The NCAA tournament is off and running now and already the field of 65 has lost some big name schools. Without a doubt this has been the most intense first round of the NCAA tournament in a long time with five games being decided by three points or less, two of which went to overtime.Second seed Villanova started the tournament off against fifteen seed Robert Morris in a game in which Villanova wasn't expecting to be fighting it out in overtime just to move on.
Robert Morris led Villanova 28-22 at the end of the first half and for the majority both Villanova and Robert Morris weren't firing on all cylinders and the largest lead of the half was nine.
Scottie Reynolds, the Villanova star started the game off the bench because of an off-the-court incident this past week which hindered Villanova for the majority of the first half.
With 0:02 left on the clock Villanova had a chance to seal the game but Maurice Sutton was blocked from behind going in for the dunk which forced Villanova and Robert Morris into overtime.
In overtime Villanova stepped up led by senior guard Scottie Reynolds and never relinquished the lead and coincidentally Reynolds put the game out of reach by making good on two free throws sending Villanova into the second round with a 73-70 overtime victory.
Reynolds led Villanova in scoring with 20 points off the bench but was a dismal 2-15 from the field (1-8 on three pointers) but was 15-16 from the free throw line.
Late in the day in six seeded Marquette took on eleven seeded Washington in a game that most predicted Marquette would win. However Washington, led by senior Quincy Pondexter and sophomore Isiah Thomas didn't let that happen.
In a high powered offensive game the Huskies and Eagles went back-and-forth the entire game but in the end the Washington senior, Quincy Pondexter, took over the last 0:34 seconds of the game and set up the Huskies to upset Marquette.
Pondexter grabbed the offensive rebound off of Isaiah Thomas' miss and let the clock tick all the way down to three seconds before driving in the paint for bank-shot off the board that gave the Huskies the 80-78 lead with 1.7 seconds left in the game.
Marquette missed the half court prayer and the Washington Huskies upset six seeded Marquette to advance into the second round for a second straight year.
Isaiah Thomas led the Huskies with 19 points and Quincy Pondexter backed Thomas up with his eleventh double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Other notable upsets in the the first half of the first round were Murray State's 66-65 upset over Vanderbilt, Saint Marry 80-71 over Richmond, Old Dominion 51-50 over Notre Dame, Northern Iowa 69-66 over UNLV and Wake Forest buzzer beater over Texas 81-80.
The major upset on Thursday came with fourteen seed Ohio knocking off three seeded Gerogetown 97-83.
Notable games tomorrow:
(5)Michigan State-(12)New Mexico State
(8) California-(9) Lousiville
(5) Tempell-(12) Cornell
Notable non-upsets Thursday:
(1)Kentucky 100-71 (16) East Tennessee State
(1) Kansas 90-74 (16) Lehigh
(6) Tennessee 62-59 (12) San Diego State
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