March 21 (UPI) -- McNeese State built up a big lead and held on for the first major upset of the 2025 men's basketball tournament, ousting Clemson with a 69-67 triumph in the first round in Providence, R.I.
Senior guard Brandon Murray scored 21 of the Cowboys' 35 points off the bench in the narrow first-round win triumph Thursday at Amica Mutual Pavilion. The 12th-seeded Cowboys (28-6) outshot the 5th-seeded Tigers (27-7) 43.% to 36.8%. They edged the Tigers 44-24 in points in the paint and led by as many as 24 points.
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"We just had a mindset from the jump," Murray told reporters. "We went out there and took the first punch and they just didn't know how to react."
The Cowboys, who won their first NCAA tournament game in school history, will face No. 4 Purdue in the second round Saturday in Providence. The winner will take on No. 1 Houston or No. 8 Gonzaga in the Sweet 16 for a shot to go to the Elite Eight.
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"It was just a great game for us," Cowboys coach Will Wade said. "Our first half was pretty flawless defensively. We've been saving that zone. We hadn't played the 2-3 zone all year. ... We thought this would be a good time to pull it out.
"Our guys did a great job of executing. We hit our benchmarks."
The Tigers took the lead twice through the opening three minutes, but then went cold, making just 3 of 18 shot attempts for the remainder of the first half. They were outscored 27-7 during that stretch and trailed 31-13 at the break. Murray outscored the Tigers with 14 points over the first 20 minutes.
Tigers senior guard Jaeden Zackery, who scored 20 of his 24 points over the final 20 minutes, scored the first three points of the second half. The Cowboys then went on a 9-0 to take a 40-16 advantage, their largest lead of the night.
The Tigers answered with their own 9-0 run, cutting the deficit to 13. They later added a 13-5 surge to cut the Cowboys lead to nine with 1:45 remaining. They also made 3-pointers of four-consecutive possessions with less than a minute remaining. The Cowboys, who led 68-65 with 12 seconds left in the game, iced their victory on a made free throw from senior guard Javohn Garcia and missed 3-pointer from Zackery.
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Tigers senior guard Chase Hunter, who scored all 21 of his points in the second half, netted the final points of the game with a layup as time expired.
Cowboys senior forward Christian Shumate totaled 13 points and 11 rebounds in the victory. Junior guard Quadir Copeland logged 16 points, seven rebounds and five assists for the Cowboys.
The Cowboys will face No. 4 Purdue (23-11) in the second round at 12:10 p.m. EDT Saturday on CBS.
Earlier Thursday, Purdue advanced with a 75-63 win over No. 13 High Point. No. 1 Houston, No. 1 Auburn, No. 2 Tennessee, No. 2 St. John's, No. 3 Wisconsin, No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 4 Texas A&M were among other top seeds to advance through Thursday's first-round games.
No. 5 Michigan led by as many as 15 points against No. 12 UC San Diego, but needed to hold off the Tritons in the second half for a 68-65 victory Thursday in Denver.
No. 6 BYU, No. 11 Drake, No. 10 Arkansas, No. 7 UCLA, No. 9 Creighton and No. 8 Gonzaga also picked up first-round victories through Thursday's gauntlet of games.
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No. 9 Baylor will take on No. 8 Mississippi State in the first game of Friday's first-round slate. That game will tip off at 12:15 p.m. in Raleigh, N.C., and air on CBS. Top seeds Duke and Florida, second-seeded Alabama and Michigan State, third-seeded Kentucky and Iowa State and fourth-seeded Maryland and Arizona will be among the other top teams in action.
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