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Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
St. John's vs. Omaha: Live updates from March Madness
PROVIDENCE — St. John's begins its 2025 NCAA Tournament run against Omaha. The second-seeded Red Storm (30-4), playing in the West Region, are the Big East Conference champions. Led by coach Rick Pitino, St. John's has won nine straight games leading into the first-round matchup against the Mavericks. No. 15 Omaha (22-8) secured an automatic bid to March Madness with its 85-75 win over St. Thomas in the Summit League tournament championship. They have the conference player of the year in Marquel Sutton and league first-team guard, JJ White, leading the way. St. John's is an 18-point favorite, per The Red Storm average 78.7 points per game and hold their opponents to just 65.9. This tournament is St. John's 30th appearance overall and first since 2019. The Red Storm have made it to nine Sweet 16s, six Elite Eights and two Final Fours in 1952 and 1985 over its NCAA Tournament history. They also lost the 1952 National Championship to Kansas, 80-63. This is the first meeting between St. John's and Omaha. Tip is set for 9:45 p.m. at the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, Rhode Island. Follow here for updates from the game: St. John's opened up a 10-point lead on Richmond's inside finish off a sweet in-bounds play from Ejiofor. It's was the biggest lead of the game, at the time, for the Red Storm. Luis then threw down a lob from Wilcher as St. John's has a chance to break this game open. Luis is up to 13 points on the night. St. John's was held scoreless over the last 3:11, but Vincent Iwuchukwu converted a 3-point play with two seconds left. Sutton leads all scorers with 10 points, while Wilcher and Luis both have eight for St. John's. The Red Storm are shooting 37% from the floor and are trailing in the rebounding margin, 26-16. Omaha had a chance to pull away early, but the Mavericks are shooting just 31% from the floor. The Mavericks, surprisingly, have a 14-6 edge in points in the paint. St. John's woke up and started firing from beyond the arc. Deivon Smith sparked the shooting with a 3-pointer and Ruben Prey followed as the Red Storm took a 25-22 lead. Wilcher cashed a third straight triple from the key. It's a 14-2 St. John's run over the last 4:41. Sutton throws down a thunderous dunk off the baseline. And Osburn fires in a deep triple from the right wing as Omaha surged to a 20-14 lead. Wilcher halted Omaha's pace with a corner 3-pointer. Luis catches fire with a pair of 3-pointers and an easy dunk inside for St. John's. Osburn responded with a 3 from the left wing as the Mavericks cling to their early lead. Luis leads all scorers with eight points. St. John's is on the board on Richmond's pull-up jumper. Red Storm just 1-7 over the first five minutes. Omaha has four offensive rebounds to start. The Mavericks start on a 7-0 run capped by White's 3-pointer from the key. St. John's is 0-5 to start the game. JJ White, Marquel Sutton, Kamryn Thomas, Isaac Ondekane and Tony Osburn. Aaron Scott, Kadary Richmond, Simeon Wilcher, RJ Luis Jr. and Zuby Ejiofor. This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Live updates from St. John's vs. Omaha in March Madness
New York Times
16-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Florida beats Tennessee for SEC tournament title, sends warning: Beware of Gators
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Florida Gators ruined the party. Then had a little party of their own on the Bridgestone Arena floor Sunday afternoon. Todd Golden's team celebrated an SEC tournament championship by cutting the nets, after beating Tennessee 86-77 in the title game — and sending an arena full of Tennessee fans home unhappy. It felt more like a practice session than a culmination. The Gators know, as anyone who has watched them lately can see, that they should require more ladders and scissors in the near future. Advertisement As has been noted a time or two, the SEC is historically good this season. Yet the Gators left the league's conference tournament shorter on drama than expected because no one could hang with them. A huge Alabama contingent shuffled out quietly Saturday after Florida beat their team — their Final Four-capable team — 104-82. Missouri on Friday, like Tennessee on Sunday, fought valiantly but couldn't put late-game pressure on Florida (30-4) and fell by 14. Rick Barnes' Vols (27-7) got a 13-point deficit as low as five in the final six minutes, carried by guards Zakai Zeigler (23 points, eight assists) and Jordan Gainey (24). But Florida always had answers. They usually originate with All-America guard Walter Clayton Jr. (22 points), but fellow backcourt starters Alijah Martin and Will Richard can take over at any point. And then there's the luxury of Denzel Aberdeen off the bench. And then there's all the size — Alex Condon, Thomas Haugh, Rueben Chinyelu and Micah Handlogten rotate seamlessly and give opponents matchup issues. If they aren't intimidating enough, 7-foot-9, 305-pound redshirting freshman Olivier Rioux is sitting over there on the bench. This team is top 10 nationally in offensive and defensive efficiency, per along with offensive rebounding percentage, opponent 3-point shooting and defensive effective field goal percentage. It does everything very well to incredibly well, other than a solid free throw percentage (71.1 percent) that ranked 225th nationally entering Sunday's game — perhaps that could provide a glimmer of hope for opponents in the tournament to come. Or maybe the Gators will build on a terrific Sunday in that regard — 25 for 28, 89.3 percent, at the line. This team, which looks as capable as any of winning six games in a row and the whole darn thing, had a productive day of practice in Nashville. (Photo of Walter Clayton Jr: Steve Roberts / Imagn Images)
