OT win sends Utah to Madison Square Garden

[March 22, 2018]  Sedrick Barefield hit a pair of 3-pointers in overtime, including the tiebreaking bucket with 2:06 left, and second-seeded Utah earned a trip to the NIT semifinals with a 67-58 win over top-seeded Saint Mary's on Wednesday night at McKeon Pavilion in Moraga, Calif.

Barefield finished with a game-high 19 points, including his fifth 3-pointer of the night with 32.5 seconds remaining for a 66-58 lead. Tyler Rawson also canned five 3-pointers and scored 17 points, and Justin Bibbins added 10 points for the Utes (22-11).

Jock Landale paced the Gaels (30-6) with 16 points and 15 rebounds in his final college game, while Jordan Ford scored 12 points. Calvin Hermanson hit for 11 points, and Tanner Krebs finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Utah will play Western Kentucky on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden in New York. All four semifinalists, including Penn State and Mississippi State, won road games in the quarterfinals.

The first three quarters were played almost exclusively in a half-court setting. Neither team scored a fast-break point and buckets were at a premium as both teams played tough, physical defense.

Utah scored the first five points and then answered a five-point flurry by Saint Mary's with another five-point surge, taking a 10-5 lead on a layup by David Collette with 5:45 left in the first quarter. The Gaels were able to fight back, using a 9-2 spurt to grab a 14-12 lead before the Utes tied it at 14 at end of the first period on a Bibbins jumper.

Neither team led by more than four points in the second quarter, which ended with a layup with three seconds remaining by Krebs. The teams headed for the locker room tied at 28 after another 14-14 quarter.

The Gaels carved out a bit of separation in the third quarter as Utah lost Collette, its leading scorer in the first half, to a lower back injury. A 7-2 run, finished by Jordan Hunter's dunk with 33 seconds left, gave Saint Mary's a 39-34 edge going to the fourth period.

--Field Level Media

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