INDIANAPOLIS >> Saint Peter’s acted like it had been there before.

After the 15th-seeded Peacocks bounced storied Kentucky from the NCAA Tournament tonight, they calmly exchanged handshakes with the Wildcats before heading over to the opposite sideline to celebrate with a small contingent of true believers.

The tiny Jesuit school from Jersey City, New Jersey, got 27 points from Daryl Banks III as it took down basketball royalty, beating second-seeded Kentucky 85-79 in overtime and sending countless brackets into the digital wastebasket.

“It was an amazing feeling,” Banks said. “You grow up you watching March Madness, the tournament, so to let that sink in — knowing the game was over — it felt really good.”

The Peacocks became the 10th No. 15 seed to win a first-round game since the tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985 and handed Kentucky its first opening-round loss under coach John Calipari.

“At the end of the day, every team that made it to the NCAA Tournament deserves to be here. Every team that made it to the NCAA Tournament believes they can advance. It’s about this night,” Saint Peter’s coach Shaheen Holloway said.

Saint Peter’s, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion, kept it close throughout and Banks’ two free throws with 1:45 left in overtime gave the Peacocks the lead for good. Doug Edert’s layup with 24 seconds left in regulation sent the game to overtime. He also made the final two game-sealing free throws for the Peacocks and finished with 20 points.

Saint Peter’s (20-11) moves on to face either Murray State in Saturday’s second round in the East Region.

Not bad for a school with an enrollment of about 3,500 that’s made half as many NCAA Tournament appearances (four) as Kentucky has national titles (eight). Kentucky had more than 22,000 undergraduates on its 900-acre campus as of 2020 and has the second highest-paid coach in college hoops in Calipari (more than $8 million per year).

“It’s huge,” Banks said. “We’re putting Jersey City on the map. We come from Jersey, a small school, probably a lot of people don’t even know who we are.”

Oscar Tshiebwe had 30 points and 16 rebounds for Kentucky (26-8) but his pair of missed free throws early in overtime was costly, and the Wildcats lacked a reliable secondary scorer. TyTy Washington Jr. was held to five points on 2-of-10 shooting.

The game featured 16 ties and 13 lead changes. Kentucky went ahead 68-62 on Sahvir Wheeler’s driving layup with 4:12 remaining. Saint Peter’s followed with seven unanswered points, capped by Edert’s go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:25 remaining. Kellan Grady put Kentucky back ahead before Edert forced OT.

The Wildcats had their eyes set on a ninth title behind Tshiebwe, the 6-foot-9 forward who is a candidate for national player of the year honors. And Kentucky was playing in front of a predominantly blue-clad crowd at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, a 2 1/2 hour drive from Lexington.

“It is sad because I’ve been wanting this moment for a long time,” Tshiebwe said.

Banks set the tone throughout, making all four 3s for 16 first-half points. He finished 9 of 19 from the field and 5 of 8 from deep, with a loud reaction following most every big shot. Teammates followed suit.

Edert made 5 of 7 shots including both of his 3-point tries. Saint Peter’s finished 9 of 17 overall from 3 and shot 29 of 57 overall (50.9%). The Peacocks also stayed close on the boards (35 to Kentucky’s 36) and made 18 of 21 from the line.

“It feels amazing, truly it feels amazing,” Edert said. “They had a great crowd, a lot of people. I don’t know if you saw it, but we had our own little section over there, too.”

Kentucky was 26 of 61 (43%) overall and 23 of 35 from the line. The Wildcats were tentative at times with the ball, hesitation that ended with forced shots. And it led to a second consecutive loss to close the season.

“My whole thing this week, because I knew they had never played in this stuff, was to get them free and loose and we never got to that point,” Calipari said. “Even during timeouts, I was trying to do that. … As a coach it’s your job to figure out how to finish the game and we didn’t do that.”

MURRAY STATE 92, SAN FRANCISCO 87, OT

INDIANAPOLIS >> KJ Williams scored six of his 18 points in overtime after Murray State blew an eight-point lead late in regulation, and the seventh-seeded Racers extended their winning streak to 21 games by beating San Francisco.

The Racers (31-2) tied South Dakota State, which lost to Providence earlier Thursday, for the longest winning streak in the nation this season.

The game featured 18 lead changes and 14 ties. Murray State ultimately took control with Williams’ clutch baskets and Jordan Skipper-Brown’s timely plays in the extra session.

Jamaree Bouyea scored 36 points for USF (24-10), which made its first NCAA appearance since 1998.

BAYLOR 85, NORFOLK STATE 49

FORT WORTH, Texas >> Matthew Mayer scored a career-high 22 points and defending national champion Baylor beat Norfolk State.

Freshman standout Jeremy Sochan added 15 points and seven rebounds for the top-seeded Bears (27-6), who will play eighth-seeded North Carolina on Saturday.

Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference player of the year Joe Bryant had 15 points for 16th-seeded Norfolk State (24-7).

The Spartans were one of the biggest underdogs in first-round games this year, at 20 1/2 points, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Despite some size up front, they couldn’t keep up with the Bears and never came close to an upset.

Flo Thamba scored 14 points and Adam Flagler had 11 points for the Bears after some early foul trouble.

NORTH CAROLINA 95, MARQUETTE 63

FORT WORTH, Texas >> Brady Manek scored 28 points, Caleb Love had 21 of his 23 before halftime and North Carolina routed Marquette.

Love made six 3-pointers, all in the first 19 minutes, to tie Carolina’s single-game tournament record as the Tar Heels (25-9) built a 28-point lead.

Manek, who also had 11 rebounds, finished with five 3s as he and Love combined to go 11 of 24 from long range. Armando Bacot grabbed 10 rebounds on his way to the school season record (422).

RJ Davis had a career-high 12 assists for Carolina.

Olivier-Maxence Prosper scored 16 points for the No. 9 seed Golden Eagles (19-13), who lost their third consecutive first-round game.

SAINT MARY’S 82, INDIANA 53

PORTLAND, Ore. >> Logan Johnson scored 20 points and fifth-seeded Saint Mary’s took advantage of No. 12 seed Indiana’s grueling recent schedule.

Tommy Kuhse added 19 points and six assists for the Gaels (26-7), who will play either UCLA or Akron in the second round.

Trayce Jackson-Davis had 12 points for Indiana (21-14), which arrived in Portland on Wednesday morning after an all-nighter because of flight delays from Dayton following its First Four victory over Wyoming.

Thursday’s game was Indiana’s fifth in seven days. Saint Mary’s came in fresh from a 10-day layoff.

Saint Mary’s pulled away late in the first half and led by as many as 34 points — and the overtaxed Hoosiers couldn’t catch up.

SOUTH REGION

MICHIGAN 75, COLORADO STATE 63

INDIANAPOLIS >> Freshman Frankie Collins provided the spark Michigan needed in a turbulent year for the Wolverines and coach Juwan Howard, helping the 11th-seeded Wolverines rally from a 15-point deficit to beat sixth-seeded Colorado State.

Collins, pressed into the starting lineup because starting point guard DeVante’ Jones was out with a concussion, had season highs of 14 points, six rebounds and 31 minutes.

Big man Hunter Dickinson led Michigan with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting. Eli Brooks had 16 points and Caleb Houstan added 13 for the Wolverines (18-14), who will face third-seeded Tennessee in the second round on Saturday.

Dischon Thomas scored 15 points on 5-of-7 3-point shooting for Colorado State (25-6), and Mountain West Conference player of the year David Roddy had 13 points and six rebounds.

The Rams led 28-13 early, but Collins helped Michigan chip away and the Wolverines took the lead for good midway through the second half.

TENNESSEE 88, LONGWOOD 56

INDIANAPOLIS >> Santiago Vescovi scored 18 points and Tennessee pounded Longwood, showing why it felt it deserved better than a No. 3 seed.

The Volunteers (27-7) shot 60% from the field and had four players score in double figures. The runaway victory came just four days after the school won the Southeastern Conference Tournament for the first time in 43 years.

Josiah-Jordan James added 17 points, and John Fulkerson scored 15 on 7-for-8 shooting. Kennedy Chandler had 13 and Zakai Ziegler finished with 10.

Longwood (26-7), the Big South champ from Farmville, Virginia, was led by Justin Hill with 13 points in the school’s first NCAA tourney appearance.

MIDWEST REGION

CREIGHTON 72, SAN DIEGO STATE 69, OT

FORT WORTH, TEXAS >> Trey Alexander converted a go-ahead, three-point play late in overtime, and Creighton rallied past San Diego State.

The Bluejays hadn’t led since the first five minutes of the game when Alexander, who also had the tying bucket late in regulation, drove right and was fouled on the layup. The free throw put Creighton ahead 71-69 with 1:08 remaining.

Down by two, the Aztecs had the ball with 4.3 seconds left when Matt Bradley inbounded to Aguek Arop, then ran around him for the handoff. Bradley lost control of the ball before getting a shot off, and Creighton secured it with 0.8 seconds to to go.

Alexander scored 18 points, and Ryan Kalkbrenner had 16 points and 10 rebounds before leaving with an apparent left leg injury in overtime.

The ninth-seeded Bluejays (23-11) will play Saturday against either Kansas or Texas Southern.

Chad Baker-Mazara scored 15 of his 17 points in the first half for the Aztecs (23-9), who were in position for their first tournament win since 2015. Gus Bradley added 15.

RICHMOND 67, IOWA 63

BUFFALO, N.Y. >> Jacob Gilyard scored 24 points, Tyler Burton added 18 points and 11 rebounds, and No. 12 seed Richmond leaned on its experience to defeat Big Ten tournament champ Iowa.

Nathan Cayo also had 15 points, including a couple of big baskets down the stretch, as the Atlantic 10 Tournament champ Spiders (24-12) improved their NCAA tourney record against fifth-seeded teams to 4-0. They will next face the region’s No. 4 seed, Providence.

Keegan Murray scored 21 points and Patrick McCaffery added 18 for the Hawkeyes (26-10), who were unable to carry over the momentum of winning four times in four days at the Big Ten tournament last weekend.

The Hawkeyes’ fourth-best offense nationally, which entered the NCAA Tournament averaging 83.8 points, was held to its third-lowest total of the year and worst production since a 48-46 loss at Rutgers on Jan. 19.

Gilyard sealed the victory by hitting all four of his free-throw attempts in the final 16 seconds.

PROVIDENCE 66, SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 57

BUFFALO, N.Y. >> Al Durham had 13 points, eight rebounds and six assists and Jared Bynum made three big free throws with 29.9 seconds left as Providence snapped the longest winning streak in college basketball by beating South Dakota State.

It was a typical grind for the Big East regular-season champions. The Friars’ turnaround season after going 13-13 in 2020-21 now includes 16 victories by single digits.

The Jackrabbits (30-6) came in on a 21-game winning streak.

The Friars (26-5) were up three in the final minute and Bynum let loose a 3-pointer with 3 seconds left on the shot clock. The shot missed, but Douglas Wilson was whistled for a foul. Bynum knocked down all three shots to give Providence a six-point lead. Bynum finished with 12 points and Noah Horchler had 13 for the Providence.

Baylor Scheierman led the Jackrabbits with 18 points and 10 rebounds and Wilson scored 13.

WEST REGION

NEW MEXICO STATE 70, UCONN 63

BUFFALO, N.Y. >> Teddy Allen scored 37 points and New Mexico State won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time almost three decades, upsetting fifth-seeded Connecticut to become the second No. 12 seed to advance out of the first round.

The Aggies (27-6) will face the winner of the Arkansas-Vermont game. In their 23rd NCAA appearance, the Aggies won for the first time since beating Syracuse in the first round in 1993.

Allen made a rainbow 3 off the dribble with 1:40 to put New Mexico State up 61-58.

He wasn’t done. After R.J. Cole cut the lead to one for UConn (23-10), Allen went back to work. He completed a three-point play for a 66-60 lead with 27 seconds left.

Cole led the Huskies with 20 points.

GONZAGA 93, GEORGIA STATE 72

PORTLAND, Ore. >> Drew Timme scored 22 of his 32 points in the second half and top overall seed Gonzaga struggled to shake No. 16 seed Georgia State for 30 minutes before pulling away late.

The Zags (27-3) were sluggish early and couldn’t make a basket for a long stretch of the first half. Even when Gonzaga’s offense kicked into gear after halftime, the Panthers didn’t fold.

The eventual overwhelming surge from the Bulldogs finally arrived with about 10 minutes to go. Gonzaga went on a 24-1 run, turning a four-point game into the blowout that was expected. The Zags will face the West Region’s No. 9 seed, Memphis, in the second round on Saturday.

Timme was the catalyst, topping 30 points for the fifth time in his career while also grabbing 13 rebounds. Chet Holmgren, the Zags’ 7-foot freshman, added 19 points, 17 rebounds and seven blocks.

Corey Allen led Georgia State (18-10) with 16 points, and Jalen Thomas and Kane Williams both added 12.

MEMPHIS 64, BOISE STATE 53

PORTLAND, Ore. >> DeAndre Williams had 14 points, Jalen Duren made a crucial basket down the stretch and No. 9 seed Memphis held off a second-half rally by Boise State.

Duren finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Tigers (22-10), who were 9-8 after 17 games but went on a late-season charge to reach the tournament for the first time since 2014. The Tigers have now won 13 of their past 15 games.

Abu Kigab had 20 points to lead the eighth-seeded Broncos (27-8), the Mountain West regular-season and tournament champs, who were making their first appearance in the tournament since 2015.