DAYTON—With Aaron Craft’s last-second shot, No. 2 Ohio State remained the lone high seed left in the NCAA tournament’s most-busted bracket.Craft made a 3-pointer with a half-second left, and Ohio State escaped Dayton — a place of Buckeye heartaches — with a 78-75 victory over Iowa State on Sunday. Ohio State (28-7) needed Craft’s only 3-pointer of the game — an arching shot over 6-foot-7 defender Georges Niang from the top of the key — to avoid yet another upset in the oh-so-wild West Regional. Four of the top five seeds fell fast and hard in the first weekend.Craft left the Buckeyes in position to fritter away a late lead, then saved them in the final second.

“I tried to stay as poised as possible,” Craft said. “Missed a lot of shots I normally make, layups and free throws. Got a mismatch, took the ball, and it went in.”

OSU’s 10th straight win sent the Buckeyes into the round of 16 for the fourth straight year, a school record. They’ll play sixth-seeded Arizona on Thursday in Los Angeles.Tenth-seeded Iowa State (23-12) overcame a late 13-point deficit by hitting 3s — the Cyclones’ specialty — but wound up beaten by Craft’s lone basket from behind the arc. The plucky point guard helped Iowa State take it to the closing seconds by missing the front end of a pair of one-and-one chances.He also missed a jumper with 30 seconds left, but the Cyclones knocked the ball out of bounds going for the rebound. The Buckeyes spread the floor for the final play, which ended with Craft flinging it up.Deshaun Thomas led Ohio State with 22 points, and Craft had 18. LaQuinton Ross scored 10 straight for the Buckeyes as they built that second-half lead. Korie Lucious led Iowa State with 19 points. He didn’t come close on a final heave after Craft’s winner.Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg was unable to make an opening comment during the postgame news conference, the pain of the defeat etched all over his face.

“We played our hearts out,” Will Clyburn said. “It was a tough game and he made a tough shot. He made a great play.”

The Buckeyes escaped Dayton — the scene of a couple of a couple recent NCAA tournament disappointments — as the lone high seed left in the West.No. 3 New Mexico, No. 4 Kansas State and No. 5 Wisconsin were knocked out right away, losing their openers. No. 1 Gonzaga joined them Saturday night, shocked by ninth-seeded Wichita State 76-76.The Buckeyes had opened the tournament in Dayton twice previously under coach Thad Matta. Twice, his Buckeyes failed to advance even though the thousands of fans provide a home-court feeling. It was fitting that this one was decided by a 3.The Cyclones lead the nation in 3-pointers, with nearly 44 percent of their attempts coming from behind the arc. Defense has been Ohio State’s foundation during its late winning streak, which included the Big Ten tournament title.With Craft anchoring Ohio State’s perimeter defense, the Cyclones had trouble getting open shots and missed eight of their first 12 from behind the arc.The Buckeyes’ offense also was ragged at the outset. Even the Buckeyes’ best stretch in the first half came with a downside — Shannon Scott had a steal and layup, but bounced the ball at the defender after his score, drawing a technical foul.Iowa State guard Chris Babb got treatment on his left leg in the final minute of the half and went to the locker room early. Babb, who is second on the team in 3s, didn’t come out for second-half warmups and sat on the floor at the end of the bench in his sweats.The Buckeyes pushed the lead to six points at the start of the second half, but the Cyclones stayed close by giving themselves second chances. Melvin Ejim’s putback cut it to 52-51, and he and Craft bumped into each other and traded words heading into a timeout with 11:43 left.Neither side was backing down.Coming out of the timeout, the Buckeyes put together their best run of the game. Ross hit a pair of 3s, a layup off a steal and two free throws for a 65-53 lead with 8:18 to go.The Cyclones turned to the 3 — both versions — to pull even. Lucious’ three-point play tied it 69-all with 3:53 left, completing a 13-0 run. Craft missed the front end of a pair of one-and-one chances during that spurt.

The Bulls are used to dealing with injuries so they weren’t rattled when All-Star center Joakim Noah didn’t play Saturday night against the Indiana Pacers.As they have done all season, the Bulls turned to their reserves, including veteran center Nazr Mohammed, forward Taj Gibson, and guards Daequan Cook and Nate Robinson, to rally from a 10-point deficit for an 87-84 victory that snapped Indiana’s three-game winning streak.
“That is the way we have to play; we have to do it collectively,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said after his team avoided a three-game losing streak. “A lot of guys stepped up.”
Forward Luol Deng scored 20 points and Carlos Boozer had 18, but the offensive stars of the second-half rally came off the bench.Bulls reserves outscored Indiana 32-15 for the game, and Mohammed had 11 points and seven rebounds in place of Noah, who has a lingering foot problem and Thibodeau said is likely to miss Sunday’s game against Minnesota.Reserve forward Gibson scored 11 points and backup guards Cook and Robinson had nine each.

“You look at Daequan, coming from the teams he was playing on,” Gibson said. “In this league it is all about confidence. And Nazr, his presence speaks for itself. He won a championship, played on numerous great teams. He is always ready to go.They stepped up big and everyone was pulling for them.”

Noah has plantar fasciitis in his right foot, a problem that dates when he missed three games in February.Despite the absence of their All-Star center, the Bulls (37-31) went on a 13-5 run starting the fourth quarter to take an 81-72 lead. They still needed Indiana’s Paul George to miss two 3-point attempts at the end to secure the victory.A four-point play by George Hill brought Indiana within 87-84 in the final minute. After a missed driving shot by Kirk Hinrich with 16 seconds left, the Pacers had a chance to tie. But George missed from 24 feet with 3.8 seconds left and after an offensive rebound got another chance at the buzzer from 25 feet but it also rimmed out.

“Both shots felt very comfortable to me,” George said. “It just wasn’t my night. I couldn’t really get into a rhythm outside the 3-point line.”

George finished with 23 points, but was 1 of 6 beyond the 3-point line and had just three points in the fourth quarter, when the Pacers made only 4 of 20 shots from the floor. They missed 13 of their first 15, while the Bulls went on their 13-5 run.

“We kind of went for a lot of jump shots,” George said. “We should have kept attacking.”

The Pacers (43-27) tried taking advantage of Noah’s absence immediately by going to center Roy Hibbert. He finished with 18 points.However, George picked up his fourth foul in the third quarter and it slowed Indiana’s momentum while the Bulls bench players took control.

“It was their defense, but we struggled to score,” said Pacers coach Frank Vogel, whose team was coming off a Friday night win in Milwaukee. “We had a lot of starters on the bench. Paul was in foul trouble and George [Hill] had a strained groin.We struggled to score down the stretch.”

Hill had 11 points and Lance Stephenson 10 for the Pacers, who were outscored by the Bulls 42-30 in the paint and 18-17 on second-chance points despite the absence of Noah.

NOTES—Hinrich bruised his thigh in the game and his status for Sunday’s game is uncertain…..The loss denied the Pacers their first chance for a season sweep of the Bulls since the 2001-02 season. They are 3-1 against the Bulls…..The Pacers played for the fourth straight game without David West due to a lower back sprain…..Following the game George had his hand wrapped in ice and said he had sprained a ligament in his left pinky finger. “The first half I really couldn’t dribble to my left,” he said. “The ball was going all over the place.”

LEXINGTON—Back and forth went future Big East rivals Marquette and Butler, trading makes and misses in a high intensity rematch that made a case for being the best game so far of this NCAA tournament.In the end, Vander Blue and the Golden Eagles advanced as the Bulldogs couldn’t muster any more of their March magic.  Blue scored 19 second-half points to rally third-seeded Marquette out of another hole, and the Golden Eagles survived 74-72 on Saturday to reach the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament.

“I know everybody in our team, we weren’t ready to go home,” said Blue, who made a last-second layup to win Marquette’s first game of this tournament. “We had two close games — we had a lot of those this year. What we went through earlier this year prepared us for this weekend.”

Like November’s first meeting between the teams at the Maui Invitational, won 72-71 by Butler on Rotnei Clarke’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer, it came down to the final shot. Only this time, Butler missed.

“The difference in the game was the level of pressure they put on us in the second half and certainly the shots they made,” Butler coach Brad Stevens said. “They had a few I didn’t think were going in that bounced in.”Our guys gave great effort on both ends of the floor. Our guys played their hearts out. I told them they had nothing to be ashamed about.”

Marquette (25-8) will meet the winner of Sunday’s game between Illinois and Miami on Thursday in the East Regional semifinals at Washington, D.C.It will be Marquette’s third consecutive Round of 16 appearance, but the Golden Eagles are seeking to move past that round for the first time since 2003, when Dwyane Wade led them to the Final Four.

“There were multiple times we could have gave up,” Blue said. “But there’s something about this group. We’re relentless and we want to win. We’re not ready to go home yet.”

Blue finished with 29 points.Clarke’s 24 points led Butler (28-9).Blue, the junior whose last-second layup edged Davidson on Thursday, led the Golden Eagles’ rally from a 35-27 halftime deficit and tied the game at 69 on 3-pointer with 1:25 remaining.That set the stage for more late-game drama by his teammates.After Jamil Wilson’s two free throws made it 71-69, Davante Gardner deflected Clarke’s pass intended for Kellen Dunham underneath and then made the first of three late free throws for 74-70 lead with 4.7 seconds left.After Wilson’s goaltend on what would have been a layup by Andrew Smith cut the lead to two 2 seconds later, Blue almost became the goat by throwing away the inbounds pass intended for Wilson with 2.9 seconds left.The Bulldogs, who seem to win every close game at this time of year, couldn’t get a good last look. Smith took an off-balance 3 from up top that was way off, slamming into the backboard and setting off another Marquette celebration.Stevens’ Bulldogs, who reached the championship game in 2010 and ’11, won’t make the second weekend this year.He shot 9 of 15 from the field with three from long range, finishing just four points off his career high. Trent Lockett and Wilson each added 13 points for Marquette, which shot 23 of 54 (43 percent) and was 5 of 12 from beyond the arc.The Bulldogs’ defense also held Clarke to just six second-half points after he seemed ready to dominate the game by himself. Smith finished with 17 points.The outcome ended up as another example of Blue’s leadership and clutch play, but until then it deemed destined to be decided by the last team with the ball.That should make things even more interesting next season, when Butler joins Marquette in the Big East along with Creighton and Xavier.Both teams have come a long way since that early-season thriller, and both got here with by coming from behind in their first games.Butler’s 68-56 win over Bucknell was easier, in which the Bulldogs overcame a 37-31 deficit by outscoring the Bison 37-19 over the final 10 minutes. There was plenty of room for improvement, such as 35 percent shooting and allowing Bucknell to take the lead with a 19-2 run.Marquette fell in a nine-point hole against Davidson that necessitated the last-minute rally led by Blue, who scored the game-winning layup with a second left for one of the more thrilling early-round finishes.Dictating the tempo on both ends was the Golden Eagles’ main objective, especially creating shots inside the arc.Both teams succeeded to an extent in a fast-paced first 10 minutes, with Marquette moving the ball around to get the two-point baskets it thrives on. The movement worked so well for the Golden Eagles that Wilson — Thursday’s other hero — and Lockett were open for 3-pointers, and made them.Butler hit 3 of 17 from 3 against Bucknell, but they found their range against Marquette. Clarke made three of Butler’s seven 3-pointers in the first half.Long shots came in handy since the Bulldogs struggled from elsewhere. They were 4 of 16 on 2-pointers.Butler was still better than Marquette (7 of 27), which finished the first half frustrated by the Bulldogs’ defense that contested everything near the basket. During one 40-second sequence before the break the Golden Eagles missed five straight shots including one from outside, sending them to the locker room trailing 35-27.

ROSEMONT— The Rush started off their 2013 season on an uncharacteristic note Saturday night, dropping their home opener 63–41 to the Iowa Barnstormers. They could not get a stop on the evening until the fourth quarter as Barnstormers quarterback JJ Raterink was a model of efficiency, accounting for eight total touchdowns on the night.
Raterink opened the game connecting with wide receivers Marco Thomas and Darius Reynolds for scores to put Iowa up 12-0 before the crowd could get settled. Once the Rush were able to establish their footing, it was more of the same story from last season as receiver Reggie Gray hauled in his first touchdown of the night from Quarterback Carson Coffman. After Iowa responded with a five play scoring drive, Rodney Wright introduced himself to the Rush faithful with a touchdown reception with seven and a half minutes to go in the second quarter. Iowa responded quickly, as receiver Darius Reynolds caught a ten yard touchdown, one of four on the night for him.
The Barnstormers kept the pressure going on the resulting kickoff, as kicker Phil Marfuggi placed the ball off the upright. Defensive back Ter’Ran Benton was in the perfect position to catch it in stride and punch it in for six more, giving Iowa 14 points in the span of just eight seconds.
While the Rush had sufficient time to put together a drive, Iowa defensive lineman Odrick Ray seemingly put an end to any hopes with a drive-stalling sack to give the Barnstomers the ball with sixteen seconds remaining. From there, it was clockwork for Raterink. A lofty pass ended up in receiver Collin Taylor’s hands after the ball deflected off the uprights once again.
Marfuggi attempted to make a play on the kickoff, sending a frozen rope at the front line of the Rush returners. The Rush recovered, and Coffman took the final snap and fired away to  Gray, who caught his second touchdown of the night, sending the Rush into the locker room with an eighteen point deficit.
Gray started the second half the same way he finished the first, reeling in a 29 yard strike from Coffman to bring the Rush to within 11. Raterink was up to his old tricks once again though as he orchestrated an eight play drive capped off by a Marco Thomas snag of a Jorrick Calvin deflection in the end zone with 8:13 remaining in the third.
The Rush finally found a groove in the next two drives, as the hands of Rodney Wright and the Barnstormers’ undisciplined nature provided the Rush with much needed scores. Despite the bright spots, Raterink snuck into the end zone between the two drives to reclaim seven of those points.
While it seemed that the Rush had turned a corner offensively, the clock quickly became their worst enemy. A Jose Martinez onside kick with just under eight minutes remaining in the game ended up in the stands, and it only took Raterink one play to turn it into six, putting the Barnstormers up by a decisive nineteen points.
The Barnstormers effectively ended the game with just under five minutes remaining, as De’Mon Glanton intercepted Coffman’s first mistake of the night. The teams traded stalled drives and turnovers to wind down the first week of the season. The Rush will take on the Spokane Shock next Sunday.

NOTES—Gray’s third quarter catch was the 100th of his career…..Rodney Wright had an impressive first game as a member of the Rush, catching 12 balls for 121 yards and two touchdowns….Jorrick Calvin and Kelvin Morris led the way for the Rush on defense, accounting for 13 total tackles….The Rush host Spokane Easter Sunday at 3pm.

AUBURN HILLS—Michigan State is into the round of 16 for the NCAA tournament — as usual. Gary Harris scored 16 of his career-high 23 points in the first half and the third-seeded Spartans cruised past sixth-seeded Memphis 70-48 on Saturday, putting the Tom Izzo-led program in the regional semifinals for the fifth time in six years and the 11th time in his career.Michigan State (27-8) will play Friday in the Midwest Regional semifinals at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. The Tigers (31-5) advanced in the NCAA tournament for the first time in Josh Pastner’s four seasons. The Conference USA champions are headed home because they struggled to stop Harris on the outside or his teammates inside all afternoon.The Spartans’ top post players — Adreian Payne and Derrick Nix — combined for 27 points and 18 rebounds.Memphis’ Geron Johnson scored 13 of his 16 points in the first half, and Joe Jackson finished with 12 points.Michigan State led by as much as 13 in the first half, creating that cushion when Harris made his fifth shot — and fourth 3-pointer — with 7:59 left in the first half.Memphis responded with a 12-2 run to pull within three, and the Spartans led 32-29 at halftime.But the Tigers fell off the pace in the second half because they were overmatched physically by a Big Ten power after going undefeated during their regular season in Conference USA.Harris got into foul trouble early in the second half, getting called for his third and fourth fouls, sending him to the bench with 13:42 left.Keith Appling picked up the slack by making his first shot to put Michigan State up by nine points, but the team’s leading scorer left for good with 8:35 left when his right shoulder took the brunt of Johnson’s drive into the lane.Before Appling was hurt, he had a towel thrown at him during a heated exchange by Nix, his teammate since high school. Izzo, who has lamented the team’s lack of leadership all season, looked dumbfounded at Nix, upset that the senior center would lose his cool at a time like that.Backup point guard Travis Trice had four fouls, limiting his ability to fill in for Appling, and that put the ball in the hands of freshman Denzel Valentine.But it didn’t really matter who was on the court for the Spartans because they were able to force Memphis into a half-court game and it struggled to have success against Michigan State’s in-your-face defense.MSU limited the Tigers to sub-30-percent shooting and outrebounded them by 20, a part of the game Pastner was worried about for good reason.Izzo has built his program on defense and rebounding, and it has served the 2000 national championship coach very well. Michigan State is two wins away from its seventh Final Four under Izzo.The Spartans and rival Michigan, which routed VCU earlier in the day in the same sold-out arena near their campuses, are in the same round of 16 for the first time.

AUBURN HILLS—Mitch McGary had 21 points and 14 rebounds, and fourth-seeded Michigan breezed through Virginia Commonwealth’s vaunted pressure with a clinical performance Saturday, beating the fifth-seeded Rams 78-53 to advance to the NCAA round of 16 for the first time since 1994.VCU (27-9) was relentless in a 46-point rout of Akron on Thursday night, but the Rams met their match against Michigan’s cool-headed backcourt. Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. rarely looked rattled against VCU, and although Michigan (28-7) committed 12 turnovers, the Rams couldn’t turn many of them into quick scoring opportunities.McGary, a 6-foot-10 freshman, set season highs in scoring and rebounding. VCU had no answer for him around the basket, and when the Rams couldn’t create easy baskets with their pressure, they were finished.

DAYTON—Freshman Georges Niang matched a season high with 19 points and Iowa State, showing it can do much more than just fire away from outside the 3-point line, dismantled Notre Dame 76-58 on Friday night in the NCAA tournament.The 10th-seeded Cyclones (23-11) will play No. 2 seed Ohio State on Sunday. The Buckeyes advanced with a 95-70 thrashing of Iona.Iowa State led the nation in 3-pointers this season, but the Cyclones were just as effective from short range in ousting the Fighting Irish (25-10), who played their final game as a member of the Big East and will join the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.Melvin Ejim added 17 points for Iowa State, which shot better than 70 percent for much of the second half.Tom Knight scored 14 to lead the Fighting Irish.

DAYTON, Ohio — Freshman Yogi Ferrell scored 14 points in the first six minutes as top-seeded Indiana slam dunked its way to an 83-62 win over James Madison in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Friday. Not taking any chances with a No. 16 seed, the Hoosiers (28-6) started fast and built a 33-point lead in the second half over the Dukes (21-15) and opened the tourney with a statement they intend to be around for a while.Looking every bit like a team capable of cutting down the nets in Atlanta next month, Indiana will play Temple in the second round on Sunday.Ferrell finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists, and Cody Zeller had four dunks for Indiana.Freshman Andre Nation led James Madison with 24 points.

KANSAS CITY—It turns out there is someone who can tone down the taunting and irreverent antics Marshall Henderson is becoming known for.His name is Marshall Henderson.Mississippi’s flamboyant guard missed 12 of his first 13 shots and was 0 for 6 from 3-point range Friday when he finally connected for a long 3-pointer in a second-round NCAA game against Wisconsin. Then he remained unusually businesslike while scoring the rest of his 19 points and leading the Rebels to a 57-46 victory.Henderson’s futility reached its zenith with about 12 minutes to go when he fumbled the ball in the Wisconsin back court right into the hands of Sam Dekkar, who raced down the court with Henderson on his shoulder and laid the ball in for a 36-30 Badgers lead.But on Ole Miss’ next possession, Henderson hit that 3-pointer, and the game quickly changed character.

“There’s no question Marshall Mania affects the psyche of the other team,” said Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy. “How can you avoid it? Marshall this, Marshall that. We live with Marshall Mania. So for us, it’s normal, another day at the office.”

It was the first NCAA tournament win for the Rebels (27-8) in 12 years and snapped a string of six straight first-game wins for the cold-shooting Badgers (23-12), who held a three-point halftime lead after Henderson had scored only two points on 1-for-11 shooting.I’s not the first time Henderson has gone ice-cold in the first half and erupted in the second.

“He made that first shot and I celebrated,” said Kennedy. “We’ve seen his show before. A lot of guys, you go 0 for 5 and it’s going to be a long night. If you go 5 for 5 it’s going to be a great night. He’s been on both ends of the spectrum. As long as he’s taking shots within our offense, our guys understand that. We were getting him looks. Then once he makes one or two, we keep feeding him.”

Wisconsin, known for its stout defense, did hold the Rebels to their lowest point total of the year. But the Badgers were a miserable 15 for 59 against the Ole Miss zone defense, including 7 for 30 from beyond the arc. Dakkar had 14 points for Wisconsin.

“We won a lot of close games, beat a lot of good teams,” said Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan. “But again, it’s not a team that really shot the ball well all year. It happened again.”

Murphy Holloway had 10 points and nine rebounds and Reginald Buckner had nine points and 12 rebounds for the Rebels, who will play in the third round of the West Regional on Saturday.After Buckner missed two free throws and the Rebels rebounded an errant Wisconsin shot, Henderson hit his second 3-pointer before Jared Berggren answered for the Badgers with a 3 of his own.Holloway put the Rebels ahead to stay with a tip-in and another bucket. Then, after one of Wisconsin’s 11 turnovers, Jarvis Summers connected for Ole Miss.Henderson, whose 88 percent foul shooting led the SEC, hit two free throws at the 5:13 mark for a 45-41 lead, then the two teams swapped turnovers before Buckner pulled down a defensive rebound and Henderson connected on a jumper for a 47-41 lead.An unsightly first half ended with a Wisconsin turnover and a 25-22 lead for the Badgers.Wisconsin hit only 4 of its first 17 shots and ended the half 7 for 23 but nevertheless held a 3-point lead because the Rebels were even worse. Ole Miss was only 10 for 32 the first 20 minutes.