No. 11 seed Dayton kept alive their Cinderella hopes for a national basketball crown, advancing to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1984 after beating No. 10 seed Stanford, 82-72, in the South regional semifinals of the 2014 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on March 27 in Memphis, Tenn.
Technically, Dayton’s Sweet-16 victory was an upset because of a lower seed beating a higher seed. But most basketball pundits looked at Dayton as the favorite to win the game after already eliminating No. 6 seed Ohio State and No. 3 seed Syracuse earlier in the tournament.
Dayton’s depth of contributors proved too much for Stanford to keep up with. Twelve players took the court at some point in the game for Dayton and 11 of those players scored points, compared to just six players who scored for Stanford.
Junior guard Jordan Sibert led Dayton with 18 points, while senior forward Devin Oliver scored 12 points and senior center Matt Kavanaugh added 10 points.
Stanford junior guard Chasson Randle scored a game-high 21 points in the loss.
Dayton will now move on to face No. 1 seed Florida in South regional finals on March 29. Florida beat No. 4 seed UCLA, 79-68, March 27. Similar to Dayton, Florida also used its deep bench to wear down its opponents. Florida’ reserves outscored UCLA’s bench, 23-11, helping the Gators advance.
In the West region, No. 1 seed Arizona reached the Elite Eight after beating No. 4 seed San Diego State, 70-64. Arizona will face No. 2 seed Wisconsin, who beat No. 6 Baylor, 69-52.
