GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Lehigh Mountain Hawks said they weren’t afraid of mighty Duke.
Maybe no one believed them at the time, but the Patriot League champions proved they were serious.
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C.J. McCollum scored 30 points and Lehigh upset Duke 75-70 to become the second No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 during a wild Friday in the NCAA tournament.
The Mountain Hawks are the sixth 15 seed overall to pull off the trick. Norfolk State edged Missouri 86-84 in the West Regional earlier in the day, and No. 13 seed Ohio knocked off Michigan to add to the madness.
Duke dropped its first tournament game for only the second time in the past 16 years, and this one occurred just 55 miles from its campus. The Blue Devils also lost their opener against 11th-seeded Virginia Commonwealth in 2007.
The Blue Devils had no answer for the speedy McCollum, the two-time Patriot League player of the year and the nation’s fifth-leading scorer.
It didn’t help that the Blue Devils hit just 6 of 26 shots from 3-point range.
Lehigh (27-7) led most of the game, drawing support from North Carolina fans who borrowed brown signs from Mountain Hawks supporters that read “Go Lehigh” to root against their rivals.
Lehigh coach Brett Reed said before the game his team came to Greensboro to do more than just compete — and that’s exactly what it did.
The Mountain Hawks led most of the first half despite shooting just 38 percent from the field.
Lehigh grabbed the lead for good at the 8:21 mark of the second half when Mackey McKnight made a 3-pointer.
The Mountain Hawks’ momentum continued to build as the game went on and they started to pull away in the final three minutes.
McCollum hit a 3-pointer off a screen from Gabe Knutson and John Adams followed with a breakaway dunk to push the lead to 61-54 with two minutes to go.
Duke would get as close as three twice in the final 30 seconds, including when Quinn Cook hit a 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds left.
Duke fouled McCollum on the inbounds pass and he made up for two earlier misses from the line by hitting both shots to seal a shocking victory that sent the Greensboro Coliseum crowd into a frenzy.
Lehigh got a huge game from Knutson, who scored 17 points on 5-of-5 shooting from the field and a 6-of-7 performance from the foul line.
McCollum was 9 of 24 from the field and 10 of 16 from the foul line. He also handed out six assists and grabbed six rebounds.
Mason Plumlee and Austin Rivers led Duke with 19 points apiece. The Blue Devils (27-7), who were playing without injured forward Ryan Kelly, finished the year with back-to-back losses. They lost to Florida State in the ACC semifinals.
West Regional
No. 7 Florida 71, No. 10 Virginia 45: Bradley Beal had 14 points and 11 rebounds, reserve Casey Prather scored a career-high 14 and Florida pulled away in the second half to beat Virginia.
East Regional
No. 3 Florida State 66, No. 14 St. Bonaventure 63: Bernard James scored 19 points and Florida State barely avoided a big upset, rallying to beat St. Bonaventure.
No. 6 Cincinnati 65, No. 11 Texas 59: Yancy Gates had 15 points and 10 rebounds as Cincinnati started strong and then withstood a late rally by Texas.
Midwest Regional
No. 1 North Carolina 77, No. 16 Vermont 58: Tyler Zeller had 17 points and 15 rebounds to help North Carolina beat Vermont in its NCAA tournament opener despite playing without injured starter John Henson.
No. 13 Ohio 65, No. 4 Michigan 60: Walter Offutt grabbed a loose ball, was fouled by Evan Smotrycz and sank both of his free throws with 6.8 seconds left to preserve Ohio’s upset of Michigan.
No. 8 Creighton 58, No. 9 Alabama 57: Doug McDermott scored 16 points and Creighton overcame an 11-point deficit in the second half to beat Alabama for its first NCAA tournament victory in 10 years.
No. 3 Georgetown 74, No. 14 Belmont 59: Jason Clark scored 21 points, Otto Porter added 16 and Georgetown’s ruthless defense bottled up Belmont’s shooters, sending the Hoyas into the next round of the NCAA tournament after early exits the past two years.
No. 11 North Carolina State 79, No. 6 San Diego State 65: Richard Howell scored 22 points, double his season average, and North Carolina State used its muscle inside and sticky defense to beat San Diego State.
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