Thrilling back-to-back 3s send Kentucky-Santa Clara to OT
By David Wasson
Published:
March Madness forever.
Santa Clara and Kentucky traded breathtaking 3-pointers in the final 2.4 seconds of regulation – sending the 10th-seeded Broncos and seventh-seeded Wildcats into overtime via a 73-73 score in the Midwest Region first round in St. Louis.
Kentucky’s Otega Oweh made a twisting layup with 9.9 to play to tie it 70-70. Santa Clara opted not to call one of its three time outs, with Allen Graves canning a dagger 3 from the wing with 2.4 seconds remaining.
The Wildcats, who didn’t have any more time outs, got the ball inbounds to Oweh. He dribbled -past half court and pulled up for a long 3 that left his hands with 0.2 before the buzzer.
After official review, Oweh’s banked-in 3 made it 73-73 and sent the teams into the 5-minute overtime session.
Neither Kentucky nor Kentucky played a single overtime game in the 2025-26 season. Friday’s first-round game was the second OT game of the 2026 NCAA Tournament – as 11th-seeded VCU shocked sixth-seeded North Carolina 82-76 in their South Region first-round game Thursday night.
The Kentucky-Santa Clara winner gets the winner of Friday’s Iowa State-Tennessee State game in Sunday’s second round. Santa Clara was making its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 30 years.
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
