NCAA Tourney: Round one has few upsets

West Regional

Connecticut 103,

Chattanooga 47

PHILADELPHIA " With their coach in the hospital, A.J. Price and Hasheem Thabeet scored 20 points apiece to lead top-seeded Connecticut to its first postseason win in three years.

UConn coach Jim Calhoun missed the game because he wasn't feeling well and was hospitalized for tests. He will be kept overnight for observation.

Associate head coach George Blaney coached the Huskies (28-4) in Calhoun's absence. Stanley Robinson topped the Huskies with 24 points. They'll meet Texas A&M in Saturday's second-round game of the West Regional of the NCAA tournament.

Texas A&M 79, BYU 66

PHILADELPHIA " Bryan Davis scored 21, Donald Sloan had 14 and the ninth-seeded Aggies handed the Cougars their seventh straight opening-round loss in a rematch from last year. Both teams drew the same seeds last March when A&M won 67-62.

The Aggies (24-9) will meet No. 1 seed Connecticut on Saturday.

Purdue 61,

Northern Iowa 56

PORTLAND, Ore. " E'Twaun Moore had 17 points and fifth-seeded Purdue held off a late charge to advance.

JaJuan Johnson added 14 points for the Boilermakers (26-9), who led by as many as 14 in the West Regional at the Rose Garden Arena before the Panthers made it interesting down the stretch.

Maryland 84,

California 71

KANSAS CITY, Mo. " Grievis Vasquez had 27 points and Maryland shut down the nation's best 3-point shooting team.

Tenth-seeded Maryland (21-13) disrupted Cal with its pressure defense, rarely giving the Bears a good look from the perimeter. Vasquez controlled the offense and Dave Neal chipped in 15 points, helping the Terps advance past the first round in their ninth straight NCAA appearance.

Washington 71,

Mississippi State 58

PORTLAND, Ore. " Quincy Pondexter scored a season-high 23 points and fourth-seeded Washington took advantage of early foul trouble to Mississippi State's menacing Jarvis Varnado.

Jon Brockman had 14 rebounds and 10 points for the Huskies (26-8), who looked far better than the last time they played in this city, losing to Portland of the West Coast Conference to begin the season.

South Regional

North Carolina 101,

Radford 58

GREENSBORO, N.C. " Tyler Hansbrough took quick care of his latest record pursuit, then helped North Carolina advance in the NCAA tournament without one of its star playmakers.

Hansbrough set the Atlantic Coast Conference career scoring mark in the opening minutes and finished with 22 points South Regional's top seed another easy tournament opener in its home state.

LSU 75, Butler 71.

GREENSBORO, N.C. " Butler has put together quite a few upsets in recent NCAA tournaments. Marcus Thornton scored 30 points to keep LSU off that list.

Tasmin Mitchell had 14 points and Chris Johnson added 12 for the Tigers (27-7), seeded eighth in the South Regional. They shot 49 percent against one of the nation's toughest defenses in advancing to Saturday's second round against the North Carolina-Radford winner.

Michigan 62, Clemson 59

KANSAS CITY, Mo. " Manny Harris scored 21 points and Michigan stymied Clemson with its 1-3-1 defense, then survived a late scare in its first NCAA tournament game in 11 years.

The Wolverines (21-13) showed little sign of nerves in their first NCAA game since a booster scandal rocked the program in the 1990s, handling " for the most part " Clemson's frenetic press to move onto the second round.

Stu Douglass added 12 for the Wolverines, who will face Oklahoma on Saturday.

Oklahoma 82,

Morgan State 54

KANSAS CITY, Mo. " A dominant Blake Griffin had 28 points and 13 rebounds and survived an ugly fall that got another player ejected as Oklahoma rolled.

Griffin missed most of two games because of a concussion he sustained on Feb. 21. The second-seeded Sooners (28-5) lost those two games and four of their last six before stumbling into the NCAA tournament and .

The player of the year favorite took another hard tumble when Morgan State's Ameer Ali flipped him over his back and on to the court in the second half after the two became entangled. Ali was immediately ejected.

Gonzaga 77, Akron 64

PORTLAND, Ore. "Josh Heytvelt scored 22 points " seven during a decisive late run " and the Bulldogs rallied to get past determined but ultimately overwhelmed Akron.

Micah Downs added 15 points for fourth-seeded Gonzaga (27-5), which won for the 19th time in 20 games. The Zags are in their 11th consecutive NCAA tournament, but had lost in the first round of the last two.

Getting zapped in the first round by the 13th-seeded Zips seemed possible for a while. Akron (23-13) was up six in the second half.

Western Kentucky 76, Illinois 72

PORTLAND, Ore. " Western Kentucky, which made an unexpected run in the NCAA tournament last year, pulled off another first-round upset.

Steffphon Pettigrew had 17 points to lead 12th-seeded Western Kentucky (25-8), which led by as many as 17 points but had to hold off a late charge by the fifth-seeded Illini (24-10). It was the 19th time in the last 21 years that a 12 seed has beaten a No. 5.

Trent Meacham had a season-high 24 points for the Illini, who were without senior defensive specialist Chester Frazier, who had surgery on his right hand last week.

East Regional

Texas 76, Minnesota 62

GREENSBORO, N.C. " A.J. Abrams hit eight 3-pointers and scored 26 points to help Texas win its NCAA opener for the fifth time in six seasons.

Damion James added 18 points and nine rebounds for the seventh-seeded Longhorns (23-11).

Texas had lost seven of its last 14 games dating to late January, but now heads into the second round of the East Region to face the Duke-Binghamton winner Saturday.

Duke 86, Binghamton 62

GREENSBORO, N.C. " Jon Scheyer scored 15 points to lead six players in double figures, and the Blue Devils made Binghamton's first appearance in the NCAA tournament a quick one.

Villanova 80, American 67

PHILADELPHIA " Dwayne Anderson and Dante Cunningham each scored 25 points, and Villanova rallied back from a 14-point hole.

The third-seeded Wildcats (27-7) lost their home-court advantage and nearly lost the game, needing a late 19-2 run in the East Regional to fend off the Patriot League champions.

UCLA 65, VCU 64

PHILADELPHIA " Darren Collison pressured VCU's Eric Maynor into missed 17-foot jumper at the buzzer and the sixth-seeded Bruins held on to beat the Rams.

Josh Shipp scored 16, Jrue Holiday had 13 and three other Bruins (26-8) scored in double figures.

Maynor led Virginia Commonwealth with 21 points. The Rams (24-10) from the Colonial Athletic Association were a popular pick to pull off a 6-11 upset against the Pac-10 powerhouse " even President Barack Obama circled VCU in his bracket.

But UCLA wasn't ready to go home.

Maynor, whose last-second shot knocked out Duke in the first round two seasons ago, got the ball and was closely guarded Collison. Maynor couldn't get a clean look and his shot grazed the front of the rim.