Pittsburgh ? Cal’s players made the easy, backdoor baskets, played tough defense and made smart decisions. Who do they think they are  Ivy Leaguers?

Joe Shipp scored 20 points as California played a solid all-around game and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with an 82-75 victory over Pennsylvania in the South Regional on Friday.

The sixth-seeded Golden Bears (23-8) will play Pittsburgh in the second round Sunday. The third-seeded Panthers beat Central Connecticut State, 71-54.

Brian Wethers added 19 points for Cal, which avoided being beaten in the first round for the second straight year by holding off the 11th-seeded Quakers (25-7). Last year, Cal was eliminated in the opening round by Fresno State.

“We’re a lot more focused, a lot more prepared and a lot more hungry,” Wethers said. “This year, we really wanted to get a win in this tournament and make a run.”

Ugonna Onyekwe, the Ivy League’s player of the year, and Koko Archibong led Penn with 16 points apiece. Jeff Schiffner added 12 before fouling out.

Much of the talk leading up to tipoff had focused on the Ivy’s Quakers, who had won 10 straight games and 15 of 17 to get into the tournament.

Unlike Princeton, which staged NCAA tourney upsets in 1996 and ’98, Penn is a much more athletic team. And based on their regular-season wins over Georgia Tech and Temple, the Quakers became a trendy office-pool pick to knock off Cal.

However, the Bears’ defense took care of that.

“We wanted to make them work for everything,” Shipp said. “In the second half, we really stepped it up after we gave them too many looks in the first half.”

Cal’s man-to-man pressure made it tough on Penn for the entire 40 minutes, and even when they led by double digits late, the Bears didn’t back down.

Penn shot just 42 percent from the floor and made 13 turnovers.

Pittsburgh 71, Central Conn. State 54

Pittsburgh  Already, this much is obvious  however deep Pittsburgh advances into the NCAA Tournament, Brandin Knight will take them there.

Showing no effects of a painful tendon injury that left him limping a few days before, Knight scored 17 points and directed Pittsburgh runs in each half with some spectacular playmaking in a South Regional victory over Central Connecticut State.

Knight, a third-team All-American, put on a baseline-to-baseline show in front of his home fans, starting the offense with steals at one end before finishing them with beautiful passes or pullup jumpers at the other end.

He got a scare with 2:55 to play, coming up limping after taking a tumble at the Central Connecticut end, but apparently wasn’t hurt and went on to finish with nine assists and five steals. He had been listed as day-to-day since injuring his quadriceps Saturday in Pitt’s double-overtime loss to Connecticut in the Big East championship game.

Playing an NCAA game inside the city limits for the first time in school history, third-seeded Pittsburgh (28-5) won its first tournament game in 11 years.