Upsets aren’t trademarked just for the NCAA Tournament as both No. 2 seeds fell in the first round of the NIT Tournament on Wednesday.
2013 NIT bracket results: Upsets galore continue as Tennessee and UMass fall
Two second-seeded teams fell on Wednesday as the first round of the NIT Tournament concluded.
Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports
Both seven seeds playing Wednesday won convincing games to advance to the second round as the Mercer Bears upset the Tennessee Volunteers, 75-67, and the Stony Brook Seawolves defeated the UMass Minutemen, 71-58.
Four out of the five Mercer starters finished with double-digit points, led by senior guard Travis Smith’s 25 points. The Bears took a six-point lead at half and held on for most of the game, shooting 50 percent from the floor and sending the Vols to a much earlier exit than expected.
The SEC had three of the top four seeds in the NIT Tournament, but is now down to being represented by No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide after fellow No. 1 Kentucky was upset on Wednesday.
Juniors Anthony Jackson and Dave Coley each scored 20 points as the Seawolves overwhelmed the Minutemen in the first half and never looked back. UMass was trailing by 13 going into halftime and wasn't able to get a foothold to start a run back into the game.
No one told the 15,000 Iowa fans that their team missed the NCAA Tournament as a sold out home crowd cheered the Hawkeyes to a comfortable 68-52 victory over the Indiana State Sycamores. Iowa led by one point at half, but Roy Devyn Marble took over in the second as the Hawkeyes outscored the Sycamores, 37-22. Marble finished with 24 points, five rebounds, six assists and four steals.
The fourth-seeded Providence Friars won their first postseason game since 2003 with a 75-66 win over the fifth-seeded Charlotte 49ers. Junior guard Bryce Cotton led the Friars with 25 points as four of five starters finished with double-digit points.
The Baylor Bears avoided the fate of their fellow two-seeded teams as they obliterated the Long Beach State 49ers, 112-66. Brady Heslip drained eight three-pointers to lead the Bears with 26 points as seven players scored in double-digits. The Bears shot 63 percent from the field and were 16 for 23 from beyond the arc. Long Beach State just couldn't keep up against the Bears, shooting 33 percent from the field in the loss.
After missing out on the auto-bid from the Conference USA Tournament, the top-seeded Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles won their first game of the NIT Tournament over the Charleston Southern Buccaneers, 78-71. Southern Miss led for almost the entire game, but had a hard time putting CSU away to get their first postseason win since 1988. The Golden Eagles had lost their last nine-straight postseason games.
The Arizona State Sun Devils finished out the NIT action on Wednesday with a 83-68 win over the Detroit Titans. Jahii Carson had 22 points and 10 rebounds, and Carrick Felix added 21 points for the Sun Devils, who shot 55 percent in the win. Detroit's defense harried the Sun Devils into 24 turnovers, but they weren't able to convert many points off of them, shooting 34 percent from the field and going just 2-for-20 from the three-point line.
Click here for an updated bracket of the NIT Tournament.
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