CLEVELAND - No matter the year or season, Bruce Pearl always roots for teams from Boston, his hometown. Heck, the guy even filled in as Boston College's mascot for a game 24 years ago.

"I'm a huge Patriots and Red Sox fan, and I still love the fact that I grew up there," Wisconsin-Milwaukee's coach said.

On Saturday, Pearl's loyalties will be elsewhere.

He'll be coaching against his alma mater for the first time when Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which stunned Alabama 83-73 Thursday for its first NCAA tournament win, plays Boston College in the second round of the Chicago Regional.

The Eagles finally emerged from a three-week funk and looked more like the team that started the season 20-0 while rolling to an 85-65 win over Pennsylvania.

Now that his team has slayed one of the SEC's powers, Pearl expects the Panthers to take it right at one of the Big East's beasts.

"We'll try to be physical with BC," he promised. "I think both teams had better bring their mouthguards."

At every turn, the Eagles got back to playing like the team that didn't lose a game until Feb. 8.Jared Dudley led a versatile attack with 18 points. The Eagles went 7-of-10 on 3-pointers in the first half, when Penn drew in its defense, then passed inside for easy baskets and pulled away in the second.

Chris Paul scored 20 points - 13 in the second half - and added six rebounds and five assists to pace Wake Forest (27-5).

Tyrone Sally blocked Nate Funk's 3-pointer and got free for a breakaway dunk with 2.9 seconds left for the Mountaineers (22-10).

The 16th-seeded Knights took it to the nation's top-ranked team in the first half Thursday night, but Illinois (33-1) found life and came away with a 67-55 win. Fairleigh Dickinson outscored Illinois inside, won the rebounding battle and even led the Illini for a few seconds in the first half.

Kevinn Pinkney led Nevada with 15 points, Mo Charlo off the bench with 12 points and Ramon Sessions with 11.Texas, led by Jason Klotz's career-high 20 points, had a 57-53 lead with just over two minutes to go. But the Longhorns (20-11) couldn't hold on.

Cincinnati was led by big man Jason Maxiel, who had 22 points, nine rebounds, six blocked shots, a pair of steals and the first two 3-point baskets of his college career.

Chuck Hayes and Kelenna Azubuike scored 16 points each, and Azubuike ignited an 8-0 run early in the second half as Kentucky pulled away to victory.

Marvett McDonald had 21 points, hitting five 3-pointers, to lead UAB (22-10) into the second round again. UAB reached the round of 16 last year after beating Washington and top-seeded Kentucky.Brandon Bass led LSU with 25 points and 12 rebounds. Davis had 18 and 11 rebounds for the Tigers.

Arizona avoided a second straight first-round exit by rallying from a slight halftime deficit and dominating Utah State in the second half for the victory.

After the Huskies charged out to a 19-point lead against the Grizzlies (18-13), Montana kept it closer than expected but couldn't quite become the first No. 16 seed to knock off a No. 1.

The Miners' faithful turned McKale Center into a sea of UTEP orange, but No. 6 seed Utah fought through the din to score the last six points of the game and escape with a victory.Utah, a No. 6 seed, led 56-54 when UTEP's lightning-fast point guard Filiberto Rivera drove the lane. Utah's Tim Drisdom stripped the ball away, then was fouled by Rivera. The Utah junior's two free throws made it 58-54 with 15.4 seconds to play.

Drew Lavender led six Oklahoma players in double figures with 17 points and the third-seeded Sooners (25-7) used their inside muscle to down the Purple Eagles, making their first NCAA tournament appearance in 35 years.Juan Mendez led 14th-seeded Eagles (20-10) with 22 points and 15 rebounds. But he missed his first 11 shots in the second half and finally made a basket with just over a minute left in his final college game.

For much of the night, 14th-seeded Winthrop (20-10) looked a lot like those upstart Gonzaga teams of the past.Gonzaga, a No. 3 seed, outscored the Eagles 14-4 over the final 4:54 to pull away.

Ronald Ross scored 28 points for the second time in three games and Texas Tech shredded UCLA's defense. The Bruins never led, but stayed close until the Red Raiders' late run."Ronald Ross has been a good player for us for four years," coach Bob Knight said. "It isn't like all of a sudden he just hatched and we put him in the lineup. He hasn't broken out of an egg here recently. He has played very well and he's gotten better and better each year."Ten seasons ago, UCLA won its last national championship. This year, the Bruins (17-12) had their lowest seed ever.