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NCAA East Regional: Marshall stuns Wichita State

Marshall guard Jarrod West (13) reacts as time runs out in their first-round NCAA college basketball tournament game against Wichita State Friday, March 16, 2018, in San Diego. Marshall won 81-75. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

San Diego • The Marshall Thundering Herd celebrated like never before.

For the first time in six tries during 62 years, the Thundering Herd won an NCAA Tournament game.

Jon Elmore scored 27 points and Jarrod West hit a huge 3-pointer with three minutes left to help No. 13 seed Marshall topple fourth-seeded Wichita State 81-75 in the East Region.

When the buzzer sounded, West raised his arms in the air and joyously ran practically the length of the court before joining his teammates in celebration.

“Long time!” coach Dan D’Antoni said moments later.

Was it ever.

The Thundering Herd (25-10) made its first NCAA tourney appearance in 1956 and made its most recent one in 1987, losing all five along the way. The 1987 loss was later vacated due to infractions. Its only postseason victories were in the NIT in 1967, when D’Antoni was on the team.

“So we’ve got a little bit to do,” said D’Antoni, the older brother of Houston Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni. “I like these guys. I like the chance riding with them, fun to be on a trip with and they’re fun to watch to play and it’s real fun when we win. So we’re going to try to do that one more time.

“I told them the beginning goal is to win the NCAA Tournament. Wherever we get in the car driving down the road to that championship, when it stops we’ll all get off and we’ll be happy because we like who is in the car. We like the journey we’re on. We’re looking forward to the next leg, and I have confidence in these guys that they’ll give you a real good ballgame and got a great chance to win.”

Marshall joined Buffalo as 13th seeds to win this week. On Thursday night, Buffalo beat No. 4 seed Arizona.

The Thundering Herd also got big shots down the stretch from Ajdin Penava and C.J. Burks and will play the Murray State-West Virginia winner in the next round.

Wichita State (25-8) got 27 points from Conner Frankamp and seemed to be in control midway through the second half, but the Thundering Herd refused to fade despite its lack of NCAA tourney experience.

After Frankamp’s long jumper gave the Shockers a 70-69 lead with just less than 5 minutes to go, Penava made a layup. The next time down the floor, West buried a long 3 and raised his right hand in celebration after giving the Thundering Herd a 74-70 lead.

Shaquille Morris responded with a slam dunk for the Shockers before the 6-foot-9 Penava made another layup and Burks had a steal and a layup to give Marshall a six-point lead.

Frankamp hit a 3 with 44.1 seconds left before Marshall benefited from a critical call. With 36.2 seconds left, Zach Brown of Wichita State blocked a shot by Jannson Williams and the ball went out of bounds. After a long video review, the referees awarded the ball to Marshall, and Penava had a slam dunk off an inbounds pass.

Wichita State blew several chances to pull any closer. Landry Shamet missed the front end of a one-and-one with 28.9 seconds and the Shockers then missed two 3-point attempts in the next 12 seconds before turning the ball over.

The 6-foot-3 Elmore held up even though he was guarded by bigger opponents.

“This is another day in the park,” he said. “Basketball is what I love to do and whoever that guy is in front of me I’m trying to crush him. Every play I want to play him out, get around him, get him in foul trouble, get the assist. I don’t care who you put on me I’m going to attack you 40 minutes, and that’s what we did tonight.”

Frankamp said Elmore “controlled the pace of the game. He played really well, but we knew that going into the game. He made some tough shots and got some easy looks that we can’t give up.”

Penava scored16 points, Burks 13 and Williams 10. Morris had 12 for the Shockers and Shamet 11.

Elmore scored nine straight points midway through the second half, including two 3-pointers, to help Marshall keep pace after it allowed the Shockers to go on a 15-1 run spanning halftime.

Frankamp responded with 3s on consecutive possessions for Wichita State.

West Virginia 85, Murray State 68 • In San Diego, Jevon Carter scored 21 points, had eight assists and six steals, Teddy Allen added 16 points and No. 5 seed West Virginia overwhelmed 12th-seeded Murray State n the first round of the East Region.

The Mountaineers (25-10) pulled away in the second half and advanced to the round of 32 for the third time in the past four seasons as four players finished in double figures.

Next up for West Virginia: A Mountain State showdown with 13th-seeded Marshall far away from home.

Carter had 13 points in the second half and was the trigger of a second-half surge by the Mountaineers after Murray State had trimmed a 14-point lead down to five.

Terrell Miller led Murray State (26-6) with 27 points, but he was the only Racers player to shoot well. Miller made 8 of 11 shots, but his team hit just 41 percent. Murray State had won 13 straight games entering the NCAAs, the second-longest active win streak in the country.

More important than what Carter did offensively was the job he and his teammates did on the defensive end shutting down Murray State star Jonathan Stark. It was Stark who carried the offensive load all season for the Racers.

Stark had scored in double figures in 30 of 31 games entering the NCAAs, including three games of 30 or more points late in the season.

But Stark never found his shot from the outside and anytime he beat his defender there were Mountaineers waiting. Stark, who was averaging 21.8 points per game, was 1 of 12 shooting and finished with nine points.

Butler 79, Arkansas 62 • In Detroit, Kelan Martin scored 27 points and Kamar Baldwin added 24 to lift 10th-seeded Butler over seventh-seeded Arkansas.

The Bulldogs (21-13) raced to a 21-2 lead in the opening minutes. Although Arkansas wiped out that entire deficit before halftime, Butler took control again early in the second.

The Bulldogs advance to play second-seeded Purdue on Sunday.

Jaylen Barford scored 15 points for Arkansas, but the Razorbacks (23-12) struggled in the paint — 6-foot-11 freshman Daniel Gafford managed only two field goals.

After falling behind by 19 early, Arkansas rebounded impressively with a 27-6 run, but the Razorbacks’ lead was brief, and Butler was up 36-31 at halftime.

The Bulldogs quickly pushed the lead back to double digits in the second. Martin, who surpassed 2,000 points for his career during the game, made two 3-pointers in a 9-2 run that made it 49-38.

Purdue 74, Cal State Fullerton 48 • In Detroit, Carsen Edwards scored 15 points and second-seeded Purdue eventually shook off the rust from a long layoff and routed Cal State Fullerton to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Playing for the first time in nearly two weeks after losing to Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament final, the Boilermakers (29-6) struggled to make shots down low and beyond the 3-point line and simply looked out of sync.

Purdue advanced to face the Arkansas-Butler winner.

The Titans (20-12) led midway through the first half, and then Edwards took over. He had a go-ahead layup and scored seven more points to help Purdue lead 31-20 at halftime.

The Big West Tournament champions couldn’t put up much resistance in the second half as Purdue started making 3-pointers and using its Big Ten big bodies score inside to lead by 20-plus points.

Even with a big lead, though, Purdue coach Matt Painter kept pushing his teas to defend closely and share the ball offensively. Vince Edwards took heed and hustled back to block Jamal Smith’s attempt on a breakaway layup.

Edwards, looking healthy after being slowed by an ankle injury, scored 15 and P.J. Thompson added 11 points.