College Basketball 3/12

Now that March Madness has officially begun with the Big East Tournament kicking off in Madison Square Garden, I'm going to give a daily review of the tourney games.

GAMES OF THE DAY
Dayton 63, St. Louis 62 OT
Marcus Johnson scored 8 of his 16 points in overtime, including the game winning basket with 32 seconds left, as Dayton, the #8 seed, held off St. Louis, the #9 seed. St. Louis came back from a 49-38 deficit with 6:29 left in regulation, tying the game on a three-pointer with 51 seconds left. In overtime, Danny Brown, who led the Billikens with 24 points, had a three-point play with 50 seconds left in overtime to give St. Louis a one point lead, and setting the stage for Johnson's shot. Brian Roberts, Dayton's leading scorer and 1st team A-10 player, was held to five. Dayton advances to play Xavier.

Charlotte 75, Rhode Island 73
Rhode Island, who took a five point lead into halftime, led for the entire second half until Charlie Coley, a 53% free throw shooter, hit two to tie the game at 73 with 37.7 seconds left. After a moving screen call against Kaheim Seawright with 8.2 seconds left, Charlotte's Michael Gerrity was fouled by Keith Cothran on a questionable call with .3 seconds on the clock. Gerrity hit both, and the #6 49ers knocked off the #11 Rams. Charlotte advances to take on UMass.

PLAYER OF THE DAY
Deonta Vaughn, Cincinnati
Cincinnati lost to Pitt, 70-64, but the game never would have been that close without the phenomenal performance of Vaughn. He went for 30 points and 6 assists, including 23 in the second half. At one point, he scored 20 consecutive points for the Bearcats, keeping them in it down the stretch with a combination of three-pointers and acrobatic shots in the lane. All told, he scored 22 of Cinci's last 24 points.

TEAM OF THE DAY
Villanova
With all due respect to Colorado State's women's team (they were 4-27, 0-16 heading in the quarters of the MWC tourney where they knocked off #1 seed Utah, who was 27-4, 16-0 on the year), Villanova gets the nod for team of the day after they blew out Syracuse in what was essentially a NCAA Tournament elimination game. It looked as if Syracuse would run away with it early, leading 28-19 with just over a minute left in the first half, but Villanova scored the last 8 points of the half, and then proceeded to catch fire in the second half hitting 8 of 10 three's. Scottie Reynolds led the Wildcats with 22 points and 6 assists, and Corey Stokes had a career high 18 on 4-8 shooting from deep, including two from well beyond NBA range. The loss burst the Syracuse bubble, while Villanova looks to avenge a loss to Georgetown on a very questionable call. The Wildcats can take themselves off the bubble with a victory today.