2024 March Madness Tournament West Region Day One Results
March Madness is back, kicking off Round of 64 action with 16 matchups today. The West region saw eight teams battle, and just four advances to the round of 32. In the first matchup, ninth-seeded Michigan State topped eighth-seeded Mississippi State 69-51. Guards Tyson Walker and Jaden Akins led the way for the Spartans, Walker dropping 19 points and three steals, while Akins scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds. For the Bulldogs, only freshman guard Josh Hubbard reached double-digits in points with 15.
The second West matchup featured the two teams that Michigan State may face in the next round, with one-seed North Carolina facing off against sixteenth-seed Wagner. Carolina mostly rolled in this one, winning comfortably 90-62. The Tar Heels were only leading by 12 at the break but went on an extended run in the second half to put the game away for good. The senior tandem of guard RJ Davis and center Armando Bacot were simply mismatched for the Seahawks. Davis led with 22 points on 8-13 shooting, while Bacot recorded a monster double-double of 20 points and 15 rebounds, five of those being on the offensive end. The Tar Heels are now set to face the Michigan State Spartans on Saturday in the Round of 32.
The second-seeded Arizona Wildcats also won handily by a score of 85-65 despite in the first half looking very much unprepared for the fifteenth-seeded Long Beach State Beach. The Beach led for stretches in the first half and was only down by six points at halftime. Arizona slowly extended their lead out of the break, and the Beach was left washed away. Sophomore guard Kylan Boswell scored 20 points for the Wildcats, and each of the five starters finished with 11 or more points, flashing the team’s array of offensive weapons.
In the final West matchup of the day, the seventh-seeded Dayton Flyers completed a spectacular comeback to beat the tenth-seeded Nevada Wolfpack by a score of 63-60. This game was one you had to see to believe, as there were multiple massive runs that flipped the game on its head. Dayton led 25-18 with five minutes left in the first half when Nevada went on a torrid 16-0 run to end the half up by nine points. In the second half, Nevada went on a 10-1 run to extend their lead to 56-39 with seven minutes remaining. The Flyers didn’t go down though, going on an incredible 24-4 to win the game by three points. Dayton will now go on to face the Arizona Wildcats in the round of 32.
