KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The smallest man in the game made the biggest shot.
Jason Harrison, Missisippi's 5-foot-5 point guard, hit a 3-pointer with 46 seconds left as the shot clock ran down, boosting the Rebels past Notre Dame 59-56 on Sunday. Ole Miss advanced to the NCAA regional semifinals for the first time in school history.
Harrison connected to make it 57-55 right after the Irish had taken a 55-54 lead — their first of the second half — on Ryan Humphrey's 10-footer.
Emmanuel Wade hit a free throw with 22 seconds left for Ole Miss (27-7), then Matt Carroll answered with a foul shot for Notre Dame (20-10), which was gunning for its first regional appearance since 1987.
With 18 seconds left, Sanders missed the front end of a one-and-one, but was there to block Carroll's attempt at a game-tying 10-footer.
Jason Flanigan's foul shot with two seconds to go iced it for the third-seeded Rebels, who have advanced farther than any other Mississippi team after being picked last in the SEC West. They will meet No. 2 seed Arizona in the Midwest semifinals Friday in San Antonio.
Rahim Lockhart, Mississippi's muscular 6-8 center, scored his team's last eight points of the first half and totaled 24 points even though he kept coming out for brief rests in the second half in obvious fatigue. No other Rebel had more than seven.
Troy Murphy, Notre Dame's two-time All-American forward, had 17 points but was just 1-of-7 in the second half. Humphrey had 15 for Notre Dame, which shot only 29 percent.
The Rebels went on an 11-2 run beginning the second half, capped by Jason Holmes' 3-pointer and David Sanders' layup off an inbounds pass, and took their biggest lead, 39-31. Murphy stopped the spree with a 5-footer at the 16:33 mark.
Despite missing 36 of their first 50 shots, the Irish trailed only 47-40 when Murphy's two free throws triggered an 11-4 run capped by Humphrey's three-point play that tied it 51-all with 5:09 to go.
Emmanuel Wade's 3-pointer — just the second in 15 tries for the Rebels — put Ole Miss on top 54-51, then Humphrey worked inside for a bucket and the Irish trailed by only one when they took a time out with 2:33 left.
With 1:14 to go, Humphrey's 12-footer made it 55-54 and gave the Irish their first lead since the end of the first half.
Both teams started off ice cold, with the Rebels missing seven of their first nine shots and Notre Dame going 0-for-8 until Murphy connected on a 3-pointer from the wing with 14:59 to play, making it 5-4.
ARIZONA 73, BUTLER 52: At Kansas City, Mo., Butler's tenacity was no match for Arizona's talent.
Jason Gardner and Gilbert Arenas provided the quickness on the outside and Michael Wright and Loren Woods the power inside Sunday as Arizona pulled away and beat Butler 73-52 in the Midwest Regional.
The second-seeded Wildcats (25-7) won for the 17th time in 19 games and advanced to San Antonio for their fourth trip to the regional semifinals in the last six years.
Arizona dominated the rebounding and shut off Butler's perimeter game that had been so effective in the Bulldogs' first-round rout of Wake Forest.
The Wildcats took control with a 15-0 second-half run, holding Butler scoreless for nearly seven minutes with their aggressive defense.
Arenas scored 15 points, Wright had 14 and Gardner and the 7-foot-1 Woods 12 each. Getting a big lift off the bench from Luke Walton, who had 10 rebounds, the Wildcats dominated the boards, 39-20.
KANSAS 87, SYRACUSE 58: At Dayton, Ohio, So much for second-guessing Kansas in the second round.
The fourth-seeded Jayhawks came out aggressively in the first eight minutes, grabbing 15 of the first 17 rebounds while building a double-figure lead, and beat fifth-seeded Syracuse 87-58 Sunday in the Midwest Regional.
Kansas had averaged 27 wins in each of the past three seasons — but never reached the second week of the tournament. Even though coach Roy Williams turned down the job last July at his alma mater, North Carolina, there still was grumbling in Kansas about the Jayhawks' uneven play in March.
Limited to seven scholarship players by injury, just about every Jayhawks player stood out.
Drew Gooden orchestrated the victory with the help of Kansas' guards, scoring 17 points with a career-best 15 rebounds. Jeff Boschee had 16 points, Kenny Gregory 15 points, backup center Eric Chenowith had 12 points on 8-of-8 free-throw shooting, and Kirk Hinrich had 10 points and six assists. Nick Collison matched his season best with 13 rebounds to go with nine points.
ILLINOIS 79, CHARLOTTE 61: At Dayton, Ohio, Top-seeded Illinois made sure there would be no 3-point barrage and no big upset in an arena where the NCAA tournament played true to form all week.
The Fighting Illini won a second-round game for the first time in 12 years by using a balanced attack and pesky perimeter defense to beat Charlotte 79-61 Sunday.
Illinois (26-7) will play Kansas, the Midwest Regional's fourth seed, in a semifinal Friday in San Antonio. Like the Fighting Illini, the Jayhawks ended a run of second-round disappointments by drubbing Syracuse 87-58.
Illinois hadn't been to the round of 16 since 1989, the only other time it's had a No. 1 seed. The Fighting Illini reached the Final Four that year, but had failed to make it past the second round in their last seven appearances.
They wound up in the right place — one where the favorites had an easy time.
The tournament began Monday in Dayton with a play-in that turned out to be the best game of the week at the arena. Northwestern State's 71-67 victory over Winthrop for the 64th spot was the closest of the bunch.
Charlotte (22-11), seeded ninth, pulled off the only thing approaching an upset by beating eighth-seeded Tennessee 70-63 in the first round.