PITTSBURGH >> Jermaine Couisnard swears it wasn’t personal and he wasn’t seeking revenge against South Carolina.

He got some anyway.

Couisnard scored a career-high 40 points — the most for an Oregon player in NCAA Tournament history — and he haunted his former team while leading the Ducks to an 87-73 victory in the first round of the Midwest Region on Thursday.

Couisnard, who spent three years at South Carolina before transferring in part because of a coaching change following the 2022 season, made five 3-pointers, dropped all seven free throws and went 14 of 22 from the field to pace the 11th-seeded Ducks (24-11).

Oregon, which has been reduced to eight scholarship players due to injuries, advanced to the second round to face No. 3 seed Creighton, a 77-60 winner over No. 14 seed Akron in the first of four games at PPG Paints Arena.

Dayton 63, Nevada 60 >> DaRon Holmes II and seventh-seeded Dayton staged a huge March Madness rally, closing with a 24-4 run to erase a 17-point deficit and beat 10th-seeded Nevada in the West Region.

Dayton will face No. 2 seed Arizona in the second round on Saturday.

Illinois 85, Morehead State 69 >> Marcus Domask posted the NCAA Tournament’s first triple-double since 2019 and Terrence Shannon scored 26 points, helping No. 3 seed Illinois pull away from No. 14 Morehead State for a first-round win.

Next up for Illinois (27-8) is No. 11 seed Duquesne (25-11) on Saturday.

North Carolina 90, Wagner 62 >> Armando Bacot had 20 points and 15 rebounds, and No. 1 seed North Carolina never trailed in beating 16th-seeded Wagner in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

UNC played with the backing of a blue-clad crowd about 2 1/2 hours from its Chapel Hill campus. And the Tar Heels will have that again for the next step: a marquee matchup with Michigan State and Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo on Saturday.

Creighton 77, Akron 60 >> Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 23 points and Trey Alexander had 19 as Creighton, which came within seconds of making the Final Four a year ago, opened the NCAA Tournament with a win over Akron in the Midwest Region.

Duquesne 71, BYU 67 >> Dae Dae Grant scored 19 points, including four clinching free throws in the final 10 seconds, and No. 11 seed Duquesne kept retiring coach Keith Dambrot working for a little bit longer with a victory against sixth-seeded BYU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Jakub Necas added 12 points and Jimmy Clark III had 11 for the Atlantic 10 tourney champs celebrated their return to the dance after 47 years with their first win there since 1969.