NCAA Tournament scores: Results, highlights and more from Friday's late March Madness games

Dave DeLuca

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NCAA Tournament scores: Results, highlights and more from Friday's late March Madness games image

Disappointed by the lack of drama in the 2017 NCAA Tournament so far? 

Well, Friday night's outcomes certainly didn't help.

Friday night's slate of games featured at least three teams with legit title hopes, they all followed the script. Kentucky, Duke and Kansas each took care of business and easily fended off heavy underdogs who had bracket busting on their minds.

MORE:  Interactive tournament bracket

Friday's results completed the First Round, and for the fifth time ever, all No. 1-4 seeds advanced to the Round of 32 (1994, 2000, 2004, 2007).

No. 1 Kansas blew out No. 16 UC Davis, 100-62. No. 2 Duke defeated, No. 15 Troy 87-65. Kentucky knocked off interstate foe Northen Kentucky, 79-70.

Friday's early games featured a couple of upsets. Two No. 11 seeds knocked off No. 6 seeds. First, USC hit a clutch 3-pointer to beat SMU, 66-65, and Rhode Island led Creighton almost the entire game to pull off an 84-72 upset.

MORE: Look back on Friday's early March Madness games

All games are televised on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV. To find a complete TV schedule, click here .

If you're looking see how each game went down, here's your one-stop shop for scores and highlights.

1 Kansas vs. 16 UC Davis

 

 

The Aggies kept it close in the first half, but the Jayhawks’ explosive group of scorers were too much to handle. Kansas had four scorers in double figures, led by star guard Frank Mason III who scored 22 points and had eight assists. Josh Jackson had 17 points, while Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and Devonte Graham had 16 apiece. Center Landen Lucas notched a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

UC Davis hung tough, but dear god Kansas is good.

 

There's not much you can do when Josh Jackson is doing this.

 

Even Coach Self's son got into it.

 

 

10 Wichita State vs. 7 Dayton

 

 

The Shockers were actually five-point favorites over the higher-seed Dayton Flyers, and the Shockers backed up the bookies by winning, 64-58. The Shockers are now 7-3 against equal or higher seeds in the last five NCAA tournaments. 

When a team is protecting the rim like this, good luck. FOUR blocks on one sequence.

 

2 Duke vs. 15 Troy

Before the Blue Devils defeated Troy, 87-65, a crew had to repair the playing surface because a single floor board had been dislodged and popped up. 

 

 

Duke and Troy shared two-thirds of the floor while the crew continued to do work on the floor. Each team had had 46 minutes to warmup. 

Below is a statement from the NCAA.

"During the first session of today’s NCAA tournament games in Greenville, a minor irregularity was discovered on one of the panels on the playing court. As is the case every year, our partners from Connor Sport Court are on site, and they quickly repaired the seam as soon as the North Carolina-Texas Southern game concluded. Once the repairs were made, players from Duke and Troy were given access to the court and each team had 46 minutes to warm up for tonight’s first game in the second session from Greenville. The safety of the student-athletes remain our top priority."

The game started on time.

Duke freshman Jayson Tatum finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks, becoming the first Duke frosh to record a double-double in his first NCAA Tournament game since Danny Ferry in 1986 vs Mississippi Valley State, according to ESPN Stats and Info. 

Grayson Allen scored a game-high 21 points on 6 of 10 shooting, including 5 of 9 from three. Matt Jones and Frank each scored 14. 

Troy cut Duke's lead to eight, but then the Blue Devils ended the first half with this sequence...

And then there was this later in the game.

 

 

11 Kansas St. vs  6 Cincinnati

Kansas State's best player Wesley Iwundu battled foul trouble all night long and that limited what K-State could do on offense. K-State came within 49-43, but that's the closest the Wildcats could get. 

Cincinnati started the game red hot, making their its first eight shots. 

Troy Caupain led the Bearscats with 23 points, while Kyle Washington scored 16 in just 21 minutes.

In case you didn't know, Washington is a beast.

9 Miami (Fla) vs. 9 Michigan St.

 

 

Miami took control early and jumped out to a 12-point lead, but then the Spartans came to life. Michigan State closed the half on a 30-8 run and cruised to a 78-58 win.

Nick Ward scored team-high 19 points and had 7 rebounds. Miles Bridges had 18 points and 9 rebounds.

Michigan State will now take on No. 1 seed Kansas on Sunday. 

Here are some highlights.

After trailing by 12 early, Sparty is now ROLLING.

 

 

This not how you box out. This is how you clean the glass.

 

And the dagger.

 

 

 2 Kentucky vs. 15 Northern Kentucky

 

Unlike other title favorites, Kentucky struggled Friday.

Behind big nights from freshmen stars Bam Adebayo and De’Aaron Fox, the Wildcats still survived, 79-70, but it wasn't pretty. 

During one stretch in the first half, Kentucky missed seven straight shots and saw North Kentucky go on a 9-0 run to cuts the Wildcats' leads to two. Nothing looked easy for Kentucky, and they're going to need a better effort in coming games if it expects to make a title run.

Malik Monk struggled once again Friday. He scored 12 points, but missed all six of his 3-point attempts.

Adebayo had 15 points and a career-high 18 rebounds, while Fox had 19.

Here are some highlights.

More runs like this and Northern Kentucky can all but forget about those free steaks.

 

 

3 UCLA vs. 14 Kent State

There's been much chatter around college hoops circles that UCLA doesn't defend well enough to make a run in the tourney. Well Friday's games showed why.

No matter how beautiful its offense looked, UCLA kept allowing heavy underdog Kent State to get back into the game. The Bruins finally pulled away in the end to win 97-80, but if it wasn't for a monster night from TJ Leaf and an always steady performance from freshman point guard Lonzo Ball, Friday could have been a disaster.

The Bruins just couldn't get many stops and it allowed Kent State to stay within striking distance until a late Bruins run opened things up for good.

At one point in the second half, the Bruins made 12 consecutive shots, but only led Kent State by single digits.

Leaf had 23 points, while Ball had 15.

With three assists Friday, Ball passed Larry Drew II to become UCLA’s single-season all-time leader in assists. He has 257 assists this season.

Here are some highlights.

A back screen for a point guard? Well, yes. It's Lonzo Ball.

 

 

Ball later took an ugly fall. Thankfully for UCLA fans, he's perfectly fine. Check it out, he landed right on his keister.

 

 

7 Marquette vs. 10 South Carolina

It was a historic night for South Carolina. The program won a NCAA Tournament game for the first time in 44 years by blowing out Marquette, 93-73.

The Gamecocks won by 20, but they actually never led in the first half. South Carolina took its first lead early in the second half, and blew the game open from there. A 13-0 run sucked the air right out of a sharp-shooting Marquette team.

Sindarius Thornwell led South Carolina with 29 points.

 

 

Marquette scored its first points off this shot. Like, what?

 

 

Katin Reinhardt was a whirling dervish.

 

South Carolina hangs around long off to take the lead. 

 

3...2...1... lift off. WEEEEE.

 

 

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.