INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Michigan Coach Juwan Howard was ejected midway through the second half after getting a shouting match with the Maryland bench, and the No. 4 Wolverines won 79-66 Friday to reach the Big Ten semifinals.

Mike Smith scored 18 points and set a Big Ten Tournament record with 15 assists for top-seeded Michigan (20-3). The Wolverines rallied from a 12-point first-half deficit and will next play either No. 9 Ohio State or No. 21 Purdue in Saturday’s first semifinal game.

Michigan swung the game by ending the first half on a 16-2 run and starting the second half on an 11-4 spurt.

But during a timeout with 10:44 to go, Howard walked toward midcourt and shouted toward the Maryland bench. The refs called two technical fouls on Howard and another on Terrapins Coach Mark Turgeon, who was not ejected.

Maryland took advantage by scoring five straight points to cut a 10-point deficit in half. But the Wolverines answered with an 8-0 run to make it 65-52 with 7:22 left and Maryland never seriously challenged again.

After the game, Howard apologized for his actions — and also placed blame on the other bench.

“That’s not how you handle things under adverse conditions,” he said before explaining his version of what happened. “He said, ‘Juwan, I’m not going to let you talk to me. Don’t talk to me ever again,’ Then he charged at me. I don’t know how you were raised but the way I was raised is when someone charges you, you defend yourself.”

Turgeon was called for a technical foul but not ejected.

“This has been going on for three games,” he said. “I ’ve been doing this for 34 years and I’ve called the conference office, I’ve called the commissioner and I said ‘I won’t take it the third game.’ So I stood up for myself and my team. All I said is, ‘Don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me.’”

(12) OKLAHOMA STATE 83, (2) BAYLOR 74: Cade Cunningham scored 25 points, Avery Anderson III added 20 and No. 12 Oklahoma State (20-7) beat second-ranked Baylor (22-2) in the Big 12 Tournament semifinals in Kansas City, Missouri.

Rondel Walker also had 11 points for the No. 5 seed Cowboys, who will play No. 13 Texas for the title Saturday night.

MaCio Teague scored 17 points and Jared Butler had 16 for the Bears, who had won 10 of their last 11 against the Cowboys after sweeping them in the regular season. Davion Mitchell also had 13 points for coach Scott Drew’s team.

(3) ILLINOIS 90, RUTGERS 68: Ayo Dosunmu scored 23 points and the Illini (21-6) easily beat the Scarlet Knights (15-11) in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis.

(6) ALABAMA 85, MISSISSIPPI STATE 48: Jaden Shackelford had 13 points, Jahvon Quinerly added 14 off the bench and the top-seeded Crimson Tide (22-6) blew out the Bulldogs (15-4) in a Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinal, in Nashville, Tennessee.

The No. 6 Crimson Tide will face the Florida-Tennessee winner in Saturday’s semifinals. MSU awaits to see its postseason destination.

Playing as the tournament’s team to beat for the first time since 2002, the Crimson Tide followed a couple of small early runs before going on a 17-0 surge over five minutes for a 43-13 cushion just before halftime. Alabama also swarmed the Bulldogs defensively, scoring 24 of 30 points off 14 first-half turnovers and holding them to 30% shooting overall.

(7) HOUSTON 77, TULANE 52: DeJon Jarreau had his first career triple-double with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, helping the Cougars (22-3) to a victory over the Green Wave (10-13) in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference Tournament in Fort Worth, Texas.

(8) ARKANSAS 70, MISSOURI 64: Reserve JD Notae scored a season-high 27 points and the Razorbacks (22-5) overcame a 10-point deficit to beat the Tigers (16-9) to advance to the Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinals in Nashville, Tennessee.

(9) OHIO STATE 87, (21) PURDUE 78: Seth Towns scored six of his season-high 12 points in overtime, helping the Buckeyes (20-8) beat the Boilermakers (18-9) in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals, in Indianapolis.

With two wins in two days, the Buckeyes will now face longtime rival and conference regular-season champion No. 4 Michigan in Saturday’s first semifinal game. Duane Washington Jr. scored 20 points for Ohio State, which led by 18 at halftime.

Trevion Williams finished with 26 points, 14 rebounds and five for Purdue, which had its five-game winning streak end. Jaden Ivey added 19 points.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

MASSACHUSETTS 80, FORDHAM 70: Former Greely star Anna DeWolfe had 25 points, but the Rams (12-4) lost to the Minutewomen in the Atlantic-10 quarterfinals in Richmond, Virginia.

Sydney Taylor had 27 points and six rebounds for UMass.

(6) BAYLOR 92, TCU 55: NaLyssa Smith scored 26 points, Dijonai Carrington had 17 and the Lady Bears (23-2) beat the Horned Frogs (10-15) to advance to the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament, in Kansas City, Missouri.

The top-seeded Lady Bears are two wins away from winning their ninth Big 12 Tournament in the last 10 years. Baylor will face Texas on Saturday in the semifinals.

Tavy Diggs led the way for TCU with 22 points, Yummy Morris had 10, and Horned Frogs’ leading scorer Lauren Heard was held to just six. They got within 10 in the third quarter but faltered late in their second game in two days.

(7) MARYLAND 85, NORTHWESTERN 52: Alaysia Styles scored 15 points off the bench to lead a balanced attack as the seventh-ranked Terrapins (23-2) routed the Wildcats (15-8) in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament, in Indianpolis.

The top-seeded Terrapins will face the winner between sixth-seeded Iowa and seventh-seeded Michigan State in Saturday’s championship game.

The Maryland bench held a 36-14 edge over Northwestern. Also cracking double figures for Maryland were Chole Miller with 13 points, Ashley Owusu 12, and Faith Masonius 11. Mimi Collins and Angel Reese each had 10 points for the Terrapins and Reese had a team-high 11 rebounds.

(17) WEST VIRGINIA 58, KANSAS STATE 56: Kirsten Deans scored seven points in the last 36 seconds, including a layup at the buzzer, and the Mountaineers (20-5) rallied to defeat 10th-seeded the Wildcats (9-18) in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, Missouri.

(21) MISSOURI STATE 70, SOUTHERN ILLINOIS 59: Brice Calip scored 12 of her 17 points in the first half, and Abby Hipp added 11 points as the Lady Bears (21-2) beat the Salukis (9-16) in the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament in Moline, Illinois.

(24) FLORIDA GULF COAST 59, LIPSCOMB 44: Aaliyah Stanley scored 25 points with six 3-pointers and the Eagles (25-2) won their 24th straight game, beating fourth-seeded Lipscomb (12-10) to advance to the championship game of the Atlantic Sun Tournament, in Kennesaw, Georgia.

FIELD HOCKEY

MASSACHUSETTS 2, MAINE 1: Tereza Holubcova gave the Black Bears (0-2) the lead, but the Minutewomen (3-1) scored two straight to earn the win in Amherst, Mass.

Jess Beech scored on a penalty stroke in the third period and Jossie Rossbach scored the winner in the fourth.

Mia Borley made four saves in goal for Maine.

BASEBALL

FISHER SWEEPS ST. JOSEPH’S: St. Joe’s (1-2) lost two games – both by a score of 3-2 – to the Falcons (9-2) in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Fisher jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning in game one with an RBI double from Ivanuel Hernandez. and Nicholas Lucchese scored on an error in the fifth. Drew Healey singled home a run for St. Joseph’s in the third inning.

In game two, Healey’s sacrifice fly in the third to give the Monks a 1-0 lead before John Batista’s two-run single put Fisher out front in the sixth. The teams traded single runs in the seventh inning.