NCAA Tournament: Big Ten teams now 6-1 in first round
One Big Ten team pulled out a hard-fought win today and another fell so the conference record in this year’s NCAA Tournament is now 6-1
In both games the Big Ten team struggled on the offensive end early on. In the first, the Iowa Hawkeyes got hot and fought back to pull out a 79-72 victory over the Cincinnati Bearcats. In the second, the Wisconsin Badgers never could find the bottom of the net consistently and fell to the Oregon Ducks 72-54.
First a look at the 6th win for the Big Ten.
Iowa fell behind by 13 points before finding any offensive rhythm against a strong Cincinnati defense. Once the shots began to fall the Hawkeyes fought back to cut the deficit to five by halftime.
They took a short-lived 40-39 lead early in the second half but after that it was a hard-fought battle the rest of the game with the Bearcats leading much of the time.
Finally Iowa went up 64-62 with about four minutes to play and never relinquished the lead. The Hawkeyes extended the lead to nine points with just over a minute to play which sealed the victory.
The leading scorers for Iowa were Luka Garza (20), Joe Wieskamp (19), Jordan Bohannon (13) and Nicholas Baer (10).
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Scoring in double figures for Cincinnati were Justin Jenifer (19), Jarron Cumberland (18), Nysier Brooks (11) and Tre Scott (10).
Wisconsin just never seemed to get things on track offensively, but then they were going up against one of the best defensive teams in the country.
Even with their scoring issues the Badgers didn’t let the Ducks run away from them for most of the game, and they were within eight points with about five minutes to play. But once Oregon extended the lead to double digits the game was over.
Ethan Happ and Khalil Iverson led Wisconsin with 12 points apiece. Scoring in double for Oregon were Payton Pritchard (19), Louis King (17) and Paul White (14).
Stats provided by ESPN.com
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The final first round game involving a Big Ten is Ohio State vs. Iowa State. Results will be in about 12:00 EST.