Texas to face No. 2 seed Purdue in the Sweet 16

For the third straight year, the No. 3 seed Purdue Boilermakers are through to the Sweet 16 with a 79-69 win over the No. 7 seed Miami Hurricanes in St. Louis on Saturday, advancing to face the No. 11 seed Texas Longhorns on Thursday at the SAP Center in San Jose.

Tip time remains to be determined.

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Purdue closed out Miami with a 6-0 run in the final minute as the Boilermakers held the Hurricanes without a made field goal over the final 3:50. Offensively, Purdue was red hot shooting the ball, hitting 53.2 percent overall and 57.1 percent from three-point range, led an efficient performance by guard Fletcher Loyer, who scored a game-high 24 points on 6-of-7 shooting, making all four of his attempts from beyond the arc. Backcourt mate CJ Cox added three triples of his own, but left the game early in the second half after hyperextending his knee, leaving his availability on Thursday in question.

Miami struggled from distance, going 5-of-19 shooting from three (26.3 percent) and struggled to defend without fouling — the Hurricanes were able to out-rebound the Boilermakers and notch an eight-point advantage in points in the paint, but Purdue took 12 more free throws and finished the game with a plus-13 edge in made free throws.

Head coach Jai Lucas’ team only committed 16 fouls, but too many of them were of the shooting variety.

Texas advanced to the Sweet 16 as a double-digit seed for the first time since 1997, surviving the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament for only the second time since 2008 with the help of a big late three from former Purdue sharpshooter Cam Heide in Saturday’s 74-68 win over No. 3 seed Gonzaga in Portland. Coming with 14 seconds remaining and the Horns up by one point, the instantly-iconic triple was the only basket that Heide made against the Bulldogs, and came after he sat for most of the second half after picking up two quick fouls out of halftime.

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/texas-face-no-2-seed-192619571.html

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Publish date : 2026-03-22 19:26:00

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