Nile King and Berry were kings of the first round as the lowest seed to advance. Photo by Steven Eckhoff for Berry athletics

The first Division III men's basketball NCAA Tournament in decades to have seedings looked almost exactly like its Division I, big-money counterpart, as a No. 15 and a No. 13 seed advanced, along with two 12's and three of the No. 11 seeds to boot. All this came in a nine-hour whirlwind of basketball that left top seeds intact, but lots of interesting things up and down the entire Field of 64.

• Game of the Night: Ramapo 89, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 84 (2 OT)
• Updated NCAA Tournament bracket
• First-round scoreboard
• Second-round schedule
• Even more game stories
• Photo galleries from d3photography.com

The 15 seed to advance was Berry, although it must be noted that instead of playing a No. 2 seed, the Vikings were matched up against a No. 7 seed in Guilford. Braxton Benham finished with 24 points, 10 assists, and six rebounds and Nile King added 14 points, seven rebounds, and two resounding blocks to cap off a tremendous night as Berry won its first-ever NCAA Tournament game, defeating Guilford 80-77. Guilford rallied from a six-point deficit to tie the game at 69 with 3:21 left, and tied it again at 74 with 1:32 to play. But Isaac Martin hit a three and Benham contributed a free throw to give the Vikings (20-8) the lead for good and an attempt to tie the game by Guilford went awry with seven seconds left to allow Berry to hang on.

Mary Washington continued to excel in the postseason, upending No. 3 seed Drew 73-58 in a first-round game at Ramapo. The 13th-seeded Eagles completely dominated from the opening tip, starting off on a game-swaying 29-6 run over the opening 12 minutes of action. In that span, UMW made 13 of its 20 field goal attempts, while limiting Drew, who came into the game on of the highest scoring teams in the nation, to just six points and a 3-for-15 performance from the floor, with 11 turnovers. UMW held a 22 point lead, at 36-14. Kye Robinson led all scorers with 17 points on 8-15 shooting from the floor, and added five rebounds and four assists. Sophomore Jay Randall scored 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting, and added a team-high eight rebounds.

"I'm very proud of our guys", said UMW coach Marcus Kahn, "We stuck to the game plan for 40 minutes, and the things we emphasized for this game...I'm just really proud of this young group, and what's taken from game one in November to today - these guys are growing and getting better every day."

Aidan Holmes, Logan Wendell and Evan Cabral combined for 63 points to lift Ithaca to an 80-69 triumph against Stockton in a first-round game at WPI. Ithaca was the first No. 11 seed of the day to advance, in a game that seemed to set the tone for the first round. Holmes led the Bombers with 23 points and six boards. Wendell notched a double-double with 20 points and 13 rebounds, and Cabral tacked on 20 points and four steals. The Bombers (19-9) held Stockton's EJ Matthews-Spratley to 14 points on 4-for-12 shooting.

No. 7 seeded Roanoke rallied from 18 points down in the second half to post a 71-70 victory over No. 13 seed Pfeiffer in a first round game at Christopher Newport. The Falcons took their biggest lead of the game at 57-39 with 11:40 remaining before a 10-0 Maroon run cut the lead to 57-49 with 8:46 left. Pfeiffer led 70-59 before back-to-back Maroon three pointers from Joshua McClary and Caleb Franze cut the edge to just five with 2:15 left. A Joshua Morse putback and Marcus Morgan driving layup brought Roanoke back within one with 37 seconds left. The Maroons forced a tough shot on the defensive end and McClary was fouled while controlling the defensive rebound. The senior captain connected on both free throws and a Pfeiffer half court shot at the buzzer fell short.

The long trip was no issue for Redlands, as the Bulldogs led for all but nine seconds in defeating St. Joseph's (Maine) 89-79. The last time Redlands won an NCAA Tournament game was so long ago, it was when there were consolation games for teams who lost in the first round. Redlands won one of those in 1985. The Bulldogs went up 25-5 in the first six minutes of the game behind eight points and two made threes from Omari Ferguson. SJC (24-5) got as close as nine points early in the second half, but Redlands answered with a 10-0 run to put the game away. Lucas Gordon led the Bulldogs (23-4) with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Franklin, a No. 12 seed, advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2000 after winning an overtime thriller against Denison in a first-round game at Washington U. in St. Louis. Denison led by a game-high 11 points at 53-42 with 8:49 to go in regulation. But Franklin held Denison to just two field goals and six points for the rest of regulation. Cody Samples tied the game at 59 with 16 seconds left and Franklin's defense forced an off-balance attempt at a game-winner, sending the game to overtime. The teams traded free throws early in overtime and the Grizzlies got back-to-back give-and-go layups from Malachi Archey and Jessie Morgan III to take a 66-63 lead with two minutes to play. Each team would net just one free throw the rest of the game and when Denison had the ball with 10 seconds to go, looking for a game-tying basket, Dylan Beverly picked off a pass to seal the victory.

St. Norbert rolled up a 31-point lead in the first half then nearly watched it all slip away before the No. 11 seed stiffened at the end, denying Carthage a last-minute shot and defeating the Firebirds 92-89 at the La Crosse Center in La Crosse, Wisconsin. It was a tale of two halves and the best of times and worst of times for the Green Knights, whose red-hot first-half shooting burned the Firebirds en route to a 62-37 halftime lead. Carthage almost stormed all the way back behind a furious rally in the final 11 minutes. Carthage, which made eight three-point field goals in the final 11 minutes, cut it to five before a big 3-pointer from Jamison Nickolai with 1:22 left made it 88-80. The Firebirds continued their attack, trailing 89-87 after a Ryan Johnson trey with 12 seconds left. Follow a free throw, AJ Williams made two free throws for Carthage with 7 seconds left to make it 90-89. Grzesk then canned a pair of pressure-packed free throws for a three-point lead. Carthage brought the ball up quickly with St. Norbert trying to foul, but the ball was knocked loose and harmlessly rolled away as time expired.

The other 11 seed to advance was Pitt-Bradford. The Panthers, who made headlines all season with their high scoring offense, outlasted TCNJ 98-96 to win a first-round game played at Hampden-Sydney. The Panthers took the lead just before the under-4 timeout as Coby Farley hit a floater in the lane to put his team up 84-82, and he later hit a three with under two minutes left to extend the lead to 92-86. TCNJ rallied behind Nick Koch, who made a layup and then a three after a Panther turnover, cutting the lead to one. The Panthers ran the clock down and missed a layup with 40 seconds left, but Braylen Salters made a heads up defensive play in the Panthers press, stealing the pass after a rebound and quickly making a layup to extend the lead to three. On the ensuing Lion possession, Jeremy Rodriguez intercepted a TCNJ pass and got the ball to Butler who was fouled and made both free throws, restoring the 5-point edge. The Lions beat the press long for a quick layup and fouled Jamarion Butler again. He missed the front end of a one-and-one but Jesse Laster grabbed a huge offensive rebound and made one of two from the line to put the Panthers ahead by four. Koch (32 points) made a pull up three with five seconds remaining, cutting the lead to one. Pitt-Bradford was able to inbound the ball to Butler, who was fouled immediately. Butler made the first, but missed the second, and TCNJ's desperation heave was no good.

Pitt-Bradford's win was the first for the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference in the Division III men's basketball NCAA Tournament since Penn State-Behrend defeated Hope in the first round in 2014.

Dan Buckley was 6-for-7 from three-point range and finished with 22 points as No. 9-seeded Catholic rolled to an 84-50 win at No. 6 seed Franklin & Marshall. Buckley, whose older brother, dad and uncle all played for Catholic, the latter two in the NCAA Tournament, erupted early, scoring 17 points in the first half as Catholic built a 46-29 lead at the break. He was joined in the offensive effort by Brian Herbert (17 points, six rebounds) and Charley Hepting (15 points, five boards, four assists). Hepting played a massive role after Jamie Ntiamoah found himself in foul trouble.

In a game that featured 12 ties and 10 lead changes, it was 10th-seeded York (Pa.), playing at home, scraping through to the second round with a 71-69 win against No. 9 seed John Carroll. The game was played at York because the top seed, NYU, was unable to host because the NYU women earned the right to host games in the tournament's opening weekend. Most of the back-and-forth nature of the game came in its final 13 minutes. The Spartans (22-6) overcame 24 points, 13 rebounds and four assists from Luke Frazier,aas well as their own free throw shooting, which was just 13-for-25. Kai Cipalla led all scorers for York with 27 points in the win.

Griffin Rushin blocked a last-second shot in a mad dash at the end of the game and St. John's survived to win at the University of Chicago, 72-71. The Johnnies trailed by as many as seven points in the second half before battling back to take the lead on a Ryan Thissen layup with just under nine minutes remaining. From there it was back and forth, with SJU taking a three-point lead with 2:03 left and again on a layup by Zach Longueville with 1:18 to play. Daniel Cochran came up with a big block on Longueville a minute later, giving the Maroons another chance, but Thomas Kurowski was unable to get his shot past Rushin at the end.

Second-seeded Tufts dominated on the glass, scoring 23 second-chance points to help lift the Jumbos to an 83-66 win over Yeshiva. The story of the game was the dominance of the Jumbos inside, as Tufts (22-5) posted a whopping 64-33 edge on the glass which included 21 offensive rebounds. Three Jumbos had 10 or more rebounds in the game, led by a career-high 19 from junior center Joshua Bernstein.

Two System teams made the trip to play the top seeds in the lower-right hand quadrant and came away with similar results, as No. 1 seeded UW-Platteville defeated Grinnell 125-97 and No. 2 seed UW-La Crosse defeated Greenville 120-93. Seven players scored in double figures for UWP in the Pioneer-on-Pioneer matchup, with Logan Pearson, Brady Olson and Miles Hettinger each scored 19 points. Platteville (26-2) shot 68 percent from the floor in the victory. UW-La Crosse (23-5) got 28 from JJ Paider and 21 from Karter Thomas off the bench in its win against Greenville, shooting 57 percent from the floor and limiting the Panthers (20-8) to 11-for-42 three-point shooting.