North Carolina A&T 73, Liberty 72: Jeremy Underwood came off the bench to score 19 points and the Aggies held off a late rally for their first NCAA Tournament victory in the first round of the Midwest Regional at Dayton, Ohio.

Bruce Beckford contributed 16 points and nine rebounds for North Carolina A&T (20-16), which survived as John Caleb Sanders missed an off-balance layup in the final seconds. Lamont Middleton added 14 points for the Aggies, who play top-seeded Louisville in Thursday's second round at Lexington, Ky.

Davon Marshall scored 22 points and Sanders had 21 for Liberty (15-21), which had its five-game win streak snapped. Tavares Speaks chipped in with 17 points, including a basket with 11.1 seconds left to pull the Flames within one.

The Aggies trailed by seven early before Beckford’s 12 points and the team’s 5-of-10 shooting from 3-point range helped them build a 40-33 lead at intermission. Marshall and Sanders each drained three 3-pointers to keep Liberty in striking distance during the opening 20 minutes.

Liberty, the second team to come into the tournament with 20 losses, trimmed a 10-point deficit to 73-70 on Marshall’s sixth 3-pointer with 1:30 left. After Speaks’ basket, Middleton missed the front end of a one-and-one with seven seconds to go which allowed Sanders to get a last chance.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Underwood was 6-of-6 shooting for North Carolina A&T, which was making its first appearance in the NCAAs since 1995 and is 1-9 overall. … Marshall broke the single-season record for 3-pointers at Liberty with 107, passing Seth Curry’s 102 in 2008-09 before he transferred to Duke. … Sanders became the 23rd player to score 1,000 career points at Liberty, joining his older brother Jesse.