Butler holds off Murray State

Associated Press

san jose, calif.

Butler’s Gordon Hayward instinctively left his man for a double-team, deflected a freshman’s desperate pass and slammed Murray State’s storybook shut.

Those rip-roaring Racers were awfully close to a second straight bracket-busting upset before the tournament-tested Bulldogs reminded them which small school almost always plays big in March.

Ronald Nored’s three-point play snapped a tie with 25.4 seconds left, and Butler narrowly evaded a second stunner by the 13th-seeded Racers in three days, advancing to the regional semifinals of the NCAA tournament with a 54-52 victory Saturday.

Nored scored 15 points and Hayward had 12 before making the decisive defensive play for the fifth-seeded Bulldogs (30-4), who extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 22 games and advanced to the round of 16 for the second time in four years.

“I think we just wanted it,” said Hayward, who persevered through a 4-of-13 shooting performance. “I’m sure they wanted it badly, too, but we all just dug in. We did whatever we could to get the job done.”

Shelvin Mack scored 11 points for Butler, which overcame a second straight halftime deficit and finished on a 7-2 run in the final 21‚Ñ2 minutes.

The Bulldogs never got comfortable in a thriller against the undersized but big-hearted Racers (31-5), who beat fourth-seeded Vanderbilt in the first round on Danero Thomas’ jumper as time expired.

“I’m pretty sure it was in the back of everybody’s mind, what they did to Vanderbilt,” said Willie Veasley, who had 10 points. “We just had to contain their guards and get a stop and keep this thing going.”

Murray State was in a similar situation in the closing seconds, trailing by just two after Butler’s Matt Howard made one of two free throws with 17.2 seconds left.

With no timeouts left, Murray State got the ball to Isacc Miles, whose drive was stopped, and then to Isaiah Canaan.

The freshman guard was double-teamed by Hayward, and his frantic attempt at a perimeter pass went off Hayward’s hand and rolled into the backcourt, setting off a celebration down near Butler’s bench.

“We just didn’t want them to get an open 3,” Hayward said. “They’re capable shooters, and had been there before.”

But the Racers have never been to the round of 16, where Butler is headed for the third time in school history.