DAYTON, Ohio — Ansley Almonor scored 23 points and Fairleigh Dickinson beat Texas Southern 84-61 Wednesday night to earn its first NCAA Tournament win in four seasons.
The Knights held a 14-2 lead after a 12-0 run in the opening 3:29 and didn’t never gave up the lead. Grant Singleton scored seven points during a 19-6 run in which the Knights led by as many as 18 points at the end of the first half.
Jordan Gilliam made a jumper that got Texas Southern as close as 10 points with 10:01 left in the second half. The Tigers shot 42% and went 1 for 17 from 3-point distance.
Fairleigh Dickinson shot 50% and made 11 3's to advance to the East Region and play top-seeded Purdue in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday.
“Our press got us going, and then our half-court defense was excellent. We shared the ball. We played unselfish,” Fairleigh Dickinson coach Tobin Anderson said. “When you play that well, life’s pretty easy, so I thought we played very, very well.”
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Joe Munden Jr. scored 17 points, Demetre Roberts had 15, Singleton finished with 13 and Sean Moore 10 for Fairleigh Dickinson (20-15).
John Walker III led Texas Southern (14-21) with 22 points. Joirdon Karl Nicholas added 10.
“Unfortunately, we just didn’t have enough to overcome those guys and their 3-point shooting tonight,” Texas Southern coach Johnny Jones said.
ARIZONA ST. 98, NEVADA 73: DJ Horne had 20 points and Arizona State raced to a big halftime lead and scored the most points ever in a First Four game, burying Nevada.
Arizona State (23-12) led 53-26 at the half and kept scoring in the second on the way to the rout.
The first-half output was a season high for Arizona State, which advanced as a No. 11 seed to face TCU in a West Region first-round game on Friday in Denver.
“It was a complete performance for us. You want to be playing this way at this time of year,” Arizona State coach Bobby Hurley said. “That’s what it’s all about. I truly believe that our schedule and the games we’ve been in, especially late in the season, prepares you for these types of games. And it was across the board, just everyone contributed. Our defense was outstanding in the first half.”
Arizona State hit 67.7% of its shots from the floor and forced 10 turnovers in the first half, putting together a 22-2 run over eight minutes to pull away, meanwhile keeping the defensive pressure on and forcing the Wolf Pack to the perimeter.
“I think when we get off to starts like that, it just feeds on to everybody on the team and builds energy, and I feel like it showed tonight,” Horne said.
The Sun Devils shot a stunning 64% from the floor, much better than their season average of 41.3%. They hit 11 of 21 (52.4%) from 3-point range, with Horne making four of his five tries.
Desmond Cambridge Jr. — a Nevada transfer — had 17 points, Jamiya Neal had 16 and Desmond's brother, Devan Cambridge, added 15 for Arizona State.