NCAA Tournament blog- Orange Crush

Mike T here with the NCAA Tournament blog, recapping the 12:00 games on the second day of the first round.

Syracuse, the 3 seed in the South region, had little trouble with Stephen F. Austin, winning 59-44 and advancing to the 2nd round. Paul Harris led the Orange with 16 rebounds, and Jonny Flynn had 16 pts and 7 assists. The Orange controlled from the opening tip, jumping out to a 20-4 run. The 2-3 zone held the Lumberjacks to just 25% shooting from the field, and SFA shot under 10% from the three point arc.

The win was the first for the Orange since the 2nd round of the 2004 NCAA Tournament, the year after they won the Championship.

Onto the rest of the games:

- (8) Oklahoma St survived a second half rally from (9) Tennessee and left the University of Dayton arena with a 77-75 victory in the East region. Byron Eaton's three point play with 7 seconds left gave the Cowboys their margin of victory. Tyler Smith led Tennessee (and all scorers) with 21 points.

- (3) Kansas was threatened by (14) North Dakota St, but in the end the defending champs gutted out an 84-74 victory. Sharron Collins socred 32 points for Kansas, but Ben Woodside led all scorers with 37 points for the Bison, who lost in their first year of Division I play. Kansas will move on to the 2nd round of the Midwest region.

- (6) Marquette squeaked out a victory over (11) Utah St 58-57, and Lazar Hayward led the Golden Eagles with 26 points. Marquette hit 10 straight free throws at the end, and Utah St hit a three at the buzzer for the margin of victory. Jared Quayle led Utah St with 18 points. Marquette will move on to the 2nd round of the West region.

Matt Soldano will be back to give you the updates on the 2:00 games, while I will recap everyone on the 7:00 games. Once again, Matt will have the graveyard shift working the night games, so stay tuned for all that.

-Mike T