Nothing More Than A Fraud Georgia Exposes Purdue 76-69; Boilermakers First Top Seed Out

Top-seeded Purdue, which narrowly avoided defeat in the first round of the NCAA tournament, couldn’t pull off another escape in the second round.

The Boilermakers became the first top seed to lose in this year’s tournament, falling to No. 8 seed Georgia 76-69 Saturday in the West Regional.

Terrell Bell scored 15 points and blocked seven shots for Georgia, which held Purdue (26-6) without a field goal for nearly 9 minutes in the first half.

Purdue, which edged Western Carolina by two points in the opening round, shot only 37 percent for the game, including 28 percent in the second half.

The other top seeds won their second-round games Saturday. Massachusetts beat Stanford 79-74 in the East, Kentucky defeated Virginia Tech 84-60 in the Midwest and Connecticut downed Eastern Michigan 95-81 in the Southeast.

All-American Marcus Camby was plagued by foul trouble, but still got 20 points, eight rebounds and seven blocks for UMass, which barely held on after building a 13-point lead with 7 minutes left.

Brevin Knight had 27 points and nine assists for Stanford (20-9).

Saturday’s results left the Southeast Conference 8-0 after two rounds, with four teams in the round of 16. The Big East is 7-0 after Syracuse’s victory, with three teams from that conference playing today for spots in the Sweet 16.

Today’s second-round matchups are highlighted by the Louisville-Villanova and Iowa-Arizona games.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SATURDAY’S SCORES East region UMass 79, Stanford 74 Arkansas 65, Marquette 56 Southeast region Connecticut 95, E. Michigan 81 Miss. St. 63, Princeton 41 Midwest region Kentucky 84, Va. Tech 60 Utah 73, Iowa State 67 West region Syracuse 69, Drexel 58 Georgia 76, Purdue 69