On Sunday, the final games of the NCAA men’s March Madness tournament round two were played. We will now have a break until action resumes on Thursday, March 8. Sunday was a day largely dominated by higher seeds, with one exception. This slate of eight games brought with it many blowouts, a couple of close games, and one overtime game. Sunday did provide us another look at three of this tournament’s one-seeds. Let’s take a look at how the weekend played out, with a round two Sunday recap.

Sunday’s only upset

The round two Sunday recap was much like Saturday in the sense it only gave us one upset. The sole upset of my March Madness round two Sunday recap happened when six-seed Clemson took on three-seed Baylor. This game started out highly contested with both teams going back-and-forth throughout much of the first ten minutes of play. After the first ten minutes, Clemson was holding on to a narrow six-point lead. Late in the first half, Clemson was able to go on a slight run extending their lead to ten with just over a minute to play. As time was expiring in the first half, Clemson senior guard Chase Hunter hit a double-clutch three-point shot from well beyond the arc. This would put Clemson up 35-25 at the half.

The second half would be much more of the same back-and-forth that we saw in the first half. Clemson was unable to extend their lead. At the same time, Baylor was unable to close the gap from their ten-point halftime deficit. With 6:41 remaining, Clemson junior forward Ian Schieffelin backed down his opponent to the basket and hit a highly improbable and-one shot to extend the lead to 15. With just 4:20 remaining in the game, Baylor senior guard RayJ Dennis fought through the lane and hit a floater that would cut the lead to six. After being able to cut the lead to just three with 2:19 remaining, Baylor was able to keep the momentum. As time expired the Clemson Tigers came out victorious by a score of 72-64.

(2) Marquette vs. (10) Colorado

The day started with two-seed Marquette taking on ten-seed Colorado. Marquette was able to grab an early lead in this game going up by seven during the first five minutes of play. Colorado battled valiantly to keep this game within reach over the remainder of the first half. However, the Buffaloes were unable to close the gap as Marquette junior guard Kam Jones hit a three-point shot with 55 seconds left in the half to put Marquette up 45-34 at the half.

The second half was highly contested as well. Colorado came out hot early and was able to cut their deficit to just three only two minutes into the second half. The Buffaloes came out after shooting 3-13 in the first half and immediately proceeded to shoot 4-4 from three to start the second half. With 14:37 remaining in the game the Colorado Buffaloes would take a 55-54 lead after a big three from junior guard KJ Simpson. In the first round, Simpson had the shot that would ultimately upset Florida and move Colorado on to the second round. Marquette would quickly take the lead back and both teams would continue to go back-and-forth for the remainder of the half. With less than three minutes to play, the game was tied at 74. Marquette came down the court and hit a three followed by a score under the basket from Colorado. Then, Marquette senior guard Tyler Kolek then sliced through the defense and hit a floater to put them up three. Marquette would eventually end up winning this game 81-77.

(1) Purdue vs. (8) Utah State

The second game on Sunday’s slate pitted one-seed Purdue and Zach Edey against eight-seed Utah State. In the early minutes of the game, Utah State came out swinging, taking a four-point lead after the first two minutes of play. They were able to keep the game close for a while in the first half. Eventually, Purdue’s interior presence was proving too much for Utah State. Purdue would finish the first half on a run that resulted in them taking a 49-33 lead into the half.

The second half looked much like the end of the first half. Purdue’s interior dominance was just too much for Utah State to handle. Had they been able to shut down Purdue’s interior, Utah State would still have found themselves in trouble as Purdue shot 47.8% from the three-point line. Purdue would go on to win this game 106-67.

(4) Duke vs. (12) James Madison

The next game to tip off was a southern region matchup between four-seed Duke and 12-seed James Madison. Early in this game, Duke jumped out to a ten-point lead, eventually pushing that lead to 15 before the ten-minute mark of the first half. This trend would continue for the remainder of the first half. With the first half coming to a close, both teams would head to the locker room with Duke leading 47-25.

The second half looked similar to the first half as Duke was just proving to have too much firepower for James Madison to compete. With about 11 minutes remaining in the game, Duke would extend their lead to 27 points. It was apparent for much of the game that James Madison had no chance of beating the Blue Devils. Duke would eventually go on to win 93-55 behind a 50% shooting performance from the three-point line.

(4) Alabama vs. (12) Grand Canyon

In the next matchup of the day, four-seed Alabama took on 12-seed Grand Canyon. In the first round, Grand Canyon was able to upset five-seed Saint Mary’s to secure the program’s first-ever NCAA tournament win. This game got off to an incredibly slow start. Over the first two minutes of action, there was a total of three points scored. Over the first five minutes, there was a total of nine points scored. It appeared early on that this would be a low-scoring, grind-it-out, defensive-minded game. After the first ten minutes had passed in the first half, Alabama found themselves ahead 13-9. While Grand Canyon was not able to get the lead, they did fight valiantly to keep the game within reach. At the end of the first half, Alabama had a 38-30 lead.

The second half brought us more of the same excitement that the first half brought. It was a scrappy, hard-fought, gritty basketball game. And the crowd was loving every minute of it. With 6:45 remaining in the game, Tyon Grant-Foster a senior guard for Grand Canyon hit a heavily contested layup on a fastbreak and was awarded the foul. He stepped up to the line and made the free throw, tying the game at 55. The game would continue back and forth for a while. Then, in the final four minutes of play, Grand Canyon was unable to score another point. The carriage had officially turned back into a pumpkin, and Grand Canyon’s Cinderella run had come to an end with a 72-61 loss to Alabama.

(1) UConn vs. (9) Northwestern

Our next one-seed to play on Sunday was UConn, who was matching up against nine-seed Northwestern. UConn got out to an early lead in this game going up 7-0 early. The heavy favorite UConn was simply too much for Northwestern in this matchup. It seemed like the momentum was on the side of UConn the entire first half. By the end of the first half, Northwestern found themselves down by 22 points with a score of 40-18.

The second half was more of the same. Northwestern had absolutely zero chance of beating this UConn team on Sunday. UConn retained the lead and momentum for a large majority of the second half. with 10:04 left in the game, UConn had a dominating 61-35 lead. UConn would go on to win this game by a score of 75-58.

(5) San Diego State vs. (13) Yale

In the final game of the second round Sunday recap, five-seed San Diego State matched up with 13-seed Yale in Spokane. Of course, Yale is in the second round after upsetting four-seed Auburn in round one with a narrow 78-76 victory. In this game, however, San Diego State got out to an early 10-0 start in the first four minutes. Yale would close the gap slightly, but San Diego State never let them hold onto momentum for long. San Diego State would continue to snatch back momentum and grew the lead up to 24 before going into the half.

In the second half, San Diego State would keep a firm grasp of the game’s momentum as they quickly extended their lead to 29. By the ten-minute mark of the second half, San Diego State was leading 68-41. It was apparent that Yale was not going to be able to pull this out and move on to the Sweet 16. By the end of the game, San Diego State came out on top with an 85-57 emphatic victory.

Game of the night

The game of the night on my round two Sunday recap features the final one-seed in the second round of this year’s men’s March Madness tournament was Houston taking on an in-state opponent in nine-seed Texas A&M. This game was highly competitive to start. After six minutes played Texas A&M was holding on to a narrow 9-7 lead. Houston would eventually take the lead and proceed to go on a 7-0 run. However, Texas A&M was able to close the gap again With under five minutes to go in the first half, Texas A&M would tie the game at 30. Houston would eventually take a 43-38 lead into the locker room at halftime.

In the second half, the intensely tight battle would continue. Houston would hold on to a narrow lead as Texas A&M fought to close the gap. However, with 1:52 left in the game, Texas A&M found themselves down 12. This would ignite a run from the Aggies that nobody saw coming. With just 1.2 seconds left in the game, Texas A&M found themselves inbounding underneath Houston’s basket down by three points. The in-bounder Tyrece Radford found Anderson Garcia for a buzzer-beating three-pointer to send this game to overtime tied at 86.

In overtime, it was a tight contest as well. Both teams struggled to score the basketball at the beginning of the overtime period. With one minute left to play, Houston was leading 95-93 and never allowed Texas A&M to gain back the momentum. Houston went on to win this game 100-95.

What’s next?

This concludes my round two Sunday recap. Coming up on Thursday, March, 28 the Sweet 16 will tip off as 16 teams battle it out to call themselves one of the Elite Eight. Thursday’s slate will include (6) Clemson taking on (2) Arizona in the west region. Also in the west region, we will see (1) North Carolina matching up with (4) Alabama. The first of the two matchups in the east region will start with (1) UConn versus (5) San Diego State. Followed by (2) Iowa State against (3) Illinois. Get ready, because Thursday and Friday should be filled with plenty of action.

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