OMAHA, NEB. — The first major upset of this season's NCAA Tournament came from the 11th-seed Duquesne Dukes, defeating the No. 6 seed BYU Cougars 71-67 on Thursday afternoon.
Duquesne will move on to play No. 3 seed Illinois Fighting Illini on Satruday for a chance to go to the Sweet 16.
Dae Dae Grant scored 19 points, including four free throws in the final 10 seconds to clinch the win. Jakub Necas added 12 points and Jimmy Clark III chipped in 11 for the Dukes.
Prior to totday, the Dukes (25-11) had not won a tournament game since 1969 and that was back when only 25 teams competed in it.
And for Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot, he'll have to wait a little longer for his retirement. Dambrot announced the day after the Dukes clinched the Atlantic 10 Tournament that he would be retiring at the end of the teams' tournament run. But since then, his players have decided they do not want their coach to ride off into the sunset just yet.
“I'm trying to retire,” the 65-year-old Dambrot said, “but if we keep winning games, they're going to make me an old man.”
And at one point, it looked as though Dambrot was going to get his retirement wish, as the BYU erased a 14-point deficit to tie the game at 60-all on a dunk by Fousseyni Traore with 1:47 remaining.
Clark was fouled on the next possession and swished two free throws for Duquesne, and after the Dukes made a stop on the defensive end, he got to the line again. He only made the front end of the two shots, but helped tie up a loose ball to let the Dukes keep possesion on the jump ball.
Then on the next play, Clark streaked past the defense down the middle of the lane for a layup and a 65-60 lead with 26.9 seconds left.
Despite Dallin Hall's best efforts to give the Cougars a chance, making four free throws and drilling a deep 3-pointer in the final 20 seconds, Grant proved why he was one of the nation's best foul shooters and send the Dukes into the next round.
Jaxson Robinson led the Cougars with 25 points, who have now lost five straight in the NCAA Tournament, the last four to double-digit seeds. Traore and Spencer Johnson each 11 points, and Hall also finished with 11.
Illinois 85, Morehead State 69
OMAHA, NEB. — Marcus Domask registered a triple-double and Terrance Shannon scored 26 points, as the No. 3 seed Illinois Fighting Illini pulled away in the second half to defeat the 14th-seed Morehead State Eagles 85-69 in the first round on Thursday.
Domask finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, making him just the ninth player to accomplish the feat in NCAA Tournament history. Dain Dainja came off the bench and scored 17 of his 21 points in the second half — including 9 for 9 from the field — and matched his career high with eight boards.
The Eagles dictated the pace of the game in the early going, taking a 9-0 lead
and led for the first 14 minutes of the game until Shannon made a layup with 6:04 left before halftime.
Dieonte Miles would give Morehead State its last lead of the ballgame on dunk on an alley-oop pass from Drew Thelwell to make the score 40-39 just 31 seconds into the second half.
After that, the Fighting Illini and Dainja began to take control and never looked back.
Illinois used a 17-3 run over a five minute span to take 66-51 lead and close the door on being a victim of a Cinderella upset. During the scoring spree, Dain Dainja scored eight, including a slam off a feed from Terrance Shannon Jr. and Luke Goode drained two 3-pointers in the run.
Morehead State (26-9) was led by Riley Minix with 27 points, giving him at least 20 points in 13 of his last 14 games. Jordan Lathon added 23 points.
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