In a day full of heroes and superstars in the men's NCAA tournament, Ja Morant stood a foot above the rest.
Starting out this morning, with a full slate of games on the schedule for the NCAA tournament, one knew Ja Morant would play an important role for the Murray State Racers. If the stat line after the game included only nine shot attempts from Morant, one might have guessed the Racers were on the losing end of the score.
Not today.
Morant was dutifully special today as the 12th-seed Racers easily defeated the fifth-seed Marquette Golden Eagles, 83-64. The sophomore guard, averaging 24.6 points per game, did not need to force a lot of shots as he had his hand in a little bit of everything against Marquette.
He finished with a triple-double, his third of the season, scoring 17 points, pulling down 11 boards, and dishing out 16 assists. Morant produced only the 9th triple-double in NCAA tournament history and the first since Draymond Green did it for Michigan State in 2012.
And it wasn't just Morant who performed well. The Racers were nearly flawless in the second half and had four players score in double figures. In addition to Morant's 17, guard Tevin Brown had 19, forward KJ Williams finished with 16, and Shaq Buchanan scored 14.
It was definitely Morant's day to shine, facilitating on offense -- even with 7 turnovers -- and playing good defense. Marquette star Markus Howard managed to score 26 points but did so on 27 shots, seemingly frustrated most of the second half into forcing up shots.
A year after there wasn't a single 12-seed to pick up a victory in the first round, Murray State (28-4) took care of business right away for this year's tournament. The Racers will next face the Florida State Seminoles (28-7), 76-69 winners over the Vermont Catamounts Thursday.
Lower seeds take a back seat
Twelve games have been completed as of this writing, with lower seeds picking up victories in three of these games.
Winning a quarter of the games initially doesn't seem that bad. But considering it could have been half, the number is a little disappointing. Along with Murray State, only two other lower seeds found the win column.
The day started off with the number-ten seed in the East, the Minnesota Golden Gophers (22-13), defeating the 7th-seed Louisville Cardinals, 86-76. Minnesota entered the game averaging just above five made 3's per game, but finished with 11 in this contest. All five starters scored in double figures and did all of the scoring for Minnesota, led by Gabe Kalscheur's 24 points.
Out west, the Nevada Wolf Pack, co-champions of the Mountain West regular season, entered this year's tournament looking to improve on last season's Sweet 16 run.
It did not go well.
Nevada, the 7th-seed, struggled through much of the contest, fell behind by 18, got it back to a one possession game, but ultimately fell short, losing to 10th-seeded Florida Gators, 70-61.
Florida (20-15) used something they weren't quite familiar with to build their lead: Good shooting. They were recipients of a few lucky rolls on the rim -- always appreciated this time of year -- and held off the storm of Nevada. Center Kevarrius Hayes led the Gators with 16 points before fouling out.
The Martin twins -- Caleb and Cody -- combined for 42 of Nevada's points in the loss.
The Belmont Bruins and New Mexico State Aggies both had their chances before ultimately losing their opening round contests.
Belmont, the 11th seed in the East, led most of the first half and held leads at various points in the second. But the Maryland Terrapins (23-10) were able to sneak out a 79-77 victory despite 35 points from Belmont's Dylan Windler.
New Mexico State might have had the biggest heartbreak of all. The 12th-seeded Aggies battled back from a double-digit deficit against the Auburn Tigers (27-9), thanks to forced turnovers (3) and missed free throws by Auburn (2) in the last two minutes.
Free throws also turned out to be the bane of New Mexico State's fate as well. Fouled on a three-point attempt with one second left, down only one, the Aggies' Terrell Brown made only one of three attempts. The ball was deflected out of bounds by Auburn on the last attempt, giving New Mexico State one last chance.
Despite a good look from the corner, Trevelin Queen missed the shot, giving the victory to Auburn.
In progress
Three of the the lower seeds are all currently losing in the final set of four games on the day:
(7)Wofford 40 vs (10) Seton Hall 30, halftime.
(2) Michigan 34 vs (15) Montana 21, halftime.
(8)Syracuse 37 vs (9) Baylor 38, halftime.
(3) Purdue 23 vs (14) ODU 19, 4:36 left in 1st half.
Games to watch - Friday
Mentioned already was the Virginia/Gardner Webb game (watching if only to see if there is any psychological aspect for Virginia to deal with, thanks to last season's tourney upset).
(6) Buffalo vs (11) Arizona State. The Sun Devils, who barely sneaked into the tournament, won their First Four game.
(5) Wisconsin vs (12) Oregon: Can the Ducks continue their winning ways?
(8) Utah State vs (9): The Aggies attempt to keep the Mountain West from going 0-2.
(1) North Carolina vs (16) Iona. Can the Tar Heels score 100 points in this game?
photo credit: wikipedia
photo credit: wikipedia
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