The 2013 NCAA Basketball Tournament began on Thursday with 16 games taking place.

West Regional

No. 14 Harvard 68, No. 3 New Mexico 62

Give those Harvard kids an A-plus in another subject: Bracketbusting 101.

Wesley Saunders scored 18 points and Laurent Rivard made five 3- pointers to help the 14th-seeded Crimson pull off the biggest upset on the first full day of NCAA tournament games at Salt Lake City.

The Ivy League advanced for the first time since a very good Cornell team made the regional semifinals in 2010. The Mountain West Conference, judged one of the top two leagues in college basketball all season, fell to 1-3 so far this week.

Harvard will play Arizona on Saturday.

The Crimson (20-9) put the clamps down on New Mexico’s Tony Snell, holding him to nine points on fourfor 12 shooting after he dominated in the MWC tournament. They banged inside with Lobos big men Cameron Bairstow and Alex Kirk, whose 22 points provided New Mexico’s only consistent offense.

No. 6 Arizona 81, No. 11 Belmont 64

Mark Lyons scored 23 points and sixth-seeded Arizona rolled past Belmont.

The Wildcats (26-7) used their huge size advantage to shut down the Bruins (26-7), who are 0-6 in tourney games. Arizona held a 44-18 edge on the boards, outscored Belmont 36- 18 in the paint, blocked five shots and outshot the Bruins from 3-point range.

The Wildcats made nine of 17 3- pointers, including a critical one from Solomon Hill with 4:40 remaining to stop an 11-2 Belmont run, and shot 57 percent overall.

No. 1 Gonzaga 64, No. 16 Southern 58

A March Madness warmup turned into a great escape for Gonzaga.

The Zags got pushed to the limit by Southern, pulling out a victory in the closing minutes to avoid becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose to a 16 in the NCAA tournament.

Kelly Olynyk led the Zags (32-2) with 21 points. They play No. 9 Wichita State on Saturday.

But it was a pair of 3-pointers — one by Gary Bell Jr., the next by Kevin Pangos — that staked the Bulldogs to a 62-58 lead only moments after the game was tied at 56 with 3:45 left.

No. 1 seeds are now 113-0 against 16s.

No. 9 Wichita State 73, No. 8 Pittsburgh 55

Malcolm Armstead scored 22 points, Cleanthony Early added 21 and ninth-seeded Wichita State ousted Pittsburgh.

Freshman center Steven Adams led Pitt (24-9) with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Call Hall added 11 points for the Shockers (27-8).

East Regional

No. 3 Marquette 59, No. 14 Davidson 58

Vander Blue’s layup with a second left capped Marquette’s late rally against Davidson.

Blue and Jamil Wilson made consecutive 3-pointers to bring Marquette to 58-57 with 11 seconds left. The third-seeded Golden Eagles then caught a huge break when De’Mon Brooks’ long inbounds pass went out of bounds at midcourt with 5.5 seconds left, providing another opportunity.

Blue took full advantage after taking Wilson’s inbounds pass, driving left and finding room for the winning basket. He then sealed Marquette’s improbable win by stealing Davidson’s last-ditch inbounds pass at midcourt to set off a celebration among players and Golden Eagles fans at Rupp Arena.

No. 6 Butler 68, No. 11 Bucknell 56

Andrew Smith had 14 points and a career-high 16 rebounds, Roosevelt Jones also scored 14 and sixth-seeded Butler made its free throws down the stretch to hold off Bucknell.

After trailing for most of the game, 11th-seeded Bucknell got back into it with a 19-2 second-half run. But after Joe Willman’s jumper cut Butler’s lead to 43-42 with 6:56 left, the Bison (28-6) went almost five minutes without scoring. Butler went 18 of 20 at the line in the last 4:43.

No. 12 California 64, No. 5 UNLV 61

Allen Crabbe had 19 points and nine rebounds, reserve Robert Thurman scored all 12 of his points on dunks and 12th-seeded California held off UNLV.

Buoyed by the crowd support of a strong contingent so close to Berkeley, the Golden Bears (21-11) held the Runnin’ Rebels (25-10) without a basket for more than 11 minutes in the second half. Cal turned a tie game into a nine-point lead during that stretch and withstood a late UNLV push for its first tournament win since 2010.

No. 4 Syracuse 81, No. 13 Montana 34

Brandon Triche scored 20 points, C.J. Fair added 13 and the fourthseeded Orange shut down No. 13 seed Montana with their zone defense in the biggest NCAA tournament blowout by a team seeded third or lower.

Michael Carter-Williams chipped in four points, eight rebounds and nine assists as the Orange (27-9) raced out to an early lead that grew as big as 50 points and coasted past the Grizzlies (25-7) to their most lopsided tournament win since beating Brown 101-52 in the first round in 1986.

Midwest Regional

No. 1 Louisville 79, No. 16 North Carolina A&T 48

Russ Smith scored 23 points and had eight of Louisville’s NCAA tournament-record 20 steals in an easy win over North Carolina A&T on rival Kentucky’s home court in Lexington, Ky.

Peyton Siva added eight assists and four steals for top-seeded Louisville, which limited the 16thseeded Aggies (20-17) to 42 percent shooting and harassed them into 27 turnovers. It was the 11th straight victory for the Cardinals (30-5), who will play Colorado State on Saturday.

No. 8 Colorado State 84, No. 9 Missouri 72

Dorian Green scored 17 of his 26 points in the first half and eighthseeded Colorado State ran away from Missouri.

Green, who went scoreless with five turnovers in last year’s secondround loss to Murray State, did much better this time as the Rams shot nearly 58 percent in the first half.

No. 3 Michigan State 64, No. 14 Valparaiso 54

Derrick Nix had 23 points and a career-high 15 rebounds to help power third-seeded Michigan State past the 14th-seeded Crusaders in the Midwest Regional.

The Spartans went on a 26-5 run in the first half to take control, and cruised to an easy victory.

No. 6 Memphis 54, No. 11 Saint Mary’s 52

Matthew Dellavedova’s 3-pointer from the right wing missed everything as time expired, allowing sixth-seeded Memphis to hold on for a win over 11th-seeded Saint Mary’s.

The Tigers (31-4) led by 15 in the first half but nearly gave the game away in the final seconds.

With Memphis ahead 54-49, Eividas Petrulis banked in a 3-pointer with 3.1 seconds to play. The Tigers then lost the ball when the Gaels’ Jordan Giusti deflected the inbounds pass off Joe Jackson of Memphis and out of bounds.

No. 4 St. Louis 64, No. 13 New Mexico State 44

Dwayne Evans scored 24 points, Cody Ellis added 12 and fourth-seeded St. Louis overwhelmed New Mexico State.

Playing through Rick Majerus’ death in December, St. Louis reached another mark for its late coach. The Billikens (28-6) eclipsed the 1988-89 team’s school record of 27 victories.

Evans shot 11 of 16 and finished a point shy of his career best to propel Saint Louis past 7-foot-5 New Mexico State freshman Sim Bhullar. The Billikens held Bhullar to four points, 11 rebounds and three blocks.

No. 12 Oregon 68, No. 5 Oklahoma State 55

Damyean Dotson scored 17 points and Arsalan Kazemi added 11 points and 17 rebounds to help 12th-seeded Oregon beat fifth-seeded Oklahoma, extending a run that began in the Pac-12 tournament.

Dominic Artis scored 13 points and helped frustrate Oklahoma State star freshman Marcus Smart on the defensive end to give the Ducks (27-8) their first tournament win in six years.

South Regional

No. 4 Michigan 71, No. 13 South Dakota State 56

Glenn Robinson III scored 21 points and Mitch McGary added 13 points and nine rebounds, helping fourth-seeded Michigan overcome a rough night for star Trey Burke.

Burke made only two field goals and left the game briefly in the second half after a hard fall under the basket. The star point guard came back after that, but he finished with only six points.

No. 5 VCU 88, No. 12 Akron 42

Troy Daniels had 23 points, Juvonte Reddic scored 21 and VCU routed Akron in the most lopsided victory by a fifth-seeded team over a No. 12 in NCAA tournament history.

The previous mark was set by Wyoming in a 35-point win over Howard in 1981 and matched by Tennessee against Long Beach State in 2007, according to STATS.

The Rams (27-8) forced 22 turnovers.