USA – UCLA, Nova and Memphis avoid upsets on opening day of March Madness

NEW YORK (NCAA) – No Davids beat Goliaths but a few teams did suffer scares on the opening night of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday in the United States.

UCLA scraped a 65-64 win over Virginia Commonwealth, who trailed by 11 midway through the second half but clawed their way back and would have won at the buzzer had Eric Maynor made his jump shot from 17 feet.

"It's tough right now because our kids fought back and played so hard," Rams coach Anthony Grant said.

"I wish UCLA all the luck. That's a classy program over there."

Josh Shipp led the Bruins, winners of a record 11 NCAA titles, with 16 points.

Next up for UCLA is a clash with Villanova, another side that had some nervous moments in its opener against American.

The upset-minded Eagles held a 41-31 lead at half-time and they extended that margin to 14 early in the second half but weren't able to press home the advantage.

Instead, Villanova clawed their way back and eventually tied the contest at 55-55 with 7:36 remaining on a lay-up by Scottie Reynolds.

Dwayne Anderson's three-ball with 6:21 put Nova in front to stay.

Another side that had a close call was Memphis, a team that many people - including United States president Barack Obama - expects to reach the Final Four.

They beat Cal State Northridge 81-70 with Roburt Sallie pouring in 35 points.

Sallie hit a first-round tournament record 10 of 15 shots from behind the arc.

Memphis (32-3) trailed 62-56 midway through the second half after a layup by the Matadors' Vincent Cordell.

Antonio Anderson then brought them back in a 9-0 scoring run that left the Tigers on top at 70-64.

His dunk with 8:10 left closed the gap to 64-63 and Anderson's jump shot with 6:54 remaining put Memphis in front for good at 65-64.

Anderson capped the 9-0 spurt with another jumper and Cal State Northridge got no closer than four points the rest of the way.

Memphis now take on Maryland, who defeated California 84-71.

Other results: UConn 103 Chattanooga 47, BYU 66 Texas A&M 79, Purdue 61 Northern Iowa 56, Washington 71 Mississippi 58, Butler 71 LSU 75, Radford 58 North Carolina 101, Michigan 62 Clemson 59, Akron 64 Gonzaga 77, Binghamton 62 Duke 86, Morgan State 54 Oklahoma 82.

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