Bizarre tourney start doesn't faze UCLA
SAN DIEGO — The day had a bizarre start when bomb-sniffing dogs detected something suspicious at San Diego State's Cox Arena.
"I thought it was just spoiled mustard," Illinois forward James Augustine said hours after authorities determined there was no threat.
So the NCAA first-round games went on, although behind schedule.
Once they did, the teams got down to some serious hoops, with a thriller and three romps.
Although the first game started 70 minutes late, Alabama's Jean Felix quickly brought the focus back to basketball by hitting 3-pointer after 3-pointer in scoring a career-high 31 points to lead the 10th-seeded Crimson Tide to a wild 90-85 win over Marquette. He finished with eight 3-pointers, a school postseason record.
Second-seeded UCLA showed Belmont who the real Bruins are when it comes to the NCAA tournament, routing the first-timers with the same nickname 78-44.
No. 4 seed Illinois won 78-69 over Air Force, a team many critics felt shouldn't have been placed in the field by the selection committee.
Washington, the No. 5 seed, won the nightcap 75-61 over Utah State.
In the second round Saturday, UCLA (28-6) will play Alabama (18-12), with the winner advancing to the Oakland Regional. Washington (25-6) will play Illinois (26-6) for a trip to the Washington Regional.
UCLA is making its 40th appearance in the NCAAs, and is trying to add to its record 11 national titles.
Bruins coach Ben Howland earned his first NCAA tournament victory since taking over in Westwood three seasons ago. Last year, the Bruins lost in the first round to Texas Tech.
The victory was UCLA's 86th all-time in the tournament, behind only Kentucky's 95 and North Carolina's 88. It was the school's biggest win since 2000, when the Bruins beat Maryland 105-70 in the second round.
Freshman Luc Richard Mbah a Moute had a career-high 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists and UCLA routed the small Nashville school 78-44 Thursday in a first-round NCAA tournament matchup of Bruins.
"We're disappointed, for sure," Belmont coach Rick Byrd said. "You don't want to ever get beat bad. UCLA was way too good for us."
The Crimson Tide is moving on because Felix was nearly perfect. He was 8-of-11 from behind the 3-point line, and 7-of-9 at the free throw line.
The Alabama and Marquette players stayed at their hotels while a bomb robot was brought to campus.
Marquette erased all of a 15-point deficit and went ahead by two midway through the second half. Felix made his eighth 3-pointer — a school postseason record — with less than 3 minutes left for an 84-77 Alabama lead.
Marquette's star forward, Steve Novak, had two chances late, and missed both.
With Alabama leading 86-85, the ball bounced off Felix's foot and went out of bounds, but Novak missed a turnaround jumper. Alabama's Ronald Steele made two free throws for an 88-85 lead. Novak, Marquette's all-time 3-point shooter, missed from behind the arc in the right corner with 7.8 seconds left.
Illinois was just too big and too talented for Air Force, overpowering the Falcons 78-69.
Freshman guard Jamar Smith was the surprise player of the night with 20 points, including six 3-pointers, for the fourth-seeded Fighting Illini. Illinois shot 58 percent from the field in its first NCAA tournament game since losing last year's championship to North Carolina.
The opponent this time was quite a bit different. The tournament selection committee took a ton of grief for adding Air Force (24-7) of the Mountain West Conference as the 13th seed in the Washington Regional at the expense of Cincinnati or Michigan.
Brandon Roy scored 28 as Washington avoided being the third No. 5 seed to fall on Thursday.
"I saw one of those scores and I thought, `Maybe we won't be the last team to be jinxed by that,"' Roy said.
Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar pretended to wipe sweat off his brow after hearing fifth seeds Nevada and Syracuse had been upset.
The Huskies tied a season high with 12 3-pointers — nine in the second half.
