Florida stuns Wisconsin on OT buzzer-beater; South Carolina upsets Baylor

NEW YORK - Chris Chiozza went end to end and made a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give Florida an 84-83 victory against Wisconsin on Friday night in the first overtime game of this NCAA tournament.

Nigel Hayes had given the Badgers (27-10) a 2-point lead with 4 seconds left on two free throws. With no timeouts left, the Gators inbounded to Chiozza and the point guard stopped right at the top of the arc and dropped in the winner for Florida (27-8).

Wisconsin's Zak Showalter forced overtime with a leaning 3-pointer off one leg with 2.1 seconds left in regulation as the Badgers wiped out a 12-point deficit in the last 4:15.

The fourth-seeded Gators will play South Carolina on Sunday in an all-Southeastern Conference regional final at Madison Square Garden. Florida is in the Elite Eight for the first time since 2014, and for the first time with second-year coach Mike White - the man who replaced Billy Donovan in Gainesville.

Wisconsin built a five-point lead in overtime, but with star guard Bronson Koenig hobbled by a leg issue, the Badgers couldn't close out Florida.

After Wisconsin's Khalil Iverson hit the front of the rim on a breakaway dunk, Chiozza drove by the Badgers defense at the other end for a layup that tied it at 81 with 24 seconds left.

The Badgers put it in Hayes' hands on their final possession. The senior who scored the winning bucket in Wisconsin's upset of defending champion Villanova used a spin move to draw a foul going to the hoop.

Making their fourth consecutive Sweet 16 appearance, it looked as if the experienced Badgers had once again found a way to survive and advance.

Chiozza then earned himself a spot in the “One Shining Moment” montage with a shot that will go down in Gators' history.

KeVaughn Allen carried Florida most of the way, breaking out of a slump with a career-high 35 points.

Hayes had 22 in his last game for Wisconsin.

South Carolina 70, Baylor 50

Apparently South Carolina is getting the hang of winning NCAA tournament games.

The Gamecocks, who hadn't won a tournament game since 1973, got their third this year. One more and it's on to the Final Four.

“It's a great win for the program,” Gamecocks guard Duane Notice said. “It's a good feeling when we continue to make history and I think once we get a taste of it, we kind of get addicted and want to continue doing it.”

Sindarius Thornwell scored 24 points and seventh-seeded South Carolina cruised past third-seeded Baylor 70-50 on Friday night in the East Region semifinals, the Bears' worst NCAA tournament loss.

The Gamecocks (25-10) were in control from the middle of the first half on, mixing defenses and hustling all over the Madison Square Garden court to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time.

“We have been real good defensively all year, we were on point definitely today,” Gamecocks coach Frank Martin said.

South Carolina will meet Florida, which beat Wisconsin 84-83 in overtime, on Sunday with that trip to the Final Four at stake. It will be an all-Southeastern Conference matchup with the teams having split two regular-season meetings.

DJ Dozier and Chris Silva had 12 points each and Notice added 11 for the Gamecocks.

Johnathan Motley had 18 points, 12 in the second half, for Baylor (27-8), which just couldn't get any offense going. The Bears, who were ranked No. 1 for one week this season, missed 11 of their first 13 shots from the field and it didn't get a whole lot better the entire game. They finished 17 for 56 from the field (30.4 percent), including 3 for 13 from 3-point range.

Thornwell made defending Motley sound easy.

“We stayed aggressive and made his catches hard and we knew that he likes to score in the paint and let his catches be extended outside, that way he got to take more than one dribble to score; he can't just turn and shoot over the top of you,” Thornwell said.

Motley said the defense was “extremely tough.”

“That's what they game-planned for. And they did a great job of executing their game plan. We couldn't, really couldn't buy a basket.”

South Carolina opened the second half on a 12-6 run to get the lead to 49-28. The largest lead was 63-41.

Baylor was able to close to 11 points but that was as tight as the game would get.

The Gamecocks went on a 16-0 run that lasted 7:44 in the first half. They turned a 15-15 tie into a 31-15 lead with 2:50 left in the first half. The Bears went 0 for 10 from the field and committed four turnovers in the run. South Carolina's biggest lead of the half was 37-20 on a 3 by Notice with 29 seconds to play. It was 37-22 at halftime.

The Bears shot just 25 percent from the field in the first half (8 of 32) and committed seven turnovers.

“What they do is a great job of making it difficult and then basketball's such a game of momentum and after you get off to a bad start, sometimes it's hard to get in a rhythm or hard to get in a flow,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said.

Martin is glad the rest of the country is getting to see the Gamecocks and their intense defense.

“It's beautiful to us. Which is what matters,” he said. “I'm sure there's people don't like it. That's their prerogative.”