NCAA Men's Basketball Brackets were broken Thursday when No. 14 seed Harvard University defeated No. 3 New Mexico Thursday.

The Crimson beat the Lobbs 68-62 in Salt Lake City, a projection predicted by only 5.6 percent of the 8.15 million entries in ESPN's Tournament Challenge.

Harvard overcame adversity after losing two co-captains following an academic scandal to win a game in the men's NCAA Basketball tournament for the first time in history. The Ivy League team lost seniors Kyle Casey and Brandyn Curry, who both were forced to withdraw from the university after accusations flew that there were similarities on final exams of about 125 students. More than half of the students who were believed to be involved were told to withdraw for as long as a year, Harvard said in a statement in February.

"At the beginning of the season we felt almost hopeless because we lost Curry and Casey," said Harvard senior Nikita Jambulingam, who returned from spring break early to watch last night's game with fellow students.

It was a blow for a team coming off a school-record 26-win season, as Casey was Harvard's leading scorer in 2011-12 and Curry was the starting point guard.

"It means the world to us," Harvard Coach Tommy Amaker said during a news conference. "To do it in this fashion, on this stage against an outstanding team, I can't say enough about how good this team is."

New Mexico had difficulties the entire game on the offensive end of the court and allowed Harvard to shoot extremely well. The Lobbs struggled with cutting Harvard's lead. Harvard was able to get the win by shooting over 50 percent from the field, over 90 percent from the line and above 40 percent from the field.

Crimson was led by four players who scored in the double digits including Wesley Saunders, who finished 18 points and Laurent Rivard had 17 points.

Harvard (20-9), who is considered a 10 1/2-point underdog, advanced to face the University of Arizona Friday in Salt Lake City.

"Morale for the season was low, especially because we had been tournament contenders for the last two years, but the team has really pulled together," Jambulingam said.