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NCAA men’s roundup: No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson knocks out No. 1 seed Purdue

AP photo by Paul Sancya / Fairleigh Dickinson basketball players celebrate after beating Purdue 63-58 in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday night in Columbus, Ohio. The Knights, who had to win a First Four game to advance to face the Boilermakers, became just the second No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in NCAA tourney history.
AP photo by Paul Sancya / Fairleigh Dickinson basketball players celebrate after beating Purdue 63-58 in the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday night in Columbus, Ohio. The Knights, who had to win a First Four game to advance to face the Boilermakers, became just the second No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in NCAA tourney history.

By The Associated Press 11 min read

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Fairleigh Dickinson brought down a giant.

Pulling off one of the biggest upsets in the history of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, the undersized, underdog Knights stunned East Region No. 1 seed Purdue 63-58 on Friday night, becoming the second No. 16 seed to win a game in March Madness.

The shortest team in the tourney, the Knights (21-15) showed no fear in swarming 7-foot-4 All-America center Zach Edey from the start and simply outplayed the Boilermakers (29-6), who lost in their first game since winning the Big Ten tournament title Sunday.

“If we played them 100 times, they’d probably beat us 99 times,” Knights coach Tobin Anderson said. “Play them 100 times, we have one win. But tonight’s the one we had to be unique, we had to be unorthodox. We had to make it tough on them, just be different.”

Sean Moore scored 19 points to lead the Knights and a relentless defensive charge — they pressed most of the game — by a team that now has everyone’s attention.