Villanova had the No. 1 seed, the home-court advantage, and a resume that has them unquestionably among the nation’s elite.

None of that seemed to faze unheralded Monmouth.

Pushed by a pesky Monmouth team aiming to pull off an unprecedented upset, the top-seeded Wildcats prevailed and beat the Hawks, 58-45, Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

“We knew about Monmouth, we knew they were a very good team,” Wildcats guard Allan Ray said. “We definitely didn’t underestimate them.”

With a crowd that seemed to abandon the Wildcats (26-4), along with their accurate shooting and smart decision making, Villanova looked nothing like the team that shared the Big East title with Connecticut.

Still, Ray returned from a scary eye injury to score 19 points, Randy Foye added 17 points, and the Wildcats advanced to play eighth-seeded Arizona on Sunday in the Minneapolis Regional.

Ohio State 70, Davidson 62

Dayton, Ohio – Stung by a disciplinary measure by the NCAA, Ohio State (26-5) regrouped in its tournament opener behind Ron Lewis, who was in the middle of almost every play during a second-half surge. Lewis came off the bench to score 16 of his 19 points in the second half. The Buckeyes will play Georgetown in the next round.

Ian Johnson matched his career high with 26 points for the No. 15 seed Wildcats (20-11).

Georgetown 54, Northern Iowa 49

Dayton, Ohio – Seven-foot-2 Roy Hibbert scored 17, and seventh-seeded Georgetown (22-9) relied on its clampdown defense.

No. 10 seed Northern Iowa (23-10) had no one to match up with Hibbert, who went 8-of-10 from the field and had nine rebounds before fouling out with 1:11 to go.

Arizona 94, Wisconsin 75

Philadelphia – Behind tough defense and outstanding shooting, the eighth-seeded Wildcats had little trouble against No. 9 seed Wisconsin.

Mustafa Shakur had 17 points and nine assists, Hassan Adams scored 21 and Ivan Radenovic added 18 for Arizona (20-12).

Alando Tucker scored 19 for Wisconsin (19-12).