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Whether it was Alabama State’s terrific final seconds or North Carolina’s elite shot making, Tuesday night had it all

It didn’t take long for the first thrilling finish to occur in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, as Alabama State and St. Francis went down to the wire in the opening game of the First Four.

After trailing at halftime 39-34, Alabama State fought itself back into the game and won in one of the most unimaginable ways possible. En route to the finish, Alabama State guards Amarr Knox and TJ Madlock made many key plays, but it was the team’s play defensively and the contributions off the bench that got the Hornets over the hump.

Knox finished with 16 points and Madlock finished with 11 while the Alabama State bench outscored the St. Francis bench 25-7. Micah Simpson knocked down three threes to finish with nine points while D’Ante Bass added two threes of his own, scoring eight points on the night.

Defensively, Alabama State wreaked havoc all night long, forcing 15 turnovers on the night, including a crucial one with 3.4 seconds to play. After Madlock missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw trip with just over ten seconds to play in a tie game, it looked like St. Francis would take the game to overtime or win it themselves in regulation.

With some ballsy defense though, Alabama State knocked the ball loose twice on the final trip up the floor for the Red Flash, with the second deflection knocking the ball off of St. Francis Juan Cranford Jr. and landing out of bounds with 3.4 seconds to play.

From there, it was Hail Mary time, as head coach Tony Madlock opted to have his team throw it long with just a couple ticks on the clock left. In a sequence that looked like a real Hail Mary, the ball bounced off of at least four different hands, dropping straight into the arms of Amarr Knox, who laid it in with 0.7 seconds to play, winning the game for the Hornets 70-68.

The play had shades of Christian Laettner against Kentucky, but instead of advancing the Hornets to the Final Four, Knox lifted Alabama State to its first-ever NCAA Tournament win, with in-state “rivals” Auburn awaiting in the round of 64.

The second game of the night couldn’t match the 40-minute, back-and-forth thriller in the first game, but it still provided fuel in the tank for every North Carolina fan. While this doesn’t change the fact that the Tar Heels’ NCAA Tournament inclusion was a questionable decision, it does show why this team can do some damage now that it’s in the field.

Leading 13-11 with 12:30 left to play in the first half, North Carolina turned on the jets in its First Four matchup with San Diego State on Tuesday night. Seven minutes after it was a two-point game, North Carolina’s 22-3 run was capped by a Seth Trimble layup in transition. The Aztecs could never quite stop the bleeding, as RJ Davis hit a deep three at the halftime buzzer to send North Carolina into the locker room leading 47-23.

The second half was much of the same, as another three-pointer from Davis with under eight minutes left in the game put the Tar Heels up 40. The final score would read 95-68 in favor of North Carolina, as the Tar Heels hit 14 of their 24 three-point attempts, led by RJ Davis’s 26 points and perfect 6-of-6 mark from behind the arc.

With Ole Miss and Iowa State lined up as (possible) opponents this weekend in Milwaukee, something tells me if this North Carolina team continues to play the way they did on Tuesday, that they’ll still be dancing come this time next week.

Other Things to Note:

• The First Four continues with the first game of night two tipping off at 6:40 ET on Wednesday night in Dayton, Ohio