Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Emanuel Miller scored 19 points and Mike Miles Jr. had 15, including a key 3-pointer in the final seconds, as No. 14 TCU staved off upset-minded Arkansas-Pine Bluff 73-72 on Monday in the season opener for both teams in Fort Worth, Texas.
Arkansas-Pine Bluff led by as many as 20 points in the first half, by 11 at halftime and 70-66 after a layup by Ismael Plet with 1:53 to play. But the Horned Frogs rallied with two free throws by Micah Peavy, a 3-pointer by Miles and another pair of free throws by Chuck O’Bannon Jr. to leapfrog to a 73-70 advantage.
Plet brought the Golden Lions to within a point on another layup with nine seconds remaining. After a missed free throw by O’Bannon and a rebound by Plet, Trejon Ware was off the mark on a contested, short baseline jumper at the buzzer that allowed TCU to hold on.
O’Bannon added 11 points and Peavy had 10 for the Horned Frogs. Shaun Doss Jr. led all scorers with 25 points while Chris Greene added 13 and Kylen Milton had 10 assists for the Golden Lions.
No. 1 North Carolina 69, UNC Wilmington 56
Caleb Love and RJ Davis each scored 17 points as the Tar Heels powered to a season-opening victory over the visiting Seahawks in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Love shot 6-for-12 and Davis shot 6-for-11 from the floor for last season’s national title runners-up. Love also had three rebounds and two steals, while Davis added four rebounds. Preseason Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year Armando Bacot tallied 16 points and nine boards for the Heels.
The Seahawks were led by Trazarien White’s 19 points. Shykeim Phillips added 11 points, and Donovan Newby had 10.
No. 2 Gonzaga 104, North Florida 63
Preseason All-American Drew Timme registered 22 points and three steals and the No. 2 Bulldogs broke the game open with a 26-0 run en route to a convincing victory over the visiting Ospreys in the season opener at Spokane, Wash.
Julian Strawther added 16 points for the Bulldogs, who had a 66-24 edge in points in the paint and a 28-3 advantage in fast-break points. Malachi Smith had 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting in his Gonzaga debut after transferring from Chattanooga, where he was Southern Conference Player of the Year.
Carter Hendricksen had 16 points and eight rebounds for North Florida. Jadyn Parker scored 13 points and Jose Placer added 12 for the Ospreys.
No. 3 Houston 83, Northern Colorado 36
Marcus Sasser made four 3-pointers while recording 21 points and four steals to help the Cougars roll over the visiting Bears in the season opener for both teams.
Beginning his ninth season at Houston, Kelvin Sampson picked up his 200th victory at the school. J’Wan Roberts added 12 points and three steals and Jerace Walker collected 12 rebounds for Houston. Emanuel Sharp scored 11 points and Jamal Shead had nine points, nine assists and three steals for the Cougars.
Riley Abercrombie, Mark Johnson II and Caleb Shaw scored eight points apiece for Northern Colorado, which made just 10 field goals while shooting 25.6 percent from the field.
No. 4 Kentucky 95, Howard 63
Antonio Reeves scored 22 points off the bench and CJ Fredrick added 20 as the Wildcats opened the season with a victory against the visiting Bison, despite playing without three starters — including the reigning National Player of the Year, Oscar Tshiebwe.
Fredrick, a transfer from Iowa, was making his Wildcats debut after missing all of last season due to a hamstring injury. Jacob Toppin added a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds and Cason Wallace scored 15.
Kobe Dickson scored 17 and Elijah Hawkins added 14 to lead Howard, but the Wildcats held the Bison to 34.3 percent field-goal shooting (23 of 67), including 28 percent (7 of 25) on 3-point tries.
No. 5 Baylor 117, Mississippi Valley State 53
Adam Flagler scored 21 points to lead a balanced offensive attack as the Bears walloped the Delta Devils in Waco, Texas.
Baylor led by 40 points after a dominating first half and strolled through the second half, forcing Mississippi Valley State into 25 turnovers that led to 35 points. The Bears shot 51.4 percent and enjoyed a 53-29 edge in rebounding, including a 22-9 advantage on the offensive glass.
LJ Cryer added 16 points for Baylor, with Dale Bonner posting a career-high 14, and Keyonte George, Jalen Bridges and Langston Love scoring 13 points each. Alvin Stredic Jr. led the Delta Devils with 14 points while Terry Collins added 10.
No. 5 Kansas 89, Omaha 64
Freshman Gradey Dick scored 23 points as the Jayhawks outlasted the visiting Mavericks for a season-opening win in Lawrence as Kansas began its national-title defense.
Dick shot 9 of 13 from the field and made 4 of 6 attempts from behind the arc. His scoring total was the highest by a Jayhawk in his debut since Xavier Henry had 27 points in 2009. Four other Jayhawks scored in double digits.
Jaeden Marshall led Omaha with 13 points, while Marquel Sutton and Frankie Fidler each had 11 points. Luke Jungers added 12 points and six boards off the bench.
No. 7 Duke 71, Jacksonville 44
Freshman Mark Mitchell pumped in 18 points in Jon Scheyer’s debut as head coach as the Blue Devils rolled to a season-opening victory against the visiting Dolphins in Durham, N.C.
Jeremy Roach, one of the few returning players for Duke, posted 16 points. Kyle Filipowski had 10 points and 12 rebounds in his first college game. Ryan Young, a transfer from Northwestern, added 12 points for Duke, which shot 10-for-29 from 3-point range.
Mike Marsh poured in 15 points for the Dolphins. No other Jacksonville player had more than five points with five minutes still to play. The Dolphins shot 3-for-23 on 3-pointers.
No. 8 UCLA 76, Sacramento State 50
Jaylen Clark’s perfect shooting performance and a 20-0 first-half run powered the Bruins to a rout of the Hornets in the season-opening contest for both teams in Los Angeles.
UCLA trailed 16-12 midway through the first half before consecutive baskets from Tyger Campbell jump-started what proved to be the decisive stretch.
Campbell’s five straight points, including one of his two made 3-pointers on four attempts for the night, gave the Bruins a lead they never relinquished. The Hornets ended their scoring drought with 2:41 left in the half.
No. 9 Creighton 72, St. Thomas 60
Arthur Kaluma collected 17 points and eight rebounds to fuel the host Bluejays to a victory over the visiting Tommies in the season opener for both teams in Omaha, Neb.
Trey Alexander scored 12 points and South Dakota State transfer Baylor Scheierman added 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Bluejays, who benefited from a 14-0 run in the second half to help put away the upstart Tommies.
St. Thomas’ Andrew Rohde scored 15 points, Brooks Allen added 14 and Riley Miller had 13. Parker Bjorklund had nine points and Will Engels recorded seven points and a team-high nine rebounds for the Tommies, who provided a scare by making 40.9 percent of their 3-point attempts (9 of 22).
No. 10 Arkansas 76, North Dakota State 58
Transfers Ricky Council IV and Trevon Brazile joined with veteran Davonte Davis to lead the Razorbacks to a victory over the Bison in the season opener for both teams in Fayetteville, Ark.
Council, the American Athletic Conference’s Sixth Man of the Year for Wichita State last season, scored 22 points to lead all scorers while Brazile, who started 22 games as a freshman at Missouri, posted collegiate highs in points (21) and rebounds (12). Davis, one of only four returnees on the Arkansas roster, chipped in with 18 points.
Grant Nelson and Boden Skunberg led the visiting Bison with 17 points each. Skunberg had 10 in the first half on his way to a career high.
No. 11 Tennessee 75, Tennessee Tech 43
Tyreke Key scored 17 points to lead the Volunteers to their 18th straight home victory, a season-opening rout of the Golden Eagles in Knoxville, Tenn.
Zakai Zeigler had 12 points and five assists for the Southeastern Conference Volunteers (1-0), who never trailed. Tennessee sank 17 of 36 (47.2 percent) second-half shots after shooting 31 percent (9-for-29) during the first 20 minutes. Seven different Tennessee players sank at least one 3-pointer in the second half, when the Vols were 10 of 23 (43.5 percent) from long distance.
Junior-college transfer Brett Thompson had 15 points and six rebounds for the Golden Eagles (0-1) of the Ohio Valley Conference. Tennessee Tech was outscored 22-2 in second-chance points. Tech registered just one field goal during the first 15:46. Thompson sank a layup 8:39 into the game.
No. 12 Texas 72, Texas-El Paso 57
Tyrese Hunter scored 18 points as the Longhorns got serious contributions from their older newcomers and defeated the visiting Miners in the season-opening game for both teams in Austin, Texas.
Hunter played at Iowa State last year as a freshman. Sir’Jabari Rice, a transfer from New Mexico State, added 14 points, Marcus Carr scored 12 (eight from the free-throw line) and Dylan Disu hit for 10 for Texas.
Ze’rik Onyema (10 points) was the only player that scored in double figures for UTEP. The Miners shot just 40.4 percent from the floor and had 19 turnovers.
No. 13 Indiana 88, Morehead State 53
Preseason All-American Trayce Jackson-Davis recorded 15 points and seven rebounds to help the Hoosiers cruise to a victory over the visiting Eagles in the season opener for both teams at Bloomington, Ind.
Malik Reneau also scored 15 points in his college debut as Indiana improved to 6-0 all-time against Morehead State. Jordan Geronimo added 10 points for the Hoosiers. Indiana shot 61 percent from the field, including 4 of 11 (36.4 percent) from 3-point range, and led by as many as 37 points.
Mark Freeman scored 14 points in the first half for Morehead State but sat out the second with a twisted ankle. Drew Thelwell added 11 for the Eagles, who committed 21 turnovers to Indiana’s 10. Morehead State connected on 37 percent of its shots and 9 of 30 from behind the arc.
No. 15 Auburn 70, George Mason 52
In their first game without the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year and the Naismith College Defensive Player of the Year, the Tigers used a 10-man playing rotation and a stifling defensive effort to race past the visiting Patriots in their season opener.
Veteran guards Wendell Green Jr. and K.D. Johnson spearheaded Auburn’s offensive attack. Green had a game-high 16 points and four assists. Johnson added 12 points, three rebounds and three assists.
Auburn limited forward Josh Oduro, the leading scorer in the Atlantic 10 last season, to just five points in the first half. He finished the game with eight points after getting into second-half foul trouble. Patriots guard Devon Cooper was limited to six points.
No. 16 Villanova 81, La Salle 68
Caleb Daniels hit six 3-pointers with 24 points and 10 rebounds, Eric Dixon added 20 points and three blocked shots and the No. 16 Wildcats defeated the visiting Explorers.
It was the debut for Villanova head coach Kyle Neptune, who took over for Hall of Famer Jay Wright, who retired after guiding the Wildcats to two national championships in a highly successful 21-year stint.
Jordan Longino and Brandon Slater had 12 each for Villanova against the Big 5 rival. Josh Nickelberry led the Explorers with 22 points, while Hassan Drame added 17 and Khalil Brantley had 11.
No. 17 Arizona 117, Nicholls 75
Azuolas Tubelis scored 20 of his 23 points in the first half, Pelle Larsson had a double-double and the Wildcats set a school record for shooting percentage in a victory over the Colonials in the season opener for both teams in Tucson, Ariz.
The Wildcats scored their most points in a game since a 127-99 win over Arizona State on Jan. 15, 1998. They shot 71.7 percent (38 of 53), eclipsing the old mark of 71.4. Larsson had 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Tubelis’ frontcourt mate, Oumar Ballo, contributed 18 points and nine rebounds against the smaller Colonels.
Indiana State transfer Micah Thomas was brilliant in his debut with Nicholls, scoring 20 points and draining 8 of 10 shots from the field, including all four attempts from behind the 3-point arc. Latrell Jones scored 16 points.
No. 18 Virginia 73, North Carolina Central 61
Armaan Franklin scored 21 points to lead the Cavaliers to a victory over the visiting Eagles in the season opener for both teams in Charlottesville, Va.
Reece Beekman, Francisco Caffaro and Kadin Shedrick added 10 points each for Virginia and Jayden Gardner scored his 2,000th career point and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
In the first-ever meeting between the Cavaliers of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Eagles of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, Virginia’s signature stingy defense was put to the test. Justin Wright scored 20 points and Eric Boone added 18 points for the Eagles, who erased a 16-point deficit and briefly held a second-half lead.
No. 19 San Diego State 80, Cal State Fullerton 57
Darrion Trammell had 18 points and three steals to help the Aztecs to a win against the visiting Titans in the season opener for both teams.
Lamont Butler had 11 points, six assists and four steals, Jaedon LeDee scored 11 off the bench, and Nathan Mensah finished with 10 points and six rebounds for San Diego State, which has won 16 straight season openers against unranked teams.
Vincent Lee scored 11 points to lead Cal State Fullerton, who returned four core players from a team that reached the NCAA Tournament last season. Jalen Harris scored 10 points and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. scored all eight of his points in the first half for the Titans.
No. 20 Alabama 75, Longwood 54
Naismith Trophy Watch List candidate Brandon Miller came through with a double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, to help the Crimson Tide roll past the Lancers in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
After ending last season on a four-game losing streak, the Crimson Tide got back on track to start the 2022-23 season. Mark Sears also had a double-double, with 12 points and 10 rebounds, and Rylan Griffen scored 14 points for the Crimson Tide, who shot 39.1 percent from the field.
Michael Christmas led the Lancers with 12 points. Longwood shot just 26.8 percent from the floor and was outrebounded 67-38.
No. 21 Oregon 80, Florida A&M 45
The Ducks didn’t shoot well from long range, but the inside presence of N’Faly Dante was enough to lead the big win over the Rattlers in the season opener for both teams in Eugene, Ore.
Dante scored 16 points and added 10 rebounds, and Colorado transfer Keeshawn Barthelemy added 13 in his Oregon debut. Will Richardson scored 11 points and the Ducks outscored the Rattlers 44-20 in the second half.
The Ducks led by as many as 16 points, 29-13, in the first half. They took a 51-35 lead on Nate Bittle’s layup with 12:13 to play in the game, and Barthelemy followed that with a 3-pointer as Oregon took control. Jordan Chatman and Jordan Tillmon scored eight points each for Florida A&M.
No. 22 Michigan 75, Purdue Fort Wayne 56
Hunter Dickinson had 22 points and 12 rebounds, Jett Howard supplied 21 points in his debut and the Wolverines defeated the Mastodons in the season opener for both teams at Ann Arbor, Mich.
Dickinson scored his 1,000th point in the first half. Joey Baker, a Duke transfer, added nine points, and Kobe Bufkin chipped in eight points and three assists. Michigan (1-0) had a 36-20 advantage in points in the paint, committed only eight turnovers and limited Fort Wayne to 29.6 percent shooting.
Quinton Morton-Robertson led Purdue Fort Wayne (0-1) with 15 points and Bobby Planutis tossed in 13.
No. 23 Illinois 87, Eastern Illinois 57
Texas Tech transfer Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 24 points, Coleman Hawkins had 23 and the Fighting Illini clamped down on the Panthers with swarming defense in Champaign, Ill.
Shannon made 13 of 15 free throws and added eight rebounds. Hawkins scored 18 points in the first half with five 3-pointers. Dain Dainja came off the bench to post 17 points on 8-of-9 shooting and 10 rebounds.
Kinyon Hodges led the Panthers with 14 points and five rebounds and Yaakema Rose had 10 points and four rebounds.
No. 24 Dayton 73, Lindenwood 46
Mike Sharavjamts scored 14 points and DaRon Holmes II and R.J. Blakney added 13 apiece as the Flyers downed the Lions in the season opener for both teams at Dayton, Ohio.
Dayton, the preseason choice to win the Atlantic 10 this season after consecutive years of settling for NIT bids, led by 17 in the first half but let the Lions hang around well into the second before pulling away.
Kevin Caldwell Jr. netted eight points for overmatched Lindenwood, which is beginning its first season in Division I after more than a decade in Division II.
No. 25 Texas Tech 73, Northwestern State 49
Daniel Batcho had 12 points and 10 rebounds, and the Red Raiders extended their home winning streak to 22 games with a season-opening victory against the Demons in Lubbock, Texas.
Kevin Obanor and Kerwin Walton each added nine points for Texas Tech of the Big 12 Conference, which put 11 players in the scoring column.
The Red Raiders shot 52.2 percent (24 of 46) overall and 7 of 18 from beyond the arc. Texas Tech outrebounded Northwestern State 43-31 and scored more points (28-8) in the paint.
–Field Level Media