NCAA Stunners: Georgetown, Vanderbilt Lose
Updated 4:13 a.m. EDT
Armon Bassett scored 32 points to help No. 14 seed Ohio beat Georgetown 97-83 and become the second team seeded in the teens to win in the NCAA tournament on Thursday night.
The Mid-American Conference tournament champion Bobcats (22-14) took the lead early on their 3-point shooting and were never seriously threatened by the Hoyas. The Bobcats, their green-clad fans cheering them on the whole way, won their first tournament game in 27 years.
Ohio joined 13th-seeded Murray State, which knocked off Vanderbilt 66-65 at the buzzer, as the two big upset winners on Thursday.
Chris Wright led the Hoyas (23-11) with 28 points. Georgetown coach John Thompson III said a day earlier his team was playing their best basketball of the season. It certainly didn't extend into the tournament opener.
The Bobcats went 7-9 in conference play, but have now won six straight games.
In other first-day NCAA tournament action Thursday:
• CBSSports.com Senior Writer Gary Parrish says the standout of opening night was Brigham Young University's 99-92 victory against Florida, which launched Jimmer Fredette into living rooms from coast to coast.
Fredette finished with 37 points, 29 of which he claimed after halftime. "He was both brilliant and a blast to watch, and I'm pretty sure he set a record for most drives to the lane finished with left-handed finger-rolls," writes Parrish.
Click here for Parrish's full recap of the best and worst of March Madness, Day 1.
• Danero Thomas hit a 15-footer as the buzzer sounded and 13th-seeded Murray State stunned No. 4 seed Vanderbilt 66-65.
President Obama must have been onto something picking the revved-up Racers (31-4) to get past the first round in the West Regional. It was the school's first victory in the NCAA tournament in 24 years, and Murray State will play UTEP in the second round.
For the second time in as many NCAA appearances, Vanderbilt (24-9) bowed out early as the higher seed. The Commodores were a first-round upset victim of Siena in 2008 when seeded fourth.
Jermaine Beal made two free throws with 12.7 seconds left to give Vandy the lead. B.J. Jenkins missed a rushed 3-pointer on the other end, but the ball went out of bounds off a Vanderbilt player with 4.2 seconds left, giving Murray State the final shot.
• Kansas coach Bill Self had to burn an early timeout, and was thrilled when his team tied the game at 12.
This wasn't the way the Jayhawks wanted to start the NCAA tournament.
Little Lehigh nearly took down the biggest Goliath of them all.
Struggling against another Patriot League team in Oklahoma City, top-seeded Kansas survived a scare by pulling away for a 90-74 win over scrappy Lehigh and avoiding a monumental upset in the Midwest Regional on Thursday night.
"It's a good thing we got tested," Kansas senior Sherron Collins said. "We needed that. It'll get us ready for games like this because there'll be more games we get tested in this tournament. It's a crazy tournament."
• Ishmael Smith's pull-up jumper from about 17 feet out with 1.3 seconds remaining in overtime gave ninth-seeded Wake Forest an 81-80 win over the eighth-seeded Longhorns in the first round of the NCAA tournament Thursday night.
Texas twice rallied from double-digit deficits, then blew an eight-point lead in overtime, completing a puzzling slide after being ranked No. 1 in the country in January.
It was the third game that went to overtime on a wild first day of NCAA action. Last year, two games went to OT in the entire tournament.
• Quincy Pondexter drove for a tiebreaking bank shot with 1.7 seconds left, and 11th-seeded Washington extended its remarkable late-season run into the NCAA tournament with an 80-78 victory over Marquette in the first round of the East Regional.
Pondexter scored 18 points and Isaiah Thomas 19 as the Huskies (25-9) won their eighth straight game in dramatic fashion, rallying from a 15-point deficit with 13½ minutes left.
Washington made two late defensive stops before its senior leader drove by Jimmy Butler from the perimeter and scored the winning basket.
Lazar Hayward missed a half-court heave at the buzzer for the sixth-seeded Golden Eagles (23-11), who didn't manage a field goal in the final 4:33.
Washington will face the winner of third-seeded New Mexico's late game against Montana at the Shark Tank, which was filled with Huskies fans.
• Richmond was on the wrong side of an NCAA tournament upset this time, and Saint Mary's is moving on for the first time in more than 50 years.
Omar Samhan had 29 points and 12 rebounds despite spending most of the game in foul trouble, and Saint Mary's pulled away from Richmond to win 80-71 in the first round of the South Regional.
It was the first NCAA win for Saint Mary's in six tries since 1959. The 10th-seeded Gaels (27-5) will play Saturday against Villanova, a No. 2 seed that escaped from the first round with a 73-70 overtime victory over Robert Morris.
Mickey McConnell, the West Coast Conference tournament MVP when the Gaels upset Gonzaga in the title game, went 5 for 9 from 3-point range and scored 23 points. Thanks to in large part to Samhan, a 6-foot-11 senior, the Gaels held a 40-18 rebounding edge, outrebounding Richmond 19-13 under their own basket for a 21-4 advantage in second-chance points.
David Gonzalvez scored 18 and Kevin Anderson had 16 for Richmond (26-9). The Spiders have won NCAA tournament games as No. 12, 13, 14 and 15 seeds but, playing as a favorite for the first time in school history, failed to make it out of the first round.
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• Eric Bledsoe's eight 3-pointers set a Kentucky record for an NCAA tournament game, and the top-seeded Wildcats dominated throughout in a 100-71 victory over E. Tennessee State in the first round of the East Regional.
Scoring 29 points in all, Bledsoe started 8 of 8 on 3s before finally missing his first from long range late in the second half and finishing 8 of 9. Still, he surpassed Tony Delk's previous school record of seven 3s in the 1996 championship game against Syracuse.
Patrick Patterson scored 22 points on 9-of-10 shooting, including a handful of dunks, while John Wall added 17 points and 11 assists for the Wildcats (33-2).
Micah Williams had 18 points for ETSU (20-15), which trailed by as much as 30 in the first half and never threatened in the second.
• Ali Farokhmanesh hit a 3-pointer from the left wing with 4.9 seconds left to lift ninth-seeded Northern Iowa over UNLV 69-66.
Farokhmanesh found himself open after Kwadzo Ahelegbe had chewed up the majority of the clock following Oscar Bellfield's tying 3-pointer for UNLV with 35 seconds remaining. Johnny Moran reversed the ball to Farokhmanesh, who drained the jumper with the shot clock running down.
The Runnin' Rebels (25-9) got one last chance to tie it, but Tre'Von Willis didn't get his 3-pointer off before the final buzzer and it was off-target anyway.
Farokhmanesh finished with 17 points, including three 3-pointers in the second half, and Ahelegbe added 13 points as the Panthers (29-4) snapped a 20-year drought in the NCAA tournament.
• When Shelvin Mack made a steal and quickly hit a 3-pointer in the opening minute of the second half, he had a good feeling Butler could shake its opening-game jitters.
By the time Mack sank his career-best seventh 3-pointer in the final seconds, he had made sure the Bulldogs were on their way in an NCAA tournament they hope will end with a hometown Final Four.
Mack scored 18 of his career high-tying 25 points after halftime Thursday, leading fifth-seeded Butler's second-half surge in a 77-59 victory over UTEP in the West regional.
Gordon Hayward added 13 points and Matt Howard 11 as the Bulldogs (29-4) won their 21st straight game to extend the sport's longest active winning streak - but only after a dynamic rally from a six-point halftime deficit.
They were led by Mack, the sophomore guard who hit six 3-pointers on seven shots in the second half. Butler expertly spaced the floor and made patient passes with usual disciplined style, leaving even the talented Miners unable to keep up.
• Carleton Scott's 3-pointer rattled out in the closing seconds, and 11th-seeded Old Dominion delivered the first upset of the NCAA tournament when it stunned sixth-seeded Notre Dame 51-50 in the South Regional.
The Fighting Irish rushed the ball up the court as the clock wound down, but Scott's attempt to tie the game didn't fall and Luke Harangody's putback at the buzzer wasn't enough.
• When Jimmer Fredette planted a seed with Florida's Chandler Parsons before their NCAA tournament game, he couldn't have known it would sound prophetic.
The BYU star told Parsons, the only Gators player to ever hit two true buzzer-beaters to clinch victories, "no game winning shots tonight."
Fredette went on to score 37 points and hit two 3-pointers in double overtime to seal the Cougars' 99-92 win over 10th-seeded Florida, the first time they've reached the second round of the tournament in 17 years.
Parsons, meanwhile, missed potential game-winners at the end of regulation and the first overtime, and Fredette didn't let Florida get another chance for a dramatic finish.
"We had a second life, or a third life, or whatever it was, and I just wanted to go out there and try to get it done because I don't know if I could have played another overtime," said Fredette, the nation's 12th-leading scorer.
Fredette made a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put seventh-seeded BYU (30-5) ahead 90-83 with 2:42 left, then added another from the right wing with just over a minute remaining to put the game away.
Fredette surpassed the 30-point plateau for the eighth time this season and the third straight game, coming off 45- and 30-point performances in the Mountain West tournament.
• Scottie Reynolds responded to his benching with a solid performance at the foul line, and second-seeded Villanova survived a scare from Robert Morris in a 73-70 overtime win.
Coach Jay Wright benched his senior star to make a "teaching point." Reynolds missed 13 of 15 shots from the floor, but he made seven of eight free throws in the final 3:06 of regulation to send the game into overtime.
Karon Abraham scored 23 for Robert Morris (23-13), which was on the brink of becoming only the fifth No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 and the first since 2001. Abraham let fly a 25-footer in OT that cut it to 71-70 with 10.2 seconds left, but an off-balance 3 at the buzzer was no good.
The Colonials left the court to a standing ovation.
• Kansas State went over the scouting report and stretched, sat down, then stretched again. As the game before theirs ran into overtime, then a second, the Wildcats weren't sure what to do, the nervousness building with each passing minute.
All those upsets and close calls on TV didn't help, either.
Shaking off a long delay before tip-off and a jittery start, No. 2 Kansas State rolled to an 82-62 rout of North Texas to avoid joining the list of opening-day upsets in the NCAA tournament.
"We were getting antsy," Kansas State guard Jacob Pullen said. "We were very excited to get ready to play that game."
Maybe a little too excited.
Shooting poorly and allowing North Texas to beat them on the offensive glass, the Wildcats (27-7) got off to a shaky start, providing hope for the 15th-seeded Mean Green. But Kansas State squashed any thought of an upset with defense, stymieing Josh White's forays into the lane while holding North Texas (24-9) to 31 percent shooting.
Pullen and Curtis Kelly added 15 points each, and Kansas State had a 46-21 advantage inside to reach the second round for the second time in three years.
Next up is No. 7 seed BYU and sharpshooter Jimmer Fredette on Saturday in the West Regional. The Wildcats should have an advantage, too; while they cruised in the first round, BYU needed two overtimes to beat Florida.
• Ekpe Udoh had 20 points and 13 rebounds, and Baylor won an NCAA tournament game for the first time in 50 years by beating Sam Houston State 68-59.
Udoh also had five assists, two blocks and two steals for the third-seeded Bears (26-7), who broke open a close game down the stretch. Their first-round victory in the South Regional was their first in the tournament since beating BYU in 1950.
LaceDarius Dunn scored 13 points for Baylor. His short, spinning fade and one-handed jam fueled a late 8-0 run that clinched it.
Gilberto Clavell had 23 points and Preston Brown added 13 for 14th seed Sam Houston State (25-8), which tied it at 55 on a short floater by Ashton Mitchell with 3:48 to go.
The game remained tied until Quincy Acy dunked to put Baylor ahead for good with 2:30 left.
The NCAA tournament is famous for the little guys shocking the marquee powerhouses and turning into the darlings of March.