MILWAUKEE - Georgia Tech got as big a test as any it found in the ACC. From the most unlikely of schools, no less.
Luke Schenscher led four players in double figures, and the Yellow Jackets needed every one of them Friday to hold off pesky Northern Iowa 65-60 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Schenscher finished with 13 points, B.J. Elder had 12 and Will Bynum added 11 for Georgia Tech, which has won eight of 12. The third-seeded Yellow Jackets face sixth-seeded Boston College in the second round of the St. Louis Region on Sunday. The Eagles beat Utah 58-51.
"I came out of that game very impressed with Northern Iowa," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said. "We put a run on them early. We played a very good schedule this year and we've played teams that have folded when you put that type of run on them. They came back strong."
Making just their second NCAA appearance, the Panthers (21-10) were smaller, slower, thinner and less athletic than Georgia Tech (24-9). The only place they had an advantage was in crowd support, with a large, loud contingent of Northern Iowa fans.
But even after falling behind by 17 in the first half, Northern Iowa gave Georgia Tech everything it could handle. The Panthers made a 27-9 run spanning halftime to turn what was a rout back into a game, and Erik Crawford's 3-pointer with 21 seconds left cut Georgia Tech's lead to 63-60.
BC 58, UTAH 51: Craig Smith scored 19 and had eight rebounds for the sixth-seeded Eagles (24-9).
Utah (24-9), seeded 11th, got just eight points from sharpshooter Nick Jacobson, who was 3-of-18 (2-of-13 from beyond the arc).
"We felt he was the glue guy to their team," Smith said. "When he starts hitting shots, it makes their team better. I thought we did a real good job of making him take bad shots."
Jacobson insisted he got good looks.
"They were all right on. They felt good every time I shot them," he said. "I thought they'd go in the next time. Otherwise, I wouldn't have shot them."
Boston College, snubbed by the NCAA selection committee last year, won at at-large bid after losing to Pittsburgh in the Big East semifinals. It quickly proved it belonged, outmuscling the Utes inside and closing off all lanes to the basket.
Led by Smith, a wide-bodied forward who packs 255 pounds on his 6-foot-7 frame, the Eagles swarming man-to-man defense kept the Utes out of any rhythm. And when Utah found its range late in the second half, the Eagles double-teamed Jacobson and kept him from hurting them.
WISCONSIN 76, RICHMOND 64: It took a while for the Badgers and their fans to turn the Bradley Center into the Kohl Center East.
Playing 75 miles from campus, the Badgers got 18 points from Mike Wilkinson and a career-high 16 from Boo Wade in overcoming a 13-point second-half deficit.
The sixth-seeded Badgers advanced to Sunday's second round of the East Rutherford Region.
Wilkinson scored 12 in the second half and Devin Harris, the Big Ten player of the year who was held scoreless in the first half, finished with 11 and had six assists.
The Badgers (25-6) set a school record for wins in a season, but trailed 42-29 with less than 14 minutes left.
Wisconsin started scoring in transition after Richmond's furious defense began to take a toll on the Spiders.
The 11th-seeded Spiders saw their shots fall short and they couldn't maintain their aggressive pace on defense even with coach Jerry Wainwright's liberal substitution patterns.
They simply couldn't keep up and Wisconsin started to find its range. The Badgers sank 6 of 8 3-pointers after halftime and shot 68 percent in the second half.
