2015 NCAA March Madness Upset Alert: NC State Ousts No. 1 Seed Villanova

The North Carolina State Wolfpack delivered the latest upset in the NCAA Tournament by beating the Villanova Wildcats, 71-68 on Saturday. Villanova was one of the no. 1 seeds and N.C. State was seeded no. 8 in the 2015 edition of the NCAA March Madness.

N.C. State wanted the upset early when they led the first half, 32-28. Led by forwards Lennard Freeman with 11 points and 12 rebounds and Abdul Malik-Abu with 13 points and 11 rebounds, the Wolfpack dictated the tempo of the game and attacked Villanova’s defence for the duration of the game. Trevor Lacy led N.C. State in scoring with 17 points and minutes played with 38 minutes.

The Wolfpack grabbed a big 11 point lead 48-39 lead with over 10 minutes to go in the game before the Wildcats made one last rally and cut the lead down to 2 points, 67-65 with 44 seconds to go in the game. N.C. State hit their free throws and held off the no. 1 seed’s run.

Villanova had a 16 game winning streak including their second round win over Lafayette, 93-52 in the second round last Friday. NC State defeated the LSU Tigers, 66-65 in their second round match-up.

"We came out today with the feeling that everybody expected us to lose to a 1 seed, but we believe in ourselves and that we're good enough to beat anybody in the country, and we went down and did it,'' N.C. State forward Beejay Anya said to ESPN.com after the game.

Guard Darrun Hilliard II had 27 points and forward JayVaughn Pinkston had 13 points and 6 rebounds for Villanova, which became the first number one seed to fall in the 2015 NCAA Tournament. N.C. State will face either the Iowa State Panthers or the Louisville Cardinals in the Sweet Sixteen round.

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