Keanu Pinder's University of Arizona have been knocked out of the college basketball's NCAA tournament by giant killers Xavier University.
The second-seeded Arizona were the favourites for the third-round clash in San Jose, California, on Thursday (Friday AEDT), but Xavier, a lowly 11th seed, staged a wild comeback and won 73-71.
Xavier trailed by eight points with four minutes to go, but entering the final minute the teams were locked 71-71 and Perth's Pinder, who went scoreless, was in the middle of the action.
Xavier's centre Sean O'Mara caught a lob pass and sank the winning basket, a layup, with 44 seconds to go.
Arizona guard Kadeem Allen then missed a jump shot, O'Mara and Pinder battled for the rebound but the Xavier centre grabbed the ball and was fouled by the Australian.
Xavier, who also knocked out the higher-rated Maryland and Florida State, will play No.1 seeds Gonzaga in the west regional final on Saturday.
Gonzaga beat West Virginia 61-58 on Thursday.
In the other games Oregon trumped Michigan 69-68 and Kansas blitzed Purdue 98-66.
Three of Australia's best young centres will be in the mix in other third round contests on Friday (Saturday AEDT) with Gorjok Gak's Florida against Wisconsin, Jo Lual-Acuil Jr's Baylor facing South Carolina and Isaac Humphries' Kentucky taking on UCLA.
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