March Madness 2026: The best and worst from Sweet 16 Friday

Let’s rock.

Best game

(1) Duke 80, (5) St. John’s 75 (East)

Outside of a stellar finish, this one gave us just about everything you could ask for from a Sweet 16 contest.

Aided by a heroic performance from injured guard Caleb Foster (more on that later), Duke erased a 10-point deficit to hand St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino just his second career loss in the Sweet 16. The Blue Devils have now trailed by double figures six times this season, and are 6-0 in those games.

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Isaiah Evans poured in a team-high 25 points for Duke, while Cameron Boozer finished with 22 points and 10 rebounds for his third consecutive double-double and 22nd of the season.

The victory extended the Blue Devils’ winning streak to 14 games, the longest in the country.

The Red Storm had an opportunity to tie the game in the closing seconds, but Dylan Darling — who beat Kansas at the buzzer last Sunday — couldn’t drum up any more March magic.

St. John’s seemed to have an answer on offense every time they were faced with what felt like a “must score” possession down the stretch, but couldn’t get the stops necessary for those conversions to matter.

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“It was our defense that broke down at the end,” Pitino said. “It wasn’t so much not being in the right place. We just got bullied to the basket. They do that to a lot of teams. That’s why they’re the No. 1-ranked team in the country. We couldn’t defend the bully drives.”

Duke has defeated St. John’s in the regular season or the NCAA Tournament during all five of its national championship seasons. They’re now just three wins away from extending that odd statistic to six.

Team that won it best

Michigan

Dusty May’s team took the best shot Alabama had in its arsenal and did not blink.

The Crimson Tide were red hot from the outside in the first half, forced the Wolverines to play at their pace, and carried a two-point lead into the break at halftime.

Ok, they weren’t quite that hot, but they were…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/march-madness-2026-best-worst-124514114.html

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Publish date : 2026-03-28 12:45:00

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