A Monmouth team with a history of being on the short end of NCAA blowouts opened the tournament on the other side of one.Chris Kenny set an opening-round record with six 3-pointers Tuesday night, and 7-foot-2 center John Bunch entertained the crowd with his bulk and his blocks during a 71-49 victory over Hampton in the play-in game.Monmouth (19-14) moves on to Philadelphia to play No. 1 seed Villanova in the Wildcats’ backyard on Friday, looking to pull off that elusive 16-over-1 upset.Even if they don’t get it, the Northeast Conference champions have already had a breakthrough tournament. The Hawks hadn’t come close to winning any of their three previous NCAA appearances.Monmouth lost by 24 points to Marquette in 1996, by 43 points to No. 1 seed Duke in 2001, and by 33 points to Mississippi State in 2004. The conference hadn’t even won an NCAA tournament game since 1983.Kenny and Bunch helped the Hawks finally get it going.Only a handful of students from both schools made the short-notice trip for the tournament opener, held at the University of Dayton Arena since the NCAA returned to a play-in format in 2001.
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