San Jose – Trey Kaufman-Renn tipped in a shot with 0.7 seconds left to give No. 2 Purdue a 79-77 win over No. 11 Texas in the NCAA Tournament's West Region semifinals on Thursday night.
Purdue's Braden Smith drove to the lane on the final possession, and his jumper bounced off, right to the hands of Kaufman-Renn, one of three starters for the Boilermakers (30-8) who were part of the team that played in the 2024 NCAA final.
Visit michezonews.co.za for more information.
A Texas heave from beyond halfcourt at the buzzer was off the mark.
Kaufman-Renn finished with 20 points and eight rebounds, making 8 of 10 shots from the floor.
Fletcher Loyer scored 18 points and Smith added 16 for Purdue, which will face either No. 1 Arizona or No. 4 Arkansas in the regional final on Saturday.
Texas (21-15) got 29 points from Tramon Mark, most by a Longhorn in the NCAA tourney since Kevin Durant had 30 in 2007. He hit 11 of 15 from the field and 5 of 7 from 3-point range. The Longhorns shot 51.8% overall, 55.6% in the second half.
Texas' Dailyn Swain, who had 15 points, nine rebounds and five assists, tied the game by completing a three-point play with 11.9 seconds left.
Purdue led 39-35 at halftime behind 53.1% shooting, but Texas scored the first five points of the second half for the first of six lead changes or ties before the Longhorns built a 49-45 edge with 15:40 to go on a Camden Heide 3-pointer.
Texas center Matas Vokietaitis, who averaged 18.3 points and 11 rebounds in the team's first three NCAA tourney games, picked up his fourth foul with 12:43 remaining. In his absence, Purdue scored six in a row to go back up 58-56.
The Longhorns went ahead 70-66 on a Mark trey with 5:20 to go but then didn't score again for more than four minutes as the Boilermakers went on a 7-0 run.
Texas missed five of its first six shots before hitting seven in a row, including four from long distance, to go up 20-16. Purdue sank four in a row to lead 26-23 with 8:38 left in the first half.
The game was tied at 30 when Vokietaitis was called for an offensive foul, which was upgraded to a flagrant and resulted in a five-point play for Purdue. Loyer made both free throws and then hit a 3-pointer on the ensuing possession, starting a personal 7-0 run.
Iowa 77, Nebraska 71
Houston – Bennett Stirtz scored a team-high 20 points, Tate Sage added 19 and ninth-seeded Iowa rallied from a first-half, double-digit deficit to defeat fourth-seeded Nebraska 77-71 on Thursday in the South Regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament.
Stirtz provided the Hawkeyes (24-12) with their first lead at 68-65 via a 3-pointer with 2:10 left. That ignited a decisive closing stretch from Iowa, which advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1987 while dashing the Cornhuskers' bid for their first Elite Eight appearance.
Iowa will play the winner of No. 3 seed Illinois and No. 2 seed Houston on Saturday for a trip to the Final Four. The Hawkeyes, who are seeking their first national title, haven't reached the Final Four since 1980.
Sage extended the Iowa lead to 71-65 with a 3-pointer at the 1:18 mark, and after Braden Frager sliced that deficit in half with a corner trey after an offensive rebound, Alvaro Folgueiras completed a three-point play when he scored through a foul after a breakaway layup off an inbounds pass. Folgueiras pushed Iowa to a 74-68 lead with 56 seconds left and essentially sealed the victory.
Pryce Sandfort paced Nebraska (28-7) with 25 points, while Frager added 16. That duo combined to shoot 11 of 18 from behind the arc for the Cornhuskers, who missed 18 of 24 3-point shots in the second half after going 7 of 14 from deep before intermission.
On the night, Folgueiras tallied 16 points for Iowa while Cooper Koch chipped in 11 and three treys. Stirtz totaled four assists.
Nebraska wasted little time seizing a double-digit lead, turning a 3-for-6 start from behind the arc and a three-point play from Rienk Mast into a 12-2 lead just over three minutes in.
After Stirtz engineered an Iowa rally with a three-point play and an assist on a Folgueiras 3-pointer that cut the deficit to 16-14, Frager responded with a trio of 3-pointers that rebuilt the Cornhuskers' advantage to 25-17. Nebraska reclaimed its double-digit lead after Sam Hoiberg made consecutive layups, only for the Hawkeyes to fashion yet another comeback.
Stirtz followed a Folgueiras dunk with a 3-pointer and another assisted trey, by Koch, that pulled the Hawkeyes within 40-38. Jamarques Lawrence responded with six points for Nebraska, but the Hawkeyes beat the first-half buzzer with a Sage 3-pointer that sliced the margin to 46-43.
.oembed-frame {width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;border:0;}
Want to comment on this story? Become a subscriber today. Click here.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: NCAA Tournament recap with Purdue, Iowa advancing to Elite 8