March Madness 2026 First Four: Miami (OH), Prairie View A&M Advance

Miami (OH) keeps Cinderella hopes alive Eian Elmer scored 22 points and Miami (Ohio) beat SMU 89-79 Wednesday night in the First Four for its first NCAA tournament victory in 27 years. Elmer made 6 of 9 from 3-point range as the 11th-seeded RedHawks (32-1), undefeated during the regular season, advanced to the Midwest Region to face No. 6 seed Tennessee. Brant Byers added 19 points, including four 3s, and Luke Skaljac had 17 for Miami, making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2007. The RedHawks finished 16 of 41 from 3-point range. Jaden Toombs led SMU (20-14) with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Jaron Pierre Jr. scored 18 points and Boopie Miller had 15 for the Mustangs. Prairie View A&M advances to play Florida Dontae Horne scored 25 points and Cory Wells had 19 points and 11 rebounds as Prairie View A&M earned its first NCAA Tournament victory, 67-55 over Lehigh on Wednesday night in the First Four. “Really rewarding,” coach Bryan Smith said. “A hell of a basketball game. We’re really excited to survive, advance and advance to the first round on Friday night.” Lance Williams added 10 points for the Panthers (19-17), making their third appearance in the tournament after going 5-27 last season. They advance as the No. 16 seed in the South Region to face number one seed and defending national champion Florida. “As basketball players, you watch all the NCAA tournaments and just think you’re here now and you’re going to play the team that just won last year,” Wells said. “We’re going to go out there and compete regardless.” Horne also had seven rebounds and four steals. Horne, Wells and Williams each played all 40 minutes. Lehigh’s leading scorer, Patriot League tournament MVP Nasir Whitlock, went scoreless for more than 26 minutes and finished with five points. He was shooting 2 for 15. The last time Whitlock didn’t reach double figures was Nov. 9, when he had two points in a 69-47 loss at West Virginia. “Certainly not the way anyone here thought it was going to go,” Whitlock said. “But it’s just basketball. Sometimes it goes as planned, sometimes it doesn’t. Today was one of those days where I thought we couldn’t really do much.” Hank Alvey led Lehigh (18-17) with 23 points and 15 rebounds. He was the only double-digit scorer for the Mountain Hawks. Prairie View A&M has won eight straight, including a 72-66 victory over Southern in the SWAC championship game. Lehigh, participating in the tournament for the sixth time, won the Patriot League tournament by defeating Boston University 74-60 in the title game. The Mountain Hawks’ only win in the NCAA Tournament was an upset over Duke in 2012. Andrew Urosevic scored three straight points, the second coming off a nice bounce, to give Lehigh its largest lead at 23-15. But just when it looked like Lehigh might start to pull away, Wells scored five straight points – including a 3 – to help the Panthers get back into the game. Lehigh led 29-27 at halftime despite Whitlock, who averages 21 points per game, going scoreless. The Mountain Hawks were 3 of 13 from 3-point range in the first half. Whitlock missed his first nine shots before connecting on a 3 with 13:12 left. “We have a great player in Nasir Whitlock, but he had someone behind him all night,” Lehigh coach Brett Reed said. “It was harder for him to get angles and opportunities to really finish at the rim or get the separation he needed.” With the Mountain Hawks’ leading scorer held in check, the Panthers extended their lead to 51-41 on a Wells jumper with 8:34 to play. “I think the first time we were here in 2019, we got off to a good start,” Smith said. “I think we were up 11 points over Fairleigh Dickinson at halftime, but we didn’t finish. The main thing was to finish, and I think we did that. I think we defended. We stole.” The Panthers primarily credited Williams for stopping Whitlock. “We had to yell to Lance Williams, our pit bull,” Horne said. “Lance doesn’t care about stats. He doesn’t care about the score. He did his job tonight. He (Whitlock) averages 21, so that says a lot about Lance’s defense.” Associated Press reporting.