Kentucky’s Otega Oweh hit among the best NCAA tournament buzzer-beaters you’ll see to force additional time in the No. 7 Wildcats’ 89-84 win over No. 10 Santa Clara.
After Santa Clara’s Allen Graves hit a 3-pointer to give the Broncos a 73-70 lead with 2.4 seconds to go, Oweh banked in a game-tying 3-pointer from simply inside half-court as time expired.
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Take a glance. The ball was out of Oweh’s arms with 0.2 seconds to go.
Santa Clara had three timeouts remaining after Graves’ shot, and Broncos coach Herb Sendek wished to get a timeout earlier than Kentucky rushed the ball up the courtroom. But the official on the bench sideline instantly turned to dash up the courtroom and was not Sendek as he frantically signaled.
The Wildcats then opened the sport up in additional time with an 8-0 run. Trailing 79-77 with 2:37 to go in the additional body, Kentucky flipped that deficit right into a six-point lead and put the Broncos away. Kentucky ended the sport making its closing 5 photographs.
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After scoring seven factors in the primary half, Oweh exploded over the ultimate 25 minutes. He completed with 35 factors after he dropped 22 in the second half and added one other six in additional time. When requested after the sport by CBS if that was the most effective sport he’s been in, Oweh was fast to say sure.
“Nah, I’m not going to lie, that’s probably the best one yet,” Oweh stated. “That’s what March is though. All the best games happen at this time of the year and it was a blast. I’m glad we got to pull it out.”
Oweh was 11 for twenty-four from the sector and performed 43 of the sport’s 45 minutes. He additionally grabbed eight rebounds and dished out seven assists, and sure improved his NBA Draft inventory together with his historic outing. He turned the third participant in NCAA tournament historical past to have no less than 20 factors, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in a number of first-round video games and the primary to have a 35, 8 and seven line or larger since Larry Bird in the 1979 NCAA tournament.
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A season in the past, Oweh had 20 factors, 8 rebounds, and 6 assists in Kentucky’s tournament-opening win over Troy.
The additional time win prevented probably the most costly rosters in faculty basketball from an embarrassing first-round loss as a better seed for the third time in the previous 5 seasons.
After two first-round upsets in three seasons below John Calipari, Kentucky parted methods with its longtime coach after the 2024 season to rent former Kentucky participant and BYU coach Mark Pope.
In 2025, Kentucky made the Sweet 16 as a No. 3 seed earlier than dropping to Tennessee.
This season, the Wildcats started the season ninth in the AP Top 25. They by no means acquired any increased than that rating and ended up ending ninth in the SEC in what was undisputedly a disappointing common season. However, a lot of that uneven season will likely be forgotten if Oweh’s buzzer-beater is the spark for a deep tournament run.
