NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The initiation of Kentucky's fabulous freshmen to the NCAA tournament went as well as John Calipari could have hoped.
Eric Bledsoe set a school record for 3-pointers in a tournament game with eight during a 29-point effort, and the top-seeded Wildcats led by 30 in the first half and 40 in the second while cruising to 100-71 blowout of East Tennessee State.
"Hopefully, we're this good," Calipari said. "I'm not sure if we are, but we'll see if we can keep it going."
That result had spectators falling asleep in their seats Thursday evening, but those who waited around for the late game between Wake Forest and Texas saw an overtime thriller. It ended with Ishmael Smith's pull-up jumper in the final seconds of the extra session lifting the Demon Deacons to an 81-80 victory.
The eighth-seeded Longhorns' loss punctuated a puzzling slide from as high as No. 1 in the national rankings in January to a first-round exit from the NCAA tournament.
"Towards the season, we stopped doing the little things that made us a good team," said Texas point guard J'Covan Brown. "Coach was trying to keep that in our minds. And every game, you know, just play as a team. But we just got away from it."
In the South Region, Baylor won a tournament game for the first time in six decades, pulling away in the final 2:30 for a 68-59 win over an upset-minded Sam Houston State squad that had the game tied inside the final four minutes. The Bears now move on to play 11th seed Old Dominion, 51-50 upset winners over Notre Dame.
It was Old Dominion's first NCAA tournament win since beating Villanova in triple overtime in 1995.
"I think it reflects the magic of March, the way the two teams battled," Old Dominion coach Blaine Taylor said. "One of the officials turns to me at the two-minute mark and said, 'It's been a heck of a game,' and I really think it was."
It might have turned out better for Notre Dame if standout 6-foot-8 senior Luke Harangody had been on top of his game, but instead he was held scoreless until the final seconds and finished with four points.
"I played a bad game," Harangody said. "When you don't hit a shot early and you're coming off the bench, it's just very hard to get in a rhythm. ... Obviously this is not the way I wanted to go out."
Instead, the second round welcomes players like Frank Hassell had 15 points and nine rebounds to lead Old Dominion to victory. To advance any further, the Monarchs (27-8) will have to figure out a way to stop Baylor's Ekpe Udoh, who had 20 points and 13 rebounds to help the Bears (26-7) outlast Sam Houston State. LaceDarius Dunn also came alive in the second half for Baylor, when he scored 10 of his 13 points and keyed a crucial 8-0 run with a tough turnaround fade in the lane and soaring one-handed jam.
In the East region, Kentucky (33-2) is showing no signs of immaturity despite having three freshmen starters and a fourth freshman playing a top reserve role. While Bledsoe was hitting shot after shot from long range, fellow freshman John Wall was running the point to perfection, finishing with 17 points and 11 assists. Junior Patrick Patterson, the elder statesman of the Wildcats' rotation had 22 points on 9-of-10 shooting including a handful of dunks, and Kentucky hit 15 3s in all.
"Our scouting report said they couldn't make 3s and they made 15," ETSU coach Murry Bartow said. "So, obviously, if the rest of the tournament they shoot the ball the way they did tonight, they're obviously going to be a very tough out."
Now Kentucky plays Wake Forest (20-10) which demonstrated an impressive will to win ugly against Texas. The Demon Deacons outrebounded the Longhorns 59-34.
"We really got just pounded on the glass," Texas coach Rick Barnes said. "I can never remember getting outrebounded 59-34."
Still, Texas had an 80-76 lead in the final half-minute of overtime. Then Ari Stewart hit a 3 with 16 seconds to go to make it 80-79 and Gary Johnson missed a pair of free throws. That allowed Smith to go end-to-end, capping his 19-point, 12-rebound and seven-assist outing with a game-winner he'll never forget.
"We're not the prettiest team in the world," Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said. "We don't shoot the ball straight a lot of times, but our defense was the difference in the basketball game as was (rebounding). So we live to fight another day."
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AP Sports Writer Noah Trister contributed to this report
