March Madness live updates, scores, bracket: First Four continues with Prairie View A&M vs. Lehigh, Miami (OH) vs. SMU

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The final two teams advancing to the 64-team first-round field of March Madness will be decided Tuesday night with the conclusion of the First Four.

The evening starts out with Prairie View A&M vs. Lehigh at 6:40 p.m. ET. The winner will take on the defending NCAA tournament champion Florida Gators, who enter the tournament as the South region’s No. 1 seed.

Closing out the First Four on Wednesday night are the Miami (OH) Redhawks taking on the SMU Mustangs, with tipoff set for 9:15 p.m. ET. The winner will face No. 6 Tennessee in the first round. The Redhawks will certainly draw plenty of eyes after securing an at-large bid to the tournament following a 31-1 campaign and first-place finish (18-0 record) in the MAC. But still, they remain largely unproven with just a single top-100 victory back in January thanks to a soft schedule.

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Lehigh (-3.5) and SMU (-7.5) are favored to advance to the first round at BetMGM. In case you’re wondering, yes, we did have AI pick every game in the men’s tournament, and Claude is giving the edge to Lehigh and Miami (OH).

The Howard Bison and Texas Longhorns each secured their bids to the first round on Tuesday and will face Michigan and BYU, respectively.

Men’s First Four schedule, how to watch March Madness

Prairie View A&M vs. Lehigh start time: 6:40 p.m. ET
TV channel/live stream: TruTV

Miami (OH) vs. SMU start time: 9:15 p.m. ET
TV channel/live stream: TruTV

Follow along with Yahoo Sports as the First Four continues Wednesday night with Prairie View A&M vs. Lehigh and Miami (OH) vs. SMU.

Live20 updates

Wed, March 18, 2026 at 5:42 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
Dontae Horne and Cory Wells were just too much for Lehigh. Horne had 25 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals. Wells added 19 points and 11 boards.
It’s the first-ever win in the NCAA tournament for Prairie View A&M. The Panthers are on to the Round of 64 to face Florida in the South region first round.
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 5:27 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
It’s still a double-digit lead for PV A&M as the game creeps inside of the 4-minute mark. Dontae Horne is on fire and has 23 points, 6 rebounds and 4 steals for the Panthers.
They’re up 57-46.
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 5:17 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
The Panthers are on a heater now. They’re on an 8-0 run and just took a 51-41 lead with just over 8 minutes to go.
Dontae Horne has 19 and Cory Wells has 17 for PV A&M.
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 5:09 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 5:00 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
With just over 15 minutes left in the game, PV A&M has taken a 4-point lead thanks to Cory Wells and his 15 points and 7 rebounds. The Panthers are looking a little more aggressive attacking the basket in the second half.
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 4:49 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
PV A&M scored right out of the break and we’re tied at 29 as action resumes.
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 4:39 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 4:26 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
The Mountain Hawks have a small lead as we head into the break. Hank Alvey has 10 points and 9 rebounds to lead the way for Lehigh. PV A&M's Dontae Horne and Cory Wells have 9 each for the Panthers.
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 4:10 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
The Mountain Hawks are hitting the boards hard and getting plenty of second chances. They’ve gotten up 10 shots from behind the arc so far (only hitting 3), but the effort is paying off nonetheless.
Joshua Ingram threw it down after one such instance.
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 4:05 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 3:59 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
Lehigh’s Dontae Horne has 7 of Lehigh’s 11 points as the game hits the 11-minute mark, but Prairie View is keeping pace and briefly surged back into the lead.
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 3:47 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
The Mountain Hawks have surged into the lead as we near the first media timeout.
The winner of this game gets the honor of facing South region No. 1 seed Florida on Friday.
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 3:43 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
We are underway in Dayton and Prairie View is on the board first with a 3-ball by Dontae Horne.
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 3:30 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
Get your TV set! We’re just 10 minutes out from tipoff of tonight’s First Four slate, starting out with Prairie View A&M vs. Lehigh at 6:40 p.m. ET in a quest for the No. 16 seed and a bid to face the No. 1 Florida Gators.
The game will air live on TruTV.
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 3:15 PM PDT
Ryan Young
Here’s a look at the bracket prediction trends of Yahoo Sports so far in their NCAA tournament brackets:
- About 29% of Yahoo Sports users have selected Duke to win the national championship in their brackets. The Blue Devils were also the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament after they went 32-2 on the year and won both ACC titles.
- But Arizona isn’t far behind. The Wildcats were selected to win the national championship in about 22% of brackets. Arizona has also narrowed the gap from Duke over the past 24 hours.
- Texas A&M, Penn State, Missouri, SCU and USF are among the top-five most common double-digit seeds in the Final Four.
- 37.33% of brackets are predicting a No. 6 Louisville upset by No. 11 South Florida.
Read more.
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 3:00 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 2:45 PM PDT
Looking to wager on tonight’s First Four action? Here’s a look at the odds for Wednesday’s games courtesy of BetMGM.
Lehigh vs. Prairie View A&M
Point spread: Lehigh -2.5
Total: 142.5
Moneyline odds: Lehigh -165, Prairie View A&M +135
SMU vs. Miami (OH)
Point spread: SMU -7.5
Total: 161.5
Moneyline odds: SMU -325, Miami (OH) +260
Check out picks for tonight’s First Four matchups from Yahoo Sports’ Frank Schwab.
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 2:30 PM PDT
Yahoo Sports Staff
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 2:15 PM PDT
Ryan Young
Yes, the RedHawks were one of the last teams to even make the field. But they completed an undefeated regular season, and that has to count for something. After a number of close wins throughout the year, it’s hard to ever rule the RedHawks out no matter how easy their path was in the MAC or whatever metrics don’t stack up well with the rest of the field. Wins are wins.
If the RedHawks can get out of the play-in game — which is taking place only about an hour from their campus in Ohio — look out.
Read more our four other potential Cinderella team picks in this year’s tourney.
Wed, March 18, 2026 at 1:03 PM PDT
Nick Bromberg
Two of the First Four matchups are in the books, with Texas and Howard advancing to the first round of the 2026 NCAA men’s tournament.
A year after Texas lost in the First Four, the Longhorns needed a game-winner from Tramon Mark to avoid back-to-back NCAA tournament losses. Mark hit a guarded jumper inside the 3-point line with 1.1 seconds to go to give the Longhorns a 68-66 win Tuesday night over NC State. Texas will play No. 6 BYU on Thursday in the first round of the West region.
Meanwhile, Howard got the first NCAA tournament win in school history earlier Tuesday with an 86-83 victory over UMBC. The No. 16 Bison will play No. 1 Michigan on Thursday evening.
Howard led for most of the game, though UMBC staged a late push that made the Bison sweat. Ose Okojie scored 23 for Howard, while Bryce Harris clinched the game with a turnaround jumper to put the Bison up four with 13 seconds to go.
This tournament marks Howard’s fifth appearance and third in the past four seasons. The school lost in the First Four in 2024 to Wagner and has been a No. 16 seed in all five of its tournament appearances.