WASHINGTON — Matt Howard’s tip-in at the buzzer Thursday gave eighth-seeded Butler a 60-58 win over Old Dominion.
The play was not what Butler coach Brad Stevens had in mind when he sent his team to the floor with the score tied and 32 seconds left.
Guard Shawn Vanzant was driving to the basket from the right side when he lost his footing and threw the ball toward the rim. Teammate Andrew Smith slapped the ball out of the air off the backboard, and Howard went up with his right hand and put the ball in from the left side an instant before time expired.
“We were fortunate to win,” Stevens said. “It didn’t look pretty and that’s not exactly the way you want it to end by any means, but they were in the right spots.”
Howard and Shelvin Mack each scored 15 points for Butler (24-9).
“A lot of credit has got to go to Andrew, who made a great play to keep it alive,” Howard said. “I tried to get it up as quickly as possible, and fortunately we had just enough time.”
Frank Hassell led the Monarchs (27-7) with 20 points.
No. 1 Pittsburgh 74, No. 16 UNC Asheville 51.
Ashton Gibbs scored 20 of his 26 points after halftime, and the bigger Panthers (28-5) cruised past the Bulldogs (20-14).
Pittsburgh only led by three early in the second half, but a 50-27 edge in rebounding helped make up for a so-so shooting performance by nearly everyone but Gibbs.
“In the first half we played really poorly, careless with the ball,” said Pitt’s Gary McGhee, who had seven points and 11 rebounds. “We didn’t move the ball around. We didn’t get the loose balls. But then in the second half, we turned it up.”
No. 2 Florida 79, No. 15 UC Santa Barbara 51
TAMPA, Fla. — Chandler Parsons flirted with his first triple-double, finishing with 10 points, seven rebounds and a career- high 10 assists, and the Gators (27-7) made 11 of their first 15 shots, opened up a double-digit lead early and kept piling on from there against the Gauchos (18-14).
No. 7 UCLA 78, No. 10 Michigan State 76
Tyler Honeycutt and Malcolm Lee scored 16 points apiece and the Bruins (23-10) won despite missing 17 free throws, nine of them in the final 3:40 while the Spartans (19-15) were making a barrage of 3-pointers to get back into the game.
The Bruins were 30-of-47 from the foul line and only made two field goals over the final eight minutes.
No. 4 Wisconsin 72, No. 13 Belmont 58
TUCSON — Jon Leuer scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half and the Badgers methodically dispatched the Bruins (30-5) from Nashville, Tenn.
Jordan Taylor added 21 for Wisconsin (24-8), 14 in the first half, and the Badgers made 12-of-22 3-pointers.
Belmont shot 37 percent overall and made only 6-of-22 3-pointers. Starting guards Ian Clark and Drew Hanlen were a combined 2-of-15 from the field.
No. 5 Kansas State 73, No. 12 Utah State 68.
Jacob Pullen, not showing any ill effects from the flu that kept him out of practice Wednesday, scored 22 points and the Wildcats (23-10) closed it out from the free-throw line to send the Aggies (30-4) to their seventh consecutive NCAA-opening loss.
The Associated Press
