{"id":553975,"date":"2026-03-21T01:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T01:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/553975\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T01:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T01:47:08","slug":"march-madness-live-bracket-updates-scores-ucla-leads-ucf-st-johns-purdue-rout-opponents-otega-oweh-buzzer-beater-lifts-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/553975\/","title":{"rendered":"March Madness live bracket updates, scores: UCLA leads UCF; St. John’s, Purdue rout opponents; Otega Oweh buzzer-beater lifts Kentucky"},"content":{"rendered":"

March Madness<\/a> continues with another full slate on Friday.<\/p>\n

The NCAA tournament began in earnest on Thursday and it didn\u2019t lack for drama. No. 12 High Point pulled off an upset win over No. 5 Wisconsin<\/a> and No. 11 VCU ousted No. 6 UNC in a historic comeback to win in overtime. Top-seeded Duke even got a serious scare from No. 16 Siena<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The men’s tournament continues with 16 more first-round games on Friday, while the women\u2019s tournament also begins with 16 first-round games of its own.<\/p>\n

Here’s how to watch every NCAA tournament game<\/a> \u2014 and some best bets for the first round<\/a> from our experts. See below for a complete schedule of Thursday’s first-round action. (Scroll down for live updates.)<\/p>\n

How to find your NCAA bracket on Yahoo Sports Bracket Mayhem<\/a><\/p>\n

How to watch men’s March Madness 2026<\/p>\n

Dates: March 17 – April 6, 2026
TV channels: CBS, TBS, TNT, TruTV
Streaming: Paramount+<\/a>, DirecTV<\/a>, March Madness Live app and more<\/p>\n

Here’s the complete schedule for Friday\u2019s men’s first round. All times are Eastern.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

March Madness results, schedule, channel guide for FridayLive127 updatesFri, March 20, 2026 at 6:20 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 6:40 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

The UCLA guard had a big chunk of his tooth knocked out late in the game against UCF.<\/p>\n

Bruins lead 66-58 with 1:06 to play.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 6:34 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

The Johnnies wrap it up against UNI and will face the winner of No. 4 Kansas and No. 13 Cal Baptist. St. John\u2019s is deep.<\/p>\n

Can they finally get out of the first weekend?<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 6:33 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

Braden Smith scores 26, Trey Kaufman-Renn adds 25 and the Boilermakers roll to the second round.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 6:29 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

Rick Pitino and the Johnnies effectively ended any upset bid in the first 5 minutes of the game and they\u2019re on cruise control now against No. 12 Northern Iowa.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 6:23 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

Purdue will win this game. It\u2019s not close as the Boilermakers lead 92-58 with 5:33 to play. Instead, here\u2019s coach legendary coach Mike Krzyzewski had to say about Braden Smith breaking Bobby Hurley\u2019s assists record.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 6:16 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

Just when it looked like it would become a game, the Bruins ripped off a 12-1 run to build the lead back to 58-44 with 7:47 to play.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 6:09 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

The Hawkeyes were in control throughout this one and will advance to take on the winner of No. 1 Florida and No. 16 Prairie View A&M after a bit of a nervous finish.<\/p>\n

Kael Combs, Bennett Stirtz and Alvaro Folgueiras combined for 45 points in the winning effort.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 6:03 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

The Knights had cut the lead to 3 for a moment but UCLA came right back with a couple buckets. Either way, it\u2019s become more interesting.<\/p>\n

UCLA 50, UCF 43 | 11:51 to play<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 5:52 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

An 8-0 run has helped the Boilermakers balloon the lead to 20 points.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 56-36 in the opening minutes of the 2nd half.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 5:51 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

The Hawkeyes have possession and they\u2019re in good shape to win this one barring a late-game meltdown.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 5:50 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

The Bruins have hit 5 of its first 6 shots to open the second half and it\u2019s now a 46-34 lead over UCF.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 5:42 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

We\u2019re back in action in Philadelphia as the Bruins try to pull off a win while missing leading scorer Tyler Bilodeau to injury.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 5:41 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

This has vacillated between 5 and 12 points seemingly all game long, but the Tigers are within striking distance with just under 5 minutes left.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 5:24 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

The Hawkeyes have pushed it back to 12 with just over 10 minutes left in the game<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 5:24 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

Braden Smith leads the Boilermakers with 15 points and 5 assists.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 5:21 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

Eric Dailey Jr. leads the Bruins with 12 points and UCLA has scored 14 points off 11 UCF turnovers.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 5:17 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

The Boilermakers are on a 7-0 run and have opened up a 42-30 lead over Queens late in the first half.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 5:13 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been all Johnnies in the first half and they\u2019re now up 40-20. This matchup isn\u2019t looking like a good story for Cinderella.<\/p>\n

Fri, March 20, 2026 at 5:08 PM PDT<\/p>\n

Yahoo Sports Staff<\/p>\n

The Tigers have made it a 4-point game with just over 15 minutes left. It\u2019s been a 6-0 run for Clemson and Iowa hasn\u2019t scored in more than 4 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March Madness continues with another full slate on Friday. The NCAA tournament began in earnest on Thursday and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,153046,273774,85,128852],"class_list":["post-553975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-march-madness","tag-ncaa-tournament-game","tag-sports","tag-tbs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}