ST. LOUIS — Reality hit Middle Tennessee State guard Jaqawn Raymond as he walked triumphantly off the floor. Giddy Potts thought it might come later, once he returned to the team hotel and flipped on the TV.
It sunk in immediately for Michigan State.
Relying on the same balanced scoring that carried them to the NCAA tournament, Middle Tennessee State ended Michigan State’s title hopes in convincing fashion Friday. The 15th-seeded Blue Raiders never trailed in a 90-81 first-round victory that sent brackets around the country into trash cans.
“We wanted to win this game as bad as anybody wanted us to win,” said Potts, the Blue Raiders’ hot-shooting sophomore guard. “We played our (butts) off today.”
Reggie Upshaw had 21 points and Potts finished with 19 for Middle Tennessee State (25-9), which became the eighth No. 15 seed to knock off a No. 2 seed since seeding began in 1985. The last time it happened was 2013, when Florida Gulf Coast beat Georgetown on its way to the Sweet 16.
The Blue Raiders will try to do the same against No. 10 seed Syracuse on Sunday.
“I’ll be honest with you, in my wildest dreams I didn’t think they’d hit some of the shots they hit,” Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo said. “We didn’t guard them good, but man, they made some shots.”
The Spartans (29-6) were a trendy pick to win the national championship after capturing the Big Ten tournament title. Part of it had to do with the experience of Denzel Valentine and the seniors, and part of it had to do with Izzo’s postseason pedigree.
“I’m more mad and disappointed because I know what this team could accomplish,” Valentine said. “It kind of fell apart, and it just stinks right now because I know the capability our team had.”
Matt Costello matched a career-best with 22 points, but it wasn’t enough to offset Valentine’s miserable afternoon. Valentine had 13 points and 12 assists, but he also committed six turnovers – one of them with the Spartans trailing 79-76 and less than three minutes to go.
Michigan State twice had chances to tie the game after that, but Valentine missed an open 3 from the top of the key and Bryn Forbes missed another. The Blue Raiders eventually scored on back-to-back runouts to establish some breathing room, then coaxed the final few seconds off the clock.
Darnell Harris and Perrin Buford scored 15 points apiece and Raymond had 11 as the Conference USA champions won an NCAA tournament game for the first time since 1989.
They never seemed intimidated by the Spartans, roaring to a 15-2 lead in the opening minutes and slowly getting the Syracuse and Dayton fans in the building on their side.
Michigan State chipped away at its deficit but never made an extended run. Valentine was saddled with two fouls and rendered ineffective most of the way, and the backcourt of Forbes and Eron Harris combined for four turnovers while managing a single point.
Valentine’s frustration reached its apex after he committed back-to-back turnovers in the second half. With the Spartans trailing 51-43, Valentine stalked back to the huddle and slammed his hand into the floor.
Michigan State slowly trimmed the lead to 65-64 on a basket by Costello with eight minutes to play, but the Blue Raiders scored on their next six trips down floor.
It was the Spartans’ first loss in the first round since 2011.
“We just couldn’t make that one play,” Tum Tum Nairn said. “That’s the thing about this tournament – tomorrow is not a guarantee.”
(10) SYRACUSE 70, (7) DAYTON 51: Malachi Richardson scored 21 points, Syracuse stumped seventh-seeded Dayton with its trademark zone and the No. 10 seed Orange rolled to a victory in the Midwest Regional in St. Louis.
Tyler Roberson added 10 points and 18 rebounds for the Orange (19-13), banned from the field last season following an NCAA investigation into academic misconduct and improper benefits.
They looked back at home in the first round of the Midwest Regional.
Tyler Lydon had 14 points, Trevor Cooney had 13 and Michael Gbinije added 10 as Syracuse advanced to play No. 2 seed Michigan State or No. 15 seed Middle Tennessee State on Sunday.
Charles Cooke led the Flyers (25-8) with 14 points, but he was just 2 of 9 from beyond the arc, as the regular-season Atlantic 10 champions shot 32 percent from the field.
WEST REGIONAL
(10) VCU 75, (7) OREGON STATE 67: JeQuan Lewis had 21 points, eight assists and seven rebounds as 10th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth won its first NCAA tournament game since 2013 with a first-round victory over No. 7 seed Oregon State in Oklahoma City.
The tournament appearance is the sixth straight for VCU (25-10), and the experience showed as the Rams led by eight points at halftime and held off a charge by the Beavers in the second half.
Mo Alie-Cox added 20 points and was 7 of 8 from the field in the win, while Melvin Johnson also finished in double figures with 12 points.
Gary Payton II scored 19 points to lead the Beavers (19-13), who were making their first tournament appearance in 26 years, while Derrick Bruce finished with 15 and Drew Eubanks 13.
(2) OKLAHOMA 82, (15) CAL STATE BAKERSFIELD 68: Buddy Hield scored 27 points to help No. 2 seed Oklahoma defeat No. 15 seed Cal State Bakersfield in Oklahoma City.
The senior guard made 8 of 14 shots, including 3 of 6 3-pointers.
Isaiah Cousins scored 16 points and Jordan Woodard added 15 for the Sooners (26-7), who made 11 of 20 3-pointers and shot 50 percent overall.
Oklahoma enjoyed a homecourt advantage at Chesapeake Energy Arena, just a half hour’s drive north of their Norman campus.
(1) OREGON 91, (16) HOLY CROSS 52: Carrying the marquee for the underachieving Pac-12, No. 1 seed Oregon showed no nerves playing as a top seed and rolled past No. 16 seed Holy Cross in Spokane, Washington.
Chris Boucher led Oregon (29-6) with 20 points, while Dillon Brooks and Elgin Cook both added 11 points as the Ducks won their ninth straight and advanced to the round of 32 for the fourth straight season.
With nearly all of the Pac-12 making a quick exit out of the NCAA tournament, the Ducks used their overwhelming athleticism to quickly build a double-digit lead and never allowed the Crusaders to sniff a potential 16-seed upset. Boucher slammed a trio of lob dunks in the first 12 minutes and the expected blowout quickly developed.
Robert Champion led Holy Cross (15-20) with 22 points off the bench.
(8) SAINT JOSEPH’S 78, (9) CINCINNATI 76: Isaiah Miles sank a 3-pointer with 9 seconds left to lift Saint Joseph’s (28-7) over Cincinnati (22-11) after a dunk at the buzzer by the Bearcats was waved off.
Octavius Ellis appeared to tie the game with his dunk as time expired, but officials determined after a lengthy review that the shot came too late.
DeAndre Bembry scored 23 points and Miles finished with 19 to lead eighth-seeded Saint Joseph’s. Twenty of Bembry’s points were in the first half.
Jacob Evans scored 26 points for ninth-seeded Cincinnati.
(3) TEXAS A&M 92, (14) WISCONSIN-GREEN BAY 65: Danuel House scored 20 points as Texas A&M pulled away in the second half to win its first NCAA tournament game since 2010, in Oklahoma City.
The third-seeded Aggies (27-8) trailed by as many as eight points in the first half before using a 26-9 first-half run to take control on the way to a comfortable victory over the 14th seed.
House was 8 of 12 from the field and hit a pair of 3-pointers for Texas A&M, which shot 56.1 percent (32 of 57) in the win.
Khalil Small scored a career-high 22 points to lead the Horizon League champion Phoenix (23-13), who were making their first tournament appearance in 20 years.
(11) NORTHERN IOWA 75, (6) TEXAS 72:Paul Jesperson banked in a halfcourt shot at the buzzer to give 11th seeded Northern Iowa a win at Oklahoma City.
Northern Iowa passed the ball in under its basket after Isaiah Taylor tied the game on a layup with 2.7 seconds to play. Jesperson caught the ball, took a few dribbles and heaved.
Wes Washpun scored 17 points, Jeremy Morgan scored 16 and Jesperson added 14 for the Panthers (23-12).
Taylor scored 22 points, Eric Davis Jr. finished with 13 and Javan Felix had 12 for Texas (20-13).
SOUTH REGIONAL
(13) HAWAII 77, (4) CALIFORNIA 66: Hawaii won its first NCAA tournament game in school history, as the 13th-seeded Warriors ended No. 4 California’s tumultuous week with a upset victory in Spokane, Washington.
The Golden Bears’ played without popular assistant coach Yann Hufnagel, dismissed amid allegations of sexual harassment, and the loss of leading scorer Tyrone Wallace, who broke his hand Wednesday in practice. As if the Bears (23-11) needed more obstacles, guard Jabari Bird had back spasms during warmups and never played.
The Warriors were 0-4 in their previous NCAA appearances, the last coming in 2002.
Quincy Smith scored a career-high with 19 points, Roderick Bobbitt had 17 points and Stefan Jankovic 16 for the champions of the Big West Conference regular season and tournament. Hawaii (28-5) used a strong first half from Jankovic to lead by as many as 11, then withstood Jankovic’s foul trouble in the second half thanks largely to Smith.
(5) MARYLAND 79, (12) SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 74: Maryland needed a turnover in the closing seconds to ensure it would avoid a place with all the other top seeds that lost in the first round, holding off South Dakota State in Spokane, Washington, behind a career-high 27 points from Jake Layman.
Deondre Parks fumbled a pass from Keaton Moffitt for the 12th-seeded Jackrabbits (26-8) and Rasheed Sulaimon picked up the ball and stuffed it for the final score. South Dakota State was seeking its first victory in the NCAA tournament, but was undone by cold shooting in the first half.
Melo Trimble added 19 points and Jared Nickens 14 for fifth-seeded Maryland (26-8), which made 51 percent of its shots, including nine 3-pointers.
(2) VILLANOVA 86, (15) UNC ASHEVILLE 56: Ryan Arcidiacono scored 14 points, including a buzzer-beating 3 at the end of the first half, and Daniel Ochefu had 17 points inside as second-seeded Villanova beat UNC Asheville in New York.
The Wildcats (30-5) will face seventh-seeded Iowa on Sunday, looking to reach the second weekend of the tournament for the first time since their 2009 Final Four run.
Dylan Smith led 15th-seeded UNC Asheville (22-12) with 14 points as the Big South champions bowed out quietly.
Kris Jenkins scored 12 and Jalen Brunson had 10 points for the Villanova, which spent three weeks at No. 1 this season but is under pressure to return to the Sweet 16.
(7) IOWA 72, (10) TEMPLE 70: Adam Woodbury put back a missed shot at the overtime buzzer to give Iowa a victory over Temple.
With the game tied at 70, Mike Gesell worked his way to the baseline and shot about a 10-foot jumper that missed the rim and went right to Woodbury, who put it in as the red lights around the backboard lit up.
The Hawkeyes (22-10) got the chance at the game-winner when Daniel Dingle of Temple, who played just 6 minutes and was in the game because Devin Coleman had fouled out a minute earlier, missed the front end of a 1-and-1.
Jarrod Uthoff led Iowa with 23 points, while Peter Jok had 16 and Woodbury finished with 10.
Quenton DeCosey, who made three free throws with 2.1 seconds left in regulation to tie the game, had 26 points for the Owls (21-12).
EAST REGIONAL
(7) WISCONSIN 47, (10) PITTSBURGH 43: Ethan Happ had 15 points and nine rebounds, none bigger than one he pulled down in the closing seconds, as seventh-seeded Wisconsin beat No. 10 seed Pittsburgh in St. Louis.
Nigel Hayes had 12 points and Vitto Brown scored 11 for the Badgers (21-12), who advanced despite an awful shooting night. Hayes was just 3 for 17 from the field, Bronson Koenig failed to hit a 3-pointer for the first time in 44 games and the Badgers finished 4 of 19 from beyond the arc.
It was still enough to knock off the equally cold-shooting Panthers.
Jamel Artis had 13 points to lead Pittsburgh (21-12), which started the season 14-1 before struggling when it hit ACC play. Leading scorer Michael Young was held to six points and five rebounds.
(2) XAVIER 71, (15) WEBER STATE 53: James Farr had 18 points and 15 rebounds, fellow big man Jalen Reynolds added 12 points, and Xavier (28-5) pulled away late for a victory in St. Louis.
Weber State (26-9) was within 54-47 midway through the second half when Farr and Reynolds began to impose their will. The powered right through Weber State’s back line for easy buckets, allowing the Musketeers to slowly draw away.
(14) STEPHEN F. AUSTIN 70, (3) WEST VIRGINIA 56: Thomas Walkup scored 33 points and 14th-seeded Stephen F. Austin faced down West Virginia’s full-court pressure with some of its own in-your-face defense, pulling off a rugged, first-round upset of the third-seeded Mountaineers in New York.
The Lumberjacks (28-5) ran the nation’s longest winning streak to 21 games and will face sixth-seeded Notre Dame on Sunday.
The Mountaineers (26-9) and Lumberjacks played physical, chest-to-chest defense, contesting not just every shot, but every pass. Neither team shot better than 31 percent.
Walkup, the two-time Southland Conference player of the year, took it to the teeth of West Virginia’s defense and went to the line 20 times. He made 19, including two to make it 60-47 with 5:15 left in the second after West Virginia coach Bob Huggins’ griping to officials drew a technical on the Mountaineers.
(6) NOTRE DAME 70, (11) MICHIGAN 63: V.J. Beacham scored 18 points, including the 3-pointer that gave Notre Dame (22-11) the lead for good, and the sixth-seeded Fighting Irish beat Michigan (23-13) in New York.
The Fighting Irish didn’t take a lead until Beacham’s 3 with 9:26 made it 51-48. From there, there were five lead changes and three ties.
Michigan controlled the first half, taking a 41-29 lead. Notre Dame scored the first eight points of the second half, a run that included 3-pointers by Vasturia and Matt Farrell.
Beacham’s 3 with 4:24 left gave Notre Dame a 62-59 lead, one they never gave up.
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