INSIDE THE GAMES

First day lacks offense, squeakers

The lack of offense on the first day of the NCAA tournament was downright offensive as four losing teams failed to break the 50-point mark.

That matched the total for the entire first round last year and was double the total for the first two days of the 2005 tournament.

Marquette, George Washington, Weber State and Old Dominion all failed to hit half-a-hundred in losing by an average of 21 points. All four of the teams came into the tournament averaging between 70 and 72 points.

It definitely wasn’t a day of nail-biters.

Only Virginia Commonwealth’s victory over Duke and Xavier’s win over Brigham Young, both by the score 79-77, were decided by less than nine points. Vanderbilt’s 77-44 win over George Washington was the biggest of the blowouts.

Young blood

Freshmen have been in the headlines all season, so it made sense that one of them came up with the first big performance of the NCAA tournament.

Stephen Curry of Davidson had 30 points in the Wildcats’ 82-70 first-round loss to Maryland.

Second only to Kevin Durant of Texas among the nation’s freshmen in scoring, Curry kept 13th-seeded Davidson in the game until the final minutes.

Durant, who plays tonight in Spokane against New Mexico State, averaged 25.6 points this season, while Curry, the son of former NBA guard Dell Curry, averaged 21.2. They were the only freshmen among the top 30 scorers in the country.

The 6-foot-1 Curry was 9 for 21 from the field and 7 for 7 from the free-throw line.

“He’s for real,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said. “I told him after the game, ‘You could play anywhere.’ “

Free throws

Duke’s 79-77 loss to Virginia Commonwealth, the Blue Devils’ first in the first round since 1996, featured an uncharacteristic performance at the free-throw line.

Duke, which entered the game shooting 69.2 percent at the line, went 20 for 32 (62.5 percent) against the Rams. Sophomore point guard Greg Paulus, who finished with 25 points, went 6 for 11. He entered the game shooting 78.6 percent at the line.

The Blue Devils, who end the season with four straight losses, had reached the round of 16 the last nine years, the longest current streak.

Sour streak

Penn’s 68-52 loss to Texas A&M was the Quakers’ ninth straight in the NCAA tournament, a streak that dates to a second-round loss to Florida in 1994.

The longest current streak is held by Murray State at 11 in a row, from a second-round loss to Kansas in 1988 through last season. North Carolina A&T has also lost nine straight (1982-1995) and Holy Cross, which plays Southern Illinois today, has dropped eight straight from a regional final loss to LSU in 1953 to 2003.

Stopping 3s

Belmont’s Andy Wicke came into the first-round game against Georgetown as one of the country’s best 3-point shooters. The Hoyas, who were sixth in the country this season in 3-point percentage defense, forced him into one of his worst games of the season.

The 6-foot-2 sophomore was 10th in the nation this season, hitting 46 percent (75 for 164). In the Bruins’ 80-55 loss to second-seeded Georgetown, Wicke was 2 for 11 from beyond the arc.

Associated Press