They went into the locker room on upset alert, with Yale holding a five-point lead.
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Editor’s note: This infographic was published before the 2016 NCAA tournament tipped off. And the opening Thursday brought two more 12-seed wins over a 5-seed with Yale knocking off Baylor and Arkansas-Little Rock taking down Purdue.
Coach James Jones walked across the floor with his arms raised.
East Regional Providence 70, Southern California 69 – Rodney Bullock hit a layup with 1.5 seconds left and the Friars beat the Trojans in the first round.
After Rico Gathers made a remark, teammate Taurean Prince responded by giving him a hard shove. It’s been hypothesized that Yale won in part because they out-rebounded Baylor by a margin of 35-to-30.
But the real story was Mason, a sophomore from Greenfield, MA who carried his team down the stretch – particularly from the line.
Yale forward Justin Sears (22) dunks against Baylor during the first half in the first round of the NCAA college men’s basketball tournament in Providence, R.I., Thursday, March 17, 2016.
Yale made 12 of its first 16 shots from the field, including its first 10 from inside the two-point arc, but Baylor also shot 15-of-29 in the first half. Despite Charles Barkley’s statement before the game that Baylor was “gonna kill these guys”, the Ivy League Champions weren’t the least bit intimidated, and actually became the aggressors for most of the second half, eventually running up a 13-point lead with 7 minutes to go that they salted away to earn the big victory. “When you hear Yale, Princeton, Harvard or any of those Ivy League schools, you don’t think of athletes or people that are going to punch you in the mouth and go back at you”, Sears said.
Last year, Georgia State’s R.J. Hunter captured the hearts of America with his buzzer-beater to beat Baylor in the first round.
Anyway, I hope you didn’t have us going too far in your brackets, everybody. Brandon Sherrod added 10 points, Sam Downey scored eight points and grabbed seven rebounds off the bench.
He also called out Yale’s next opponent, Duke, who the Bulldogs lost to 80-61 early in November.
“I was just trusting in my practice, hours and hours of just shooting foul shots at the end of a workout and making a certain amount in a row just before I’m able to leave the gym”, he said.
Julian Jacobs’ missed free throw with 11.6 seconds set up Providence’s last chance. Today, coach Johnny Jones’ team would not be denied, as they picked up the school’s first ever win and in doing so, advance to play the 4th seeded Duke Blue Devils in the Round of 32. Mason scored 31 points as Yale upset Baylor 79-75.
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Nick Perkins had 20 points and six rebounds to lead Buffalo. Literally, this game came down to the final two seconds. Baylor then committed an even more foolish foul, allowing Mason to add two free throws to his total and lift the lead to 72-65.
