March Madness is here and games have started. There have been great games and even greater upsets. This is only the beginning though, as the first two rounds have ended, and the sweet 16 and elite eight just started this past weekend.
One big upset that happened was number 15 ORU, the local contender, defeating the two seed OSU. The score was 75-72 in Overtime. The big star of the game for ORU was Max Abmas, scoring 29 points, three assists and five rebounds. Another standout player was Kevin Obanor, having a double-double with 30 points and 11 rebounds. As far as the game goes, it came down to the wire. The last possessions consisted of Ohio State coming down and running a play for Justin Ahrens to make a three. He ended up shooting and missing the tying shot, but Ohio State grabbed the rebound to give Duane Washington Jr. a last wide open shot for the same. Washington Jr. ultimately ends up missing the shot and the Golden Eagles go on to the next round.
Another big upset that happened in the first round was 12 seed Oregon State demolishing five seed Tennessee 70-56, a tremendous blowout victory for Oregon St. This game was never even close at any point. Some people may claim to have seen this coming, but others might prove more honest. That is what March Madness is all about. What made for such a successful game for Oregon St. was the fact that they had 4 players with double digit points. Roman Silva had 16 points, Jarod Lucas had 14 points, Ethan Thompson had 13 points and Zach Reichle had 10 points. It was a sweet victory for the Beavers, but the road to the Final Four is still a ways away.
In the third biggest upset, it was a Big 10 Conference matchup. Four seed Purdue Boilermakers against 13 seed North Texas guaranteed an exciting game. At the end of the game, The Mean Green ended up sending Purdue home in a 78-69 victory in overtime. This was not just any sort of win for North Texas, but this was North Texas’s first win in the NCAA tournament. Javion Hamlet was a huge part of North Texas’s success. He ended up with a double-double performance with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Another player who had an outstanding performance was Mardrez McBride, who finished with 16 points.
The inter-conference game made for another upset victory that came down to the wire. In the last seconds of the 2nd half, Purdue trailed by two and they gave it to their big man Trevion Williams in the post for a chance to stay alive. He made his move and shot a turnaround shot, but missed it and ended up following his shot for the putback to tie it all up. With 1.6 seconds on the clock, North Texas had the ball on their end of the court. With enough time to get a good shot off, Javion Hamlet inbounded the ball to James Reese who tried to kiss it off the glass for a buzzer beater winner, but it was just too hard off the glass. Luckily, the Mean Green were ready to play in overtime, and once they started going there was no looking back and they ran away with the win.
