Louisville, the top seed in the Midwest Regional, trailed ninth-seeded Siena 63-59 with 7:45 left in Dayton, Ohio, before pulling out a 79-72 win. Pittsburgh, the No. 1 team in the East, beat No. 8 Oklahoma State 84-76 in Dayton, where the Panthers were behind by one point with less than four minutes remaining.
Louisville (30-5) and Pittsburgh (30-4) join fellow top seeds Connecticut (29-4) and North Carolina (30-4) in the regional semifinals, which are played March 26-27. The last time a No. 1 seed failed to advance to the round of 16 was in 2004, when Kentucky and Stanford were upset in the second round.
Defending champion Kansas also advanced to the final 16 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament today, as did Michigan State, Syracuse, Missouri, Xavier and Arizona.
North Carolina and Connecticut reached the third round yesterday along with Memphis, Purdue, Villanova, Duke, Gonzaga and Oklahoma.
The NCAA championship game is April 6 in Detroit.
Louisville used a 9-0 scoring run in the closing minutes to erase a four-point deficit and eliminate Siena.
Terrence Williams had 24 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Cardinals, who held the Saints scoreless for more than five minutes to take a 68-63 lead.
The top overall seed in the tournament, Louisville, next plays Arizona in a Midwest Regional semifinal in Indianapolis.
No. 12 Advances
Arizona beat No. 13 Cleveland State 71-57 in Miami to put a No. 12 seed in the final 16 for the second straight year. Western Kentucky and Villanova made the regional semifinals as 12th seeds last year.
Nic Wise had 21 points and eight assists for the Wildcats (21-13), the lowest-seeded team left in the tournament.
Pittsburgh trailed Oklahoma State 72-71 with 3:45 remaining before ending the game with a 13-4 scoring run.
Sam Young scored 32 points and Levance Fields added 13 points and nine assists for the Panthers, who also used a late surge to pull away from East Tennessee State in the first round.
Pittsburgh advances to an East Regional semifinal game on March 27 in Boston against fourth-seeded Xavier, which defeated No. 12 Wisconsin 60-49 in Boise, Idaho.
The Musketeers (27-7) got 15 points from B.J. Raymond and held the Badgers to 3-of-20 shooting from three-point range.
Second-seeded Duke will play No. 3 Villanova in the other East Regional semifinal.
Kansas Beats Dayton
Kansas, which lost all five starters from last year’s championship team, beat Dayton 60-43 in Minneapolis as Cole Aldrich had 13 points, 20 rebounds and 10 blocked shots.
The last player to record a triple-double that included blocks in the NCAA tournament was Shaquille O’Neal in 1992 for Louisiana State University.
The Jayhawks (27-7), the third seed in the Midwest, head to Indianapolis to meet No. 2 Michigan State, which beat No. 10 Southern California 74-69 in Minneapolis after trailing by one point with less than six minutes left. Travis Walton scored 21 points to lead the Spartans (27-6).
Missouri, third in the West Region, overcame an 11-point halftime deficit to defeat No. 6 Marquette 83-79 in Boise and prevent the Big East Conference from having six teams among the tournament’s final 16.
Leo Lyons scored 18 points to lead five players in double figures for the Tigers (30-6), who advance to play No. 2 Memphis in Glendale, Arizona. Connecticut and No. 5 Purdue meet in the other West Regional semifinal.
Syracuse, seeded third in the South Region, defeated Arizona State 78-67 to reach the round of 16 for the first time since 2004. Eric Devendorf scored 21 points to lead the Orange (28-9), which will face No. 2 Oklahoma in a third-round game in Memphis, Tennessee. North Carolina and No. 4 Gonzaga play in the other South Regional semifinal.
To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net
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