Matthews, Marquette hold off Crawford, Kentucky

Matthews made all eight of his free throws inside the closing 31 seconds Thursday as the sixth-seeded Golden Eagles held off a late run by the No. 11 Wildcats in a 74-66 first-round victory in the South Regional.

Matthews finished with 13 points and Jerel McNeal led the way with 20 for Marquette (25-9), which advanced to face either third seed Stanford or No. 14 Cornell on Saturday.

Senior Joe Crawford carried Kentucky (18-13), pouring in a career-high 35 points and draining five 3-pointers before fouling out of his final game.

The Wildcats, who were making a record 49th appearance in the NCAAs, closed within 66-63 on Crawford's 3-pointer from the top of the key with 38 seconds left.

Matthews was fouled seven seconds later, making both attempts. He added six more free throws down the stretch to finish 9-of-10 from the stripe.

A 3-pointer from Ramel Bradley cut Kentucky's deficit to 68-66 with 23 ticks remaining, but Matthews was fouled on the ensuing inbounds.

Trailing 70-66 with under 20 seconds left, the Wildcats committed a key turnover when sophomore guard Derrick Jasper threw an ill-advised pass to Bradley that bounced off the senior guard's head and to Matthews, who was immediately fouled.

For the game, the Golden Eagles went 23-of-29 on foul shots en route to winning their first game in the NCAA Tournament since a Final Four appearance in 2003.

After a tightly-contest first half, Marquette took its largest lead of the game at 11 points on the strength of a 13-5 run. Lazar Hayward hit a 3-pointer and completed a tip-in during the burst, which gave the Golden Eagles a 54-43 advantage with 10 minutes left.

However, Kentucky did not go away, responding with a 10-2 run to close within 56-53 with 5:13 to play. Crawford had a three-point play and a basket from the arc in the run.

Although he shot just 3-of-9 from the field, Dominic James came up with a pair of big baskets for the Golden Eagles. The junior guard hit a 3-pointer after an offensive rebound by Dan Fitzgerald to make it 59-53 and added a baseline layup to extend the lead to eight points with 3:13 remaining.

Thanks to an 8-of-10 effort from the stripe, James finished with 15 points, and Hayward added 16 and seven rebounds.

Also playing his final game, Bradley scored 19 points for the Wildcats, who were outrebounded, 34-26, and saw their 12 turnovers turned into 20 points. The Golden Eagles had just seven giveaways.

Back to Bracket page.

Check out our NCAAB odds and matchup reports.