Northern Iowa shocks No. 1 overall seed Kansas

In an NCAA tournament full of upsets, Northern Iowa pulled off the biggest one: The Panthers took down mighty Kansas.

Playing with poise down the stretch and getting another big 3-pointer from Ali Farokhmanesh, ninth-seeded Northern Iowa pulled off one of the biggest NCAA upsets in years by knocking No. 1 overall seed Kansas (33-3) from the bracket with a program-defining 69-67 win on Saturday at Oklahoma City.

Northern Iowa (30-4) won the tempo tug-of-war, grounding the high-flying Jayhawks with in-their-jersey defense, then withstood a furious rally to become the first team to beat a No. 1 seed in the second round since UAB and Alabama did it to Kentucky and Stanford in 2004.

"This team has done such a great job of turning the page to what's next, and this would be the biggest challenge of the year," Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson said. "A lot of positive things have happened because of the way these guys played."

Farokhmanesh, Northern Iowa's first-round hero, had the biggest play of all, burying a 3-pointer in transition with the shot clock still in the 30s to end a dominating start-to-finish win that sends the Panthers to the round of 16 for the first time.

The Jayhawks trailed by as many as 12 points and used defense to pull within one with 44 seconds left. But they let Farokhmanesh sneak out for the deciding 3 to go down for the mid-major count like they did to Bradley in 2006 and Bucknell the year before, also in Oklahoma City.

Saint Mary's 75, Villanova 68: At Providence, R.I., Omar Samhan finished with 32 points and seven rebounds to lead 10th-seeded Saint Mary's (28-5) past Villanova (25-8) and on to the South Regional's Sweet 16.

Tennessee 83, Ohio 68: At Providence, R.I., J.P. Prince scored 18 points, leading Tennessee (27-8) past Ohio (22-15).

Baylor 76, Old Dominion 68: At New Orleans, LaceDarius Dunn scored 26 points and Baylor (27-7) beat Old Dominion (27-9).

Butler 54, Murray State 52: At San Jose, Calif., Ronald Nored's three-point play snapped a tie with 25.4 seconds left, and Butler (30-4) narrowly evaded a second stunner by the 13th-seeded Racers (31-5) in three days.

Washington 82, New Mexico 64: At San Jose, Calif., Quincy Pondexter scored 18 points, Isaiah Thomas added 15 and Washington (26-9) defeated New Mexico (30-5).

Kentucky 90, Wake Forest 60: At New Orleans, Darius Miller scored a career-high 20 points and Kentucky (34-2) made easy work of Wake Forest (20-11).

Kansas State 84, BYU 72: At Oklahoma City, Jacob Pullen scored 20 of his career-high 34 points in the first half to help dig Kansas State out of an early 10-point hole, and the Wildcats (28-7) turned away BYU (30-6).