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KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Another day, another upset by a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
A day after Manhattan stunned Florida in the East Rutherford Region, Pacific did the same thing to fifth-seeded Providence with a 66-58 victory in the St. Louis Region on Friday night.
Miah Davis scored 19 and Guillaume Yango added 18 for Pacific, the Big West tournament champion, which won its 16th straight. The Tigers were playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1997 and had not won a first-round game since 1967.
The Tigers (25-7) beat Brigham Young in the 1971 tournament, but that was in a consolation game after a first-round loss. They also lost in the first round in 1979.
Ryan Gomes had 25 points and 13 rebounds for Providence (20-9), which ended its season on a four-game losing streak. The Friars were making their first NCAA appearance since a first-round loss in 2001 and have not advanced to the second round since making the region final in 1997.
Pacific led 37-33 at the break but had six turnovers and only eight points in almost nine minutes to start the second half.
Yango scored six in an 8-2 run that put the Tigers up 54-46 with just over seven minutes left.
The Friars got within 58-54 when Chris Anrin hit two free throws with 2:40 left.
After Davis' 3-pointer, David Doubley hit a layup with 40 seconds left for a 63-54 lead.
"We thought the past was behind us," Providence guard Donnie McGrath said. "We came in positive and thought we could knock them off. Obviously, we couldn't get it done."
Gomes hit two quick baskets, the last with 27.9 seconds to go, to get Providence within 63-58. The Tigers went 1-for-4 from the line in the closing seconds, but Providence could not convert on its chances and Davis punctuated the win with a layup with two seconds to go.
MEMPHIS 59, S. CAROLINA 43: Tigers forward Rodney Carey had one of the best games of his career, but coach John Calipari said it was not even the sophomore forward's best effort this week.
Carney hit six 3-pointers and scored 26, both career highs, and added 10 rebounds to help Memphis win its first NCAA Tournament game since 1995.
"He was like Michael Jordan in practice this week," Calipari said. "I can hear the guys laughing, but he was. He was stopping practice while we were saying, "Oh, my goodness.' Believe me, he played better in practice than he did today."
His performance in the game was enough to get fans chanting his name.
"I had never experienced that," he said. "I wasn't supposed to laugh because I was on national TV, but I heard it in the background. It was a really good feeling."
Tenth-seeded South Carolina (23-11) has not won an NCAA Tournament game since 1973, having lost first-round games in 1974, 1989, 1997 and 1998.
Memphis has beaten USC eight straight, including the 2002 NIT title game in their last meeting.
Three-point shooting and rebounding made the difference Friday. The Tigers were 9-for-27 from long range - to South Carolina's 2-for-13 - and outrebounded the Gamecocks 37-25.
"We knew they could shoot the ball," Gamecocks guard Josh Gonner said. "If you give anybody open looks, they're going to knock down the shot."
OKLA. ST. 75, E. WASH. 56: The Cowboys seemed to forget they were a No. 2 seed. The Eagles didn't act like a No. 15. Eastern Washington tied it at halftime to stun the partisan Oklahoma State crowd.
In the second round of the East Rutherford Region Sunday, OSU meets No. 7 seed Memphis.
The Eagles, making their first NCAA appearance, got 12 first-half points from Gregg Smith, their 6-foot-10, 285-pound center who had 2 inches and 48 pounds on Ivan McFarlin, the Cowboys' biggest starter.
But Smith, who averaged 2.6 points this season, had only four in the second half, sitting out the first 41/2 minutes after halftime. Oklahoma State started the second half with a 12-2 burst.
The Big 12 champions (28-3) did not put away the slower-but-pesky Eagles (17-13) until Tony Allen keyed a 14-2 spree late in the second half that turned a 55-48 lead into a 69-50 bulge with 4:05 to go.
McFarlin had 20 points and 10 rebounds for Oklahoma State and Allen had 17 points. John Lucas, the Big 12 player of the year, scored 15.
KANSAS 78, ILL.-CHICAGO 53: The Jayhawks' best player had a painful, subpar night and the team still outclassed the Flames.
Wayne Simien, the 6-foot-9 power forward who leads the Jayhawks in scoring and rebounding, had four turnovers and four points before crashing to the floor with 6:32 left in the first half.
He was helped to the locker room, but received a huge roar from the partisan Kansas crowd when he returned to start the second half. He finished 13 points and nine rebounds before going to the bench with most of the other Jayhawks starters with about five minutes left.
J.R. Giddens scored 17, including two crowd-pleasing dunks during a clinching run in the second half for fourth-seeded Kansas. Playing about 40 miles from their campus and spurred on by a boisterous crowd, the Jayhawks won for the 21st time in their 24 games in Kemper Arena.