Air Force shot down by Illinois, 78-69

UCLA was a big winner over Belmont, 78-44.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN DIEGO -- The critics were probably half right. At times it looked like Air Force belonged in the NCAA tournament. Other times, the Falcons played like a dubious pick.
Illinois was just too big and too talented, and finally overpowered the Falcons, winning 78-69 in a first-round game on Thursday night.
Guard Jamar Smith had six 3-pointers among his 20 points for the fourth-seeded Fighting Illini (26-6), who were playing in their first NCAA tournament game since losing last year's championship to North Carolina.
The opponent this time was quite a bit different. The tournament selection committee took a ton of grief for adding Air Force (24-7) of the Mountain West Conference as the 13th seed in the Washington Regional.
Now, the Falcons go back to their rigorous academic grind. The Fighting Illini will play Saturday against the winner of the Utah State-Washington game.
Dee Brown was held to eight points, the third time in the last five games that the star Illinois guard has been held to single digits. But he made up for it with nine assists and a career-high nine rebounds.
Air Force tried to hang with the Illini, and succeeded at times. The Falcons' Princeton offense was more efficient in the second half than in the first, and they scored seven straight points, including four by guard Antoine Hood, to pull to 39-38 with 16:18 to play.
Illinois answered with a 3-pointer by Smith and a three-point play by Brian Randle to make it 45-38.
The shots stopped falling for the Falcons for a stretch, and they never got back into it.
Smith hit four 3-pointers in the final 14 minutes, and James Augustine, Warren Carter and Randle dominated inside.
A play by Randle with two minutes left seemed to sum up the talent gap. He stole the ball from Dan Nwaelele and went in for an emphatic slam dunk for a 76-62 lead.
Randle scored 15, Carter 12 and Augustine 10. Hood had 17 for Air Force, while Jacob Burtschi, Nwaelele and Matt McCraw had 13 each.
Alabama 90, Marquette 85
SAN DIEGO -- Jean Felix was nearly perfect in scoring a season-high 31 points for the Crimson Tide, in a game that was delayed 70 minutes after bomb-sniffing dogs detected something suspicious at San Diego State's arena.
Once order was restored, Felix made five 3-pointers in the first 12 1/2 minutes to help the 10th-seeded Crimson Tide (18-12) take a 15-point lead.
With Alabama leading 86-85, the ball bounced off Felix's foot and went out of bounds, but Steve Novak missed a turnaround jumper. Alabama's Ronald Steele made two free throws for an 88-85 lead. Novak, Marquette's all-time 3-point shooter, missed from behind the arc with 7.8 seconds left.
Seventh-seeded Marquette (20-11) was eliminated in its first NCAA tournament appearance since reaching the Final Four in 2003. Alabama moves on to play UCLA.
UCLA 78, Belmont 44
SAN DIEGO -- Freshman Luc Richard Mbah a Moute scored a career-high 17 points and UCLA routed the small Nashville school.
Ryan Hollins added 10 points for No. 2 seed UCLA (28-6), which won its seventh straight after holding 15th-seeded Belmont to 21 second-half points. Justin Hare Boomer Herndon and Andrew Preston had six points each for Belmont (20-11).
UCLA coach Ben Howland earned his first NCAA tournament victory since taking over in Westwood three seasons ago. The Bruins advanced to the second round for the first time since 2002 and will play 10th-seeded Alabama.
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