OKLAHOMA CITY — BYU’s Jimmer Fredette got smacked in the face, whacked on the head and then sent home from the NCAA Tournament.
Jacob Pullen and Kansas State are moving on, thanks to a physical brand of basketball that was too much for even Fredette’s prison-toughened game.
Pullen scored 20 of his career-high 34 points in the first half to help dig No. 2 seed Kansas State out of an early 10-point hole, and the Wildcats turned away Fredette and BYU 84-72 on Saturday night in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Pullen came alive with a scoring flurry shortly after he and Fredette got tangled up in transition in the first half, and K-State (28-7) wouldn’t trail again in earning its first round of 16 appearance since 1988.
Pullen matched his career best with seven 3-pointers and surpassed 30 points for the third time in his career. Down the stretch, he helped seal the victory with a 3-pointer and six free throws. Equally as important as his scoring was his physical defense against Fredette, who had scored 37 points to get the seventh-seeded Cougars (30-6) past Florida in double overtime in the first round.
Butler 54, Richmond 52
SAN JOSE, Calif — Ronald Nored’s three-point play snapped a tie with 25.4 seconds left, and Butler narrowly evaded a second stunner by the 13th-seeded Racers in three days.
Butler, which overcame a second straight halftime deficit, never got comfortable in a thriller against the undersized but big-hearted Racers (31-5), who beat fourth-seeded Vanderbilt in the first round.
