NCAA Tournament bracket 2017: Virginia, Notre Dame survive tough first round tests

With two games completed in the 2017 NCAA Tournament, we have yet to see an upset.

The No. 5 seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish held off the No. 12 Princeton Tigers, 60-58, in the NCAA West first round. The Tigers raged back late in the second half but were unable to complete a comeback to advance into the next round.

Bonzie Colson led the Fighting Irish with 18 points on six-of-13 shooting, and Matt Farrell added 16 points on three-of-five three-point shooting to help Notre Dame advance to the second round.

Princeton enjoyed three players in double-digits, including 15 points from Spencer Weisz. Pete Miller tipped-in a missed three-pointer to bring the Tigers within one with 13 seconds remaining.

Farrell missed the ensuing free throw which gave Princeton a chance to win, but Devin Cannady, a 42 percent three-point shooter, missed the potential game-winning three-pointer. He finished two-of-10 from downtown on the night.

Over in the NCAA East, No. 5 Virginia overcame an early deficit against No. 12 UNC Wilmington to win, 76-71.

The Seahawks jumped out to a 26-11 lead in the first half, but the Cavaliers responded with a 42-19 run to regain control.

UNC Wilmington’s Chris Flemmings nailed a tough and-one lay-up to cut the Virginia lead to three with 3:37 remaining in the second half. He later hit a three-pointer to cut Cavaliers’ lead to two with just over a minute remaining. But a costly turnover from Denzel Ingram with less than 16 seconds left sealed the Seahawks’ fate late in the game.

Flemmings came up huge for UNCW, scoring 18 points on seven-of-16 shooting, including nine of the team’s final 11 points. But the Seahawks had no answer for the Cavaliers’ senior guard London Perrantes, who endured a stinger to his arm in the second half but came back to finish with 24 points on nine-of-14 shooting, including two-of-four from downtown.

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