8th seed and Cinderella team Northwestern barely escaped with a 2 point win over 16 loss Vanderbilt. The word barely doesn't really cover it however, as the game featured one of the strangest plays you'll ever see.
Vanderbilt guard Riley LaChance knifed through the lane for a difficult layup, giving the Commodores a 1 point lead with 17 seconds left. Then in the mix up of all mix ups, his teammate Matthew Fisher-Davis lost track of the score and when his coach pointed at a Northwestern player, he thought he was supposed to foul him.
Northwestern made the two freebies for the lead, then won their first NCAA tournament game ever when LaChance couldn't convert a 3 pointer.
In the meantime the 4th seeded Boilermakers of Purdue really had their hands full with 29 game winner Vermont, but were finally able to put them away 80 to 70.
However 5th seeded Minnesota never led after the middle of the 1st half, and fell to Middle Tennessee. Then 6th seeded Maryland went cold in the 2nd half and was bounced by Xavier with 13 losses.
In other games of note Notre Dame survived a missed last second shot, which would have given Princeton a shocker win over the 5th seed Irish.
Vanderbilt guard Riley LaChance knifed through the lane for a difficult layup, giving the Commodores a 1 point lead with 17 seconds left. Then in the mix up of all mix ups, his teammate Matthew Fisher-Davis lost track of the score and when his coach pointed at a Northwestern player, he thought he was supposed to foul him.
Northwestern made the two freebies for the lead, then won their first NCAA tournament game ever when LaChance couldn't convert a 3 pointer.
In the meantime the 4th seeded Boilermakers of Purdue really had their hands full with 29 game winner Vermont, but were finally able to put them away 80 to 70.
However 5th seeded Minnesota never led after the middle of the 1st half, and fell to Middle Tennessee. Then 6th seeded Maryland went cold in the 2nd half and was bounced by Xavier with 13 losses.
In other games of note Notre Dame survived a missed last second shot, which would have given Princeton a shocker win over the 5th seed Irish.
Last edited:
