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Robert Franklin / Associated Press
The 2021 NCAA men’s tournament is officially underway.
Although the first Thursday of March Madness was not the usual cornucopia of basketball action with everything postponed by one day, it featured some fun games to kick off this year’s festivities.
Texas Southern started the night with a 60-52 victory over Mount St. Mary’s, which turned out to be the most uneven game.
In an 11-seed clash, Drake won Wichita State 53-52 in tThe second game of the night, followed by another one-point game, when Norfolk State held on to a 54-53 victory over the Appalachian State.
The last game of the night between Michigan State and UCLA went into overtime, and after losing 11 points at halftime, the Bruins managed a 86-80 victory to send the Spartans to their bags.
Let’s take a bow at Thursday’s action with a quick summary of some notable winners and losers.
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John Walker IIIDoug McSchooler / Associated Press
It must have been an exciting speech by Texas Southern coach Johnny Jones at the break after the Tigers had a disappointing first half and ended up with 30 to 20 in the opening game of the 2021 NCAA tournament.
The Tigers looked like a different team when they returned to the ground.
In just over three minutes, they turned the handicap into an advantage with an 11 to 0 streak, taking charge of the game in the process.
John Walker lll scored six consecutive points during that race and 13 from his best 19-point mark after the break, finishing well above his season average of 12 points per game.
This gave the Tigers a 40-22 lead in the second half and paved the way for them to move on to a game against Michigan’s No. 1 on Saturday.
With a non-conference schedule that included confrontations against Oklahoma State, BYU, Auburn and Saint Mary’s and a record of 15-1 in their last 16 games, the Tigers will not be defeated by the stage or the quality of the opponent.
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Robert Franklin / Associated Press
Dexter Dennis’s 9:26 dunk to play in the second half gave Wichita State a 41-31 lead over Drake, and the Shockers seemed to have the game under control.
Or so it seemed.
After almost four minutes without a field goal, in which they were content with three kicks beyond the hoop and a fourth jump, their advantage evaporated to a narrow margin of 43-42 when Trey Wade finally found the bottom of the net again with 5: 28 to play.
This configured a forward and backward finish that saw three changes in leadership before Drake finally took the lead forever with 2:23 to play, holding on to victory despite the Shockers looking pretty clean for three who would have beaten them at the buzzer. .
Wichita State has won 11 consecutive meetings between the two teams and holds a 104-48 lead in the all-time series, but it was the Bulldogs who won this time.
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Jeff Roberson / Associated Press
With scorer ShanQuan Hemphill limited to 10 minutes on his return from a broken foot and point guard Roman Penn still out on the pitch, someone needed to shoulder the offensive charge for the Drake Bulldogs.
Joseph Yesufu took the call.
The Missouri Valley Conference’s Sixth Man of the Year had some great games under his belt during the regular season, including 36 and 32 points on consecutive nights against Evansville and three other 20-point performances.
He added another 20-point night to the ledger on Thursday, adding 21 points, the team’s record, despite a night of high-volume shooting of 8 of 21 on the floor.
The 6’0 “guard made the difference when it mattered most, scoring 12 points in the final 10 minutes with the Bulldogs closing the gap and taking the lead.
He hit a pair of free throws with 22 seconds to end the game and played a four-point game, and that ended up being the difference after Wichita State made a final three.
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Doug McSchooler / Associated Press
Jalen Hawkins played just 16.9 minutes per game during the regular season for the Norfolk State Spartans, but made a solid off-the-bench attack with 9.4 points per game.
He chose the perfect moment for the best game of his career.
The 6’2 “junior scored 24 points out of 8 out of 13 shots and 4 out of 5 beyond the hoop, and he already had a career record of 20 points in the break, while the Spartans built a 36-20 lead while holding Appalachian State with 19 percent pitches from the field.
The Mountaineers reacted in the second half, before Norfolk State achieved a 54-53 victory after scoring just 18 points in the second half, but the story of the night was still Hawkins’ big off-bench performance.
Norfolk State now has the privilege of playing against Gonzaga on Saturday.
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Michael Conroy / Associated Press
Even when things were going well on the way to building an 11-point lead at halftime, the Michigan State Spartans never seemed to be on the same page on Thursday night.
The lead disappeared in the second half and ended up disappearing, but the Spartans still had a chance to win it with the score tied at 77-77.
With 17 seconds to play, Tom Izzo asked for time to plot a move for the final stroke of the regulation.
That move ended up being nine seconds of dribbling and a contested Aaron Henry two-point shot that didn’t come close to hitting the rim. The shot was partially blocked, but out of bounds for Henry following the shot, and the game went into overtime after UCLA missed a half-block move.
Was it really the best move the Spartans were able to make?
The Bruins scored the first four points of overtime and maintained the 86-80 victory, and a Spartan team that ended with a Big Ten victory saw their tournament end before it even started.
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Robert Franklin / Associated Press
UCLA Bruins threw 67 shots on Thursday night on their way to an 86-80 overtime win, and 40 of them were uncorked by Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Johnny Juzang’s attacking court tandem.
They connected 50 percent of those attempts and both had great offensive nights.
- Jaquez: 45 minutes, 11 of 20 shots, 27 points
- Juzang: 41 minutes, 9 out of 20 shots, 23 points
It was a career record for the second Jaquez, who had 25 points against Arizona earlier this year, while the move to Kentucky Juzang had four 20-point performances this season and a 32 career record against Washington in February.
Unfortunately, not everything was good news for the duo.
Juzang sprained his ankle in overtime and had to be helped off the court, and with a quick turnaround on Saturday against BYU No. 6, his recovery time is limited.
However, it was a stellar return win for UCLA.
All statistics are courtesy of the Sports Reference.