Canada's Andrew Nembhard helps No. 1 Gonzaga take down Georgia State

Drew Timme scored 22 of his 32 points in the second half and top overall seed Gonzaga struggled to shake No. 16 seed Georgia State for 30 minutes before pulling away late for a 93-72 win in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.

22-year-old senior Andrew Nembhard of Aurora, Ont., contributed a game-high 11 assists to go with nine points and six rebounds for Gonzaga.

The tournament's No. 1 team for the second straight season, the Zags (27-3) were sluggish early and couldn't make a basket for a long stretch of the first half. Even when Gonzaga's offence kicked into gear after halftime, the Panthers didn't fold.

The eventual overwhelming surge from the Bulldogs finally arrived with about 10 minutes to go. Gonzaga went on a 24-1 run, turning a four-point game into the blowout that was expected. The Zags will face the West Region's No. 9 seed, Memphis, in the second round on Saturday.

Timme was the catalyst, topping 30 points for the fifth time in his career while also grabbing 13 rebounds. Chet Holmgren, the Zags' 7-foot freshman, added 19 points, 17 rebounds and seven blocks.

Corey Allen led Georgia State (18-10) with 16 points, and Jalen Thomas and Kane Williams both added 12. The Panthers trailed by two at halftime despite shooting 29% and were down 62-58 with 10 1/2 minutes left. From there, they watched Gonzaga put together the kind spurt that's made it the favourite to win its first national title.

Kentucky stunned by Saint Peter's in OT

No. 15 seed Saint Peter's traded blows with second-seeded Kentucky for 40 minutes and then slayed the heavily favoured Wildcats in overtime, claiming the program's first NCAA Tournament win, 85-79 in East Region action on Thursday.

Daryl Banks III scored a career-high 27 points with five three-pointers, the Peacocks made 18 of 21 free throws and Mr. Big Shot Doug Edert salted away the win with two late free throws and finished with 20 points.

Saint Peter's (20-11) awaits Thursday's winner of No. 7 seed Murray State against No. 10 seed San Francisco in the Round of 32 on Saturday.

"We wasn't coming down here just to lose. We came down here to fight, and we did," Saint Peter's coach Shaheen Holloway said.

Oscar Tshiebwe had 30 points and 16 rebounds to lead Kentucky (26-8) with his 16th consecutive double-double. While the Wildcats outscored Saint Peter's 23-18 on free throws, Kentucky shot just 65.7 percent at the line and missed 12 times.

The loss was the 10th for a No. 2 seed against a No. 15 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Kentucky led 68-62 with 4:12 remaining but couldn't close out the game, a failure coach John Calipari called inexcusable.

No. 12 New Mexico State beats No. 5 UConn

Canada's Clayton Henry scored eight points, while Teddy Allen scored 37 as New Mexico State won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time almost three decades, upsetting fifth-seeded Connecticut 70-63 Thursday night to become the second No. 12 seed to advance out of the first round.

The Aggies (27-6) will face the winner of the Arkansas-Vermont game on Saturday in the West Region. In its 23rd NCAA appearance, the Aggies won for the first time since beating Syracuse in the first round in 1993.

New Mexico State had not been back to Upstate New York since beating Syracuse in the Carrier Dome. In Buffalo, Allen and the Aggies made another memory.

The Western Athletic Conference champions followed the tournament's first 5-12 upset onto the floor. After Richmond eliminated Big Ten champion Iowa, New Mexico State asserted itself against the Huskies from the Big East.

No. 11 Michigan takes down No. 6 Colorado State

Freshman Frankie Collins provided the spark Michigan needed in a turbulent year for the Wolverines and coach Juwan Howard, helping the 11th-seeded Wolverines rally from a 15-point deficit to beat sixth-seeded Colorado State 75-63 on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Collins, pressed into the starting lineup because starting point guard DeVante' Jones was out with a concussion, had season highs of 14 points, six rebounds and 31 minutes. He came in averaging less than 10 minutes per game.

Big man Hunter Dickinson led Michigan with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Eli Brooks had 16 points and Caleb Houstan of Mississauga, Ont., added 13 for the Wolverines (18-14), who will face either third-seeded Tennessee or 14th-seeded Longwood in the second round of the South Region on Saturday.

Houstan also collected five rebounds and two assists.

The Wolverines, highly touted at the beginning of the season, squeaked into the tournament thanks largely to their stout schedule. Howard was suspended for five games down the stretch for hitting a Wisconsin assistant in the postgame handshake line, and Michigan hasn't won two straight games in more than a month.

Dischon Thomas scored 15 points on 5-of-7 3-point shooting for Colorado State (25-6), and Mountain West Conference player of the year David Roddy had 13 points and six rebounds.

Top-seeded Baylor defeats Norfolk State

Matthew Mayer scored a career-high 22 points, including that punctuating half-ending dunk with a salute, as the top-seeded Bears opened the NCAA Tournament with an 85-49 victory over Norfolk State on Thursday.

Jeremy Sochan did grab a rebound to start the play, and got credited with an assist on Mayer's dunk.

After Joe Bryant tumbled to the floor when missing a layup, Sochan took a couple of dribbles while still in the lane. Norfolk State's Tyrese Jenkins then reached from behind and swatted the ball out of his hands — into the air past midcourt, where it bounced once to a breaking Mayer, who got past Terrance Jones for the dunk.

Freshman standout Sochan had 15 points and seven rebounds for the Bears (27-6), who had to travel less than 100 miles from their Waco campus for the East Region opener and first NCAA tourney game at Dickies Arena. They will play the North Carolina in the second round Saturday.

Memphis holds off Boise State

DeAndre Williams had 14 points, Jalen Duren made a crucial basket down the stretch and No. 9 seed Memphis held off a second-half rally by Boise State.

Abu Kigab of St. Catharines, Ont., had 20 points to lead the eighth-seeded Broncos (27-8), the Mountain West regular-season and tournament champs, who were making their first appearance in the tournament since 2015. Fellow Canadian Emmanuel Akot of Winnipeg added seven points for the Broncos.

Matt Grace of Hamilton, Ont., collected four points and a rebound for Boise State.

The Tigers (22-10), whose poor start to the season had coach Penny Hardaway dropping expletives in a press conference, will play top-seeded Gonzaga or Georgia State on Saturday.

Duren finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Tigers, who were 9-8 after 17 games but went on a late-season charge to reach the tournament for the first time since 2014. The Tigers have now won 13 of their past 15 games.

Richmond's experience too much in win over Iowa

Jacob Gilyard scored 24 points, Tyler Burton added 18 points and 11 rebounds, and No. 12 seed Richmond leaned on its experience to defeat Big Ten tournament champ Iowa.

Montrealer Nathan Cayo also had 15 points, including a couple of big baskets down the stretch, as the Atlantic 10 Tournament champ Spiders (24-12) improved their NCAA tourney record against fifth-seeded teams to 4-0. They will next face the region's No. 4 seed, Providence.

Keegan Murray scored 21 points and Patrick McCaffery added 18 for the Hawkeyes (26-10), who were unable to carry over the momentum of winning four times in four days at the Big Ten tournament last weekend.

The Hawkeyes' fourth-best offence nationally, which entered the NCAA Tournament averaging 83.8 points, was held to its third-lowest total of the year and worst production since a 48-46 loss at Rutgers on Jan. 19.

Tennessee rolls past Longwood

Santiago Vescovi scored 18 points and Tennessee pounded Longwood, showing why it felt it deserved better than a No. 3 seed.

The Volunteers (27-7) shot 60% from the field and had four players score in double figures. The runaway victory came just four days after the school won the Southeastern Conference Tournament for the first time in 43 years.

Josiah-Jordan James added 17 points, and John Fulkerson scored 15 on 7-for-8 shooting. Kennedy Chandler had 13 and Zakai Ziegler finished with 10.

Longwood (26-7), the Big South champ from Farmville, Virginia, was led by Justin Hill with 13 points in the school's first NCAA tourney appearance.

Providence 66, South Dakota State 57

Al Durham had 13 points, eight rebounds and six assists and Jared Bynum made three big free throws with 29.9 seconds left as Providence snapped the longest winning streak in college basketball by beating South Dakota State 66-57.

The fourth-seeded Friars (26-5) advanced to face Iowa or Richmond in the Midwest Region on Saturday.

It was a typical grind for the Big East regular-season champions. The Friars' turnaround season after going 13-13 in 2020-21 now includes 16 victories by single-digits.

The Jackrabbits (30-6) came in on a 21-game winning streak and were a popular pick to spring the tournament's first upset.