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 No. 1 Indiana had barely escaped the big upset.
The Hoosiers finally figured out a way to stop Wyatt -- bump him, shadow him, deny him the ball -- and used a closing 10-0 run to beat Temple 58-52 on Sunday at the University of Dayton Arena, sending them into the round of 16 for the second year in a row.
"That was a relief," Indiana coach Tom Crean said.
Tell Ohio State about it.
The second-seeded Buckeyes also advanced with a pulsating finish, beating Iowa State 78-75 on Aaron Craft's 3-pointer with a half-second left. Ohio State is in the round of 16 for a school-record fourth year in a row, the last high seed remaining in the tournament's most busted bracket -- the Wild West.
"The moment is definitely bigger than me," said Craft, who won it with his only 3-pointer of the game.
Now, the two Big Ten heavyweights go their separate ways. Indiana (29-6) heads to the East Regional to play fourth-seeded Syracuse on Thursday in a rematch of the 1987 title game won by the Hoosiers. Ohio State (28-7) goes to Los Angeles to play sixth-seeded Arizona in the West Regional, which is missing four of its top five seeds.
Ohio State was the lone one to make it past the opening weekend.
"With all that's gone on in college basketball, anything's possible," Craft said. "You can see it with what's gone on in our bracket right now."
Here's what's gone on: No. 3 New Mexico, No. 4 Kansas State and No. 5 Wisconsin were knocked out in their opening games, and No. 1 Gonzaga joined them Saturday night, shocked by ninth-seeded Wichita State 76-70.
Tenth-seeded Iowa State (23-12) tried to make it a clean sweep at the top. The Cyclones trailed for most of the second half and were down by 13 with 6 minutes to go. They caught up with a pair of 3s, a three-point play and some missed free throws by Craft, who also was off-target on a jumper from just inside the arc with 29.9 seconds left.
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The Cyclones dominated in rebounds 36-22 but couldn't get that last one, knocking the ball out of bounds after Craft's miss. Ohio State was looking to get the ball to leading scorer Deshaun Thomas for the final shot, but Iowa State switched defenses and left Craft with only one option as the clock ticked down.
The point guard dribbled in place at the top of the key until only a few seconds remained, then shot it over 6-foot-7 freshman Georges Niang.
"Every kid dreams of moments like that," Craft said.
The Cyclones had a tough time coming to terms with the ending. The nation's best 3-point team was beaten by one.
"We played our hearts out," said Will Clyburn, who scored 17 points. "It was a tough game and he made a tough shot. He made a great play."
The Atlantic 10's top scorer made a bunch of great plays in the second game, bringing Temple (24-10) to the verge of a huge upset. Wyatt scored 20 points in the first half even though the Hoosiers made him the focal point of their defense. He finished with 31, two days after also scoring 31 in a win over North Carolina State despite hurting his left thumb.
Victor Oladipo got the job of shutting him down in the final minutes, and pulled it off by staying as close to him as possible wherever he went.
"In the last 6 minutes, they started face-guarding me full-court," Wyatt said. "It was hard for me to get the ball. When I did get the ball, I made a couple nice plays, but they just made it difficult to get the ball."
Wyatt missed a long 3-pointer as the game started to slip away, and Oladipo hit a 3 with 14 seconds left that finished it off and gave the Hoosiers their first chance to relax all game.
"I was just kind of filled with emotion," Oladipo said.
So was Wyatt.
"He did a wonderful, wonderful job," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "It would have been great for our team to win and celebrate this a little bit."
[Associated
Press; By JOE KAY]
AP Sports Writer Tom
Withers contributed to this report.
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