Abilene Christian delivered the last major upset of the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on Saturday night, defeating Texas, 53-52
It was the No. 14-seeded Wildcats’ first Division I tournament win in school history.
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Joe Pleasant was fouled on Abilene Christian’s final drive and nailed the game-winning free throws to put the Wildcats up.
Pleasant finished with 11 points and seven rebounds along with the most important shots of his entire life. Coryon Mason was the only other Abilene Christian player in double figures, finishing with 11 points and two rebounds.
Texas’ Andrew Jones had hit an incredible three-pointer to put the Longhorns up one point with 16 seconds left. But the Longhorns couldn’t get a shot up with 1.2 seconds remaining and lost the game.
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Jones finished with 13 points and five assists in the game.
Kai Jones had 11 points and Jericho Sims had 10 points.
Abilene Christian had been successful at the Division II level but never had much success at the Division I level until Saturday night against the Longhorns.
No. 3 Texas was the Big 12 champions and were in the tournament for the first time since 2018. The team hasn’t been in the second round of the tournament since 2015.
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Abilene Christian will now play No. 11 UCLA in the second round. The Bruins beat No. 6 BYU in the first round.
