TUCSON, ARIZ. ? For the first 15 minutes or so, the Bears of Baylor looked like the defending NCAA champions they are. That was good enough to get them past feisty Northern Arizona, 74-56, in their first-round game Saturday night.

Sophia Young scored 23, 16 in the first half, and grabbed eight rebounds for Baylor, the No. 3 seed in the Albuquerque Regional. The 10th-ranked Bears (25-6) advanced to a second-round game Monday night against New Mexico.

“With the intensity of the NCAA Tournament, you can’t always expect a blowout,” Young said.

Abiola Wabara added 12 points. Jessica Morrow and Chameka Scott scored 10 for the Bears.

Freshman Sade Cunningham led Northern Arizona with 13 points, including 7-of-9 from the free-throw line.

Coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson shrugged off her team’s ragged performance.

“This is the NCAA Tournament,” she said. “You just survive and advance.”

The 14th-seeded Lumberjacks (22-11), champions of the Big Sky Conference tournament and making their first NCAA appearance, made just two of their first 21 shots. In the meantime, Baylor shot out to a 19-4 lead and was up 35-12 on freshman Rachel Allison’s basket with 4:29 left in the half.

Northern Arizona's Alyssa Wahl, left, tries to grab the ball as Baylor's Angela Tisdale, center, passes it off to teammate Sophia Young. The Bears held off the Lumberjacks, 74-56, Saturday in Tucson, Ariz.

Mulkey-Robertson benched her three starters from last year’s team – Young, Wabara and Chameka Scott – for a long stretch in the first half, and the Bears still led 43-22 at the break.

Lumberjacks guard Kim Winkfield had suggested Baylor was a one-dimensional team and that holding down Young, the Big 12 Conference player of the year, would open the way for an upset. The remark obviously chafed Mulkey-Robertson.

“I think we proved today we’re not one-dimensional,” the intense Baylor coach said. “Anytime you can get 10 players in, for good minutes, I think it proves that.”

Utah 76, Middle Tennessee 71

Tucson, Ariz. – Shona Thorburn brought Utah back from the brink of a first-round upset. The senior guard scored eight of her 21 points in the final 41â2 minutes, and the fifth-seeded Utes rallied from a 15-point second-half deficit.

Arizona State 80, Stephen F. Austin 61

Tucson, Ariz. – Playing on the home court of arch-rival Arizona, the fourth-seeded Sun Devils routed the Ladyjacks. Kristen Kovesdy scored 22 on 8-for-12 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds. Eleven players scored for the Sun Devils (25-6), all in the first half.

New Mexico 83, Florida 59

Tucson, Ariz. – Jana Francis scored a career-high 25 points on 10-of-14 shooting, and the 11th-seeded Lobos got off to a strong start in a romp over the fifth-seeded Gators.

Bridgeport Regional

Kentucky 69, Chattanooga 59

Rosemont, Ill. – Sarah Elliott scored a season-high 22 to help fifth-seeded Kentucky (22-8) end Chattanooga’s 26-game winning streak.

Michigan State 65, Wisconsin-Milwaukee 46

Rosemont, Ill. – Liz Shimek scored 17 of her 27 points in the final 20 minutes as Michigan State (23-9) shook off a sluggish first half. The fourth-seeded Spartans will face Kentucky in the second round Monday. Thirteenth-seeded Wisconsin-Milwaukee (22-9), making just its second NCAA appearance, trailed by only one at the half and was down only three with just under 12 minutes to go.

Cleveland Regional

North Carolina 75, UC Riverside 51

Nashville, Tenn. – Rashanda McCants scored 15 points, Ivory Latta added 14, and the Tar Heels scored the first bucket and never looked back.

Vanderbilt 76, Louisville 64

Nashville, Tenn. – Caroline Williams hit six three-pointers and finished with 21 points, and Vanderbilt (21-10) beat ninth-seeded Louisville.