ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The University of Alaska Anchorage says the 40th Great Alaska Shootout will be the last edition of the long-running college basketball tournament.

Chancellor Sam Gingerich said Thursday that the university can no longer sustain funding for the annual Thanksgiving week tournament.

The shootout began in 1978 and is the longest-running regular-season college basketball tournament.

The event brought the highest level of basketball competition to Alaska, with appearances in the men's bracket by Duke, Kansas, North Carolina, UCLA and other perennial national contenders.

In recent years, as early-season tournaments multiplied, top teams chose warmer venues.

The 2017 GCI Great Alaska Shootout begins Nov. 21 with the four-team women's tournament. The field includes Binghamton, Tulsa, Maryland Eastern Shore and host Alaska-Anchorage.

The men's tournament begins Nov. 22 with Cal Poly, Central Michigan, College of Charleston, CSU Bakersfield, Idaho, Sam Houston State, Santa Clara and host Alaska-Anchorage. </s> Interim Chancellor Samuel Gingerich announced on Aug. 24 that the annual GCI Great Alaska Shootout will take place for the last time in 2017, due to a limited state and University budget. The basketball tournament has been hosted by UAA Athletics since 1978, and its discontinuation means the end of a Thanksgiving tradition.

“It is with regret that I announce that we will eliminate the GCI Great Alaska Shootout beginning in 2018,” Gingerich said in a press conference.

The financial circumstances the University is enduring, as well as the tournament’s loss of $477,000 during the 2016 campaign, required the cancellation of the tournament.

During its 40 years, the GCI Great Alaska Shootout drew national attention to the state of Alaska, receiving coverage from ESPN between 1985-2008. The tournament introduced the Alaskan community to first-class basketball with its various D-I teams and recorded high attendance rates, highlighted by a record of 60,150 attendees in 2007.

The 40th and last GCI Great Alaska Shootout will bring an end to the longest-running regular-season college basketball tournament in U.S. history.

“We will be hosting the 2017 GCI Shootout and our goal will be to make this year’s 40th-anniversary event a celebration of its rich history, and we hope fans and supporters will join us in that endeavor this Thanksgiving,” Interim Athletics Director Tim McDiffett said.

On Nov. 21 the four-team women’s tournament will begin, followed by the men’s tournament on Nov. 22.

The full schedule can be accessed at http://www.goseawolves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=210000208 </s> As much fun as bucket lists are, the cold reality is that sometimes we don’t get to fill them. Such will be the case with what we’d suggest is the ultimate college basketball bucket list, which will shrink by one after this upcoming season.

The University of Alaska-Anchorage announced Thursday that this year’s Great Alaska Shootout, the 40th edition of the granddaddy of all early season tournaments, will be the last one. School budget cuts and the loss of the big name schools that once dominated the event contributed to its downfall, meaning a Thanksgiving weekend tradition will soon disappear.

Its loss is nothing less than a sad day for the sport. Nostalgia for what was once a highlight of the sport’s regular season says as much, but so does the loss of the flavor the Shootout contributed to the sport, one that college basketball will miss badly, even as the event had notably slipped in recent years.

At the risk of self-indulging in a story, I’ve long wanted to go to Anchorage, Alaska, to see the Great Alaska Shootout. Like many college basketball fans growing up in the 80s and 90s, I was one watching Shootout games on TV late at night/early in the morning over Thanksgiving weekend, seeing a number of outstanding games while the rest of the house was sleeping.

Still in my possession is a VHS tape of a 1989 Shootout quarterfinal game between Hawaii and host school Alaska-Anchorage, a wonderfully conceived matchup between flagship schools from our 49th and 50th states. It began at 1:05 a.m. Eastern time on ESPN, an unheard of time even then to start games, yet seemingly perfect for these two far off schools. It remains one of the more memorable games I’ve watched, for many reasons mostly small, but in short it’s a game that made me a big fan of the event.

Even at a young age, it was an event already easy to appreciate. Obviously the quality of it was already well-known by then, but there also was the distinct location. Alaska. Snow. Moose. Now that’s original.

Anyone can stage an event in a warm climate in the winter. Shoot, college football figured that out in the 1930s, when the Cotton, Orange and Sugar Bowl games joined the three decades older Rose Bowl to quickly become highlights of their sport.

It took innovation to build a premier sporting event in Alaska. What the state and host school UAA may have lacked in palm trees, though, it more than made up for with uniqueness but also a human touch, long remembered as a signature of the Shootout.

By these days, many have forgotten just how good the Great Alaska Shootout once was. And it was good. Really good. A list of its champions and MVPs is nothing less than a roll call of college basketball royalty. A top 10 list of the best games could be debated for years.

Even in recent years the tourney’s quality-though certainly less-endowed with heavy-hitting programs-was still better than many think. Three teams from the 2016 Shootout appeared in the most recent NCAA Tournament. Even now, the Shootout has put at least one of its teams in that season’s NCAA tourney every year of its history except two, one of those back in 2006- when the host school still later advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament.

An incredible 36-year streak was finally blotted only a couple years ago, in 2015. Coincidentally, that was the same year when Colorado State-the 2014 Shootout winner-was one of the more egregious snubs in the history of the 64+ team field, and the first of too many inexcusable oversights over the next couple years by committees filled with “Power 5” star-crossed eyes.

While powerhouse programs were undoubtedly the main draw, and the reason for the tourney’s explosion in the 80s, the tourney always was more than that.

There was Division II host Alaska-Anchorage, regularly giving its Division I guests fits. The Seawolves have won 38 games in the event’s history, with the likes of Auburn, Dayton, Miami (Fla.), Missouri, New Mexico, Notre Dame, Texas and Washington among their many victims. And while Duke and Cincinnati’s superb 1999 championship game is remembered by many as the event’s pinnacle, UAA’s upset of a Wake Forest team by shutting down a freshman named Tim Duncan in 1993 is right there among its greatest moments.

Basketball is a tournament sport, and underdogs taking on powers is a most enduring charm of hoops at its best. UAA was an almost yearly reminder of this, and the Seawolves’ regular appearances against the big boys will be sorely missed.

There were the unique cultural aspects of the Anchorage, such as TV cameras showing moose sometimes walking the streets downtown-where are you going to find that at Disney World, or in Cancun or St. Thomas? There was the well-known longtime pre-tournament luncheon, where coaches from every team spoke, as well as the hospitality and community aspect, no better summed up than in this story by Alaska Dispatch News sports editor Beth Bragg. (Lew Freedman’s outstanding coffee table book about the Shootout also is another excellent insight into the event.)

In recent years there was CBS Sports Network analyst Pete Gillen giving out the “Mighty Moose Award” after games, where one player after each televised game would don a furry, Halloween costume-like moose hat on their sweaty noggin. With anyone else or any other event, it would’ve been ridiculous, but the hilarious Gillen made it work, with players regularly smiling and playing along.

It goes without saying the Shootout was weakened in recent years. It’s easy to blame ESPN for a lot of things these days, but in the case of the Great Alaska Shootout, it’s true-ESPN had a lot to do with its downfall.

The network once reliably televised from Anchorage every year, but in 2008 dropped the Shootout. The network decided to start promoting its very own events over the Thanksgiving weekend when relaxed NCAA rules on exempted postseason tournaments allowed ESPN and a host of others to start their own events and lure away the big-time schools that used to show up in Alaska yearly. (Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn wrote a great piece about this years ago)

While that’s their right-after all, the Great Alaska Shootout was once started with similarly capitalistic thoughts, taking advantage of an NCAA rule-the NCAA’s latest exemption rules, or lack of them, chipped away at the Shootout. And the looseness of those rules is where the frustration with this really lies.

It’s one thing for legitimate tournaments to get exemptions and compete against each other. It’s another for events to choose four predetermined semifinalists, tab a couple of secondary teams to serve as guarantee game fodder for the chosen ones-and somehow be rewarded with an exemption. Just like it’s a joke that a four-team round-robin event on a campus site with no tournament structure also can now grab an exemption.

Both types of events go completely against the spirit of what an exempted tournament should be. The NCAA and its member schools should’ve recognized this years ago and tightened it up.

Is it really too much to ask a tournament to be, you know, a tournament? If not, then what’s the point of an exemption in the first place?

In the end, it wasn’t ESPN’s your-name-here events at Disneyland and Disney World that ended the Alaska Shootout. It was the other bogus tournaments that for no good reason received NCAA blessing that did it.

It’s on that note that complaints about and suggestions for improving college basketball’s regular season often ring hollow. How can the sport improve something when it willingly lets its assets in said area fall by the wayside?

The sport once had it right, with three premier early season events-the preseason NIT, Maui Classic/Invitational, and the Great Alaska Shootout, plus several other big tourneys scattered throughout December, then those four-team home tournaments substituting for our current endless drudgery of buy games. Even with others getting into the tournament game, there should’ve been enough room for a Great Alaska Shootout to maintain a foothold. Other than the heavily-financed Battle 4 Atlantis, it’s not as if many of these other events have proven to be year-in, year-out studs. Even with Alaska’s noted less money than others, there should’ve been enough teams to go around.

The answers aren’t clear-if they were, they would’ve been found years ago. Still, it sure seems like more could’ve been done to preserve events like the Shootout, or at least let it be usurped by events of equal quality. Instead, the NCAA and its member schools stood by idly, and we now have a non-descript November and December dominated by guarantee games and a bunch of cookie-cutter events indistinguishable one from another.

Some of us will miss our chance to ever see the Great Alaska Shootout (work has gotten in the way too much here), and a unique event on the schedule will be gone soon. And let it be clear: the sport is worse off for it. </s> DALLAS | When the final shot beat the buzzer and UConn’s record streak was over, Geno Auriemma had to smile.

After all the winning, the Huskies coach could appreciate a thrilling victory — even from the other side.

UConn’s 111-game run came to a stunning end when Mississippi State pulled off perhaps the biggest upset in women’s basketball history, winning 66-64 on Morgan William’s overtime jumper in the national semifinals Friday night.

Dallas Cowboys' Dak Prescott (15) cheers during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game between Connecticut and Mississippi State in the semifinals of the women's Final Four, Friday, March 31, 2017, Friday, March 31, 2017, in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero) Connecticut guard Crystal Dangerfield (5) is blocked by Mississippi State guard Jazzmun Holmes (10) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the women's Final Four, Friday, March 31, 2017, Friday, March 31, 2017, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) Mississippi State guard Morgan William (2) drives to the basket as Connecticut center Natalie Butler (51) defends during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the women's Final Four, Friday, March 31, 2017, Friday, March 31, 2017, in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero) Mississippi State guard Morgan William, center, celebrates with teammates after she hit the winning shot at the buzzer in overtime to defeat Connecticut in an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the women's Final Four, Friday, March 31, 2017, in Dallas. Mississippi State won 66-64. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Mississippi State guard Morgan William (2) celebrates with teammates after she hit the winning shot in overtime to defeat Connecticut in an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the women's Final Four, Friday, March 31, 2017, in Dallas. Mississippi State won 66-64. (AP Photo/LM Otero) Mississippi State guard Morgan William (2) is hugged by Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma, center, after their NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the women's Final Four, Friday, March 31, 2017, in Dallas. Mississippi State won 66-64. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Connecticut guard Crystal Dangerfield (5) sits in the locker room after the team's loss to Mississippi State in an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the women's Final Four, Saturday, April 1, 2017, in Dallas. Mississippi State won 66-64. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma questions a call during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Mississippi State during an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the women's Final Four, Friday, March 31, 2017, in Dallas.(AP Photo/LM Otero) Mississippi State guard Morgan William (2) celebrates after she hit the winning shot in overtime to defeat Connecticut in an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the women's Final Four, Friday, March 31, 2017, in Dallas. Mississippi State won 66-64. (AP Photo/LM Otero) Mississippi State guard Morgan William (2) shoots the winning shot against Connecticut in an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the women's Final Four, Friday, March 31, 2017, in Dallas. Mississippi State won 66-64. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Mississippi State guard Morgan William (2) shoots over Connecticut guard Gabby Williams (15) for the winning shot in an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the women's Final Four, Friday, March 31, 2017, in Dallas. Mississippi State won 66-64. (AP Photo/LM Otero) Mississippi State center Teaira McCowan (15) celebrates the team's win over Connecticut in an NCAA college basketball game in the semifinals of the women's Final Four, Saturday, April 1, 2017, in Dallas. Mississippi State won 66-64. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

“You know what? When stuff like this happens, it kind of makes me shake my head and go, ‘You know how many times this could have happened and it didn’t happen?'” Auriemma said. “The fact that it never happened, that doesn’t mean I went home thinking it’s never going to happen. I knew this was coming at some point.”

“I’m just shocked that it took this long to get here,” he said.

The Huskies hadn’t lost in 865 days, with that defeat coming to Stanford in overtime on Nov. 17, 2014. Winning had become routine, often by routs. But in an instant, their drive toward a fifth consecutive national championship had been blocked.

When William’s jumper dropped, Auriemma broke into that wry smile. He turned to his bench, then went to congratulate the Bulldogs.

“I just kind of shook my head. This kid’s had an incredible run,” Auriemma said. “When it went in, it was almost like, of course. Of course, it’s going to go in.”

“Look, nobody’s won more than we’ve won,” he said. “I understand losing, believe it or not. We haven’t lost in a while, but I understand it. I know how to appreciate when other people win.”

It took an incredible shot by Mississippi State’s diminutive point guard to end the historic streak.

William hit a 15-footer to cap it, moments after a replay review awarded UConn two free throws for a flagrant 1 foul call that tied the game with 26.6 seconds left.

“I live for moments like this,” William said. “UConn, they’re an incredible team. For me to make that shot against them, it’s unbelievable. I’m still in shock right now. I wanted to take the shot. I wanted to take the shot and I made it.”

William’s shot came one game after she scored a career-high 41 points to help Mississippi State beat Baylor and advance to its first Final Four.

The Bulldogs (34-4) will play South Carolina for the national championship Sunday night in a matchup of two SEC teams.

Mississippi State and UConn met in the Sweet 16 last season and the Huskies won by 60 points — the most-lopsided win in regional semifinals history. All season long the Bulldogs had that humiliating loss on their minds.

Now they’ve erased that defeat, beating UConn (36-1) on the grandest stage in one of the sport’s greatest games.

“I don’t have to play them 100 times. Only have to beat them once,” Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer said. “That is one heck of a basketball team, the greatest of all-time. But how proud am I of my kids?”

Mississippi State led 64-62 before a replay review gave Katie Lou Samuelson the two free throws that tied the game. After a UConn turnover, William held the ball at the top of the key before dribbling to her right and pulling up for the shot, with the ball in the air when the buzzer sounded.

The Bulldogs ran onto the court, piling up at center court while UConn players stood stone-faced. Schaefer grabbed William in a bear hug, with former Mississippi State star Dak Prescott — the Dallas Cowboys quarterback — helping lead the cheers in a sellout crowd.

Prescott said he’d try to come back Sunday for the title game.

UConn rallied from a 16-point deficit, its biggest during its NCAA record streak, to take a 59-56 lead in the fourth quarter. The teams were tied at 60 when the Bulldogs had a chance to win it in regulation, but William’s shot was blocked by Gabby Williams, sending the game into overtime.

“Maybe we’re just not ready for this. Maybe we were ready for everything else, but maybe we’re just not mature enough for this,” Auriemma said. “Maybe all our young kids needed to experience this so that we can come back and really be ready for this.”

Neither team scored much in OT with Teaira McCowan’s layup with 1:12 left in the extra session breaking a 62-62 tie. It was the lone basket for Mississippi State in OT until William’s game-winner.

During their last two decades of dominance where they’ve won 11 national championships, the Huskies rarely found themselves trailing — let alone by double-digits. This was the first time this season that UConn was losing in the fourth quarter.

The Bulldogs got off to a great start, taking it right at the Huskies like not many teams had done during the streak. The Bulldogs led 15-13 before scoring 14 straight points to go up 29-13. It was the biggest deficit UConn had faced during its historic streak and one of the largest during the last 22 years, which the Huskies have dominated with 11 national championships.

The Huskies rallied to within 29-25 as senior Saniya Chong scored seven points during a 12-0 run. Mississippi State answered and was up 36-28 at the half.

UConn came back in the third quarter behind its trio of All-Americans with Williams, Napheesa Collier and Samuelson keying a 12-3 run to start the second half. That run brought Huskies alums Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart and Maya Moore, who were sitting 20 rows behind the UConn bench, to their feet.

“We had an incredible run, but we came up against a much better team tonight,” Auriemma said.

STREAK BUSTER: The loss ended a 28-game NCAA Tournament winning streak for UConn. The last loss came to Notre Dame in 2012 in the Final Four. That was the last OT game in the national semifinals.

QUARTERBACK CONNECTION: Prescott wasn’t the only QB in attendance on Friday night. Donovan McNabb was also in Dallas, cheering on niece Kia Nurse, who stars for Connecticut. Seattle Seahawks QB Russell Wilson was supporting his sister Anna, who is a freshman at Stanford in the first game.

GOOD MORNING MISSISSIPPI: Good Morning America co-host Robin Roberts was sitting at center court. She was cheering on the Bulldogs, who hail from her home state. Roberts brought out a Bulldogs jersey on her morning show. </s> GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — The Latest on the semifinal games in the Final Four: (all times local):

Two college basketball programs on opposite ends of the country and with much different histories will face off for the national championship on Monday.

North Carolina and Gonzaga pulled out hard-fought wins in the semifinals to set the stage for the title game. North Carolina has five national titles, and Gonzaga is making its first appearance in a championship game.

North Carolina opened as a two-point favorite over the Bulldogs, of Spokane, Washington.

North Carolina is one game away from its sixth college basketball national championship after surviving a late rally in the final seconds against Oregon.

Kennedy Meeks matched his career high with 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as North Carolina won 77-76.

Meeks’ final rebound was the most pivotal, coming after a missed free throw in the closing seconds.

North Carolina missed four straight free throws at the end of the game but got offensive rebounds in both cases to emerge victorious.

Dylan Ennis and Tyler Dorsey scored 21 and 18 points for the Ducks. Dillon Brooks had a rough night for Oregon, making 2 of 11 shots and committing five turnovers before fouling out.

North Carolina’s academic scandal was brought up on the CBS broadcast during the second half of the Tar Heels’ national semifinal against Oregon.

Jim Nantz suggested that recruiting has been tough for the Tar Heels because of the scandal, noting the team has an upperclassman-dominated roster. “They’ve had to live with all of this, all the swirling innuendo with what went on there with all the academic fraud allegations,” he said.

North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham told The Associated Press earlier this week that it “would be inappropriate to try to estimate a timeline” as to when this saga might end. The NCAA’s ongoing probe of the Tar Heels is tied to irregularities in an academic department and led to five broad-based charges against the school that include lack of institutional control.

Current UNC players were years away from arriving in Chapel Hill when it began.

The Final Four brought the largest crowd to attend a sporting event at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Organizers say attendance was 77,612. That is dramatically more fans than the building typically holds for Arizona Cardinals football games. Average attendance for Cardinals games is about 64,000. The Cardinals have sold out every game since the building opened in 2006.

The stadium can hold thousands more seats for basketball in what marks the first time the Final Four has been in Arizona.

One half in, and North Carolina’s Joel Berry II is having a quiet night as he plays through two sprained ankles.

Berry hit an early 3-pointer but didn’t make another shot the rest of the half, finishing with five points on 1-for-4 shooting.

It’s unclear how much the injuries are affecting him, though some of that could be Oregon’s defense that had UNC off-balance for about 17 minutes before a late Tar Heels run.

North Carolina’s offense took a long time to get going but finally picked things up, and the Tar Heels lead Oregon 39-36 at halftime in the nightcap of Saturday’s Final Four semifinals.

Kennedy Meeks dominated play inside with 14 points and five rebounds for the Tar Heels.

North Carolina missed 17 of its first 20 shots but finished the half with a 17-6 run. Oregon had an eight-point lead at one point.

North Carolina appeared to lose its shooting touch somewhere between home and Arizona. Oregon had trouble holding onto the ball.

The start of the Tar Heels-Ducks national semifinal game was marred by offensive struggles by both teams.

North Carolina made only 5 of its first 20 shots and Oregon committed eight turnovers in the game’s first 11 minutes.

Theo Pinson briefly went out of the game, adding to North Carolina’s offensive woes.

The national semifinal contest between North Carolina and Oregon is underway, with the winner to face Gonzaga in the championship game.

North Carolina is looking to return to the title game after losing to Villanova on a last-second shot last year. North Carolina has won five national titles, most recently in 2009. Oregon’s only championship was in 1939.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs survived a furious second-half rally by South Carolina to advance to their first national championship game.

South Carolina reeled off 16 straight points to take a 67-65 lead with 7:06 to play. Zach Collins answered with a 3-pointer to put Gonzaga back on top and the Bulldogs held on from there.

Collins, a 7-foot freshman, had an impressive stat line: 14 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks in 23 minutes of play.

Gonzaga advances to Monday night’s title game against the winner of Saturday night’s Oregon-North Carolina agame.

Nigel Williams-Goss scored 23 for the Bulldogs. P.J. Dozier had 17 points for the Gamecocks.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs are headed to the national title game.

Gonzaga weathered a furious second-half rally by South Carolina and held on to beat the Gamecocks 77-73 at the Final Four on Saturday night.

The Bulldogs, who have lost once in 38 games this season, play the winner of the Oregon-North Carolina game for the national championship Monday night.

South Carolina is displaying more of its patented second-half magic in the NCAA tournament.

Down by 14 to Gonzaga, the Gamecocks came roaring back to take the lead with 7:06 remaining. Their run reached 16-0 at that point before Gonzaga ended its scoreless drought.

The Gamecocks scored on six straight possessions. Meanwhile, Gonzaga, so smooth on offense most of the game, went over three minutes without a score.

South Carolina has trailed at half three times in the tournament, and the Gamecocks have outscored the opposition in the second half by 54 points.

The decision by Nigel Williams-Goss to leave Seattle is turning out to be a decisive addition for Gonzaga in its bid for the school’s first national title.

The guard from Happy Valley, Oregon, played his first two seasons for Lorenzo Romar at Washington but left after the 2014-15 season.

He heated up in the second half, pushing Gonzaga’s lead to 14 points with a 3-point play with about 10 minutes to play. He reached 23 points with the 3-point play. That despite turning his ankle a few minutes earlier.

Williams-Goss is averaging about 17 points a game this year.

South Carolina’s Sindarius Thornwell missed a day of practice this week after coming down with a fever and headache. And the SEC player of the year’s coach acknowledged he wasn’t at full strength in the first half against Gonzaga.

Frank Martin said the Gamecocks need to find a way to help out Thornwell. “He obviously doesn’t have a lot of energy and bounce in his game right now,” Martin said.

Complicating matters for the senior guard is the fact that the Zags guarded him with the 6-foot-9 Johnathan Williams. Long arms and a 4-inch height advantage have helped make things tough for Thornwell.

Thornwell had five points in the first half after averaging 25.8 points through the first four games of the tournament.

North Carolina will have starting point guard Joel Berry II for Saturday’s semifinal against Oregon.

Berry was included on the pregame list of starters. There had been some question about his status this week due to a pair of sprained ankles suffered during the NCAA Tournament, the second coming during the Elite Eight win against Kentucky. The junior had sounded confident about his chances in pregame interviews and pronounced himself “85 percent” on Friday.

The question now is whether — or how much — the injuries affect his play against the Ducks.

Gonzaga scored the final seven points of the first half to build a 45-36 lead over South Carolina in the Final Four.

The Bulldogs came close to going into halftime with a double-digit lead and on a 10-0 run, but Silas Melson’s 3-pointer at the buzzer was waved off.

Nigel Williams-Goss had 12 points to lead Gonzaga, whose surge came without their massive center.

Przemek Karnowski — 7-foot-1 and 300 pounds — took a hand to the face and went down hard under the Gonzaga basket. He stayed down for several minutes before making to the bench and going to the locker room.

South Carolina’s Sindarius Thornwell, the SEC player of the year, had just five points on 1-for-5 shooting.

Gonzaga suffered a setback late in the first half against South Carolina when big man Przemek Karnowski took a hand to the face and was taken to the locker room to be checked out.

Karnowski was led off the court by trainers after getting hit by South Carolina Chris Silva. He is expected to return.

South Carolina coach Frank Martin walked out on to the court to check on Karnowski. Martin bent over and said, “Are you all right?” An Gonzaga athletic trainer then attended to Karnowski.

The 7-foot-1 center from Poland had six points and four rebounds when he left.

Sindarius Thornwell has been red hot for South Carolina in the NCAA tournament. Not so much in the first half against Gonzaga.

The SEC player of the year was scoreless through the first 12 minutes of the game. And his backcourt mate Rakym Felder drew the wrath of South Carolina coach Frank Martin, who came onto the court midway through the first half to give a piece of his mind to the freshman guard.

Thornwell averaged 25.8 points through the first four games of the tournament.

South Carolina is taking a rare approach against Gonzaga by not double teaming Przemek Karnowski.

Previous teams in the NCAA Tournament have sent double teams at the Polish big man and he picked them apart with his deft passing. The Zags made 12 of 24 from 3-point in last week’s win over Xavier, many of those coming on kick-outs by Karnowski.

South Carolina has no one who can match the size of the 7-foot-1, 300-pound center, but the Gamecocks have held their ground so far.

The official who received death threats from Kentucky fans after the Elite Eight is the crew chief for the Final Four game between South Carolina and Gonzaga.

John Higgins worked last weekend’s game between North Carolina and Kentucky, which the Tar Heels won 75-73. Kentucky coach John Calipari began his post-game news conference talking about fouls and Kentucky fans began harassing Higgins, who runs a roofing company in Nebraska.

The Sarpy County Sheriff’s office in Nebraska said Higgins’ roofing company received about 3,000 harassing emails and an unknown number of phone calls, some including death threats. The Facebook page for Higgins’ company also was inundated with negative comments.

Gonzaga and South Carolina, both in their first Final Four, tipped off as fans poured in to cavernous University of Phoenix Stadium. Gonzaga brought an especially vocal fan contingent to cheer on the basketball-crazy school from Spokane, Washington.

The teams emerged from clouds of artificial smoke to take the court for final pre-game warmups.

The national anthem was performed by female athletes from each of the schools in the Final Four.

The game is being played in a retractable roof stadium, but the roof will be closed for the Final Four matchups.

For more AP college basketball coverage: http://collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 </s> St. Norbert College earned the No. 1 seeding in the West Region in the NCAA Division 3 Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament and will host a national quarterfinal game for the 17th straight tournament appearance.

The Green Knights will host Augsburg University in a national quarterfinal game at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 17 at the Cornerstone Community Center in De Pere. The winner will advance to the NCAA Division III Frozen Four on March 23-24 at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, New York.

The Auggies (18-9) knocked off Marian 3-1 on Saturday in Minneapolis in a first round game.

This tournament appearance for the Knights will be their 18th. They’re 28-13-1 all-time in the NCAA tournament and with National Championships in 2008, 2011, 2012 and 2014. St. Norbert is 19-4 in its last 23 NCAA Tournament games dating back to 2008.

Augsburg is making its fifth NCAA Division III Tournament appearance. the Auggies are 4-6-1 all-time, advancing to the Frozen Four in 1998. </s> ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska Aces of the ECHL will shut down after the current season.

Terry Parks, managing partner of the Aces ownership group, says the Anchorage-based minor league team is losing money and the state's declining economy means the trend is likely to continue. He says the Aces have lost more money this year than the past two years combined.

Parks says the league has granted the Aces permission to voluntarily suspend operations.

He says sponsorships are down $600,000, season ticket sales are down $262,000 and attendance is down about 1,500 spectators per game. </s> For the 12th year in a row, the Connecticut Huskies are the top seed in the women’s NCAA tournament.

The Huskies are joined on the top line by Notre Dame, Mississippi State and Louisville. The 2017 champion, South Carolina, is a No. 2 seed in UConn’s region.

Oklahoma is the lowest-seeded at-large in the field after sneaking in with a 16–14 record. Other bubble teams to earn selection include Buffalo and Creighton, both No. 11 seeds. Rutgers (20–12), USC (20–11) and West Virginia (21–11) were on the wrong side of the bubble.

Games begin Friday, March 16, at noon. UConn’s first game is Saturday at 11 a.m. against St. Francis (Pa.).

The regional finals will be played in Albany, Spokane, Kansas City and Lexington, Ky. The Final Four is in Columbus, Ohio, with the championship game on April 1. </s> (AP) – The Latest on the semifinal games in the Final Four: (all times local):

Two college basketball programs on opposite ends of the country and with much different histories will face off for the national championship on Monday.

North Carolina and Gonzaga pulled out hard-fought wins in the semifinals to set the stage for the title game. North Carolina has five national titles, and Gonzaga is making its first appearance in a championship game.

North Carolina opened as a two-point favorite over the Bulldogs, of Spokane, Washington.

North Carolina is one game away from its sixth college basketball national championship after surviving a late rally in the final seconds against Oregon.

Kennedy Meeks matched his career high with 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as North Carolina won 77-76.

Meeks’ final rebound was the most pivotal, coming after a missed free throw in the closing seconds.

North Carolina missed four straight free throws at the end of the game but got offensive rebounds in both cases to emerge victorious.

Dylan Ennis and Tyler Dorsey scored 21 and 18 points for the Ducks. Dillon Brooks had a rough night for Oregon, making 2 of 11 shots and committing five turnovers before fouling out.

North Carolina’s academic scandal was brought up on the CBS broadcast during the second half of the Tar Heels’ national semifinal against Oregon.

Jim Nantz suggested that recruiting has been tough for the Tar Heels because of the scandal, noting the team has an upperclassman-dominated roster. “They’ve had to live with all of this, all the swirling innuendo with what went on there with all the academic fraud allegations,” he said.

North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham told The Associated Press earlier this week that it “would be inappropriate to try to estimate a timeline” as to when this saga might end. The NCAA’s ongoing probe of the Tar Heels is tied to irregularities in an academic department and led to five broad-based charges against the school that include lack of institutional control.

Current UNC players were years away from arriving in Chapel Hill when it began.

The Final Four brought the largest crowd to attend a sporting event at University of Phoenix Stadium.

Organizers say attendance was 77,612. That is dramatically more fans than the building typically holds for Arizona Cardinals football games. Average attendance for Cardinals games is about 64,000. The Cardinals have sold out every game since the building opened in 2006.

The stadium can hold thousands more seats for basketball in what marks the first time the Final Four has been in Arizona.

One half in, and North Carolina’s Joel Berry II is having a quiet night as he plays through two sprained ankles.

Berry hit an early 3-pointer but didn’t make another shot the rest of the half, finishing with five points on 1-for-4 shooting.

It’s unclear how much the injuries are affecting him, though some of that could be Oregon’s defense that had UNC off-balance for about 17 minutes before a late Tar Heels run.

North Carolina’s offense took a long time to get going but finally picked things up, and the Tar Heels lead Oregon 39-36 at halftime in the nightcap of Saturday’s Final Four semifinals.

Kennedy Meeks dominated play inside with 14 points and five rebounds for the Tar Heels.

North Carolina missed 17 of its first 20 shots but finished the half with a 17-6 run. Oregon had an eight-point lead at one point.

North Carolina appeared to lose its shooting touch somewhere between home and Arizona. Oregon had trouble holding onto the ball.

The start of the Tar Heels-Ducks national semifinal game was marred by offensive struggles by both teams.

North Carolina made only 5 of its first 20 shots and Oregon committed eight turnovers in the game’s first 11 minutes.

Theo Pinson briefly went out of the game, adding to North Carolina’s offensive woes.

The national semifinal contest between North Carolina and Oregon is underway, with the winner to face Gonzaga in the championship game.

North Carolina is looking to return to the title game after losing to Villanova on a last-second shot last year. North Carolina has won five national titles, most recently in 2009. Oregon’s only championship was in 1939.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs survived a furious second-half rally by South Carolina to advance to their first national championship game.

South Carolina reeled off 16 straight points to take a 67-65 lead with 7:06 to play. Zach Collins answered with a 3-pointer to put Gonzaga back on top and the Bulldogs held on from there.

Collins, a 7-foot freshman, had an impressive stat line: 14 points, 13 rebounds and six blocks in 23 minutes of play.

Gonzaga advances to Monday night’s title game against the winner of Saturday night’s Oregon-North Carolina agame.

Nigel Williams-Goss scored 23 for the Bulldogs. P.J. Dozier had 17 points for the Gamecocks.

The Gonzaga Bulldogs are headed to the national title game.

Gonzaga weathered a furious second-half rally by South Carolina and held on to beat the Gamecocks 77-73 at the Final Four on Saturday night.

The Bulldogs, who have lost once in 38 games this season, play the winner of the Oregon-North Carolina game for the national championship Monday night.

South Carolina is displaying more of its patented second-half magic in the NCAA tournament.

Down by 14 to Gonzaga, the Gamecocks came roaring back to take the lead with 7:06 remaining. Their run reached 16-0 at that point before Gonzaga ended its scoreless drought.

The Gamecocks scored on six straight possessions. Meanwhile, Gonzaga, so smooth on offense most of the game, went over three minutes without a score.

South Carolina has trailed at half three times in the tournament, and the Gamecocks have outscored the opposition in the second half by 54 points.

The decision by Nigel Williams-Goss to leave Seattle is turning out to be a decisive addition for Gonzaga in its bid for the school’s first national title.

The guard from Happy Valley, Oregon, played his first two seasons for Lorenzo Romar at Washington but left after the 2014-15 season.

He heated up in the second half, pushing Gonzaga’s lead to 14 points with a 3-point play with about 10 minutes to play. He reached 23 points with the 3-point play. That despite turning his ankle a few minutes earlier.

Williams-Goss is averaging about 17 points a game this year.

South Carolina’s Sindarius Thornwell missed a day of practice this week after coming down with a fever and headache. And the SEC player of the year’s coach acknowledged he wasn’t at full strength in the first half against Gonzaga.

Frank Martin said the Gamecocks need to find a way to help out Thornwell. “He obviously doesn’t have a lot of energy and bounce in his game right now,” Martin said.

Complicating matters for the senior guard is the fact that the Zags guarded him with the 6-foot-9 Johnathan Williams. Long arms and a 4-inch height advantage have helped make things tough for Thornwell.

Thornwell had five points in the first half after averaging 25.8 points through the first four games of the tournament.

North Carolina will have starting point guard Joel Berry II for Saturday’s semifinal against Oregon.

Berry was included on the pregame list of starters. There had been some question about his status this week due to a pair of sprained ankles suffered during the NCAA Tournament, the second coming during the Elite Eight win against Kentucky. The junior had sounded confident about his chances in pregame interviews and pronounced himself “85 percent” on Friday.

The question now is whether – or how much – the injuries affect his play against the Ducks.

Gonzaga scored the final seven points of the first half to build a 45-36 lead over South Carolina in the Final Four.

The Bulldogs came close to going into halftime with a double-digit lead and on a 10-0 run, but Silas Melson’s 3-pointer at the buzzer was waved off.

Nigel Williams-Goss had 12 points to lead Gonzaga, whose surge came without their massive center.

Przemek Karnowski – 7-foot-1 and 300 pounds – took a hand to the face and went down hard under the Gonzaga basket. He stayed down for several minutes before making to the bench and going to the locker room.

South Carolina’s Sindarius Thornwell, the SEC player of the year, had just five points on 1-for-5 shooting.

Gonzaga suffered a setback late in the first half against South Carolina when big man Przemek Karnowski took a hand to the face and was taken to the locker room to be checked out.

Karnowski was led off the court by trainers after getting hit by South Carolina Chris Silva. He is expected to return.

South Carolina coach Frank Martin walked out on to the court to check on Karnowski. Martin bent over and said, “Are you all right?” An Gonzaga athletic trainer then attended to Karnowski.

The 7-foot-1 center from Poland had six points and four rebounds when he left.

Sindarius Thornwell has been red hot for South Carolina in the NCAA tournament. Not so much in the first half against Gonzaga.

The SEC player of the year was scoreless through the first 12 minutes of the game. And his backcourt mate Rakym Felder drew the wrath of South Carolina coach Frank Martin, who came onto the court midway through the first half to give a piece of his mind to the freshman guard.

Thornwell averaged 25.8 points through the first four games of the tournament.

South Carolina is taking a rare approach against Gonzaga by not double teaming Przemek Karnowski.

Previous teams in the NCAA Tournament have sent double teams at the Polish big man and he picked them apart with his deft passing. The Zags made 12 of 24 from 3-point in last week’s win over Xavier, many of those coming on kick-outs by Karnowski.

South Carolina has no one who can match the size of the 7-foot-1, 300-pound center, but the Gamecocks have held their ground so far.

The official who received death threats from Kentucky fans after the Elite Eight is the crew chief for the Final Four game between South Carolina and Gonzaga.

John Higgins worked last weekend’s game between North Carolina and Kentucky, which the Tar Heels won 75-73. Kentucky coach John Calipari began his post-game news conference talking about fouls and Kentucky fans began harassing Higgins, who runs a roofing company in Nebraska.

The Sarpy County Sheriff’s office in Nebraska said Higgins’ roofing company received about 3,000 harassing emails and an unknown number of phone calls, some including death threats. The Facebook page for Higgins’ company also was inundated with negative comments.

Gonzaga and South Carolina, both in their first Final Four, tipped off as fans poured in to cavernous University of Phoenix Stadium. Gonzaga brought an especially vocal fan contingent to cheer on the basketball-crazy school from Spokane, Washington.

The teams emerged from clouds of artificial smoke to take the court for final pre-game warmups.

The national anthem was performed by female athletes from each of the schools in the Final Four.

The game is being played in a retractable roof stadium, but the roof will be closed for the Final Four matchups.
The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) announces that the 2017 Great Alaska Shootout, a national college basketball tournament, will be the final competition of the 40-year-old series. UAA blames economic conditions for the termination of the long running, national competition.