Both of the 9 seeds beat the 8 seeds yesterday in the afternoon games of the first day of NCAA Tournament action. With the exception of the Duke loss, these were the only two other upsets so far in the tourney.
Michigan State took advantage of Marquette’s lack-luster start and ran with the victory in Winston-Salem, NC. The Spartans led the whole way, not once dropping below a double digit lead throughout the entire second half.
Not long later the score Lexington, KY came in. The number 9 Xavier Musketeers had a more difficult time defeating the No. 8 BYU Cougars. Xavier and BYU traded leads, free throws, and potentially game-deciding baskets in the final minutes of play. The Musketeers escaped the first round after Drew Lavender hit the go-ahead free throw to put his team up 78-75 in the final 15 seconds.
The Musketeers will be lucky enough to face top seeded Ohio State Buckeyes in the second round. If you’d like to see this game or any of the other March Madness action, check out StubHub.com for some great NCAA Tournament tickets.
The latter part of Thursday’s NCAA Tournament provided much more excitement than the morning games. In the most thrilling upset of the first day of March Madness, the #11 seeded Virginia Commonwealth Rams defeated the # 6 Duke Blue Devils 79-77. Duke had several chances to put the game away for good, but allowed the Rams to come back each time.
Eric Maynor, VCU’s leading scorer with 22 points, scored six in the final 1:22, including a game-winning 15-foot jumper with 1.8 seconds left in regulation.
The Blue Devils had one last chance to tie or win, but needed to inbound the ball from their baseline with less than 2 seconds on the clock. CBS coverage made sure to show plenty of crowd shots of Christian Laettner before the inbound, harkening back to his most famous moment with Duke back in ‘92.
A three point attempt from near half court range bounced off the side of the backboard, breaking the Blue Devils streak of 10 straight first round NCAA Tournament wins.
For lovers of upsets and haters of Duke basketball, this was a glorious day. There are plenty more upsets to come this tourney, so if you want great seats for all of the college basketball action, check out StubHub.com for NCAA Tournament tickets in a regional venue near you.
