La Salle 76, Mississippi 74
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Tyrone Garland's layup in traffic with 2.5 seconds remaining gave La Salle a 76-74 victory over Mississippi in the third round of the NCAA Tournament at Sprint Center on Sunday.
Thirteenth-seeded La Salle advances to face ninth-seeded Wichita State in the West Regional semifinals Thursday in Los Angeles.
Ramon Galloway led La Salle (24-9) with 24 points. Tyreek Duren added 19, and Garland had 17.
Marshall Henderson paced 12th-seeded Mississippi (27-9) with 21 points. Murphy Holloway had 14 points and 13 rebounds.
The teams traded buckets for most of the second half. After Henderson hit a baseline jumper to tie the score at 42 with 18:34 left, neither team scored consecutive buckets until Holloway followed his own missed free throw for a second straight layup at the 10:40 mark.
Henderson followed that by hitting a 3-pointer, and Mississippi led 59-55.
La Salle tied it at 62-62, but Mississippi went on a quick 7-2 run to grab its biggest lead. The Explorers answered with a 5-0 run, and the score was knotted again at 69-69.
Jarvis Summers sank a jumper to give Ole Miss a 71-69 lead, but Duren's 3-pointer gave the lead back to La Salle. Reginald Buckner's layup in traffic put the Rebels back on top, and LaDarius White's free throw extended the lead to 74-72. Duren went to the line with 1:07 left and hit both ends of a one-and-one to tie the score at 74-74.
Henderson's shot with 33 seconds left missed everything, and La Salle took over the ball with no shot clock.
Henderson hit a key 3-pointer right before the half to get Mississippi within two points. La Salle had led by seven with less than four minutes remaining before the break.
Galloway scored 19 first-half points. He was 5-for-8 from 3-point range, helping La Salle take a 40-38 lead at halftime. Only three other Explorers scored in the first half. Tyrone Garland had nine points, Tyreek Duren added eight, and Jerrell Wright had four.
Meanwhile, Henderson led Mississippi with 11 first-half points on three 3-pointers. He shot nine times from beyond the arc prior to intermission.
NOTES: La Salle, which defeated Boise State in the First Four and Kansas State in the second round, won two straight in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since advancing to the title game in 1955. The Explorers won the 1954 championship. They are just the second team (VCU in 2011) to win three games in five days in the NCAA Tournament. ... Ole Miss was seeking its second trip to the Sweet 16 in school history following a 2001 run that also began in Kansas City, though in Kemper Arena. The Rebels beat Iona and Notre Dame in 2001. ... With their victory over Wisconsin on Friday, the 2013 Rebels tied the 2001 team for the most wins in school history, 27.
