In the first NCAA men's basketball tournament game to end today, LSU held off Butler, 75-71.
Marcus Thornton led the Tigers (27-8) with 30 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Next, LSU will face North Carolina.
Memphis 81, Cal-State Northridge 70
The 15th-seeded Matadors hung with Memphis through the first 33 minutes and had a 64-63 lead with 8:06 remaining before the Tigers pulled away.
Second-seeded Memphis (32-3) will take on Maryland next.
Texas A&M 79, BYU 66
The Aggies took a nine point lead less than five minutes in and never allowed BYU to make a run.
Bryan Davis had 21 points and eight boards to lead Texas A&M (23-9), which awaits the Connecticut-Chattanooga winner.
Maryland 84, California 71
Maryland never let California get going from long range. Now the Terps are back in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Grievis Vasquez had 27 points and Maryland shut down the nation's best 3-point shooting team in an 84-71 victory over Cal in the first round of the West Regional on Thursday.
North Carolina 101, Radford 58.
Tyler Hansbrough set the Atlantic Coast Conference career scoring record and finished with 22 points to help North Carolina beat Radford 101-58 in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Thursday.
Wayne Ellington scored 25 points to lead the Tar Heels (29-4), the top seed in the South Region. North Carolina played without injured point guard Ty Lawson for a third straight game, but had no trouble advancing to Saturday's second round against LSU.
Purdue 61, Northern Iowa 56.
E'Twaun Moore had 17 points and fifth-seeded Purdue held off a late charge by 12th-seeded Northern Iowa for a 61-56 victory Thursday in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
JaJuan Johnson added 14 points for the Boilermakers (26-9), who led by as many as 14 in the West Regional at the Rose Garden Arena.
UConn 103, Chattanooga 47
This dominating Connecticut win just might have made an ailing Jim Calhoun feel better.
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