UR MAG

ST. LOUIS -- On the night he broke the NCAA's career assist record, Purdue's Braden Smith also displayed his ability to score.

Smith's game-high 26 points led four players in double figures as the second-seeded Boilermakers used a big run bridging the halves for a 104-71 rout of 15th-seeded Queens in the first round of the NCAA Tournament's West Region on Friday.

Smith also finished with eight assists, including the record-breaker with 12:10 left in the first half on Trey Kaufman-Renn's driving layup. Smith has 1,082 assists for his career, breaking Bobby Hurley's mark of 1,076 during his career at Duke.

"It hasn't really set in yet," Smith said of setting the mark. "As a point guard, that's what you're supposed to do. I've been thankful and blessed to have people put the ball in my hands."

Kaufman-Renn added 25 points and nine rebounds, while Fletcher Loyer scored 14 points, going 4 of 8 on 3-point attempts. C.J. Cox chipped in 11 points and center Oscar Cluff stuffed the stat sheet with nine points, 11 rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots.

"Purdue was the number one team in preseason for a reason," Queens coach Grant Leonard said. "They're pretty darn good."

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Jordan Watford and Nasir Mann each scored 10 points for the Royals (21-14), who were making their first appearance in the Division I tourney. They trailed just 35-30 at the 2:57 mark of the first half after a putback by Maban Jabriel.

But Cox stuck a corner 3-pointer on the next possession to begin a 10-0 Purdue run. After Chris Ashby canned a corner trey to end the half for Queens down 45-33, Purdue (28-8) opened up a 56-36 advantage with 17:17 left on Loyer's transition 3-pointer.

The rout was on as the Boilermakers kept carving up the undersized Royals with precise passing and shot-making. They drew 24 assists on 41 made buckets and converted at a 63.1% clip from the field.

The only bit of suspense in the final 10 minutes became not if but when Purdue made it to 100 points. It got there with 2:27 remaining when Omer Mayer drilled its 13th 3-pointer of the game.

Purdue sunk 14-of-24 attempts from behind the arc, including 10 of 16 in the second half. Queens shot a respectable 46.2% from the floor, but misfired on 18 of 25 shots from long distance.

The Boilermakers advance to a second-round matchup on Sunday against seventh-seeded Miami (Fla.). The Hurricanes topped 10th-seeded Missouri 80-66 on Friday.

--Bucky Dent, Field Level Media

In a Friday slate ofMarch Madnessgames that went chalk to the extreme, No. 1 Florida's dominance still stood out.

TheGators crushed No. 16 seed Prairie View A&M by the score of 114-55to open their NCAA tournament campaign. At 59 points, that's the second-largest margin of victory in March Madness history, and you have to go back six decades to find the largest.

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One of the Gators' more enormous fans approved.

The record-holder remains Loyola Chicago's 111-42 win over Tennessee Tech (69 points) in 1963, the tournament in which the Ramblers won a championship with a ground-breaking all-Black lineup.

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Funnily enough, Prairie View A&M was on the bad end of the previous second-largest blowout, a 110-52 loss to Kansas (58 points) in 1998.

Florida's historic win was actually close for the first seven minutes or so. Prairie View, which reached the game by defeating Lehigh in the First Four, never led, but it did had the game tied at 15-15 at one point in the first half. However, there were signs that one team might have had the upper hand.

Florida then scored the next 18 points and went on a 45-6 run overall to close the first half.

The second half saw the Gators coast to a widely expected victory, never leading by fewer than 38 points. Their largest lead was 63.

None of this was exactly surprising, asFlorida entered the game as the biggest favorite in a March Madness game since 1999.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Tarris Reed Jr. put up monster numbers — 31 points and 27 rebounds, the kind of sensational stat line not seen in theNCAA Tournamentin nearly 60 years — that saved UConn from the upset of this March.

NCAA Furman UConn Basketball

Yet, Reed — who missed three shots all night and had a double-double on offensive and defensive boards — wanted even more.

"I feel like I let my foot off the gas a little bit in the second half," Reed said.

Maybe Reed can pump the brakes on the modesty.

UConn needed every ounce of production it got from Reed, along with 22 points from Alex Karaban for the second-seeded Huskies to move on with an 82-71 victory over Furman.

"That was the game, this guy," UConn coach Dan Hurley said, motioning toward Reed. "That's as dominant a performance as you've probably seen from a big guy in tournament history. That's what he's capable of. This guy's a total monster and today he was a real grizzly bear."

UConn (30-5) advanced to play UCLA in the second round of the East Region on Sunday.

For about 36 minutes in Philadelphia, it sure looked like Hurley and the Huskies had a chance of heading back home instead.

But Reed wouldn't let them, the All-Big East center becoming the first player with 30-plus points and 25-plus rebounds in an NCAA Tournament game since Houston's Elvin Hayes did it twice in 1968, when the field had only 23 teams.

Reed, who made 12 of 15 shots from the field with 11 offensive rebounds and 16 defensive, knew early Furman would have difficulty stopping him.

"I feel like just watching film, from the jump," Reed said. "Knowing what the scout was, trusting in my teammates, trusting in the coaching staff, knowing that I was really going to be able to dominate down low and take advantage of the bigs they had and just take advantage of the paint."

The Huskies were 20 1/2-point favorites to thump a school most basketball fans couldn't even find on a map. The real line that mattered was the final stat line: The Huskies missed 20 of 25 3-pointers with each clang off the rim seemingly sounding the dinner bell for the No. 15-seeded Paladins to come on in and pull off the seismic shocker.

With UConn up 61-52, Furman cheerleaders hit the court to lead fans in their wildly popular school chant.

"FU one time, FU two times, FU three times, FU all the time!"

There were surely some four-letter words shouted up at Storrs, Connecticut.

When Alex Wilkins hit a 3 to make it 69-64 and the Paladins (22-13) still stayed within five with 5:49 left, it seemed Furman was ready to kick up some dust on a tournament Friday filled with mostly chalk results.

"I thought if we could have gotten a score there, we really could have made the game interesting," Furman coach Bob Richey said.

But led by Reed, the Huskies had enough in a 12-4 run down the stretch to survive the first round.

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UConn played without first team All-Big East selection Silas Demary Jr. after he suffered an ankle injury in the Big East Tournament; and Jaylin Stewart again sat out with a knee injury that's sidelined him since late February. Hurley said he hopes one if not both could play Sunday.

They were missed against a Furman team that beat top-seeded East Tennessee State to secure theSouthern Conference Tournamentand a NCAA Tournament bid.

The Huskies displayed cracks throughout the season — including a loss to St. John's in theBig East Tournament title game— that threatened to prevent another long March Madness run for a program that expects it.

The injuries didn't help. Neither did a determined Furman team under Richey.

Furman came to Philadelphia ready to knock off UConn

Furman came poised to inject Friday's slate of tournament games with a needed dose of madness and had UConn on its heels early.

The basketball fans inside the home of the 76ers absolutely erupted — who doesn't love a March underdog story? — when Furman grabbed a 19-18 lead midway through the first half.

Furman, a Greenville, South Carolina university named after a Baptist pastor, needed more than a prayer to try and upset UConn.

It needed 3s.

The Paladins sank 'em — six, alone in the first half, none more emotionally-charged than Charles Johnston's first-half buzzer-beater that sliced UConn's lead to 40-36.

Johnston thew his arms up in celebration and ran to halfcourt for a violent chest-bump with a teammate as the Paladins scurried off the court into the locker room.

"I kind of just caught the ball, I could see the shot clock a little bit and in the background, I saw single digits and thought, why not?" Johnston said. "I think that's my first transition 3 I shot this season. It was fine to throw the wings up one last time. So that was fun."

Hurley couldn't believe it while UConn fan Bill Murray — the actor's son is an assistant on the Huskies' staff — could only laugh at the absurdity of the situation.

Furman shot 48% overall from the floor in the half and had some big help in making this one a game from UConn's dreadful 1-of-14 shooting from 3-point range.

It was nearly a legendary Knight — that is, in fact a Paladin — in Johnston that kept the crowing roaring and an upset brewing.

The 6-foot-11 Australian threw down a monster dunk early in the second half that kept Furman within striking distance at 54-47. After he took one to the house, Tom House, who scored 21 points, buried a 3 that cut the lead to 56-50.

Furman knew how to pull off a March surprise. Furman has made just two NCAA Tournaments since 1980 but used a buzzer-beater to top No. 4 Virginia in 2023.

Furman just couldn't finish off another March win against basketball's big dogs.

AP March Madness bracket:https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracketand coverage:https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

The Justice Department on Friday asked a court to drop charges against two former police officers accused of providing false information on a search warrant that led to the fatal 2020 police raid at the apartment ofBreonna Taylor.

First bringing charges against the officers in 2022, federal prosecutors alleged that Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany provided false information on the search warrant that allowed police to enter Taylor's Louisville home. They were also charged with civil rights violations.

In afilingFriday, an attorney with DOJ's Civil Rights Division, said those charges should be dropped, and said the department has notified Taylor's family of the move.

Ex-officer Brett Hankison sentenced to 33 months in prison in Breonna Taylor's death

A federal judge had twice struck felony charges against the two officers, reducing them to misdemeanors, most recently in 2025.

"The Government undertook a further review of this matter," according to the filing.  "Based on that review, and in the exercise of its discretion, the Government has determined that this case should be dismissed in the interest of justice."

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Whether the remaining charges are ultimately dropped is up to a judge, who has yet to issue a ruling.

Taylor was fatally shot in the 2020 raid that came as plainclothes Louisville officers were serving a warrant searching for Taylor's ex-boyfriend, who they alleged was dealing drugs, but who was not at the apartment.

Officers broke down the door to Taylor's apartment, and her then-current boyfriend Kenneth Walker, who thought someone was breaking into the home, fired one shot with a handgun, striking an officer in the leg.

Three other officers returned fire, shooting 32 bullets into the apartment.

A former Louisville officer, Brett Hankison, wasconvicted of a civil rights offensein connection with Taylor's death during the raid and sentenced to two years and nine months in prison.

"The Department of Justice's move to dismiss these remaining charges is deeply painful for Breonna Taylor's family and it sends a chilling message about the value of Black lives in our country," Ben Crump and Lonita Baker, attorneys for the Taylor family, said in a statement.

The attorneys added, "The warrant that sent officers to Breonna's door has always been at the center of this tragedy and it deserves no less than the highest level of accountability. We cannot accept a reality where a young woman can be killed in her own home and no one is held responsible under the law. That is not justice. That is injustice compounded."

LONDON (AP) — Iran haslaunched missilesatDiego Garcia, an Indian Ocean island that is home to a strategic U.K.-U.S. military base.

Britain condemned "Iran's reckless attacks" after the unsuccessful attempt to hit the base. It's unclear how close the missiles came to the island, which is about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) from Iran.

Here is what to know about the remote but strategic base.

It's a hub for US operations in the Middle East and beyond

The U.S. has described the Diego Garcia base as "an all but indispensable platform" for security operations in the Middle East, South Asia and East Africa.

Home to about 2,500 mostly American personnel, it has supported U.S. military operations from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2008, the U.S. acknowledged it also had been used for clandestine rendition flights of terror suspects.

Last year the U.S.deployed several nuclear-capable B-2 Spirit bombersto Diego Garcia amid an intense airstrike campaign targeting Yemen's Houthi rebels.

Britaininitially refusedto let the base be used forU.S-Israeli attacks on Iran, but after Iran lashed out at its neighbors, the U.K. said American bombers could use Diego Garcia and another British base to attack Iran's missile sites. On Friday, the British government said that includes sites being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.K. insists British bases can only be used for "specific and limited defensive operations."

But Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X that Prime Minister Keir Starmer "is putting British lives in danger by allowing UK bases to be used for aggression against Iran."

Iran currently has a self-imposed limit on its ballistic missile program, limiting their range to 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers). Diego Garcia is well outside that range. However, U.S. officials long have alleged Iran's space program could allow it to build intercontinental ballistic missiles

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Diego Garcia is part of a contested island chain

Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Archipelago, a chain of more than 60 islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean off the tip of India. The islands have been under British control since 1814, when they were ceded by France.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Britainevicted as many as 2,000 peoplefrom Diego Garcia so the U.S. military could build the base there.

In recent years, criticism has mounted over Britain's control of the archipelago and the way it forcibly displaced the local population. The United Nations and theInternational Court of Justicehave urged Britain to end its "colonial administration" of the islands andtransfer sovereignty to Mauritius.

Trump has criticized U.K. plans for the island

After long negotiations, the British government struck a deal last year with Mauritius to hand over sovereignty over the islands. Britain would then lease back the Diego Garcia base for at least 99 years.

The U.K. government says that will safeguard the future of the base, which is currently vulnerable to legal challenge. But the agreement has been criticized by many opposition politicians in Britain who say giving up the islands puts them at risk of interference by China and Russia.

Some of thedisplaced Chagos islandersand their descendants also have challenged the deal, saying they were not consulted and it leaves them unclear on whether they will ever be allowed to return to their homeland.

The U.S. administration initially welcomed the deal, but in January President Donald Trumpchanged his mind, calling it "an act of GREAT STUPIDITY."

Starmer's initial refusal to let the U.S. attack Iran from Diego Garcia further angered Trump, who said earlier this month that "the U.K. has been very, very uncooperative with that stupid island that they have."

Passage of the U.K.-Mauritius deal through Britain's Parliament has been put on hold until U.S. support can be regained.

Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this story.