Coliseum Invitational: Regional Finals

This is it. The field started with 32 teams and has been whittled down to 8. There are only four tickets to Kansas City, so who will reign supreme? Below is a summary of each game:

REGION 1

# 1 Ohio State 68, #2 Oregon 57

Despite a 12 point and 11 rebound showing by Arsalan Kazemi, the Ducks just couldn't handle Ohio State at Value City Arena. Oregon was held to 39% from the field and 21% from three while the Buckeyes went 48% from the field and 53% from three. Deshaun Thomas led OSU with 19 points while Lenzelle Smith added on 12 points.

REGION 2

#2 Iowa State 88, #1 Syracuse 80

It was a shootout under the Dome, but the Cyclones took their Hilton Magic to Syracuse and handled the Orange's world-famous zone. Tyrus McGee led Iowa State off the bench with 22 points while Will Clyburn lead the starters with 20. 11 of Clyburn's points came from the line (Remember kids, you gotta hit those free throws. Will went 11-14). Korie Lucious added 13 and Melvin Ejim added 12 points and 9 rebounds. For Syracuse, CJ Fair had a huge game with 27 points and 8 rebounds, including going 8-8 from the line (Kids...). Brandon Triche had 15 and 3 steals. James Southerland had 11.

REGION 3

#5 Princeton 80, #2 Temple 78

After spending the past two rounds on the West Coast, the Tigers only had to travel an hour away for their Regional Final game against Temple. Princeton took a 23-21 lead off of a Will Barrett tip-in with 8:34 left in the first half and - despite a comeback effort by the Owls late in the second half - never looked back. Barrett led Princeton in scoring with 18 points, but Ian Hummer had 17 points and 10 rebounds. TJ Bray also had 14 points and Denton Koon had 11. Khalif Wyatt led Temple with 18, Will Cummings had 16, and Jake O'Brien added 10 in the losing effort.

REGION 4

#2 Missouri 89, #1 Creighton 80

Missouri's offensive machine has been firing on all cylinders this tournament, and the machine kept grinding past Doug McDermott and Creighton in Omaha. Phil Pressey led the way with 21 points and 6 assists while Keion Bell had 20 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists for Mizzou. Laurence Bowers added 19 and 9 rebounds while Jabari Brown added 13 points. For Creighton, Doug McDermott led the losing effort with 23 points, Gregory Echenique had 14 points and 9 rebounds, Grant Gibbs had 11, and Will Artino came off the bench and scored 14. Despite those sound performances, the Bluejays were out-rebounded 39-22 and shot 31% from three.

So the final four teams are set for Kansas City; Ohio State, Iowa State, Princeton, and Missouri. The matchups for the National Semis are based on RPI, with the top RPI playing the fourth best RPI, and the second best RPI playing the third best RPI. With that in mind, the matchups will be:

#5 Princeton vs. #1 Ohio State

#2 Iowa State vs. #2 Missouri

These games will be played on Wednesday. The winners will face off in the Final on Friday.