Memphis 54, St. Mary's 52
Now this is more like it. After an opening set of games that were all snoozers, we looked set for another comfortable win as Memphis took a 32-22 halftime lead. But St. Mary's kept chipping away, and eventually ended up down 5 with about 10 seconds left. First they hit a running, bank shot of a 3-pointer, then forced a turnover off the ensuing inbounds pass with < 2 seconds left. They got a decent look at a 3-pointer, but it was too strong and Memphis moved on by the skin of their teeth.
Marquette 59, Davidson 58
This time it was Cinderella who held a lead for most of the game, but saw their opponent chip away at that lead over the second half. Like Memphis before them, Davidson gave up a 3-pointer with < 15 seconds remaining to bring their opponent within a basket. Unlike Memphis, they successfully inbounded the ball. Unfortunately, they subsequently threw it away. This gave Marquette the ball at just behind halfcourt with about 6 seconds left. Marquette (without a timeout), got themselves a layup to take the lead with 1 second left. Davidson wasn't able to get a shot off, and Marquette avoids being the first giant upset of the tournament.
Gonzaga 64, Southern 58
Two things almost doomed Gonzaga: 1) Southern had more effective size, which they used to block 8 Gonzaga shots. 2) Southern his 10 (of 23) three-pointers, which prevented the Zags from ever pulling away. Southern couldn't hit their shots in the last minute, so Gonaga escaped and avoided ruining the #1 seed for small schools everywhere.
Oregon 68, Oklahoma State 55
And there's our first real upset of the day. The first thing most of the analysts said when the brackets were unveiled was that Oregon was criminally underseeded. Score this one for the media over the committee.
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