NCAA Santa Clara Kentucky Basketball
Santa Clara's Allen Graves, right, and Kentucky's Mouhamed Dioubate, left, battle for the ball during the first half in the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, March 20, 2026, in St. Louis.
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Otega Oweh rescued Kentucky with a buzzer-beater from just inside half court to force overtime, then hit the tiebreaking free throws in the extra period as the seventh-seeded Wildcats beat No. 10 seed Santa Clara 89-84 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Santa Clara’s Allen Graves drained a 3 from the right wing with 2.4 seconds left to put the Broncos ahead 73-70. Oweh took the inbound pass and got his shot off just in time, and it banked in for the tie. Oweh scored a career-high 35 points for the Wildcats, who will face No. 2 seed Iowa State, a 108-74 winner over 15th-seeded Tennessee State, in the second round in the Midwest Region.
Santa Clara may have lost to Kentucky in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday, but few will forget the way everything unfolded at the end of regulation. The two teams each hit a 3-pointer in the last 2.4 seconds, forcing them to play another five minutes in a game that the seventh-seeded Wildcats won, 89-84. The Broncos hit the first of them to take a 73-70 lead, only for Kentucky's Otega Oweh to answer at the buzzer from right in front of his own bench to tie the game. It was a crushing loss for Santa Clara, which was making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since Steve Nash was playing there 30 years ago.
