The Fiserv Forum hosted four teams in the second round of the NCAA 2025 March Madness.
The No.3 seed University of Kentucky faced the No. 6 seed University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in the first game, while the No. 6 seed University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) took on the No. 3 seed Iowa State University in the second contest.
The favored Kentucky Wildcats outlasted the Illinois Fighting Illini 84-75, while the six-seeded Ole Miss Rebels upset the Iowa State Cyclones tournament with a 91-78 win.
Both winning teams are from the Southeastern Conference. The SEC sent a record 14 teams to the NCAA Tournament.
Half of which are still in the tournament, a conference record previously held by the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2016.
Kentucky vs. Illinois
The Wildcats finished 21-11 in the regular season and ended up 6th in the SEC. Kentucky came off a 76-57 win against Troy in the first round. Illinois had a 20-11 regular season record and finished 8th in the Big Ten. Illinois secured their second-round birth with a win against Xavier 86-73.
The Big Ten sent eight teams to the big dance. All eight advanced out of the first round, but only four have made it to the Sweet Sixteen.
Kentucky’s eight early steals helped them gain a lead to start, which was as high as 12 with 8:34 to go in the first half. Illinois coughed up the ball less towards the end of the half, which helped them cut into the Wildcat lead. Kentucky went into the intermission up 37-32.
Kentucky’s Lamont Butler spearheaded the Wildcat offense with 10 points in the first half. Koby Brea was right behind him with nine of his own, and Amari Williams led Kentucky with six rebounds.
Illinois’ Kylan Boswell kept the Fighting Illini close with a team-high 10 points, Tomislav Ivisc had eight and led Illinois with five rebounds and two assists.
Kentucky shot a more efficient 45% in field goals over Illinois’ 43%; Kentucky shot 38% on three-point shots over Illinois’ 21%. Kentucky turned over the ball four times to Illinois’ eight.
The Wildcats started the second half scorching, scoring 10 unanswered points to go up 47-32.
Kentucky is the only team in the country with eight 1000-point scorers on the roster.
Illinois found life with the first half’s two big performers Boswell and Ivisic.
Brea responded for Kentucky, taking over the game and carrying the Wildcats to a 15-point advantage. Three consecutive three-point shots were made to help advance the lead to 70-54 with 9:10 left in the second half.
“It felt really good but at the end of the day you’re just focused on the game and winning the game, so things just kind of happen as you’re competing,” said Brea.
Amid another Illinois swing, Butler stole the ball after an Illinois rebound which resulted in a dagger and-one layup by Brandon Garrison.
The Wildcats outlasted Illinois the rest of the way 84-75.
Koby Brea scored 14 of his team-leading 23 points in the second half, at one point scoring nine points in under two minutes near the middle of the period.
Boswell and Ivisic ended with 23 and 19 points for Illinois.
Kentucky advanced to the sweet sixteen of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019 with a new-look Wildcats under Mark Pope.
“The expectation here at Kentucky here is to win,” said Butler. “We got a bunch of winners here and we want to continue that tradition.”
Butler was coming off a shoulder injury at the end of the season but still made a big impact.
“We were really blessed to have a winner walk through our doors at the University of Kentucky that cares about winning,” said head coach Mark Pope. “He loves his guys and he just wants to perform for his guys.”
The Wildcats roster has no players who scored from the 2023-2024 team under previous coach John Calipari.
Despite more Illinois fans attending, they could not become a big factor in the game.
Ole Miss. vs. Iowa State
Ole Miss had a (21-10) regular season campaign and finished a spot behind Kentucky in SEC conference play at 7th. The Rebels beat the controversial University of North Carolina Tarheels in the first round 71-64.
Iowa State went 23-8 in the regular season while placing 5th in the Big 12. The Cyclones took care of business in the round of 64 against Lipscomb, winning 82-55.
Iowa State jumped out to an early advantage, but it was quickly vanquished by a Rebel’s scoring spree by Sean Pedulla and Malik Dia.
“I thought Dia played great tonight, just a handful of possessions that if he flips those, he plays elite,” said head coach Chris Beard. “He’s put a lot of work into this and to see the work pay off, I’m really happy for Dia.”
Ole Miss carried their hot shooting into the half and went into the break with a 40-29 lead.
Malik Dia was the focal point for the Rebels who scored 14 first-half points. Sean Pedulla got off to a hot start and chipped in 10 of his own, paired with three assists.
Cyclones’ Chris Jones had a team-high 10 points at the half. Iowa State only shot 37.5% from the field and 27.3% from three. Ole Miss shot a more efficient 48.1% on field goals and 45.5% on threes.
Milan Momcilovic, a Pewaukee native, had a tough first half for the Cyclones shooting 1-7 from the field.
Despite an instant energy boost from the Cyclones out of the half, the Rebels always had an answer.
Back-to-back fastbreak threes from Pedulla and Brakefield around four minutes into the period gave Ole Miss a 54-37 lead, which blew the game open for the Rebels.
Ole Miss never looked back from that point on and came away with a 91-78 win.
“We kind of came out a little sluggish, but once we settled in, we just played our game and played our tempo,” said Devon Barnes. “We executed on offense and executed on defense, we just had our foot on the gas from there.”
The Rebels had five players in double figures. Pedulla led the way with 20, while Jaemyn Brakefield scored 19 off the bench. Ole Miss shot 58% from the field and three.
The last time the Rebels made the big dance was in 2019, and they have not made it to the third round of the tournament since 2013.
Iowa State had to compete without Keshon Gilbert, who earned Second Team All-Big 12 honors and averaged 13.4 points per game and 4.1 assists per game.
Momcilovic ended the game shooting 2-12, scoring five points. Jones had 27 for the Cyclones.
Both Kentucky and Ole Miss will play their Sweet Sixteen games on Friday the 28th. Ole Miss will take on two-seed Michigan State while Kentucky takes on familiar conference foe and two-seed Tennesse.