RaeQuan Battle scored 23 points and Pat Suemnick added 20 as West Virginia upset No. 3 Kansas 91-85 on Saturday in a highly entertaining Big 12 clash in Morgantown, W.Va.
Kerr Kriisa chipped in with 15 points, including four free throws in the final 20 seconds as the Mountaineers (7-11, 2-3 Big 12) notched their second win over a Top 25 team in their last three outings. They were coming off a loss at No. 15 Oklahoma but had a win over then-No. 25 Texas a week ago.
Big 12 scoring leader Kevin McCullar Jr. led Kansas with 24 points and Hunter Dickinson had 19. Nicolas Timberlake had 12 points and KJ Adams Jr. added 11 for the Jayhawks (15-3, 3-2 Big 12) in a game that featured 10 ties and 18 lead changes.
After a blistering first half that ended in a 51-51 tie, things slowed down in the second with the teams trading baskets for much of the period until Battle’s jumper and free throw gave the Mountaineers a 77-70 lead with 6:49 left. Kansas rallied to take a late lead, but West Virginia pulled ahead for good with 2:06 to play.
No. 1 UConn 66, Villanova 65
Tristen Newton scored 25 points, Cam Spencer added 14 and the Huskies defeated the Wildcats in Philadelphia.
Alex Karaban had 10 points for UConn (17-2, 7-1 Big East), which won its seventh game in a row. TJ Bamba and Justin Moore led Villanova (11-7, 4-3) with 15 points apiece. Eric Dixon chipped in with nine points and seven rebounds.
Spencer made two free throws with 10 seconds remaining for a 64-60 lead. After Mark Armstrong hit a layup, Newton knocked down a pair of free throws with four seconds left for a 66-62 lead. Armstrong made a half-court shot at the buzzer.
No. 2 Purdue 84, Iowa 70
Zach Edey scored 30 points, grabbed 18 rebounds and blocked four shots, and the Boilermakers posted a win over the Hawkeyes in a Big Ten matchup in Iowa City, Iowa.
Lance Jones added 17 points and shot 4-for-9 from beyond the arc for Purdue (17-2, 6-2 Big Ten), which swept its regular-season series against Iowa. Purdue outrebounded Iowa 50-24, including a 19-4 advantage in offensive rebounds.
Tony Perkins scored 24 points on 10-for-19 shooting to lead Iowa (11-7, 3-4). Payton Sandfort scored 16 points to go along with a team-high seven rebounds, and Ben Krikke scored 10.
No. 4 North Carolina 76, Boston College 66
RJ Davis netted 16 points and Harrison Ingram recorded a double-double as the Tar Heels held off the Eagles to earn a victory in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
Davis also had six rebounds and four assists as the Tar Heels (15-3, 7-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) extended their winning streak to eight games. Ingram supplied 11 points and 13 boards. Cormac Ryan added 14 points and Armando Bacot had 10 to go along with nine rebounds for North Carolina.
Quinten Post paced the Eagles (11-7, 2-5) with a game-high 19 points while also grabbing 10 boards. Prince Aligbe (14 points) was Boston College’s only other double-figures scorer.
No. 5 Houston 57, UCF 42
LJ Cryer recorded 16 points and four steals and the Cougars played suffocating defense to beat the Knights in Big 12 play.
Jamal Shead added 10 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals for Houston (16-2, 3-2 Big 12), which defeated UCF for the eighth straight time and 12th in the past 13 meetings. Ja’Vier Francis added 10 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots for Houston.
Marchelus Avery led the Knights (11-6, 2-3) with 10 points despite making just 1 of 9 from the floor. UCF began the game by missing 10 straight field-goal attempts and later missed its first nine of the second half.
No. 6 Tennessee 91, Alabama 71
Dalton Knecht scored 25 points, Jonas Aidoo had 19 points and four blocks, and host the Volunteers handed the Crimson Tide their first loss in SEC play.
Jordan Gainey added 15 points and Santiago Vescovi had 10 points for Tennessee (14-4, 4-1 SEC), which has won 10 of its last 11 games and improved to 10-0 at home. The Volunteers held the nation’s fourth-ranked scoring offense under its season average of 90.2 points per game.
Mark Sears had 22 points but committed seven of Alabama’s 22 turnovers. The Tide (12-6, 4-1) had their six-game winning streak snapped.
Pittsburgh 80, No. 7 Duke 76
Blake Hinson didn’t miss from 3-point range and scored 24 points to help the Panthers snap the Blue Devils’ eight-game winning streak with an ACC upset at Durham, N.C.
In Pitt’s first win at Cameron Indoor Stadium since 1979, Hinson was 7-for-7 from beyond the arc and hit one with 6:35 remaining to put the Panthers (11-7, 2-5 ACC) up for good at 67-65. Jaland Lowe scored 17 points and Ishmael Leggett contributed 11 for Pitt, which avenged a 75-53 loss to Duke on Jan. 9 and snapped a two-game losing streak.
Duke (13-4, 4-2) lost despite having four players in double figures. Jared McCain led the Blue Devils with 20 points and Filipowksi scored 19 points. Caleb Foster chipped in 16 and Tyrese Proctor added 11.
No. 8 Kentucky 105, Georgia 96
Zvonimir Ivisic scored 13 points in his collegiate debut after being granted eligibility earlier in the day as the Wildcats recorded a victory over the Bulldogs in Lexington, Ky.
Ivisic was awaiting clearance from the NCAA after he was admitted to Kentucky in October. The school announced that he was officially cleared to play just hours before tip-off, and he recorded 16 minutes of action in his anticipated debut. Tre Mitchell led the Wildcats (14-3, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) with 23 points, Antonio Reeves added 21 and D.J. Wagner contributed 18. The trio combined to make 23 of 34 shots as Kentucky shot 61.9 percent overall and hit 14 3-pointers.
Jabri Abdur-Rahim led all scorers with a career-high 34 points as the Bulldogs (13-5, 3-2) lost for the second time in their past three games. Silas Demary Jr. added a career-best 22 points and RJ Melendez finished with 12 as Georgia shot 50 percent from the floor.
Texas 75, No. 9 Baylor 73
Tyrese Hunter drove the lane for the game-winning layup with 0.1 seconds to play as the Longhorns outlasted the Bears in a Big 12 Conference contest in Austin, Texas.
The Longhorns (13-5, 2-3 Big 12) led by a point at halftime and by three after a layup by Dylan Disu with 3:18 remaining. Ja’Kobe Walter’s two free throws with three minutes to play brought Baylor to within 69-68 before Disu answered with a pair from the charity stripe with 1:51 left.
Walter led all scorers with 22 points while Jalen Bridges tallied 17, Jayden Nunn racked up 15 and Langston Love scored 10 for Baylor (14-4, 3-2). When Bridges hit his 3-pointer to tie the score late, it was the Bears’ only field goal over the final 9:08 of the game.
No. 12 Arizona 77, UCLA 71
Pelle Larsson scored 22 points, sparking a comeback from a 17-point second-half deficit as the Wildcats rallied past the rival Bruins in Tucson, Ariz.
Arizona (14-4, 5-2 Pac-12) made 22 of 23 free throws in the second half and survived a wild last minute against the Bruins (8-11, 3-5), who were making their final scheduled appearance in McKale Center.
Arizona’s Oumar Ballo had a double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds. He entered the game shooting 43.5 percent from the free-throw line but made 7 of 8 against UCLA. Sebastian Mack scored 21 to lead the Bruins, while Lazar Stefanovic had 17 points and eight rebounds.
No. 13 Auburn 82, No. 22 Ole Miss 59
Jaylin Williams and Johni Broome each scored 13 points to lead a balanced attack as the Tigers established a 19-point halftime lead on their way to a Southeastern Conference rout of the Rebels in Auburn, Ala.
It was the 11th straight win for the Tigers (16-2, 5-0), who moved into sole possession of first place in the SEC after Alabama, which shared the top spot with them coming into the day, lost at Tennessee. The Rebels (15-3, 2-3) dropped their second straight game and are likely to fall from the top 25 on Monday.
Allen Flanigan scored a team-high 10 points for Ole Miss in his return to Auburn, where he played the first four years of his collegiate career. But the Rebels couldn’t cope with the Tigers’ balance on both ends of the floor.
No. 15 Oklahoma 69, Cincinnati 65
Javian McCollum overcame a right ankle injury to score a team-high 16 points as the Sooners held off the host Bearcats for a Big 12 victory.
Otega Oweh added 14 points while John Hugley IV scored 11 for Oklahoma (15-3, 3-2 Big 12), which won on the road in Big 12 play for the first time in three tries this season. Simas Lukosius paced Cincinnati (13-5, 2-3) with 16 points while John Newman III added 14 for the Bearcats, who lost for the third time in four games.
Josh Reed sank two free throws with 28.7 seconds remaining to slice the Oklahoma lead to 65-62. Oweh then missed the front end of a 1-on-1 and Cincinnati had a chance to tie. But the Bearcats were unable to get off a 3-pointer and Lukosius made one of two free-throw attempts with 10 seconds left. Rivaldo Soares drained a pair of free throws with six seconds left to ice the game.
No. 16 Utah State 83, Fresno State 62
Great Osobor scored 20 points and pulled down 12 rebounds and the Aggies pulled away for a win over the Bulldogs in a Mountain West Conference matchup in Logan, Utah.
Osobor shot 8-for-10 from the field, including 2-for-2 from beyond the arc. Ian Martinez scored 14 points and Josh Uduje chipped in 12 off the bench for Utah State (17-2, 5-1 Mountain West).
Isaiah Pope scored 16 points to lead Fresno State (8-10, 1-4). Donavan Yap Jr. scored 12 points off the bench and Eduardo Andre finished with 11 points.
No, 17 Marquette 73, St. John’s 72
Oso Ighodaro scored 17 points as the Golden Eagles survived a shaky final few minutes to beat the host Red Storm at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Marquette (13-5, 4-3 Big East) held a 71-58 lead with 6:20 remaining but escaped with its second straight win after conceding a 14-2 run the rest of the way and going scoreless over the final 2:55. St. John’s Dennis Jenkins missed a 3-pointer at the final buzzer.
RJ Luis Jr. scored a season-high 20 for St John’s (12-7, 4-4), which dropped its third straight. Jenkins added 16 points while Chris Ledlum contributed 13 points and 11 boards and Soriano finished with 11 points and nine rebounds.
No. 18 Creighton 97, Seton Hall 94 (3 OT)
Ryan Kalkbrenner scored 28 points and Trey Alexander capped his 23-point performance with a go-ahead 3-pointer in triple overtime as the Bluejays pulled out a wild victory over host the Pirates in Newark, N.J.
Kalkbrenner added nine rebounds and a career-high seven blocks, Baylor Scheierman had 20 points and 10 rebounds and Creighton (14-5, 5-3 Big East) absorbed punch after punch by the pesky Pirates to win after a meager 48-point showing earlier in the week at No. 1 UConn.
Kadary Richmond tallied 21 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for his first career triple-double for Seton Hall (13-6, 6-2). Al-Amir Dawes scored all 21 of his points after halftime and Dre Davis made his first six shots before finishing with 21 as well.
No. 24 Iowa State 73, No. 19 TCU 72
Keshon Gilbert scored 20 points and Curtis Jones added 17 as the Cyclones overcame the absence of leading scorer Tamin Lipsey and held on for a road victory over the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth, Texas.
Milan Momcilovic had 10 points for the Cyclones (14-4, 3-2 Big 12), who dominated the first half by shooting 56.3 percent from the floor and forcing the Horned Frogs into 18 turnovers, well above their average of 12.6 per game. TCU finished with 27 turnovers. With Lipsey out with a sprained left shoulder, Gilbert went 8 of 15 from the floor.
Trevian Tennyson scored 19 points, Micah Peavy had 11 with nine rebounds and Emanuel Miller added 10 points as the Horned Frogs (13-5, 2-3) lost their second consecutive game after a victory over then-No. 2 Houston on Jan. 13.
No. 25 Texas Tech 85, No. 20 BYU 78
Headed toward another humbling loss, the Red Raiders were at a crossroads at home against the Cougars, but found the right path by rallying for a victory in Lubbock, Texas.
Pop Isaacs erupted in the second half on the way to a career-best 32 points to help spark the comeback and keep the Red Raiders in the first-place mix in the best league in the country.
The Red Raiders (15-3, 4-1 Big 12) trailed 48-32 at halftime after a 23-point loss at Houston earlier in the week but didn’t wave a white flag. Aided by BYU’s second-half shooting struggles (13 of 37 overall; 3 of 19 from 3-point range), Texas Tech clawed back with pressure defense that generated 17 points off turnovers after halftime.
No. 21 Dayton 96, Rhode Island 62
Javon Bennett scored a team-high 22 points, including four 3-pointers, leading the Flyers over the visiting Rams.
Daron Holmes II added 21 points for Dayton (15-2, 5-0 Atlantic 10), which won its 12th straight game. Koby Brea collected 15 points on 5-for-7 3-point shooting for Dayton, while Nate Santos chipped in nine points.
Jaden House led Rhode Island (9-9, 3-2) with a game-high 27 points, followed by David Green and Cam Estevez, who each scored eight points. The Rams struggled from the onset, trailing by as many as 24 points in the first half.
–Field Level Media