March Madness: Oregon defeats Michigan to advance to Elite Eight

Dave DeLuca

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March Madness: Oregon defeats Michigan to advance to Elite Eight image

No. 1 seed Oregon grabbed a pair of key offensive rebounds in the closing minutes to help the Ducks defeat No. 7 Michigan 69-68 in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday. The Ducks are the first team to advance to Elite Eight, where they will face No. 1 seed Kansas on Saturday night.

MORE: Gonzaga-West Virginia ​| Kansas-Purdue | Xavier-Arizona

Michigan vs. Oregon score, highlights

Tyler Dorsey led Oregon with 20 points. He has now scored 20 or more in six straight games.

Michigan's Derrick Walton Jr. had a great look in the closing seconds to win it for the Wolverines, but his step-back 3 rattled off the front of the rim at the buzzer.

Michigan missed a crucial defensive rebound in the final minute that allowed Dorsey to score the eventual game-winning basket off a dribble drive. 

Oregon's Jordan Bell notched a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Walton led Michigan with 20 points, eight assists and five rebounds. Teammate Zak Irvin had 19 points.

Michigan trailed by as many as six points in the second half; this 3-pointer by Walton gave the Wolverines the lead.

When Bell wasn't grabbing huge offensive rebounds, he was throwing down dunks like this.

And this.

Oregon and Michigan both had their doubters this season, and with good reason. Michigan had a mostly disappointing regular season; it finished eighth in the Big Ten and looked nothing like a team prepared to make a deep NCAA Tournament run. 

The Wolverines entered the game with their confidence at an all-time high after winning the Big Ten Tournament and following that up with a pair of nail-biting wins against Oklahoma State and Louisville in the NCAA Tournament. Many say the turning point of their season was the team's plane accident prior to the Big Ten Tournament, but that's not entirely true; Michigan was beginning to turn its season around even before then.

Oregon, meanwhile, looked like a team more than ready to contend for a national championship until dynamic scorer and defender Chris Boucher was ruled out for the season with a torn ACL he suffered during the Pac-12 Tournament. Many fans who filled out brackets had the Ducks heading home early, but like Michigan, Oregon ignored the noise and opened the NCAA Tournament with wins over Iona and Rhode Island.

To put Oregon's tournament run in perspective, only 29 percent of ESPN brackets had Oregon in the Elite Eight.

Dave DeLuca

Dave DeLuca is an intern at Sporting News and a recent graduate of Buffalo State. He's a former intern and digital editor at The Buffalo News and executive editor of The Record, Buffalo State's student-run newspaper.