By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The 11th seeded Drake Bulldogs, led by former Northwest Missouri State coach Ben McCollum and former player Bennett Stirtz, controlled the pace of the game and held off a rally from the six seed Missouri Tigers, winning 67-57 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The Tigers and Bulldogs traded blows early before Drake pulled away in the first half, controlling the tempo and keeping the ball away from Missouri, leading 30-23 at the end of the first half.
Drake continued to pull away to start the second half after Missouri scored the first two points, going on a 12-3 run before the Tigers could score again thanks to a layup by Tamar Bates.
The Tigers would make a furious comeback, and for a moment it looked like they might have a miracle stored up. Missouri started inching closer and closer. Down 15 points with 12:40 remaining, the Tigers went on a 5-of-5 run from the field to get back into the game.
Mizzou's Marques Warrick clipped a rare step-back triple to cut the deficit to eight points. Caleb Grill, who led the Tigers with 14 points, opened his 3-point account on his sixth attempt at the 7:42 mark of the second half to get them out of a double-digit deficit hole again.
Mizzou battered and bruised its way to the free throw line — making seven straight in the space of three minutes — until it was a one-point game with 4:20 to play. Drake’s mistakes began to stack, with empty trips to the stripe and turnovers piling.
The misses started to pile up again, and Drake again became the aggressor in the game’s final four minutes, when Stirtz, who led the game with 21 points, made a jumper that kicked off Drake’s ride to the second round. The Bulldogs closed the game on a long 16-6 run. Mizzou made two shots from the field in the final four minutes.
Drake will now play either three seed Texas Tech or 14 seed UNC Wilmington in the round of 32 on Saturday.
Kansas falls in Round of 64 for first time since '06 to Arkansas
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- — Jonas Aidoo scored 22 points to help 10th-seeded Arkansas to a 79-72 opening-round NCAA Tournament victory over No. 7 seed Kansas in the latest meeting between two of college basketball’s winningest coaches.
Johnell Davis added 18 points, including some crucial late free throws, to help John Calipari to his first tournament victory as Razorbacks coach. Freshman standout Boogie Fland played for the first time since having right thumb surgery in January and scored six points in 24 minutes.
Zeke Mayo had 18 points for Kansas (21-13), which has made 35 straight NCAA Tournaments and hadn't lost in the first round since 2006. Aj Storr finished with 15 points and Hunter Dickinson added 11 points and nine rebounds.
Thursday’s matchup was the third March Madness meeting between two of the four active win leaders in men’s college basketball. Calipari is second (876), with Bill Self of Kansas fourth (831) on the list. Both previous meetings were in the national championship game, with each winning once.
Kansas erased what was an 11-point, second-half deficit and nudged ahead 65-64 on a follow shot by Storr with less than six minutes remaining.
The Jayhawks kept the lead until Aidoo connected on a pair of free throws to put the Razorbacks back in front. Arkansas got a stop on the other end and then got a 3-pointer by Davis that gave it a 71-67 cushion with less than two minutes on the clock.
Arkansas’ edge was down to 71-69 before Davis dropped in a pair of free throws. Dickinson missed a 3 on Kansas’ next trip and Arkansas added two more free throws.
The Jayhawks got it back down to 75-72 on a 3-pointer by Rylan Griffen with 13 seconds left. The Razorbacks called back-to-back timeouts trying to get the ball inbounds. They finally did and Davis calmly sank two free throws to help close it out.
Kansas fell to 47-6 record in first-round games all-time.
Arkansas will get either No. 2 seed St. John’s or No. 15 Omaha in the second round of the West Region on Saturday.
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