NCAA Tournament Day 1 – West Region

Two games went to overtime in the West Region.

EDIT: I confused two games from Midwest Region. Blame a long day and lack of sleep. Here are the correct scores from the West Region Day 1.

(2) Wisconsin over (15) American 75-35

This game got weird. At one point American held a 17-10 lead over Wisconsin, before the Badgers finished the first half on a 22-10 run to lead 32-22 at halftime. As one can easily tell from the final score, American would be held to only 13 points the rest of the game. At the 10 minute mark of the second half, they had only managed four second half points. I call it weird because for a game that had an early upset alert going things got out of hand quickly for the Eagles. Traevon Jackson lead Wisconsin with 18 points on 6-8 shooting, while draft prospect Sam Dekker finished with 11 points on 5-11 shooting along with six rebounds. Wisconsin scared their fans early, but adjusted quickly to put this game out of reach.

(4) San Diego State over (13) New Mexico State 73-69 in Overtime

This one had a crazy finish.  Down five with 24 seconds to go, New Mexico State scored a put back to cut it to three. On the inbounds, San Diego State turned it over, which lead to a wild possession capped off by a long range three from Kevin Aronis that sent the game into overtime. San Diego State would win the game in overtime, lead by 23 points from Xaiver Thomas.

(12) North Dakota State over (5) Oklahoma 80-75 in Overtime

Probably the biggest upset of the day, North Dakota State stunned the Sooners in overtime. NDSU lead by eight at halftime, thanks to 28 points on 10-15 shooting from Lawrence Alexander. The Bison’s top player (and conference player of the year) Taylor Braun, struggled with only 11 points and fouled out late in the second half. An unlikely hero would emerge however, as Carlin Dupree, entering the game for the first time, scored four critical points in the last minute and a half.

(7) Oregon over (10) Brigham Young 87-68

Oregon’s Elgin Cook scored 23 points off the bench, on 8-9 shooting and 7-10 from the free throw line to lead Ducks over BYU. Brigham Young had four players score in double figures for them, lead by 19 points from Tyler Haws. Despite this, BYU were unable to make enough stops against an Oregon team that ranks 11th in points per game at 81.8 a game.