CNN —
Wednesday saw the men’s First Four come to a close which means only one thing: the 64-team bracket is officially set following No. 11 Xavier’s thrilling come from behind win over No. 11 Texas and No. 16 Mount St. Mary’s victory over No. 16 American in Dayton, Ohio.
The Musketeers trailed by as many as 13 points, but their offense came alive in the second half behind guard Marcus Foster and forward Zach Freemantle to down the Longhorns 86-80.
The senior Foster scored a team-high 22 points while Freemantle, on his way to 15 points, threw down a dunk with a second left to seal the comeback win and ignite the fans at UD Arena, which is just over 50 miles away from campus in Cincinnati, Ohio.
With just under four minutes remaining, Xavier went on an 8-2 run to take a 78-74 lead, their first since the early going of the first half.
Musketeers head coach Sean Miller crowned Wednesday’s game as “one of the best” he’s been a part of.
“I thought we were dead in the water two different times,” Miller told the truTV broadcast after the game. “But that’s the one thing about our team — the resiliency of our group has always won out for us. Just when you thought we weren’t gonna make the tournament, we kept winning. Even in this game, just when you’re like, ‘It’s not gonna work out,’ we have a funny way of staying with it.”
The Longhorns did not go down without a fight as guard Tre Johnson scored a game-high 23 points in the loss.
Xavier will face No. 6 Illinois in the first round on Friday at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mount St. Mary’s defeated No. 16 American 83-72.
Mountaineers junior forward Dola Adebayo and senior forward Jedy Cordilia each dropped 22 points and sophomore guard Dallas Hobbs added 17. Mount St. Mary’s earned its third-ever tournament win, all in play-in games.
The No. 16 seed Mountaineers will next face Cooper Flagg and the No. 1 Duke Blue Devils in the first round Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champions said after the game the Duke matchup will be just another game, but the team will be ready.
“It’s basketball. It doesn’t matter how big they are, how they’re ranked,” Adebayo said at the postgame news conference. “They’ve still got to tie their shoes just like me. That’s it.”
Hobbs added, “Our mentality is the same thing, just going in and following the game plan, follow what (head coach Donny Lind) says, and hopefully go out there and get a win.”
Lind, who won his first-ever tournament game, reflected on playing on the big stage and on Friday’s contest against the Blue Devils.
“Today, when we walked out there for the National Anthem, it was a little bit of a ‘holy cow’ moment for me,” he said. “Now, to get to move on with this group and let them keep playing and to go down to Raleigh and play Duke is awesome.
“Obviously, like all of us, we’ve watched a lot of Duke basketball as kids just because they were on TV before ESPN+ where we could watch whatever game we wanted. Certainly, it is an exciting opportunity. But like the guys say, we’ve got to get ready and give them everything we’ve got.”
Lind is the first head coach in program history to reach the tourney in his first season at the helm.
