2017 NCAA Tournament: Northwestern earns first ever Big Dance victory
Northwestern survives a back-and-forth battle to advance onto the next round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament.
The Northwestern Wildcats came into the NCAA Tournament wanting to make the most of their experience. The Wildcats and their fans will now get an extra day to enjoy it.
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They’re staying around a little longer after scoring a 68-66 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores in the first round of the West regional on Thursday.
The Wildcats won despite losing a double-digit lead in the second half. Both teams swapped the lead several times in the final couple of minutes.
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Bryant McIntosh played the hero in the game for the Wildcats. McIntosh made it to the free-throw line after being fouled inexplicably by Matthew Fisher-Davis. Vanderbilt was leading by one at the time but Fisher-Davis was unaware of the score and time on the clock. McIntosh made two free throws with 14.6 seconds left to put Northwestern ahead 67-66. McIntosh finished the game with 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field.
Vanderbilt’s Riley LaChance tried to put them back in the lead in the final seconds with a three-point try but missed as the loose ball went out of bounds and wound up as a turnover.
Vanderbilt got back into the game thanks to five three-pointers in the second half. Fisher-Davis sank two of those three’s as he finished the game with 22 points.
With Northwestern’s win, they advance oto the second round, where they have a date Saturday with Gonzaga.
The No. 1 seed in the West, Gonzaga pulled away in the second half to defeat South Dakota State in the first round.
Thursday’s win for Northwestern was their first ever in the NCAA Tournament. They can now focus on the next task at hand since they got the first win out of the way.
Next: Five teams that could win the South region
It won’t be an easy task trying to dispatch Gonzaga. They’ll need both McIntosh and Scottie Lindsey, who scored 14 in the Vanderbilt win, to step up if they want to possibly knock off the top seed in the region. No time has been announced for the second round match-up.