Butler 70, VCU 62

Virginia Commonwealth came into Saturday night’s game hot as a pistol from three point range. The Rams hit 44% from behind the arc in the first five games of the tournament, but were unable to keep that accuracy up against the Bulldogs. VCU made 8-of-22 (36%) from 3PT, which is right on their season average.

Butler outrebounded VCU 46-30 which made up for some poor shooting (36%) by the Bulldogs. Those extra possessions allowed Butler to get to the line 26 times as compared to VCU’s 13 free throw attempts.

UConn 56, Kentucky 55

Kemba Walker (18 points on 6-of-15 shooting) didn’t have the greatest night in the scoring department, but the UConn defense showed up and held Kentucky to just 34% shooting from the field. The Huskies were dreadful from long range (1-for-12 from 3PT), but they hit 22-of-37 from 2PT range (59%) which was enough for the win.

For a moment, it looked like Shabazz Napier was going to be the goat after turning the ball over with less than a minute to go and UConn nursing a two-point lead. But after Kentucky missed a go-ahead three, Napier was there to secure the rebound and nail two free throws with 2.0 seconds remaining to seal the win.