Hoyas beat Northern Iowa to end five-year NCAA slump

Seven-foot-two center Roy Hibbert led Georgetown in the 54-49 win.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DAYTON -- John Thompson hugged the 7-foot-2 center who had just led Georgetown to another first-round NCAA tournament win, energetically slapping his broad back.
How many times has this happened?
A lot, but not lately.
Roy Hibbert scored 17 points Friday, and seventh-seeded Georgetown relied on its clampdown defense for a 54-49 victory over Northern Iowa -- the Hoyas' first NCAA victory in five years.
"The first game, I think we got the jitters out," said Ashanti Cook, who had two free throws and a clinching dunk in the closing seconds. "Now it's time to play basketball. We're not here to participate, we're here to win the whole thing."
The Hoyas (22-9) will play second-seeded Ohio State on Sunday. The Buckeyes beat Davidson 70-62 in their opener, and coach Thad Matta did a little courtside scouting in the second game.
He spent a lot of time looking up.
No. 10 seed Northern Iowa (23-10) had no one to match up with Hibbert, who got the Hoyas back to winning on the stage they once dominated. Hibbert went 8-of-10 from the field and had nine rebounds before fouling out with 1:11 to go.
He also set the tone inside on defense -- the Panthers opened the second half in a 2-of-18 shooting slump against the Big East's stingiest defense.
"I have to be aggressive all the time, but I've got to make sure I make smart plays," Hibbert said. "People double- and triple-team me, and I need to look for the open shooter."
For Georgetown, this victory amounted to a homecoming. The Hoyas won the NCAA title in 1984 under Thompson, who took the Hoyas to three Final Four appearances during a four-year span.
Georgetown hadn't won 20 games or made a tournament appearance since 2001. Thompson's son, John III, took over last season and got the Hoyas turned around.
George Mason 75, Michigan St. 65
Sensing that his team was nervous and tight, George Mason coach Jim Larranaga called his players together after practice earlier this week.
"When you get to Dayton, have a ball," he told them. "I'm going to have as much fun as I possibly can."
They sure did.
Folarin Campbell scored 21 points and the 11th-seeded Patriots used hot shooting, a balanced attack and a surprising rebounding superiority to upset Michigan State.
Losers in the semifinals of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament, the Patriots (24-7) had to hold their breath when the brackets were announced. Then they had to hold their tongue when many questioned why a team from the lightly regarded CAA would get an at-large bid over heavyweights such as Cincinnati of the Big East and the ACC's Florida State.
"We just used that as motivation," portly center Jai Lewis said. "We're No. 9 nationally in field goal defense, our RPI is high and we won our conference. We deserved it."
Overjoyed fans of the conference's regular-season champs chanted "C-A-A! C-A-A!" in the closing minute.
North Carolina 69, Murray State 65
A whole new Carolina cast looked nothing like defending champs the first time out in the NCAA tournament.
Murray State, a team with all of one NCAA victory in its history, took third-seeded North Carolina down to the closing seconds Friday night before the Tar Heels held on.
Underscoring how much North Carolina (23-7) has changed in a year: Four freshmen scored the Tar Heels' final 29 points. Tyler Hansbrough led the way with 24 overall, his 14th 20-point game -- a Carolina freshman record.
It wasn't secure until Marcus Ginyard -- yes, another freshman -- made two free throws with 16.5 seconds left for a 69-65 lead.
The Tar Heels play George Mason in the second round of the Washington Regional.
Fourteenth-seeded Murray State (24-7) was trying to become the first team in 10 years to knock out a defending champion in the first round. The last champ to make such an early exit was UCLA, which was seeded fourth when it lost to Princeton 43-41 in 1996.
North Carolina isn't a typical defending champion. The Tar Heels lost their top seven scorers from the squad that beat Illinois for the title, an unusually high turnover that left the roster stripped of tournament experience.
It showed.
Heading into the first round, coach Roy Williams fretted that his team would have that wide-eyed look when it took the floor. He was right. The Tar Heels trailed 31-30 at halftime.
Murray State's horrible history at tournament time made it all the more surprising. The Ohio Valley champions are 1-12 in NCAA play, and haven't won a game since their 1988 upset of North Carolina State.