Corey Sanders scored 28 points and last-place Rutgers upset Indiana 76-69 Thursday night to advance to the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament, the Scarlet Knights most notable accomplishment in four seasons since joining the conference.
The 14th-seeded Scarlet Knights (15-18) face third seed and No. 8 Purdue at Madison Square Garden in the final game of Friday's quarterfinal quadruple-header.
The Hoosiers (16-15) started the game on a 17-3 run, but were manhandled for the most part by Rutgers over the final 30 minutes.
Rutgers led by seven with 10 minutes left in the second half, but the Hoosiers had it tied less than two minutes later. Indiana never could get the lead back. Back-to-back buckets by Sanders had Rutgers up by three and Geo Baker's 3 from the left wing made it 56-50 for the Scarlet Knights with 5:12 left.
A runner off the glass by Sanders put Rutgers up six with 1:23 left and 15 seconds later his breakaway slam made it 67-59 and brought down chants of "Let's Go Rutgers!" and "R-U!" from the Garden crowd. One more slam by Sanders, this time on a baseline drive that had just a touch of former Knicks star John Starks in it, capped Rutgers biggest basketball victory in decades.
Rutgers has won two games in a single conference tournament for the first time since 1998 in the Big East. The last time Rutgers won three conference tournament games was 1989 in the Atlantic 10.
The Hoosiers raced out to a 24-8 lead, getting to the basket with ease. With 7:28 left in the first half, Rutgers had more turnovers (five) than field goals (three) and Sanders was 0 for 4.
Juwan Morgan led the Hoosiers with 15 points.
Sanders led the Rutgers rally at the end of the first half, scoring 10 points, including a right-handed slam off a steal. The Scarlet Knights closed with a 17-2 run and led 29-28 at halftime.
Michigan survives Iowa with 77-71 OT win: Duncan Robinson made Michigan's only field goal in overtime, a go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:15 left, and the 15th-ranked Wolverines survived foul trouble and poor shooting to beat Iowa 77-71 on Thursday to advance to the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals.
The fifth-seeded Wolverines (25-7) face fourth-seeded Nebraska on Friday at Madison Square Garden.
Michigan was 3 for 19 from 3-point range and Robinson made all of them. His OT 3 put Michigan up 72-70, and the Wolverines made just enough free throws to hold off the Hawkeyes (14-19), who got a basket from Luka Garza on their first overtime possession and not another one.
Michigan was 18 for 32 from the free-throw line, but Robinson made two with 10 seconds left to make it 76-71.
Jordan Bohannon made a 3 off the dribble with 16.3 seconds left in regulation to tie it at 67 for Iowa, which trailed for much of the second half.
Michigan's leading scorers, Moe Wagner and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, were both saddled with foul trouble. Wagner fouled out with 4:37 left, having played only 15 minutes and scoring 11 points. Abdur-Rahkman fouled out with 2:34 left in overtime, having scored nine points in 22 minutes. The scoring burden Thursday fell to Charles Matthews, who led the Wolverines with 16 points.
Tyler Cook and Luka Garza scored 13 points apiece for Iowa.
The Wolverines trailed 40-35 at halftime and had allowed the Hawkeyes to shoot 55 percent from the field.
Michigan managed to regain the lead early in the second half, but the Wolverines did not make a 3 until 9:30 was left in the second half and that kept them from pulling away.
Wagner picked up his fourth foul with 9:52 left — a call that stoked the ire of the many Michigan fans at the Garden — on what turned out to be a three-point play for Ryan Kriener. That cut Michigan's lead to 53-51. Finally, Robinson found the range from deep. First, the senior dropped in a 3 from the right corner, holding the follow-through for a beat, to make the score 56-51. Michigan had missed its first 12 3-point attempts.
On Michigan's next possession, Robinson swished a 3 from up top with 7:45 left to push the lead to eight.
Wisconsin tops Maryland 59-54 to reach Big Ten quarterfinals: Brevin Pritzl broke a tie with a foul-line jumper with 28 seconds left and Khalil Iverson secured the win with a steal in the waning seconds, leading Wisconsin past Maryland 59-54 on Thursday in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.
Brad Davison and Iverson each made two free throws in the final nine seconds, and the ninth-seeded Badgers (15-17) advanced to the quarterfinals against top-seeded Michigan State on Friday at Madison Square Garden.
Ethan Happ had 14 points and seven rebounds for Wisconsin, which has won five of seven. Davison finished with 13 points while Iverson had 11 and six rebounds and Pritzl 10 points. The Badgers won despite shooting 36 percent.
Kevin Huerter had 20 points for Maryland (19-13), which has lost seven of its last 11 games. Huerter missed the first of two free throws with the Terps trailing 55-53 with 9.2 seconds to play. Anthony Cowan Jr. added 16 points and Bruno Fernando had 12 points and nine rebounds.
Wisconsin never trailed in the second half, but it never led by more than three points in the final 11:40 until the closing seconds.
Pritzl's jumper broke a 53-all tie. Huerter, who scored seven of Maryland's final nine points, had a chance to tie the game when he was fouled on a drive by Happ. The sophomore guard missed the first and made the second. Maryland fouled Davison on the inbounds pass and he made both shots with 8.5 seconds to go for a 57-54 lead.
Wisconsin fouled Cowan rather than let him attempt a game-tying 3-pointer. Since it was a nonshooting foul, the Terps had to inbound with 5 seconds to go and Iverson stole Dion Wiley's pass and then closed the game with two free throws.
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