No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s pulls a stunner to give the NCAA tournament its first signature moment

UCLA relied on guard Tyger Campbell as a facilitator during its unexpected Final Four run last year. But Coach Mick Cronin wanted to elevate that role entering this season, and impressed the importance of Campbell’s scoring to the team’s success heading into the 2021-22 campaign. That scoring ability proved crucial as Thursday night turned to Friday morning, and Cronin’s No. 4 Bruins mustered a second-half comeback to avoid an upset and upend No. 13 seed Akron, 57-53, in Portland, Ore.

UCLA trailed Akron most of the game and trailed by as many as eight. But Campbell fueled a late 10-2 run, which saw the 5-foot-11 guard score or assist on every bucket during a stretch that put the Bruins up by one. UCLA maintained that lead with 79 seconds remaining and the shot clock winding down before Campbell knocked down a deep three-pointer to put Akron on the ropes. It gave the Bruins a four-point lead and Campbell a team-high 16 points. Zips forward Ali Ali missed two shots in the final four seconds and UCLA secured its passage to the second round, where it will face fifth-seeded St. Mary’s.

No. 7 seed Murray State needed overtime before subduing No. 10 seed San Francisco, 92-87, in a scintillating East Region contest in Indianapolis. Five players scored in double figures for the Racers, who extended their winning streak to 21 games.

While Murray State spread the scoring around, San Francisco relied heavily on senior guard Jamaree Bouyea, whose 36 points included 27 after halftime. He sparked the Dons to a comeback after the Racers led by eight with two minutes left in regulation.

Murray State got a big second-half contribution from reserve guard Trae Hannibal, who finished with 18 points before fouling out in overtime, and starting forward KJ Williams also had 18. Both teams struggled from long distance; San Francisco made just nine of 35 three-point attempts while Murray State went 6-of-21 from beyond the arc.

The back-and-forth contest featured 19 lead changes and 14 ties. When it was over, though, the Dons remained without a win in the NCAA tournament since 1979.

Instead of having to regroup for an in-state showdown with Kentucky, the Racers will face 15th-seeded Saint Peter’s, which shocked the second-seeded Wildcats, also in overtime.

Despite the gap in their seeding, the contest between No. 4 Arkansas and No. 13 Vermont was expected to be close. That prediction came to fruition as Arkansas survived the Catamounts’ upset bid, 75-71.

Late turnovers threatened that result as Arkansas nursed a narrow lead during the closing moments of the game. Arkansas star J.D. Notae slipped, fell, and was called for a walk as the Razorbacks sought to close out the game with a four-point lead and 44 seconds remaining. After both teams exchanged free throws, Vermont’s deficit stood at five, but guard Ben Shungu drained a three-pointer with 12.4 seconds left to cut the margin to two.

After Arkansas inbounded the ball, Vermont doubled-teamed Notae and forced an apparent turnover with nine seconds remaining. But following a review, the ball was ruled to have last touched Vermont’s Finn Sullivan. Shortly after, Notae, who was scoreless in the first half but finished with 17 points, made a pair of free throws and put the game out of reach.

Shungu and forward Ryan Davis carried Vermont as they had throughout a dominant season in the America East. They each scored 20 points. Stanley Umude led Arkansas with 21 points, Jaylin Williams added 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Davonte Davis provided 14 points off the bench.

In avoiding a first-round upset, Arkansas advanced to face a team in the second round that was able to pull one off earlier Thursday in No. 12 New Mexico State.

No. 1 Kansas had little trouble in the first half with 16th-seeded Texas Southern. The Jayhawks cruised to a 47-19 lead in a Midwest Region game in Fort Worth.

Kansas was led by its point guard tandem of starter Dajuan Harris Jr. (12 points) and reserve Remy Martin (nine points). A transfer from Arizona State, Martin has been working his way back from knee issues, and the prospect of him rounding into form could be a key to the Jayhawks’ hopes of winning a fourth NCAA men’s title.

Senior forward John Walker III came off the bench to score a team-high seven points for Texas Southern, which won its First Four game Tuesday against Texas A&M Corpus Christi. That was the third tournament victory for the Tigers in the past five seasons, all in the play-in round.

Should Kansas go on to prevail in Thursday’s game, it will face No. 9 Creighton, which nipped San Diego State in overtime earlier in the evening.

Four Missouri State players scored in double figures Thursday for the Lady Bears, who ousted Florida State, 61-50, in a First Four matchup in Baton Rouge.

Having won the matchup of 11 seeds, Missouri State moves on to face Ohio State, the sixth seed in the Spokane Region. Senior guard Mya Binhar had 12 points for the Lady Bears, who finished second in the Missouri Valley regular season standings and reached the conference tournament semifinals.

Missouri State improved to 4-0 all-time against Florida State, with their most recent previous meeting in 1997. The Lady Bears made it to the Final Four in 1992 and 2001.

The Seminoles were paced Thursday by 12 points and five assists from freshman guard O’Mariah Gordon. Florida State’s Morgan Jones, who was named to the all-ACC first team for the second straight year, had four points on 1-of-8 shooting.

San Francisco’s Jamaree Bouyea hit a shot just before the halftime buzzer sounded that gave his 10th-seeded Dons a 37-36 lead over No. 7 Murray State in an East Region matchup in Indianapolis.

Bouyea made just two of nine shots overall in the half, but his nine points were second to the 10 posted by teammate Zane Meeks. Justice Hill led the Racers with 10 points, while two other key cogs in Murray State’s attack, KJ Williams and Tevin Brown, combined for nine points on 4-of-12 shooting.

The Racers, who won the Ohio Valley tournament, entered the game with a 30-2 record and a 20-game winning streak. The Dons are in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1998 after earning an at-large bid as the fourth-place team in the West Coast Conference. San Francisco, which won national championships in 1955 and 1956 behind Bill Russell, has not won a game in the tournament since 1979.

The winner of Thursday’s game faces No. 15 Saint Peter’s, which shocked second-seeded Kentucky in overtime.

On a day when several underdogs have downed contenders, No. 13 Akron fought fourth-seeded UCLA to a 26-25 first half lead.

An 11-0 run generated Akron’s first-half edge. Xavier Castaneda and Enrique Freeman, each with six points, led a balanced Zips attack that outscored the Bruins 12-6 in the paint. That difference is perhaps the most dramatic between the two teams on the first-half stat sheet. Akron, which led by as many as eight, also has a slight advantage in shooting — 37 to UCLA’s 32 percent.

UCLA averages 76.4 points per game, but its 25-point first-half total is its lowest of the season. The Bruins relied on star guard Johnny Juzang for the bulk of their scoring. He has 10 points and was the only player on either team to score in double digits.

Arkansas mustered a seven-point first-half lead over Vermont in one of the most intriguing matchups of the first round. The No. 4 Razorbacks lead No. 13 Vermont at the break, 34-27.

Arkansas managed its lead, the largest of a close game, without leading scorer J.D. Notae, who shot 0 for 4 and sat for stretches with two fouls. Notae is the only one of seven Arkansas players without a score. Stanley Umude leads the team with nine points. Vermont standouts Ryan Davis and Ben Shungu lead the team with eight and seven points, respectively.

The Razorbacks entered the tournament after an upset loss at the hands of an aspirant Texas A&M team in the SEC tournament. Vermont is coming off an 82-43 shellacking of Maryland Baltimore County in the America East final following a season during which it dominated the conference. The Catamounts’ experience and the scoring abilities of their stars contributed to the belief by some that the Razorbacks were on upset alert. But Arkansas’s defense helped provide its first-half advantage.