very few 15 seeds have ever been with a chance to do something a 15-seed has never done, win a Sweet 16 game.
No. 12 New Mexico State vs. No. 4 Arkansas
Arkansas 53 – New Mexico State 48
This game was ugly, no other way to put it. New Mexico State put up 17 points at half and Arkansas wasn’t exactly lighting things up with 26 points of their own. Arkansas advances to their second straight Sweet 16 under Eric Musselman. Their two wins in the tournament haven’t been pretty but that’s sort of how they’ve won games all year so it’s not too much of a surprise. New Mexico State made things interesting down the stretch but Arkansas was great down the stretch knocking down their free throws to keep NMSU at bay.
No. 9 Memphis vs. No. 1 Gonzaga
Gonzaga 82 – Memphis 78
Memphis for 20 minutes was excellent, building a double-digit lead at halftime and looking to be fully in control. The youth and athleticism were giving Gonzaga trouble and looked poised to pull off a massive upset. Then Drew Timme happened to begin the second half. Timme singlehandedly got the Zags back into the game and went completely scorched earth to begin the half. Memphis refused to call a timeout and did make just enough plays to stay in front but it was only a matter of time before the lead was lost and it eventually was.
Drew Timme has all 11 points for Gonzaga to start the second half ? #MarchMadness
— Def Pen Sports (@DefPenSports) March 20, 2022
Gonzaga has been tested in both of their games now and needed furious rallies in the second half to win the game. They came into the tournament as the favorites and have looked less than impressive in each first half before really turning things on in the second half. They’ll now meet an Arkansas team who will also fit the bill of teams that have given the Zags fit with athletes all over the court. Arkansas is similar to Memphis in that they just roll the ball out there and go except Arkansas has a guy in JD Notae who can go truly get buckets unlike Memphis has. It will certainly be an intriguing matchup next week and if the Zags continue this trend of playing mediocre early they could easily find out that Arkansas was the wrong opponent to do that against.
