GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — North Carolina went from rolling to a 19-point lead to struggling to make a shot, watching that margin whittled away by a VCU team that refused to quit.

Just like that, the Tar Heels were one-and-done in March Madness, their latest early exit under Hubert Davis.

The Rams beat the Tar Heels 82-78 in overtime in Thursday's first round of the South Region, capping a season that showed high promise well into February only to be derailed by a major injury. It's another postseason frustration for a blueblood program that has won six national titles but is defined these days by its inability to reach the round of 32.

Davis, closing his fifth season as the successor to retired Hall of Famer Roy Williams, wasn't ready to talk about whether something is missing that would keep his program among the country's elite.

“Yeah, that’s a big-thinking question, and I apologize, I’m just not there right now,” Davis said. "Just really sad that we’re not continuing to play and to move forward because I have loved and enjoyed this team. I enjoy and love all of them, but I’ve just really enjoyed coaching this team.

“I really wanted this group and these kids to experience more. But other than that, it’s I’m just thinking about these guys and the rest of the guys that are in the locker room.”

Davis' up-and-down ride

Davis is the only coach in Atlantic Coast Conference history to win 20 or more games in each of his first five seasons. Yet sustained postseason success, long a hallmark of the UNC program, has eluded Davis since an unforgettable ride to the 2022 NCAA title game in his debut season, which included a Final Four win over rival Duke that ended the career of rival Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski.

In 2023, the Tar Heels became the first team ranked No. 1 in the preseason AP Top 25 to miss the NCAA Tournament. UNC bounced back to win the ACC regular-season title a year later and earn a No. 1 seed, only to fall in the Sweet 16.

Last year, the Tar Heels squeaked into the First Four and blew out San Diego State, then lost in the first round to Ole Miss.

They were poised for more this time around, with top recruit and high-end NBA prospect Caleb Wilson proving to be an immediate star. The Tar Heels beat Kansas and Kentucky, made a huge comeback to win at Virginia, then gave Duke one of its two losses all year on Seth Trimble's last-second 3-pointer.

But Wilson broke his left hand days later at Miami. Then, when he was on the verge of returning in early March, Wilson — later chosen an AP second-team All-American — broke his right thumb in a during a non-contact drill and was lost for the season.

The Tar Heels didn't win again.

They lost at Duke, fell behind by 18 before falling short in a frantic comeback against Clemson in the ACC Tournament, then faded against VCU after leading 56-37 on Trimble's layup with 14:58 left.

“I feel like we were at a really good spot and then obviously Caleb's injury, I think that affects our season,” big man Henri Veesaar said. “But I don't want to put it on that. ... I think he's done a hell of a job of putting us in the right spots, giving us belief, trust everything.”

UNC falters with a short rotation

The Tar Heels faded badly in the VCU game, with Davis shortening his rotation to keep four players on the floor for the entire second half while another played 15 minutes. By the end, UNC couldn't make a shot or a free throw while committing costly turnovers.

The Tar Heels missed their last nine shots, including all six in overtime. And they went 12 of 20 at the foul line, including three missed free throws in OT to continue season-long troubles.

Davis said he didn't sense his players got fatigued, though Trimble said he thought it was a factor during earlier interviews. When asked why he mostly played a six-man rotation after halftime, Davis responded: “Because that was my decision.”

That came shortly after Trimble sat in a corner of the locker room surrounded by reporters and fighting back tears. A rarity in today's transfer-portal era, Trimble had just finished playing all four years for Davis at UNC, a run that included him briefly entering the portal after his sophomore year before opting to return.

He backed his coach, who signed a two-year extension through 2029-30 last year.

“Everybody has their flaws,” Trimble said. "Coach Davis, he isn't a perfect coach. But he's a coach who's made me better, he's a coach who's made guys better. He's shown that he can win here.

"I know he gets hate. Over the last four years I know he's gotten a lot of it. But I'm going to continue to ride with him.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Siena's Brendan Coyle buried a 3-pointer, then raised his arms emphatically to the crowd.

Teammate Gavin Doty followed minutes later with his own 3, running downcourt with his hand raised to his ear as though making a call.

Siena rolled into its first March Madness game since 2010 with fearless confidence that kept growing with every made shot and each point tacked onto an expanding lead. Only this was in the most improbable of settings: as a 16-seed in the NCAA Tournament, rolling out just five players — and sticking it to No. 1 overall seed Duke.

Ultimately, the Saints couldn't complete an all-timer of a tournament shocker, fading late as the Blue Devils rallied from 13 down before finally putting away a 71-65 win in Thursday's first round of the East Region. But they made the afternoon theirs in South Carolina, thrilling a curious-turned-buzzing crowd while forcing the Blue Devils to confront the possibility that the unthinkable could really happen.

“We believe!” a Siena fan yelled from the stands during one first-half surge.

And the Saints gave them every reason to.

“I’ve been doing this a long time. I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of any group of kids I’ve been around,” Siena coach Gerry McNamara said. "I think the world and college basketball saw what I’ve been so grateful and thankful to be around all season: a group of kids that love each other, that compete at the highest level and play for each other."

Sending a message

The NCAA Tournament is known for upsets, the kind of little-guy-takes-down-the-giant moments that capture the nation's imagination every spring. And yet, what nearly transpired Thursday is the kind of moment that rarely happens.

The No. 1 seeds entered the week with a 158-2 record against 16 seeds in the tournament, the outliers being Virginia’s loss to UMBC in 2018 and Purdue’s loss to Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023.

And Duke — a blueblood with five NCAA titles — spent much of Thursday in serious danger of being added to that list.

Nothing deterred Siena. Not Duke’s size. Not the matchup with a high-end NBA prospect in first-team Associated Press All-American Cameron Boozer. Not even playing just a five-man lineup to the final seconds thanks to a combination of eligibility and injury issues.

“Keep going!” one player yelled as the team came back to the bench for a timeout

“Oh yeah!” another responded.

Instead, the Saints applied steady game pressure on the favored Blue Devils, who looked uncomfortable, tight and even flummoxed by the resistance.

“We thought it was going to be a cakewalk going into this game,” senior forward Maliq Brown said on the halftime interview during the CBS game broadcast.

Instead, the Saints shot 54.8% in the first half against a defense ranked among the national elite. They also improbably managed to close the first half with an edge on the glass and points in the paint against a team that had pummeled foes with an inside-out approach since January.

And they led 43-32 at the break.

“When we came out of the gate hot, we were playing to our potential and we knew we could do it,” Siena big man Riley Mulvey said. “We just didn't play scared.”

And so much of it started with matching the energy of the man on the sideline.

McNamara's energy

McNamara, the second-year coach, is perhaps best known for his time as a starter on the Carmelo Anthony-led Syracuse team that won the 2003 national title. The energy is still there now, with him seemingly living and dying with every possession as he watched from near the scorer's table.

That continued during every stoppage on the bench, as though trying to will his team to stay on its shocking course.

During one timeout, he excitedly tapped Coyle on the right knee and told him, “You've got to take it!”

During another, he pressed the 7-foot Mulvey to stay locked on details, saying: “We need you! We need every second of you!”

Along the way, the crowd grew more energized with every passing minute in the first half. That included fans wearing Ohio State red — the Buckeyes lost to TCU in the earlier game — and the lighter blue of Duke rival North Carolina.

There was nothing short of total belief that the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champions could do it, felt so tangibly that Duke coach Jon Scheyer said McNamara “outcoached us” and called it “one of the hardest moments for me in sport, period, to not have your best stuff.”

“We saw a young man at Siena, who almost beat Duke playing five players,” St. John's Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino said from his Red Storm's site across the country in San Diego. “Never heard of that before. Playing five players.”

Losing steam

Eventually though, Duke wore down the Saints with size and a withering second-half performance on the glass (30-13). Doty's third 3 gave Siena a 61-56 lead with 7:53 left, but Duke ran off 11 unanswered points.

During that stretch, Siena went scoreless for nearly seven minutes, missed eight straight shots and finished 8 for 34 (23.5%) after halftime.

By the end, Duke would win despite leading for just 8:30 of game action.

“We all had that (halftime) understanding that we only have 20 minutes guaranteed,” Duke freshman point guard Cayden Boozer said of the second-half rally.

When it was over, Siena's players solemnly filed to the tunnel, Mulvey fighting back tears and Coyle pulling up his jersey to briefly cover his eyes.

Multiple players shrugged off postgame questions about the significance of the near-upset, saying they weren't into moral victories.

It was still unforgettable, all the same.

“I’m just really going to take this all in tonight and just think about it,” guard Justice Shoats said. "But I'm glad we were able to come out here and compete.

“I mean, when’s the last time you heard Siena in the March Madness game, especially competing against the No. 1 team in the country and actually keeping up with them?”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness