Tennessee outlasts Butler in overtime

The Tennessee Volunteers pounded and grabbed.

They also survived.

The second-seeded Volunteers mostly ditched the glamorous three-pointer and got physical in Sunday’s second round, moving on with a 76-71 overtime victory over Butler at Birmingham, Ala.

Tennessee (31-4) got a little assist from Lady Vols Coach Pat Summitt, who called her men’s counterpart a few hours before the game.

“She said, ‘Just tell those guys to rebound the basketball,’ ” Bruce Pearl said of Summitt, whose seven national titles make her something of an expert.

JaJuan Smith made four consecutive free throws in the final 13.6 seconds of overtime and Tennessee barely won a game it at times threatened to turn into a rout.

Tennessee will play Louisville on Thursday in Charlotte, N.C. But Sunday, the earliest game to feature two 30-win teams lived up to the distinction.

Tennessee scored 38 points in the paint, had five players with multiple fouls by halftime and made only two three-pointers in the final 40 minutes against the Bulldogs (30-4).

“Fatigue was a factor for them at some point, because of the way we guarded them,” Pearl said. “We really played great defense tonight and did what we needed to do on the boards.”

The approach paid off at the end.

The Bulldogs got a low seeding considering their No. 11 national ranking, and Coach Brad Stevens said he remains convinced his team is “Final Four-caliber.”

Wayne Chism led foul-plagued Tennessee with 16 points, and Tyler Smith had 15 and eight rebounds and JaJuan Smith had 11.

The Volunteers led by 13 in the first half and 10 early in the second, but Butler kept coming back.

North Carolina 108, Arkansas 77 -- Wayne Ellington scored 20 points, Ty Lawson had 19 points and seven assists and the Tar Heels raced to a double-digit lead in the first five minutes of the blowout at Raleigh, N.C.

North Carolina (34-2) will face fourth-seeded Washington State on Thursday night in Charlotte, the same arena in which they won the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament last weekend.

The Tar Heels scored the first nine points, led 51-26 at halftime and shot 68% for the game. They became the first team to score 100 points in their first two NCAA games since Loyola Marymount did it in 1990. Sonny Weems scored 19 for Arkansas (23-12), which never got closer than 21 after halftime.

Louisville 78, Oklahoma 48 -- Earl Clark scored 14 points and Louisville handed Oklahoma its most lopsided loss in the NCAA tournament, building a 44-22 halftime lead and coasting from there at Birmingham, Ala.

Louisville matched its biggest rout in the NCAA tournament, having trounced Kansas State by 30 in 1968. Starting five players born outside Kentucky, the third-seeded Cardinals (26-8) reached the round of 16 for the first time since 2005. They will take on Tennessee.

David Godbold made four three-pointers and finished with 15 points for sixth-seeded Oklahoma (23-12). Star freshman Blake Griffin was held without a shot for 12 minutes and had eight points.