For the 105th time since the NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, a No. 1 seed played and defeated a No. 16 seed. This time, it was the Pitt Panthers who ensure that they would not be the ones to break the streak, defeating the Bulldogs of UNC-Asheville 74-51 Thursday afternoon at the Verizon Center. The Panthers advanced to play Butler in the third round of the Southeast Regional Saturday in Chinatown.

The Bulldogs, who defeated Arkansas-Little Rock 81-77 in overtime in their first round play-in game in Dayton Tuesday night just to get to this point, made a good fist of their first half effort, as they cut a 12-point deficit to 30-25 at halftime, thanks to a running right-handed shot in the lane by Matt Dickey with less than a second to go in the first half. Pitt had looked as if they would run away with the game in the early going, after Gary McGhee's dunk off an alley-oop pass made the score 23-11 with 7:44 to go until halftime.

But ultimately, it was Pitt junior guard Ashton Gibbs who made the difference. After a pair of free throws by Dickey cut Pitt's lead to 32-29, the native of Scotch Plains, NJ knocked down a three-pointer from the left elbow, then knocked down a mid-range jumper to make the score 37-29 with 17:34 to go in regulation. UNC-Asheville cut the deficit back down to 41-35 on a backdoor layup by J. P. Primm with 15:24 to go, but ultimately, the Panthers' frontcourt size and strength began to tell. In one second-half sequence, Pitt's Nasir Robinson missed the second of two free throws, recovered the rebound of his own miss, was fouled, and missed the second of two foul shots, but was still able to get the offensive rebound.

Another three by Gibbs, this time from the right elbow, followed two foul shots by Gilbert Brown and made the score 46-35 with 14:34 to go. Though UNC-Asheville tried to keep the Panthers in their sights, yet another three by Gibbs made the score 53-39 with nine minutes to play before Brown hit from beyond the arc to make the score 56-39 with 8:26 to go and ensure that the 1-over-16 streak would stay alive at 105.

Gibbs led all scorers with 26 points for Pitt, while Dickey led UNC-Asheville with 21 points of his own. Robinson chipped in 12 points for the Panthers, while Brown added nine points and nine rebounds. Primm poured in a total of 14 points for the Bulldogs.