The first game of the night was a good one, with the Huskies of Connecticut taking out the Mountain West tournament champion, and number two seed, San Diego State Aztecs.
While the game was absolutely taken over by Kemba Walker in the second half, this game was not won by just Kemba alone. Freshman Jeremy Lamb, who has grown by leaps and bounds throughout the entire season, went a cool 9-11 from the field, hit all three of his three point attempts, and chipped in 24 of his own. Lamb also had a huge steal as San Diego St. was trying to make a final spurt, when he showed his quickness and athleticism to leap in the air and snatch the ball, ending the spectacular play with a dunk to seal the win.In the other early game it was all about the Jimmer, and that was what was the end for BYU. Jimmer got his points, 32 of them, but only shot 11 of 32 from the floor to do it. His
outside shot was not falling, and he just could not seem to get a rhythm. Problem was the rest of his team played okay, not great, not necessarily bad, just okay. Florida on the other hand had a number of players step up, their star player Chandler Parsons played well and ended up with 16 points for the Gators. It was the emergence of a guy form the supporting cast though that stole the show, and eventually won them the game though. Alex Tyus used Thursday night to step up and shine, more than doubling his season averages, scoring a team high 19 points, and ripping down a game high 17 rebounds. Where Florida had help from everyone on the team, BYU proved to me, at least for one night, what the naysayers thought, a one man show for the most part.In Anaheim Arizona found itself down six points at the half, and treading water early in the second. Then all of a sudden an explosion, a 19-2 run that was the ultimate early kill shot, as Duke never got back to within single digits. Derrick Williams gave Kemba a run for his money for player of the night, and in my mind won that battle, as he did absolutely everything for the Wildcats. He had 32 points, 25 in the first half, 13 rebounds, a number of absolutely incredible dunks, and oh yeah he went five of six from behind the arc in the first half to keep the game close at half. Look no further than his teammates for the reason for the win though, because once they all got going in the second half, that is when the wheels fell off for Duke, they could not handle it. Lamont "Mo Mo" Jones was the difference maker though, scoring 16 points on six of 10 shooting, and dishing out a game high six assists. The balance of the Wildcats, compared to Kyrie Irving having 28 points and Nolan Smith having only eight as the ACC player of the year, is what won out in the end.
The final game of the night was the Butler Bulldogs being the Butler Bulldogs, playing a team game. They played the Brad Stevens lock down defense, and then got the scoring from here, there, and everywhere. The argument for Butler is who is the team leader, Shelvin Mack or Matt Howard. Well Howard was able to step up last night and score 20 points while bringing in 12 rebounds against a big and physical Wisconsin front line. Wisconsin was plagued by the fact that their number two, Jon Leuer only managed to score three points, missing 11 of his 12 shots. The lack of balance, versus the epitome of a team, was the difference in the slowed down battle.
There were magical games last night, Jimmer still was a great watch to get his 32. Kemba continued his amazing run and scored 36 points in a flash it seemed. Derrick Williams had some of the best plays of the tournament in just last night's game. Tyus exceeded his season averages by double in both points and rebounds, and Howard dominated a Big 10 front line. In the end though, it was the team game that punched four tickets into the Elite Eight on Saturday.
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