Texas A&M guard Tyrece Radford drives around Auburn guard K.D. Johnson during the Aggies’ 67-62 win in the SEC tournament quarterfinals on Friday in Tampa, Florida. Chris O’Meara/Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. — Tyrece Radford scored 19 points and Quenton Jackson made five throws in the final minute Friday as Texas A&M beat fourth-ranked Auburn 67-62 in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament, a loss that could wind up costing the Tigers a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Jackson also had a dunk and a key block late, finishing with 17 points to help Texas A&M (22-11) follow up an 83-80 overtime victory over Florida with another strong outing that enhanced the surging Aggies’ chances of landing at least an at-large berth in the NCAA field.
Jabari Smith led Auburn (27-5) with 17 points. Walker Kessler had 16 points, while Wendell Green Jr. made four long 3-pointers to fuel a late comeback that fell short when Jackson delivered a dunk coming out of a timeout and went 5 of 6 from the foul line down the stretch.
Auburn, ranked No. 1 much of the winter and the SEC regular-season champion, fell to 3-3 over its last six games.
(9) TENNESSEE 72, MISSISSIPPI STATE 59: Josiah-Jordan James led five players in double figures 16 points, 14 of them during a six-minute stretch in which ninth-ranked Tennessee (24-7) pulled away to beat Mississippi State (18-15) in the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament .
The Volunteers won for the 10th time in 11 games to advance to Saturday’s semifinals against either No. 5 Kentucky or Vanderbilt.
Kennedy Chandler had 11 points for Tennessee despite missing time in the first and second half after suffering what appeared to be a right foot or ankle injury. He finished the game, though, making a layup for the final margin of victory.
CREIGHTON 85, (11) PROVIDENCE 58: Arthur Kaluma scored 17 points and keyed an overwhelming blitz that sent Creighton (22-10) to a stunning rout of No. 11 Providence (25-5) and into the Big East championship game.
Alex O’Connell had 18 points and Ryan Kalkbrenner added 15 points and nine rebounds as the fourth-seeded Bluejays, who reached their fourth conference final since joining the league before the 2013-14 season.
Al Durham had 21 points on a rare miserable night this season for the top-seeded Friars, who won their first regular-season conference championship after 43 years in the Big East as a charter member.
MICHIGAN STATE 69, (12) WISCONSIN 63: Marcus Bingham Jr. matched his career high with 19 points and Tyson Walker scored nine of his 11 points in the final minute and a half to send seventh-seeded Michigan State (22-11) past No. 12 Wisconsin (24-7) in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
The Spartans lost five of their last seven regular-season games but have reached the conference tourney semifinals by winning two straight in Indianapolis. Brad Davison led the Badgers with 23 points.
(15) ARKANSAS 79, LSU 67: Au’Diese Toney scored 22 points, JD Notae added 19 and No. 15 Arkansas (25-7) beat LSU (22-11) in the Southeastern Conference quarterfinals.
Chris Lykes chipped in 18 points as the fourth-seeded Razorbacks won for the 15th time in their last 17 games and advanced to face red-hot Texas A&M in the first of two semifinal games Saturday.
INDIANA 65, (16) ILLINOIS 63: Trayce Jackson-Davis scored 21 points, including three free throws in the closing seconds, and the Hoosiers (20-12) beat the top-seeded and 16th-ranked Illini (22-9) in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals in Indianapolis.
Jackson-Davis knocked down two free throws with 26.1 seconds left to put the Hoosiers ahead 64-63. The Illini had two possessions with a chance to take the lead, but Trent Frazier threw a bad pass and Andre Curbelo missed a layup.
(18) HOUSTON 69, CINCINNATI 56: Fabian White Jr. had 18 points with eight rebounds and 18th-ranked Houston (27-5) overcame a 10-point deficit in the second half to beat Cincinnati (18-15) in an American Athletic Conference tournament quarterfinal.
White had two jumpers and fellow first-team All-AAC forward Josh Carlton also added two baskets in a 12-0 run for the Cougars that put them ahead to stay during a stretch when Cincinnati suddenly couldn’t make a shot.
(24) IOWA 84, RUTGERS 74: Keegan Murray had 26 points and eight rebounds to lead No. 24 Iowa (24-9) over Rutgers (18-13) in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
Jordan Bohannon and Tony Perkins each scored 16 points for the Hawkeyes. Kris Murray added nine points and five rebounds. Geo Baker led fourth-seeded Rutgers with 23 points.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
(4) BAYLOR 76, OKLAHOMA STATE 36: Big 12 player of the year NaLyssa Smith scored 15 points, Baylor shut out the Cowgirls (9-20) into the second quarter and the No. 4 Bears (26-6) rolled the rest of the way to a victory in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament in Kansas City, Missouri.
Ja’Mee Asberry scored 16 points for the top-seeded Bears, who appear intent on continuing their dominance of the Big 12 under first-year coach Nicki Collen. They easily advanced to play No. 21 Oklahoma, which knocked off Kansas earlier in the day, as the Bears pursue their 10th tournament title in the past 11 years.
(10) IOWA STATE 66, WEST VIRGINIA 60: Emily Ryan and Lexi Donarski each scored 14 points to lead No. 10 Iowa State (26-5) over West Virginia (14-15) in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament.
After being down by as many as 21 in the third quarter, the Mountaineers clawed back to within in four with 16 seconds to play after Esmery Martinez hit a long 3-pointer. But Donarski made three free throws in the final minute to thwart West Virginia’s comeback hopes.
(21) OKLAHOMA 80, KANSAS 68: Madi Williams had 19 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, Taylor Robertson also scored 19 points and the Sooners (24-7) beat the Jayhawks (20-9) to advance to the Big 12 Conference tournament semifinals in Kansas City, Missouri.
Fourth-seeded Oklahoma, which picked up its first conference tournament victory since 2016, avenged a 73-67 loss at home against the Jayhawks five days ago in the regular-season finale.
(24) PRINCETON 72, HARVARD 67: Abby Meyers scored 22 points, Ellie Mitchell had 11 points and 16 rebounds for her sixth double-double, and No. 24 Princeton (23-4) beat Harvard (13-14) in the final game for coaching icon Kathy Delaney-Smith.
Delaney-Smith, the winningest basketball coach in Ivy League history in men’s and women’s, will retire from Harvard with 11 conference championships and the six trips to the NCAAs – including the one that produced the biggest upset in the tournament’s history in 1998 when No. 16 Harvard beat top-seeded Stanford.
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