Sports Wrap
By William Hathaway, Jr.
The 2023 NCAA men’s basketball tournament is heading to a great finish. This past week, the regional semifinals and the regional finals took place in different cities to determine the Final Four. The East Regional had the best games of the college basketball season taking place in New York at Madison Square Garden. In one contest, Michigan State lost to a razzle dazzle Kansas State team 98-93 in overtime. K-State was led by New York City native Markquis Nowell with 20 points, 3 rebounds and 19 assists. Teammate Keyontae Johnson had 22 points and 6 rebounds and Cam Carter had 12 points. MSU got 18 points from Joey Hauser and AJ Hoggard had 25 points and 6 assists.
In another game, #9 Florida Atlantic stunned #4 Tennessee 62-55. The FAU Owls advanced to the Regional Title game and beat #3 Kansas State 79-73. New Jersey native Nick Boyd, who played at Rutherford High School, had 4 points while teammate Bryan Greenlee had 16 points and Vadislav Goldin had 14 points and 16 rebounds. This marks the first ever Final Four appearance for Florida Atlantic.
In the South Region, San Diego State is headed to its first Final Four after stunning #1 Alabama and then coming back from 13 points down to defeat Creighton 57-56 on a controversial foul call. This gave SDSU the Midwest crown.
Also, Miami came back to beat #2 Texas 88-81 to claim the Midwest Region, while Big East Conference powerhouse Connecticut destroyed Gonzaga 82-54 to take the West. The Final Four matchups will have UConn play Miami and Florida Atlantic play San Diego State.
As for the women, #1 South Carolina got to the Final Four easily, and will play Iowa and star guard Caitlin Clark in one matchup, while LSU will face Virginia Tech.
