College basketball: No. 1 Michigan State bounces back to beat Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS — Bryn Forbes scored 20 points, making three 3-pointers in the second half to help top-ranked Michigan State stave off Minnesota for a 69-61 victory on Saturday in response to a loss at Iowa earlier in the week.
Matt Costello contributed 17 points and 15 rebounds, both career highs, for the Spartans (14-1, 1-1) four days after they fell 78-63 to the Hawkeyes in their Big Ten opener to make this No. 1 billing in The Associated Press’ poll short-lived.
Freshman Deyonta Davis added 10 points and four rebounds, capably filling a void in the post created by star Denzel Valentine’s knee injury.
Nate Mason led the Gophers (6-8, 0-2) with 16 points, Jordan Murphy had 14 points and nine rebounds and Kevin Dorsey scored 11 points.
No. 2 KANSAS 102, No. 23 BAYLOR 74
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Wayne Selden scored 24 points, Perry Ellis added 17 and No. 2 Kansas used a big run over the first 10 minutes to win their Big 12 opener.
Devonte Graham added 15 points and Frank Mason III had 11 for the Jayhawks (12-1, 1-0), who charged out to a 22-4 lead, then turned back every attempt by the Bears (10-3, 0-1) to make it a game.
It was the Jayhawks’ sixth straight win over Baylor — which has never won in 14 trips to Lawrence — and 25th consecutive conference-opening win. It was also their 31st straight win at Allen Fieldhouse, where No. 3 Oklahoma will visit for another high-profile showdown Monday night.
Taurean Prince had 13 of his 17 points in the second half for Baylor. Lester Medford added 15, all but three after the break, while Rico Gathers finished with 12 points and nine rebounds.
No. 4 MARYLAND 72, NORTHWESTERN 59
EVANSTON, Ill. — Melo Trimble scored 24 points, Rasheed Sulaimon added 16 points and Maryland beat Northwestern.
Trimble scored 17 points in the second half. Sulaimon had 13 in the first, helping the Terrapins (13-1, 2-0 Big Ten) grab a 40-20 lead on the way to their seventh straight victory.
They also gave coach Mark Turgeon his 100th victory in five seasons at Maryland and snapped a 10-game winning streak for Northwestern (13-2, 1-1).
Bryant McIntosh led the Wildcats with 17 points. Northwestern shot just 37.3 percent and was 2 of 20 on 3-pointers.
No. 5 VIRGINIA 77, NOTRE DAME 66
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Anthony Gill scored seven of his 14 first-half points during a 21-4 run and Virginia cruised to its 11th consecutive victory.
Malcolm Brogdon led the Cavaliers (12-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) with 24 points, Gill had 21 and Mike Tobey had his second straight big game off the bench with 15 points and six rebounds.
Demetrius Jackson led the Fighting Irish (9-4, 0-1) with 18 points. Steve Vasturia and Bonzie Colson each added 14.
The Cavaliers’ 12th straight victory at home came as Virginia launched its bid to become the first team since Duke from 1997-2000 to win three consecutive outright ACC championships.
No. 6 XAVIER 88, No. 9 BUTLER 69
CINCINNATI — Remy Abell scored a career-high 21 points, and No. 6 Xavier recovered from its first loss of the season.
The Musketeers (13-1, 1-1 Big East) were coming off a 95-64 defeat at No. 16 Villanova on Thursday that ended the best start in school history. Xavier led most of the way Saturday, taking control with a 13-1 run in the second half.
Butler (11-3, 0-2) shook up its starting lineup after an 81-73 home loss to No. 12 Providence on Thursday, but the Bulldogs’ high-scoring offense couldn’t get much done against one of the league’s best defenses.
Roosevelt Jones led Butler with 14 points.
It was the most points Butler has allowed this season, and the fewest it has scored.
James Farr added 13 points and eight rebounds for Xavier, which had five players in double figures and shot 56 percent from the field.
No. 7 NORTH CAROLINA 86, GEORGIA TECH 78
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Joel Berry II scored a career-high 19 points and hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with 5:07 left for North Carolina.
Brice Johnson added 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Tar Heels (13-2, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), who had fits with the Yellow Jackets (10-4, 0-1) all game. Georgia Tech led by nine points in the first half, by three at halftime and by one with 6 minutes left before the Tar Heels finally pushed ahead for good.
Berry’s 3 was part of a 9-0 burst, and he followed with a driving basket for a three-point play on the next possession.
Marcus Georges-Hunt matched his career high with 25 points for Georgia Tech. Adam Smith added 20 points with six 3-pointers for the Yellow Jackets, who haven’t beaten North Carolina since January 2011 and haven’t won in Chapel Hill since a year before that.
No. 10 KENTUCKY 83, MISSISSIPPI 61
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Tyler Ulis had 20 points and 10 assists to help Kentucky beat Mississippi in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.
Ulis set the tone for the blowout, scoring seven of Kentucky’s first nine points.
Kentucky (11-2) ended the Rebels’ seven-game winning streak.
Jamal Murray made four of Kentucky’s seven 3-pointers and had 18 points. Marcus Lee added 13.
Stefan Moody led the Rebels (10-3) with 23 points, scoring 15 in the second half. Sebastian Saiz followed with 12.
No. 12 PROVIDENCE 83, ST. JOHN’S 65
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Kris Dunn had 26 points, nine rebounds and six assists to lead Providence to its eighth straight win.
Dunn scored 12 straight points for the Friars in the second half after the Red Storm closed within 56-50 with 9:30 remaining. Providence led 43-31 at halftime and went up by as many as 17 points early in the second half before St. John’s went on its run.
Dunn cooled off the Red Storm with consecutive 3-pointers that helped the Friars (14-1, 2-0 Big East) re-establish control.
Providence’s Ben Bentil finished with 20 points and nine rebounds while Rodney Bullock had 13 points and eight rebounds.
Yankuba Sima had 14 points for St. John’s (7-8, 0-2), which lost its fifth straight.
No. 13 MIAMI 64, SYRACUSE 51
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Sheldon McClellan scored 22 points and Ja’Quan Newton made two big 3-pointers in the second half for Miami.
Newton finished with 14 points for Miami (12-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), which blew it open with a 12-0 run in the final minutes to win its seventh straight.
Miami shot only 35 percent, but held Syracuse to 32 percent. The Hurricanes missed their first 16 3-point attempts and finished 3 for 25 from beyond the arc.
Malachi Richardson scored 20 points for Syracuse (10-5, 0-2), which has dropped its first two games of league play for the first time since it started the 1998-99 Big East season 0-2.
IOWA 70, No. 14 PURDUE 63
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Jarrod Uthoff scored 25 points, Peter Jok had 11 points and nine rebounds and Iowa erased a 17-point halftime deficit to beat Purdue.
The Hawkeyes (11-3, 2-0 Big Ten) have won four straight and eight of nine, including two upsets of Top 15 teams this week. They beat No. 1 Michigan State on Tuesday night.
Kendall Stephens led Purdue (13-2, 1-1) with 12 points, and A.J. Hammons had 11. The Boilermakers had won 15 straight at home.
No. 15 DUKE 81, BOSTON COLLEGE 64
BOSTON — Brandon Ingram had 25 points and nine rebounds to lead Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams.
Grayson Allen had 17 points, nine rebounds and five assists for the Blue Devils (12-2, 1-0), who beat the Eagles for the 10th consecutive time. Luke Kennard added 17 points and Matt Jones had 16.
Eli Carter scored 19 points for Boston College (7-7, 0-1). Jerome Robinson had 15 points and seven rebounds for the Eagles, who led by six points with 12:46 left in the first half before giving up 20 of the next 25 points.
No. 16 VILLANOVA 85, CREIGHTON 71
OMAHA, Neb. — Josh Hart scored 25 points and Daniel Ochefu led Villanova’s powerful inside game with 19 points in a victory over Creighton.
Hart made 10 of 14 shots and had five rebounds, three steals and a block for the Wildcats (12-2, 2-0 Big East). The 6-foot-11 Ochefu made all seven of his first-half shots and finished 9 for 10.
Maurice Watson Jr. scored 15 points to lead the Bluejays (10-5, 1-1). Isaiah Zierden added 14 points and Cole Huff had 12.
Creighton 7-footer Geoffrey Groselle, who scored 22 points in a win at St. John’s on Thursday and averaged 21.6 over his previous three games, took only one shot and had four points.
No. 17 SMU, SOUTH FLORIDA 58
DALLAS — Nic Moore, Sterling Brown and Markus Kennedy each scored 13 points and No. 17 SMU beat South Florida 72-58 on Saturday night in head coach Larry Brown’s first home game of the season.
SMU improved to 13-0 — the best start in school history — and 2-0 in the American Athletic Conference. Brown missed the Mustangs’ first seven games at Moody Coliseum while serving a nine-game NCAA suspension. Associate head coach Tim Jankovich, a Division I head coach for nine seasons before joining Brown at SMU in 2012, coached the Mustangs in Brown’s absence.
When the NCAA ruled in September that SMU was guilty of rules violations that included academic fraud and unethical conduct, it also barred the Mustangs from postseason play this season.
Jahmal McMurray led South Florida (3-12, 0-2) with 17 points.
No. 19 WEST VIRGINIA 87, KANSAS STATE 83, 2OT
MANHATTAN, Kan. — Jaysean Paige scored 18 of his 25 points after halftime and Tarik Phillip connected on a floater with 4.5 seconds left in the second overtime for West Virginia in the Big 12 opener for both teams.
Phillip finished with 14 points and five assists for the Mountaineers (12-1, 1-0) and Daxter Miles Jr. had 10 points.
Two free throws by D.J. Johnson with 22 seconds left in regulation sent the game to overtime where the teams traded scores but couldn’t break the tie. The Mountaineers then used eight free throws and the big-time floater from Phillip late in the shot clock to seal the victory.
Barry Brown led Kansas State (1-3, 0-1) with 20 points.
No. 20 TEXAS A&M 92, ARKANSAS 69
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Senior guard Jalen Jones scored a career-high 28 points for Texas A&M in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.
The Aggies (11-2, 1-0) capitalized on 15 Arkansas turnovers and turned them into 22 points. Senior guard Alex Caruso set the school career record for steals with 230, including two on Saturday. He entered the game tied with guard David Edwards (1991-94) with 228 steals.
Anthlon Bell led Arkansas (6-7, 0-1) with 16 points, while Moses Kingsley followed with 11. The Razorbacks led only once at 13-12 with 11 minutes left in the first half.
No. 22 CINCINNATI 76, TULSA 57
CINCINNATI — Farad Cobb had five 3-pointers and finished with 21 points as Cincinnati snapped a two-game losing streak.
The Bearcats (11-4, 1-1 American Athletic Conference) led by 24 points in first half lead.
The Golden Hurricane (8-6, 0-2) scored 2:02 into the game on a layup by Shaquille Harrison. They missed their next 12 shots over the next 10:49.
By the time James Woodard scored on a fast break layup with 7:09 left in the first half to end the drought Cincinnati had built a 30-11 lead. At one point during the scoring drought, Tulsa did not even attempt a field goal for over 4 minutes.
Harrison had 15 of his 21 points in the first half.
No. 24 SOUTH CAROLINA 86, MEMPHIS 76
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Sindarius Thornwell scored 18 points, Michael Carrera had 16 points and 11 rebounds and South Carolina outlasted physical Memphis to improve to 13-0 and continue its best start in 82 years.
The Gamecocks took the lead for good 63-61 with 8:51 left on Mindaugas Kacinas’ two foul shots and steadily pulled away from the Tigers (9-4), who had five players foul out and finished with a season-high 41 fouls. The rough play wasn’t enough to derail South Carolina, which is off to its best start since the 1933-34 club opened 17-0.
Ricky Tarrant Jr. had 20 points for Memphis.
