Ohio State’s Duane Washington Jr., left, E.J. Liddell, center, and Musa Jallow celebrate after a 68-67 win over Michigan in the Big Ten Conference tournament on Saturday in Indianapolis. Michael Conroy/Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — Duane Washington Jr. scored 24 points and E.J. Liddell added 18 and No. 9 Ohio State fended off a frantic finish from No. 4 Michigan for a 68-67 victory Saturday and a chance to play for the Big Ten Tournament title.
The Buckeyes (21-8) will play their fourth game in four days against No. 3 Illinois on Sunday. Ohio State has won four tourney crowns, its most recent coming in 2013.
Michigan (20-4) was led by Hunter Dickinson with 21 points and eight rebounds and managed to cut a 13-point deficit to one in the final 4 1/2 minutes. But after a third consecutive Buckeyes turnover in the final 90 seconds, Mike Smith’s long jumper with 2 seconds left bounced off the back of the rim and time expired in the scramble for the loose ball.
The Wolverines, the league’s regular-season champs, had reached each of the past three championship games before last year’s tourney was canceled because of COVID-19.
(3) ILLINOIS 82, (5) IOWA 71: Kofi Cockburn scored 18 of his 26 points in the first half, and the Fighting Illini (22-6) beat the Hawkeyes (21-7) in Indianapolis to advance to the Big Ten Tournament title game.
The Fighting Illini have won six straight, with three coming against top-10 foes. If Illinois wins one more, against No. 9 Ohio State, it would claim its first tourney title since 2005.
Ayo Dosunmu scored 18 points for Illinois, and reserve guard Andre Curbelo finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Luka Garza had 21 points and 12 rebounds for Iowa. Jordan Bohannon scored 20 points.
(6) ALABAMA 73, TENNESSEE 68: Herbert Jones had 21 points and the Crimson Tide (23-6) rallied from a 15-point deficit in the second half to beat the Volunteers (18-8) in the Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinals in Nashville, Tennessee.
Jahvon Quinerly added 19 points, including two free throws with 15.5 seconds left, to help the Crimson Tide hang on.
Top-seeded Alabama plays in Sunday’s championship in search of its first SEC Tournament title since 1991.
Tennessee (18-8) awaits an NCAA Tournament seeding on Sunday.
(7) HOUSTON 76, MEMPHIS 74: Justin Gorham scored 15 points, including four free throws in the final 27 seconds, and the Cougars (23-3) beat the Tigers (16-8) in Fort Worth, Texas to advance to its third consecutive American Athletic Conference Tournament final.
Boogie Ellis had 27 points for Memphis, but he had a huge turnover with 49 seconds left. He fell down with the ball when trying to respond to the Gorham’s nifty one-handed reverse layup with just over a minute left that had put the Cougars up 72-71.
Gorham added two free throws with 27 seconds left, and two more with 4 seconds left. Ellis made a running 3-pointer just before the final buzzer.
LSU 78, (8) ARKANSAS 71: Cameron Thomas scored 21 points and the third-seeded Tigers (18-8) upset the Razorbacks (22-6) in Nashville, Tennessee to reach the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship for the first time since 1993.
The Tigers will play No. 6 Alabama looking to improve their NCAA Tournament seeding even more by knocking off the SEC’s regular-season champ. LSU has won this tournament only once – back in 1980.
(13) TEXAS 91, (12) OKLAHOMA STATE 86: Matt Coleman scored a career-high 30 points, Jericho Simms added a career-best 21 and the Longhorns (19-7) were poised at the foul line down the stretch in beating the Cowboys (10-8) in Kansas City, Missouri to give the Longhorns their first Big 12 Tournament title.
Kai Jones and Andrew Jones added 13 points apiece for third-seeded Texas, which edged No. 20 Texas Tech in the quarterfinals before advancing to the finals when Kansas had to withdraw due to a positive COVID-19 test.
The title was the first for the Longhorns in seven frustrating appearances in the Big 12 championship game, and their first conference tournament trophy since winning the old Southwest Conference title in 1995.
(19) SAN DIEGO STATE 68, UTAH STATE 57: Matt Mitchell scored 14 points to lead the Aztecs (23-4) to a victory over the Aggies (20-8) in the Mountain West Tournament championship game in Las Vegas.
The Aggies had beaten San Diego State in each of the last two tournament championship games. The Aztecs, who also won the regular-season championship, had lost six of their previous seven title game appearances.
With the league’s automatic bid, the Aztecs return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018. It marked just the fifth time the No. 1 seed won the title in 22 years.
Nathan Mensah added 10 points and eight rebounds for the Aztecs, and Trey Pulliam also scored 10.
HARTFORD 64, UMASS LOWELL 50: Austin Williams scored 20 points with eight rebounds and three steals, and the Hawks (15-8) earned an its first automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, beating the River Hawks (11-12) in the America East championship in Hartford, Connecticut.
Fourth-seeded Hartford was in the title game for the second straight season after last year’s contest against Vermont was canceled due to COVID-19. The Hawks upset the second-seeded Catamounts this year in the semifinals to make it the first time in tournament history the title game didn’t include either of the top two seeds.
Sixth-seeded UMass Lowell won its first-ever Division I postseason game in the opening round and also knocked off top-seeded UMBC in the semis when Connor Withers matched a tournament record with nine 3-pointers.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
(6) BAYLOR 66, TEXAS 55: NaLyssa Smith had 21 points and 14 rebounds, Queen Egbo added 10 points and 18 rebounds, and the Lady Bears (24-2) held off the Longhorns (18-9) in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals in Kansas City, Missouri.
After trailing by 14 in the fourth quarter, the Longhorns got within five but couldn’t get any closer after Smith drilled a 3-pointer in the closing minute.
Moon Ursin scored 19 and Dijonai Harrington had 14 as Baylor will play in its ninth straight Big 12 Tournament final on Sunday.
(7) MARYLAND 104, IOWA 84: The Terrapins’ scoring depth and impressive skill were once again on display as Maryland (24-2) routed the Hawkeyes (18-9) to claim a second consecutive Big Ten Tournament championship, in Indianapolis.
There’s a reason coach Brenda Frese’s Terrapins have reached this title game in each of the seven seasons since Maryland joined the conference, and won six of seven regular-season titles. The nation’s No. 1 offense comes at an opponent fast and is relentless.
(17) WEST VIRGINIA 59, OKLAHOMA STATE 50: Esmery Martinez scored 19 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and West Virginia’s reigning hero Kirsten Deans hit another critical shot and the 17th-ranked Mountaineers (21-5) held off the Cowgirls (18-8) in the semifinals of the Big 12 Conference Tournament, in Kansas City, Missouri.
West Virginia plays top-seeded and No. 6-ranked Baylor in Sunday’s title game.
The No. 2-seed Mountaineers had a 17-point lead after a Kari Niblack jumper with 8:57 to play. But the third-seeded Cowgirls came back with 11 straight points to reduce their deficit to 54-48 with 5:07 left.
Kysre Gondrezick ended a 4:27 drought with a pair of free throws. On the Mountaineers’ next possession Deans, whose buzzer-beating layup sank Kansas State in the quarterfinals, banked in a desperation, shot clock-beating heave from well beyond the top of the key.
The basket put West Virginia on top 59-48 with 3:20 remaining in spite of a 5 1/2-minute span between field goals (0-for-7 shooting) and three turnovers.
NOTES
MVC TOURNAMENT: No. 21 Missouri State pulled out of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament on Saturday after a positive COVID-19 test was found in Bradley’s program the night before.
The two teams were scheduled to meet in the semifinals, but the Lady Bears decided to opt out and head home just before tip-off, not risking the chance of potentially getting infected.
They are expected to make the NCAA tournament when the field is announced Monday.
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