No. 7 seed Kentucky survived a chaotic back-and-forth final seconds of regulation to outlast No. 10 seed Santa Clara 89-84 in overtime of a first-round game of the NCAA Tournament in St. Louis on Friday. Wildcats’ star Otega Oweh delivered what will be one of the most memorable moments of this year’s March Madness with a banked-in 3-pointer at the buzzer to force overtime and erase what looked like a Santa Clara victory in its first tournament appearance since 1996.
The finish came after Santa Clara appeared to seize control in the final seconds when Allen Graves knocked down a 3-pointer from the right wing with 2.4 seconds remaining to put the Broncos up 73-70. Kentucky, out of timeouts, pushed quickly up the floor and got the inbound to Oweh, who raced into a hurried pull-up from well beyond the arc. The shot banked off the glass and dropped through as the horn sounded, sending the game to overtime tied at 73 apiece.
Kentucky outscored Santa Clara 16-11 in the extra five minutes after managing just six points in the final four minutes of regulation — all of which were scored by Oweh.
Oweh finished with a career-high 35 points, adding eight rebounds and seven assists, while shooting 11 of 24 from the field, 3 of 8 from 3-point range and 10 of 12 at the free-throw line. His performance came with a historic footnote as well — making him the first player since Larry Bird in 1979 to record at least 35 points, seven rebounds and seven assists in an NCAA Tournament game.
The back-and-forth finish marked the first NCAA Tournament game since the 2021 Final Four between UCLA and Gonzaga to feature both a go-ahead basket and a game-tying shot in the final five seconds of regulation or overtime.
Santa Clara will be left to wonder about the final sequence, including a late timeout attempt by coach Herb Sendek that went unseen in the closing seconds of regulation. Instead, Kentucky survived the chaos, advanced, and treated St. Louis to one of the defining finishes of the opening round.
