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The Associated Press
DAYTON, Ohio -- Joel Scott scored a season-high 23 points and had 11 rebounds as Colorado State won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time in 11 years, blowing out Virginia 67-42 in the First Four on Tuesday night.
Nique Clifford added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Rams (25-10), who advance as a No. 10 seed to play seventh-seeded Texas in Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday.
"I'll tell you what, hard to imagine tonight going any better for us," Colorado State coach Niko Medved said. "Just a terrific performance, really, on both ends of the floor, from the opening tip."
Reece Beekman had 15 points on 4-of-16 shooting for Virginia, which hasn't won an NCAA Tournament game since it won the national title in 2019. That stretch includes two first-round losses as a No. 4 seed.
The Cavaliers' ugly performance ignited more debate about whether they should have made the tournament field. Although Virginia finished third in the Atlantic Coast Conference, it had just two Quad 1 wins and struggled offensively all season.
"It is a hard tournament to qualify (for), and you want to be playing your best when you get into it," said Virginia coach Tony Bennett, whose 500th career game at the school was among the low points of his 15 stellar seasons. "And obviously, we did not do that."
Colorado State dominated the boards and the Cavaliers couldn't keep up, shooting 25 percent for the game. The Rams shot 55 percent, out-rebounded the Cavaliers 43-24 and scored 36 points in the paint.
"(We) took away their strengths that they're really good at," Clifford said. "And then we didn't let them take us out of our game plan. We stuck to what we do and just were confident in it."
Virginia finished with the second-fewest points by an ACC team in the NCAA Tournament, trailing only Bennett's 2017 Cavaliers squad, which lost 65-39 to Florida in the second round.
Virginia shot terribly from the beginning, with Colorado State building a 27-14 lead at the break.
The Cavaliers hit 5 of 29 shots -- 17% -- in the first half, failing to get a basket in the last 9:20. Beekman was 1 of 9, while Scott had 10 points for the Rams at the break.
"Of course, we weren't hitting shots, and then they used a lot of the clock as well, to get their good shots," Beekman said. "So kind of broke us down. I feel like they were just never rushed throughout the game. Credit them for that."