NCAA Tournament First Four: North Carolina A&T, St. Mary’s advance

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The NCAA Tournament officially began on Tuesday with two First Four games. Four teams played for a spot in the 64-team bracket on Thursday. Despite featuring non-marquee teams and being televised on a channel nobody watches, there was lots of exciting basketball played. Let’s recap the action:

The Aggies will face No 1 overall seed Louisville in Lexington on Thursday.

The St. Mary’s Gaels defeated the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, 67-54, to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Middle Tennessee was able to keep the game close for most of the first half, but things got out hand later on when St. Mary’s went on a 15-4 run to close out the first half. They went into halftime up 29-20, and the second half was more of the same, with the Gaels maintaining a big lead and never giving the Blue Raiders a chance to catch up. A 7-0 run over a five-minute stretch essentially iced the game.

In the opening game of the NCAA Tournament, North Carolina A&T took care of business against Liberty, winning 73-72.

Nursing a 40-33 halftime lead, N.C. A&T allowed Liberty to get within one with 13:21 remaining in the game. But a six-minute scoring drought from the Flames put them on their heels. A furious final two minutes brought Liberty back from the dead again, pulling within one once again. But Sanders clanked iron and Liberty was sent home packing, giving the Aggies their first NCAA Tournament win in 10 attempts.

NC A&T entered the tournament as an automatic bid, having won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament over Morgan State. The Aggies finished the regular season just 8-8 in conference play, but got hot during the tourney and earned their bid.

Liberty had an even more unlikely journey to the tourney. After starting the season 1-10, the Flames stumbled to a 6-10 record in Big South play. Despite that, Liberty knocked off three of the top four seeds in the tournament to clinch a spot in the first round of The Big Dance.

Following North Carolina A&T and Liberty, Saint Mary’s and Middle Tennessee State will take the court, with each looking to advance to a Thursday date with No. 6 seed Memphis.

Both games will be played at University of Dayton Arena, in Dayton, Ohio.

The 2013 NCAA Tournament officially kicks off on Tuesday with the First Four games. These games don’t quite have the prestige and buzz of the upcoming weekend slate, but it’s still postseason basketball, and eight teams are playing in “win or go home” mode, so there should be some exciting action on the table for Tuesday.

The first game of the day will be North Carolina A&T against Liberty. The Flames are the only team in the tournament with a losing record. They hope to repeat Western Kentucky’s feat from last season and win their play-in game to get a spot in the round of 64.