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Braden Smith (No. 3) of the Purdue Boilermakers celebrates a basket with his teammates against the High Point Panthers. - Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
March Madness is well and truly under way.
The round of 64 of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament kicked off Thursday afternoon with a slate of eight games.
Here are the results:
Creighton 89, Louisville 75
Creighton exploded in the first half to take a big lead and never really looked back against Louisville, 89-75.
Jamiya Neal led the way with 29 points for the Bluejays, who – as a team – simply could not miss for stretches of the game. Creighton shot over 55% from the field, including 45% from beyond the arc. The double-double for Neal – 29 points, 11 rebounds – made the Arizona State transfer the standout player of the game.
Chucky Hepburn of Louisville led the Cardinals with 22 points.
Purdue 75, High Point 63
It looked for a while that High Point could cause an upset but they couldn’t quite hang with No. 4 seed Purdue in the end.
The Boilermakers pulled away late and were paced by Trey Kaufman-Renn’s 21 points and Braden Smith’s 20 points.
Wisconsin 85, Montana 66
No. 14 Montana battled hard to keep the game close, but No. 3 Wisconsin showed its quality in the closing stages to secure a dominant 85-66 win in the first round of March Madness.
John Blackwell impressed with a game-high 19 points for the Badgers to go with five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Steven Crowl added 18 points for Wisconsin and John Tonje had 15.
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John Blackwell of the Wisconsin Badgers shoots the ball over Kai Johnson of the Montana Grizzlies during the second half at Ball Arena. - Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
Houston 78, SIUE 40
Houston stormed to an impressive 78-40 blowout win being rewarded for getting its work done early and never allowed SIUE to get any form of momentum going throughout the game.
Kelvin Sampson’s team was impressive on both sides of the ball. Houston dominated the boards and recorded an impressive 11 steals as the Cougars hustled to the very end.
Auburn 83, Alabama State 63
Auburn is rolling on as the tournament’s top seed trounced Alabama State by a final score of 83-63.
The Tigers got a scare put into them during the first half when the Hornets pulled within one point of the SEC regular season champion, but Auburn collected itself and didn’t allow State to take the lead. The Tigers led by 10 at the half.
After the break, it was all Tigers with Auburn cruising to a relatively easy win.
McNeese State 69, Clemson 67
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McNeese State will face No. 4 Purdue on Saturday in the round of 32. - Eric Canha/Imagn Images/Reuters
After a nervy final five minutes, No. 12 McNeese State was able to hold onto a famous victory over No. 5 Clemson.
The Tigers made it an exciting finish in Rhode Island as their offense finally woke up – with Chase Hunter scoring all of his 21 points in the second half – but the deficit was too large as the Cowboys were able to hold on and advance to the second round for the first time.
Brandon Murray led the way off the bench for McNeese State with 21 points, but it was the team’s defense that really stole the show, coming up with 13 turnovers and having six blocks.
BYU 80, VCU 71
BYU made it a little nervy in the final minute of the game as VCU cut the deficit to single digits but the Cougars were able to close it out to play Wisconsin on Saturday.
Richie Saunders (16 points) and Igor Demin (15 points) starred for BYU.
VCU made a valiant effort in the second half – outscoring BYU by two – but it wasn’t enough to overcome the feisty Cougars. Zeb Jackson, especially, can be proud of his performance, ending the game with five three-pointers and 23 points.
Gonzaga 89, Georgia 68
Gonzaga has stormed through to the March Madness round of 32 after an impressive win over Georgia.
The victory only seemed to be heading one way when the Zags raced to a huge early lead – Gonzaga started the game with an electric 27-3 run. While Georgia continued to toil away, Gonzaga’s offense proved to be too much for the Dawgs.
Tennessee 77, Wofford 62
Chaz Lanier scored 29 points to lead the Tennessee Volunteers to a wire-to-wire win over No. 15 Wofford.
Lanier nailed six 3-pointers, enabling the No. 2 seed Volunteers to keep the Terriers at arm’s length. Zakai Zeigler added 12 points and 12 assists in the 77-62 victory.
Arkansas 79, Kansas 72
The Arkansas Razorbacks shook off a shooting slump in the second half to sprint to a victory over the Kansas Jayhawks, an upset that puts an end to a disappointing campaign for Bill Self’s team.
The Razorbacks went on a 15-5 run in the final stretch to close out the game after Kansas threw its best punch to retake the lead after the Hogs had led for a long stretch.
Jonas Aidoo led Arkansas in scoring with 22 points.
Texas A&M 80, Yale 71
The No. 4-seed Texas A&M Aggies took down the No. 13-seed Yale Bulldogs 80-71 in their first round game in Denver.
After Yale shocked the world as a 13-seed last season with a win over 4-seed Auburn, the Aggies were not about to fall into the same trap that snared their SEC comrades in 2024.
A&M took command early in the contest and kept the Ivy League champs at arms’ length for the whole game.
Drake 67, Missouri 57
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Bennett Stirtz scored a game-high 21 points to help Drake upset Missouri. - Jamie Squire/Getty Images
The No. 11 Drake withstood a strong push from No. 6 Missouri in the second half and are now through to the second round.
Bennett Stirtz finished the game with 21 points as he led the way for the Bulldogs, who tallied their first win in the NCAA tournament’s round of 64 in program history.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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