Bruins Let 3-0 Lead Slip In OT Loss To Conf. Foe originally appeared on NESN.
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The Boston Bruins‘ Sunday afternoon puck drop against the Pittsburgh Penguins had massive implications in the NHL’s Eastern Conference standings. 

Both Boston and Pittsburgh are on the bubble between making the playoffs as a divisional bid or becoming one of the two wildcard teams on this side of the bracket.

A regulation win today could have put the Bruins one point above the Penguins with less than 20 games to play in the regular season. All signs were pointing to that being the case when the Bruins came out firing with three unanswered goals in the first 35 minutes.

Pavel Zacha potted the first two before David Pastrnak added a goal to give Boston a 3-0 lead.

At the 13-minute mark of the second period, a tripping call went against the Bruins’ Jonatahn Aspirot. A few seconds later, Hampus Lindholm picked up a slashing call on the penalty kill, and Boston had to fight off a 5-on-3 power play.

That was all Pittsburgh needed to jumpstart their comeback as Egor Chinakhov scored on the first shot of the kill. 

Six minutes into the third period, the Penguins got on the board again with a backhand from Connor Dewar. Just 33 seconds later, the Bruins watched their once comfortable lead disappear when Anthony Mantha tied it up. 

With his back against the wall, Zacha once again showed up big for the Bruins, potting his third goal of the game and securing his second career hat trick. 

Zacha’s outstanding individual effort wasn’t enough to bring home a win, as with less than 10 minutes to play, Mantha scored his second goal of the game to force overtime.

The overtime period lasted just 17 seconds before Thomas Novak ended things in the 3-on-3. 

Boston picked up a point in its sixth overtime loss of the season. 

2026 Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament Basics

Format

Traditional bracket with the top two seeds playing in the first quarterfinal doubleheader against the two winners of the first-round doubleheader.

Site

The SoCon’s teams will again gather in Asheville, N.C., at Harrah’s Cherokee Center, which seats a little more than 7,600. The arena, which hosted the relocated 2020 Maui Invitational, is in its second stint as home to the SoCon Tournament. The first spanned from 1984 to 1995, while the second began in 2012.

Participants

All 10 SoCon teams will participate. That number gets turned up to 11 in 2027, as Tennessee Tech is moving over from the OVC.

Schedule

Downloadable PDF Bracket

TV/Streaming Info

ESPN+ ($) will stream air all games before the semifinals.

First Round (Fri. 3/6)

Nexstar-owned stations in the SoCon footprint will air both games.

Gm. 1:(9) The Citadel 88, (8) Chattanooga (13-19, 7-11) 85
Gm. 2: (10) VMI (6-26, 1-17) 70, (7) UNCG 84

Quarterfinals (Sat. 3/7)

Gm. 3: (9) The Citadel (11-22, 7-11) 76, (1) ETSU 83
Gm. 4: (7) UNCG 75, (2) Wofford (19-13, 11-7) 72
Gm. 5:(6) Furman 86, (3) Samford (18-14, 11-7) 81
Gm. 6:(5) Western Carolina 77, (4) Mercer (19-13, 11-7) 73

Semifinals (Sun. 3/8)

Gm. 7: (5) Western Carolina (15-16, 10-8) 67, (1) ETSU 69
Gm. 8: (7) UNCG (15-19, 9-9) 75, (6) Furman 81

Championship (Mon. 3/9)

Gm. 9: (6) Furman (21-12, 10-8) vs. (1) ETSU (23-10, 13-5), 7 (ESPN)
The Bucs swept: 75-71 (OT) (home) on 2/4 and 78-69 (away) on 2/18.

Mayhem Potential

Data originally posted by Bob Vetrone Jr. on Twitterin 2020 with my own additions for the seasons beyond.

The Southern Conference Tournament is a rarity among mid-major tourneys played at neutral sites in that the No. 1 seed has dominated recent editions. Up until Wofford’s surprise win as the No. 6 seed in 2025, the top seed had won seven straight titles and eight in the prior nine seasons.

• 1 seed (11): 2012 (South), 2013 (South), 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
• 2 seed (1): 2011 (South)
• 3 seed (2): 2014, 2017
• 6 seed (1): 2025

NCAA Seeding Record In The 68-Team Era

Years with an NCAA win are in bold.

• 7 seed (1): 2019
• 12 seed (2): 2015, 2016
• 13 seed (7): 2012, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
• 14 seed (2): 2011, 2013
• 15 seed (2): 2014, 2025

Wofford is responsible for both the SoCon’s highest and lowest seedings since the field expanded to 68, while Furman took advantage of its first NCAA trip since 1980 by scoring a 13-over-4 upset of Virginia in 2023.

This year’s champion will likely find itself on seed line 14 or 15. Top-seeded ETSU is the only SoCon team in the NET Top 150 right now, with just Mercer and Furman in the top 200. The bottom 3 teams are all ranked 300th or worse.

Last NCAA Tournament Appearances

Wofford: 2025 (15 seed, 1st Round)
Samford: 2024 (13 seed, 1st Round)
Furman: 2023 (13 seed, 2nd Round)
Chattanooga: 2022 (13 seed, 1st Round)
UNCG: 2021 (13 seed, 1st Round)
ETSU: 2017 (13 seed, 1st Round)—2020 SoCon Tournament Champions
Mercer: 2014 (14 seed, Round of 32, ASUN member)
Western Carolina: 1996 (16 seed, 1st Round)
VMI: 1977 (Sweet 16)

The Citadel remains the lone SoCon member—and one of the three remaining original Division I schools—that has never reached the field. At least the Bulldogs won seven conference games this season, good enough to tie Chattanooga for ninth place. Last year, they went winless in conference play.

MIAMI (AP) — Tyler Herro scored 25 points, Bam Adebayo had 24 to go over the 10,000-point mark for his career, and the Miami Heat beat Detroit 121-110 on Sunday night to extend the Pistons’ season-worst losing streak to four games.

Jaime Jaquez Jr. had 19 points and seven assists for Miami (36-29), which has won five straight and matched a season best by moving seven games over .500. The Heat are still without Norman Powell (groin) and Nikola Jovic (back), and Andrew Wiggins (toe) was also sidelined.

Adebayo — who added nine rebounds and six assists — entered the night 23 points away from the scoring milestone. He and Dwyane Wade are the only players with 10,000 points in a Heat uniform.

Cade Cunningham finished with 26 points and 10 assists and Jalen Duren scored 24 for the Pistons, whose lead in the Eastern Conference is down to 2 1/2 games over Boston.

Detroit trailed by 25 in the first half — the Pistons’ largest pre-halftime deficit this season. Miami’s lead was 18 by the end of the first quarter and the Heat kept a double-digit lead for the final 38:27.

The Heat won the season series with the Pistons, 2-1 — becoming the first East team to do that this season. Detroit also went 0-2 against both San Antonio and the Los Angeles Clippers; it has either already won or clinched no worse than a tie of the season series with 11 of the 13 other East clubs.

Marcus Sasser had a look at a 3-pointer midway through the third that would have gotten Detroit within 15. He missed, and then Herro went on a run that basically sealed the outcome.

He hit three 3s in the next 1:51, pushing Miami’s lead to 93-66.

Up next

Pistons: Visit Brooklyn on Tuesday.

Heat: Host Washington on Tuesday.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

TORONTO (AP) — RJ Barrett scored a season–high 31 points, Scottie Barnes added 17 and the Toronto Raptors beat the struggling Dallas Mavericks 122-92 on Sunday.

Jakob Poeltl had 16 points and 10 rebounds and Sandro Mamukelashvili scored 13 points as the Raptors snapped a four-game losing streak against Dallas.

Daniel Gafford had a season-high 21 points and 11 rebounds, Cooper Flagg scored 17 points and Brandon Williams added 16 but the slumping Mavericks lost their seventh straight and 17th of 19.

Brandon Ingram and Ja’Kobe Walter each scored 11 points, and Immanuel Quickley and Gradey Dick both had 10 as Toronto won for the first time in five home games.

Barrett passed 8,000 career points, becoming the eighth Canadian player to reach the milestone. Barrett, 25, is the youngest of that group, which includes active players Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dillon Brooks, plus former two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash.

Flagg shot 7 for 17 in his third game since returning from an eight-game absence caused by a sprained left foot. He had eight rebounds and six assists.

Gafford shot 10 for 10 and made his only free–throw attempt.

The Mavericks are 7-24 on the road.

Toronto came in having lost four of its previous five.

Dallas didn’t score on the fast break until the fourth quarter and the Raptors had a 21-4 advantage in fast-break points. However, Dallas was plus-15 (27-12) in second-chance points.

Neither team shot well from distance. Toronto went 10 for 36 from 3-point range while Dallas finished 5 for 30.

The Raptors converted 20 Dallas turnovers into 27 points.

Up next

Mavericks: At Atlanta on Tuesday.

Raptors: At Houston on Tuesday.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (AP) — Aaliyah Collins had 21 points, Anna Hager scored 18 and High Point held on for a 71-67 victory over Radford on Sunday night to win the Big South Conference Championship and earn an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season.

Collins and Hager took over for top-seeded High Point (27-5) on a night when Macy Spencer, the league’s leading scorer at 18.8 per game, was held to six points.

The Panthers beat No. 2 seed Radford (22-12) to earn their third trip to the main event, also appearing in 2021.

Hager hit a 3-pointer and Brecken Snotherly followed with a three-point play as High Point jumped out to an 8-0 lead. Radford battle all the way back to tie it 16-all on Angelina Nice’s tip-in before Collins made two free throws with one second left to put the Panthers up two heading to the second quarter.

Kirah Dandridge hit two 3-pointers and the Highlanders outscored High Point by five to take a 32-29 lead into halftime.

Cate Carlson sank a 3-pointer to give Radford a 39-33 lead, but Hager answered with a 3 to spark 13-2 run capped by Spencer’s 3-pointer and High Point moved in front 46-41 with four minutes left in the third quarter. The run grew to 20-4 and the Panthers led 56-45 heading to the final period.

Joi Williams buried 3-pointers on both sides of a Dandridge basket in an 8-0 spurt to cut the deficit to three less than 90 seconds into the final 10 minutes.

Williams drove for a layup to tie it 63-all with 4:50 remaining, but Collins and Hager had back-to-back baskets and the Panthers stayed in front from there.

Williams had 30 points to pace Radford and Ellie Taylor scored 10.

The Highlanders last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2019 after making three appearances in the 1990s.

The High Point men’s team also advanced to the NCAA Tournament

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Box Score

Jake Bauers and Andrew Vaughn both had two extra-base hits, Ethan Murray channelled his inner Barry Bonds, and Kyle Harrison struck out over half of the batters he faced to earn Milwaukee their fourth straight spring victory.

The only batter to reach base for either team in the first inning was Jake Bauers, who laced a one-out double into right off of Mariners starter George Kirby. In the top of the second, a passed ball by Jeferson Quero allowed Patrick Wisdom to reach on a strikeout. The next batter up was Leo Rivas, who hit a 441-foot home run to give Seattle an early 2-0 lead.

Aside from the Rivas home run, Harrison — Milwaukee’s starting pitcher — pitched incredibly well today. Harrison struck out eight Mariners in just three innings of work, with four of those strikeouts coming in the second inning. He walked two batters, but only allowed two hits — the other a double off the bat of Lazaro Montes in the second.

Kyle Harrison (MIL) struck out EIGHT over four innings against Seattle pic.twitter.com/aBfP2Jawqn

— Pitcher List Stats (@PitcherListPLV) March 8, 2026

Milwaukee finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth.

Andrew Vaughn led off with a ground-rule double, prompting Mariners manager Dan Wilson to remove Kirby in favor of Troy Taylor. Taylor got David Hamilton to fly out for the first out, but Blake Perkins ripped a single into right field to score Vaughn from second. Perkins advanced to second on the throw home, giving Milwaukee another runner in scoring position with only one out. After Brock Wilken popped out for the second out, Quero walked on a 3-2 count to keep the inning alive. That brought up prospect Ethan Murray, who crushed a monster 477-foot home run (110-mph exit velocity) to give the Brewers a 4-2 lead.

The scoring didn’t stop there, either.

In the bottom of the fifth, Bauers homered off of Josh Simpson for his second hit of the game. The next batter, Christian Yelich, worked a walk, and Vaughn doubled again to knock him in. Vaughn then advanced to third on a wild pitch — still with nobody out. Unfortunately, despite a two-out walk by Brock Wilken, Simpson was able to bear down. Hamilton, Perkins, and Quero all struck out to end the inning with the score 6-2 Milwaukee.

Jacob Misiorowski gave up a home run to Brennan Davis to start the top of the sixth, but the scoring would end there as the Brewers picked up their fourth straight win.

Harrison and Misiorowski (3 1/3 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 6K) both looked ready for the season. Jared Koenig, Jesús Broca, and Will Childers all held the Mariners scoreless in their appearances. Vaughn and Bauers both had multiple extra-base hits. Murray only had one hit, but his moonshot was probably the highlight of the game.

The Crew will look to make it five straight tomorrow in an NLCS rematch against the Los Angeles Dodgers. First pitch is scheduled for 3:10 p.m. CT.

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers couldn’t overcome an awful 10-point second quarter as they fell to the Boston Celtics109-98.

Boston is a bad matchup for Cleveland. They can press the Cavs in a lot of the areas they struggle with most on both ends of the floor.

Offensively, they can spread the Cavs’ defense out and force them to guard one-on-one. This isn’t ideal for a team that has struggled with point-of-attack defense all season. And if the backside help comes, the Celtics have capable enough playmakers to find the open man and make them pay with their three-point shooting.

Defensively, they stay out of rotation due to their willingness to switch everything. They trust each player on the court to hold their own in any matchup, and they mostly do. This allows them to limit the amount of disruption an off-ball shooter like Sam Merrill can cause or the effectiveness of the pick-and-roll because they’re okay with giving up mismatches if it means slowing down the offense’s ball movement.

The problems this can cause the Cavs came through, particularly in the second quarter when the game got away from them.

The Cavs lost this game in the second quarter. They mustered just 10 points, went 0-14 from three, and just 4-25 from the field.

“I think that first half man, it was really just about shots,” Donovan Mitchell said.

The Cavs generated good looks in the second quarter that simply didn’t fall. Below is a clip of eight threes that were either quality attempts or, at the very least, open enough that you’re okay with the shot in a vacuum.

“If we get a couple shots to fall, layups, threes, anything…it’s a different ballgame,” James Harden said. “It’s draining when you feel like you’re getting easy looks and they’re not going, but it’s part of the game.”

Missing threes in the second quarter wasn’t an issue for the Cavs; their inability to find other ways to score was.

“Part of basketball is missing and making shots, but our competitive nature, our competitive spirit [needs to be there] for a full game,” Harden said. “That’s what we do. We force the game to be in our hands.”

This is what the Celtics did better, particularly in the second quarter. They also shot poorly, going 1-9 from three in the second, but they found ways to attack the basket and get to the free-throw line.

Boston only scored 21 points in that frame, but their ability to keep their offense on schedule allowed them to create separation. If the Cavs hadn’t abandoned trying to get inside in the second quarter, they might’ve been able to stay in the game until their three-point shot came around.

The same three-point looks that weren’t falling in the first half fell in the second. They went 11-23 (47.8%) from three en route to a 62-point half.

If you look at most of the makes below, you’ll see that the offensive process that led to the attempts wasn’t too different. It’s just that the shots went in this time around.

“I think we did an unbelievable job in the second half,” Harden said. “We just kept fighting and giving ourselves a chance.”

The Celtics don’t have an answer for Evan Mobley. This is a matchup he’s historically done well in, and did so again on Sunday. He punished mismatches when he got the switch and did a good job of getting into the paint on opposing center Neemias Queta.

While the Cavs don’t have an answer for Boston’s wings, the Celtics also don’t have an answer for Cleveland’s bigs. This was evident even though the Cavs were without Jarrett Allen.

Boston’s role players were the biggest difference in this matchup.

Both teams had good enough games from their stars. The same can’t be said about the supporting cast.

The Celtics’ bench outscored the Cavs’ 41-13. This included standout performances from Payton Pritchard (18 points) and Baylor Scheierman (16 points). Sam Hauser was a starter, but his 15 points were more than any Cavalier outside of Mitchell, Harden, and Mobley.

Conversely, the Cavs received a substandard performance from everyone outside of their stars. Jaylon Tyson provided eight points and didn’t make an impact defensively, Sam Merrill went 1-7 from three, Dennis Schroder registered just two points, and Keon Ellis didn’t score at all.

Even though this game felt one-sided at times, the Cavs aren’t far off.

The Celtics are the standard in the East. They’re the only proven, championship team among the four top teams in the conference. Games like this show why. They understand who they are and what they want to do on both ends. That came through in the stretches where they weren’t getting their shots to fall in the second quarter, and didn’t let it affect how they played. That, in the end, is what won them the game.

The Cavs aren’t on the Celtics’ level right now, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get there.

“In that second half, we found something in ourselves,” Harden said. “That’s the level we got to get to, Boston. Once we’re there, because I know we’re good enough. We will get there, then we’ll be a much better team.

“If we’re making shots, we’re going to blow teams out. And tonight we didn’t make our shots.”

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Tommy Novak scored 17 seconds into overtime to complete a wild comeback in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 5-4 victory over the Boston Bruins on Sunday.

Anthony Mantha scored two third-period goals to help Pittsburgh — playing without franchise cornerstones Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin — snap a three-game losing streak. Second in the Metropolitan Division, Pittsburgh has points in 16 of its last 19 games.

Crosby is out a minimum of four weeks because of a lower-body injury and Malkin served the second of a five-game suspension for slashing Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin in the head.

Egor Chinakhov added a power-play goal, Connor Dewar also scored and Arturs Silovs stopped 22 shots. Chinakhov has 14 goals this season and 11 goals in 25 games with Pittsburgh.

Pavel Zacha had his second career hat trick, and David Pastrnak also scored for Boston. The Bruins have lost five of their last eight. They have a three-point lead for the final wild-card spot in the East.

Joonas Korpisalo made 34 saves for the Bruins.

Pittsburgh had its second three-goal comeback this season. The last time the Penguins had a three-goal comeback without Crosby and Malkin was February 10, 2001, against New Jersey.

Mantha became the first Pittsburgh player to score multiple game-tying goals in a third period since Alex Kovalev on March 23, 2002, against Philadelphia.

Pittsburgh trailed 3-1 in the third period, but Dewar and Mantha scored 33 seconds apart to tie it.

Zacha completed his hat trick at 8:34 of the third period, but Mantha tied it again for Pittsburgh with 8:42 to go when he tapped in a rebound from the left post.

Up next

Bruins: Host Los Angeles on Tuesday night.

Penguins: Begin a five-game trip at Carolina on Tuesday night.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl