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UMBC makes history: First #16 seed to beat No. 1, Virginia

Posted at 11:45 PM, Mar 16, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-16 23:46:28-04

11:33 p.m.
UMBC has made NCAA Tournament history.
The University of Maryland-Baltimore County became the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed after upsetting Virginia 74-54.
This was a shocker.
Virginia was the unanimous No. 1 team in the AP poll.
They were no match for the Retrievers, especially after halftime. The game was tied at the half.
UMBC looked like the No. 1 seed.
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11:15 p.m.
Virginia fans are really getting nervous now.
The top-seeded Cavaliers are still down double digits to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County with about 4 minutes left of their first round game in the NCAA Tournament. The Retrievers are trying to become the first No. 16 seed to take down a No. 1 seed.
UMBC is 10 of 21 from the 3-point range and is getting to the basket easily.
The Cavaliers are shooting better from beyond the arc of late, but they’re running out of time. The Retrievers are beating the Cavaliers to the hole on easy 1-on-1 drives.
Virginia is shooting 37 percent overall from the field.
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11:10 p.m.
No. 5 seed Clemson is halfway to making sure there won’t be a No. 12 seed moving on in the NCAA tournament.
The Tigers have a 44-32 lead at halftime over 12th-seeded New Mexico State.
Clemson shot a blistering 58 percent in the first half and during one stretch made 9 of 11 shots. Gabe Devoe has 12 points and Shelton Mitchell has 10 for the Tigers.
Zach Lofton leads the Aggies with 13 points, but New Mexico State struggled to get open looks for stretches of the half.
If New Mexico State can’t rally, it would be just the second time since 2008 a No. 12 seed hasn’t advanced out of the first round.
__ Tim Booth reporting from San Diego.
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11 p.m.
The Retrievers are on the run against the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The University of Maryland-Baltimore County had a 16-point lead with about 12 minutes left in a first-round game against Virginia, the unanimous No. 1 team in the AP poll. They were tied at the half.
UMBC is trying to become the first No. 16 seed to knock off a No. 1 seed in the tourney.
UMBC is 9 of 19 from the 3-point range and is getting to the basket easily.
The Cavaliers are 1 of 12 from beyond the arc and look completely out of sync on offense. The Retrievers are beating the Cavaliers to the hole on easy 1-on-1 drives.
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10:55 p.m.
Heralded Missouri freshman Michael Porter Jr. came off the bench less than two minutes into the Tigers’ game with Florida State.
Porter is making just his third appearance of the season. He played two minutes in the opener before getting shut down with a lower back injury. He returned for the SEC Tournament and shot 5 of 17 and scored 12 points in a loss to Georgia.
Porter has one point and one turnover so far. The game is tied 7-all with 14:51 left in the first half.
-Steve Megargee reporting from Knoxville, Tennessee
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10:30 p.m.
Could this be the night a No. 16 seed finally knocks off a No. 1 seed in the first round of the NCAA Tournament?
The University of Maryland-Baltimore County is tied with Virginia, the unanimous No. 1 team in the AP Poll, at 21-21 at halftime.
The Cavaliers aren’t a great offensive team, but they seem particularly out of rhythm on offense. Virginia is shooting just 39 percent from the field, including 1 of 9 from beyond the arc.
This is not uncharted territory for Virginia.
In 2014, Virginia was a No. 1 seed and trailed by five at halftime to Coastal Carolina but wound up winning 70-59.
The closest a 16 seed has ever come to upsetting a No. 1 was in 1989 when East Tennessee State lost 72-71 to top-seeded Oklahoma and 16th-seeded Princeton lost 50-49 to No. 1 Georgetown.
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10:10 p.m.
The top-seeded Xavier Musketeers are moving onto the second round.
J.P. Macura scored a career-high 29 points, Trevon Bluiett added 26 and Kerem Kanter had 24 as Xavier routed No. 16 seed Texas Southern 102-83 Friday night in the West Region.
This was Xavier’s first time out as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Only the pesky Tigers kept Xavier from never leading by more than 24.
Damontrae Jefferson led five Tigers in double figures with 20 points. He led Texas Southern from the Southwestern Athletic Conference playing every minute of the game.
— Teresa M. Walker reporting from Nashville, Tennessee
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9:50 p.m.
Fourth-seeded Auburn is moving on in the NCAA tournament. Barely.
Mustapha Heron had 16 points and Auburn hit some key late free throws to hold off No. 13 seed Charleston 62-58 in the first-round of the Midwest Region on Friday.
The Tigers were in a fight the entire second half and trailed 55-54 with 3 minutes left after a 3-pointer from Charleston’s Marquise Pointer. But Bryce Brown’s 3 put the Tigers back in front and Jared Harper added a 3-pointer with 1:14 left to give the Tigers a 59-56 lead. Charleston had chances in the final minute to close the gap but missed three key free throws and Grant Riller’s attempt at a tying 3-pointer in the final 10 seconds was well short. It appeared Riller was fouled but no call was made.
Jarrell Brantley had 24 points to lead Charleston.
__ Tim Booth reporting from San Diego.
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9:35 p.m.
Miles Bridges scored 29 points, and third-seeded Michigan State outlasted 14th-seeded Bucknell 82-78.
The Spartans advance to play the winner of the TCU-Syracuse game.
Michigan State led just 44-40 at halftime but held the Bison to 10-of-28 shooting in the second. Zach Thomas scored 27 points for Bucknell before fouling out on a technical with 6:06 remaining.
Bucknell made five 3-pointers in the last 90 seconds or so to make the final score close —a flurry that seemed to impress even the Michigan State fans in Detroit — but the outcome wasn’t really in doubt late.
— Noah Trister reporting from Detroit.
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9:05 p.m.
Barry Brown scored 18 points, and ninth-seeded Kansas State led wire-to-wire to post a 69-59 victory over No. 8 Creighton on Friday night despite playing without leading scorer Dean Wade.
Mike McGuirl added 17 points and Kamau Stokes had 11 as the Wildcats reached the final 32 in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012. Wade had been expected to play after suffering a stress fracture in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament, but never saw the floor.
His teammates picked him up, particularly on defense.
Creighton came into the game ranked 10th in scoring in Division I at 84.3 points per game but tied a season-low with 59 points after shooting 33.8 percent from the field, including 26 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.
Leading scoring Marcus Foster, who spent two seasons at Kansas State, was held scoreless for the first 28 1/2 minutes and finished with five points on 2-of-11 shooting.
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8:45 p.m.
The Xavier Musketeers are looking every bit of a No. 1 seed thanks to senior guards J.P. Macura and Trevon Bluiett.
Macura scored 18 points and Bluiett added 17 as the Musketeers took a 49-37 lead into halftime over No. 16 seed Texas Southern. Macura took care of the scoring early, hitting seven of his first eight shots, including all four beyond the arc. He scored 15 points during a 21-2 run by the Musketeers as Xavier responded to falling behind 20-13. Macura capped the run with a 3 putting Xavier up 34-22 with 7:12 left.
Bluiett scored seven down the stretch, including his third 3-pointer for a 49-29 lead with 1:39 left.
But the Tigers, who won their first NCAA Tournament game in the First Four to advance, finished the half scoring the final eight points. Guard Demontrae Jefferson stole the ball for a layup that not only beat the buzzer but drew a foul. He hit the free throw to pull Texas Southern closer at halftime.
— Teresa M. Walker reporting from Nashville, Tennessee
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8:40 p.m.
Auburn is trying to avoid becoming the second No. 4 seed to lose at San Diego State’s Viejas Arena in the NCAA Tournament.
The Tigers are tied at 25 with College of Charleston at halftime of their Midwest Region matchup on Friday night.
The Tigers are shooting horribly. They’ve made only 9 of 32 field goals for 28.1 percent, and have missed all 13 3-pointers.
Charleston is shooting 40.7 percent and has rallied from an early deficit.
The Cougars’ Grant Riller has 12 points and is the only player in double figures.
In an East Region game earlier Friday at Viejas, No. 13 seed Marshall upset No. 4 seed Wichita State 81-75. Another No. 4, Arizona, lost Thursday night to Buffalo, bouncing the Pac-12 from the tournament.
— Bernie Wilson reporting in San Diego.
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8:09 p.m.
The injury to Purdue center Isaac Haas changes the complexion of Sunday’s matchup between the Boilermakers and in-state rival Butler.
Haas is out for the rest of the NCAA Tournament with an elbow injury.
“Obviously the first thought goes out to Isaac and his family and Purdue and their program,” said Butler coach LaVall Jordan, whose team beat Arkansas immediately after Purdue’s win over Cal State Fullerton. “You hate that for anybody, but especially a senior and his last run, for that to take him out when they had a really good team, a really good chance to make a deep run.”
That’s not to say the Boilermakers can’t go far without Haas. Backup Matt Haarms is actually an inch taller at 7-foot-3.
“I think our mentality doesn’t change. It’s not like they’re going to play four guys,” Jordan said. “They have other players that are really good. We’ve got to be prepared for them.”
— Noah Trister reporting from Detroit.
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8:05 p.m.
Looks like playing the nation’s toughest schedule has helped Texas Southern prepare for the NCAA Tournament.
When No. 1 seed Xavier took a 13-4 lead, Texas Southern answered with an even bigger run of its own and reeled off the next 16 points hitting all five shots. Robert Lewis’ 3 capped the run and put the Tigers up 20-13 with 12:18 left in the first half.
The Tigers played their first 13 games on the road to earn money for the SWAC program, and that schedule included visits to Gonzaga, Ohio State, Kansas, Clemson, Oregon and Baylor. Texas Southern lost all 13 of those games. But coach Mike Davis says that schedule was planned to prepare his Tigers for March and the games that matter most.
— Teresa M. Walker reporting from Nashville, Tennessee
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More AP college basketball: https://collegebasketball.ap.org ; https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 and https://www.podcastone.com/ap-sports-special-events