A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • MoNday, MarcH 21, 2022
bendbulletin.com/sports
COLLEGE BASKETBALL | NCAA TOURNAMENT
Wild weekend sets up Sweet 16
Texas Tech guard Adonis Arms
(25) reacts with teammates at
the end of a second-round NCAA
Tournament game against Notre
Dame on Sunday in San Diego.
Texas Tech won 59-53. Denis Poroy/AP
Double-digit seeds continue
winning in women’s tourney
BY DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer
D
ouble-digit seeds are leaving their
mark on the first weekend of the
women’s NCAA Tournament and
bouncing some of the top players and teams
in the country, including Iowa’s Caitlin
Clark and Baylor’s NaLyssa Smith.
Creighton and South Dakota continued
the run of upsets as the two No. 10 seeds
advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time
ever.
Villanova’s
Eric Dixon (43)
passes from
the floor as
Ohio State’s
Kyle Young
tries for the
ball during the
second half
of Sunday’s
game in
Pittsburgh.
Villanova
won 71-61 to
advance to
the Sweet 16.
The Bluejays got the second round
started, shocking Clark and Iowa with a
two-point win that silenced the sellout
crowd in Iowa City. Hours later, South
Dakota knocked off No. 2 Baylor, ending
Smith’s college career on her home court.
If you’re counting, that’s eight wins by
double-digit seeds in this tournament — ty-
ing the most ever in NCAA women’s bas-
ketball history through two rounds, a mark
set in 2018.
South Dakota
center Hannah
Sjerven (34)
screams as
she heads to
huddle with
guard Chloe
Lamb (22)
and other
teammates
during the
first half
against
Baylor in the
second round
of the NCAA
Tournament
in Waco, Texas,
on Sunday.
Keith Srakocic/AP
See Women’s / A6
Miami dominates No. 2 seed
Auburn; all eyes on Peacocks
BY ERIC OLSON
Associated Press
T
op seeds Gonzaga and Kansas are
in. So is little Saint Peter’s, the giant
killer and only the third No. 15 seed
to make it this far in the NCAA Tourna-
ment.
And Coach K’s farewell tour continues as
he and his Duke Blue Devils made it to the
Sweet 16, too.
All eight of the regional semifinal match-
ups were set by late Sunday night, capping a
wild opening weekend that saw seven dou-
ble-digit seeds win in the first round and
LM Otero/AP
four of them move on.
This is the second year in a row a No. 15
seed has captured the imagination of bas-
ketball fans.
Last year, it was Oral Roberts, which
came within a missed 3-pointer at the
buzzer from beating Arkansas and go-
ing to the Elite Eight. This time, it’s
those lovable Saint Peter’s Peacocks, who
knocked off Kentucky and Murray State
and don’t have a single player that made
the All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Confer-
ence first team.
See Men’s / A6
GOLF | ROUNDUP
Burns beats Riley in playoff
for 2nd straight Valspar win
Associated Press
PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Sam
Burns is a winner again in the
Valspar Championship, this time
with a lot more stress and plenty
of more emotion.
Burns holed a birdie putt from
just over 30 feet on the 16th hole
to beat Davis Riley on the sec-
ond playoff hole, giving him three
PGA Tour victories in his last 22
starts.
Burns, who closed with a 2-un-
der 69 to match Riley at 17-under
267, is the second straight back-
to-back winner at Innisbrook fol-
lowing Paul Casey’s consecutive
wins in 2018 and 2019. The tour-
nament was canceled in 2020 be-
cause of the pandemic.
The victory moves Burns to No.
10 in the world for the first time,
knocking Dustin Johnson out
of the top 10 for the first time in
seven years. Burns won last year
by three shots.
Riley, a rookie contending for
the first time on the PGA Tour,
overcame a triple bogey on the
par-5 fifth hole with a clutch
5-iron for birdie on the par-3
17th. He had a 15-foot birdie
putt on the 18th for the win and
left it out to the right, closing
with a 72.
See Golf / A6
Sam Burns
reacts after
making a
birdie putt in
a playoff to
win during
the final
round of
the Valspar
Championship
tournament
Sunday at
Innisbrook in
Palm Harbor,
Florida.
Chris O’Meara/AP