Aaron Williams and Brian Grant each scored 20 points and Xavier didn't allow a field goal for more than six minutes in the second half to upset New Orleans 73-55 Friday night at the NCAA Midwest Regional.
Xavier (24-5) will play Indiana in the second round Sunday.The eighth-seeded Privateers missed five consecutive shots during their cold spell while Xavier moved ahead to stay with a 12-2 spurt.
New Orleans, the Sun Belt regular-season champions, were leading 40-35 when they went cold. Grant, who had 10 rebounds, capped Xavier's run by making two free throws to put Xavier ahead 47-42 with 10:32 to play.
Ervin Johnson, who scored 21 points for New Orleans (26-4), had the only points for the Privateers during the Xavier spurt. But Johnson was already in foul trouble and Xavier began pulling away as it consistently challenged the 6-foot-11 center inside.
The Musketeers, ninth in the nation in field goal accuracy at 50.6 percent, fell behind by as many as nine points in the first half when they made just 6 of their first 19 shots.
Trailing 24-15 with 6:28 left in the opening half, Xavier rallied to tie it at halftime 32-32. A tip-in by Williams tied the game for the last time at 42 and Jamie Gladden, who had 17 points, then hit a free throw to put Xavier ahead to stay.
Indiana 97, Wright St. 54
Indiana got a big game from its best player and an answer from its biggest question mark.
Calbert Cheaney scored 29 points and Alan Henderson returned from an injury that had left his postseason status in doubt as the Hoosiers routed Wright State 97-54 Friday night in the first round of the NCAA Midwest Regional.
Indiana (29-3), the nation's top-ranked team and No. 1 seed in the Midwest, advanced to the second round on Sunday against Xavier, Ohio, which beat New Orleans 73-55.
Cheaney, who played only eight minutes in the first half, scored Indiana's first 13 points in a 23-2 streak that buried the Raiders early in the second period.
Alan Henderson returned to the Indiana line-up and hit one of two shots and had one rebound before leaving the game with 8:10 to go. Wright State came no closer than 25 the rest of the way.
Louisville 76, Delaware 70
Louisville built a big lead in the second half against Delaware, and then almost watched it disappear.
The 15th-ranked Cardinals almost blew an 18-point cushion before beating the Blue Hens 76-70.
"It was a weird game," Louisville coach Denny Crum said. "I don't think we ever really got in synch for some reason . . . We kind of seemed to go into a little daze at times."
Dwayne Morton and Clifford Rozier scored 20 points apiece, but the Cardinals had 15 turnovers and missed 12 of 25 free throws to offset 52 percent shooting from the field.
The victory sent fourth-seeded Louisville (21-8) into Sunday's second round against fifth-seeded Oklahoma State, which beat Marquette 74-62.
Delaware was led by Anthony Wright, who scored 11 of his 17 points in the second half.
Brian Pearl had 13 points for Delaware, including seven in the final minute, and Spencer Dunkley added 12.
Oklahoma State 74, Marquette 62
One statistic summed up Marquette's futile effort to stop Big Eight player of the year Bryant Reeves of Oklahoma State.
Six minutes, five fouls.
That was the line for Jim McIlvaine, Marquette's 7-foot-1 center, who was to be the main line of defense against the player they call "Big Country."
Reeves had 26 points and 10 rebounds and Fred Burley and Brooks Thompson powered a late surge as the fifth-seeded Cowboys beat Marquette.
"We all came together and decided we were going to go out and play harder than the other team the last five minutes," guard Randy Rutherford said of a game in which the teams were even until the final few minutes.
Thompson hit his fourth 3-pointer with 3:28 remaining to give Oklahoma State a 58-56 lead and open a 19-6 scoring drive that ended Marquette's first NCAA tournament appearance since 1983.