Colorado State cruises past Virginia in First Four - ESPN

DAYTON, Ohio — For almost 14 minutes of game time and nearly an hour of real time, the ball didn't go through Virginia's basket even once.

The Cavaliers have been vulnerable to sluggish offensive outputs — both this season and in the past — but Tuesday's lull was particularly painful. Virginia occupied a spot in the NCAA tournament that many felt should have gone elsewhere, to a Big East team or perhaps Indiana State. Cavs coach Tony Bennett said his team had «maxed out» its regular-season potential and came to the First Four with genuine excitement.

Instead, Colorado State was the team that validated its placement and showed it perhaps deserved a stronger seed. The 10th-seeded Rams smothered fellow 10-seed Virginia's offense and, perhaps more surprisingly, found cracks in the Cavaliers' signature defense, cruising to a 67-42 win at UD Arena.

Colorado State advanced in the Midwest region, and it will next face No. 7 seed Texas in a first-round matchup on Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina.

«We felt like we had an opportunity to win here tonight, but that's a Hall of Fame coach over there,» Rams coach Niko Medved said of Bennett. «That's an incredible program, one that I have an unbelievable amount of respect for. So, I didn't see this coming tonight at all.»

After Virginia star Reece Beekman sank two free throws with 9:20 left in the first half, the Cavaliers would not score again until Beekman's jumper with 16:37 to play in the contest. The drought included 19 consecutive missed shots and spanned 13:53 of game time and 59 minutes of real time, which included a 20-minute halftime.

Colorado State held Virginia to five field goals and 14 points in the first half, the fewest for an ACC team in the first half of an NCAA