No. 2 Orange whip Tar Heels
Associated Press
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SYRACUSE, N.Y. — C.J. Fair scored 20 points, Jerami Grant had 12 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, and No. 2 Syracuse beat North Carolina 57-45 Saturday in an Atlantic Coast Conference marquee matchup.
Syracuse (16-0, 3-0) evened its all-time record against the North Carolina (10-6, 0-3) to 4-4. UNC started 0-2 in ACC play three times in the past five years and five times overall, and the loss to Syracuse equaled the worst conference start in school history in 1996-97, Dean Smith’s final year as head coach.
It was the fewest points scored by North Carolina since posting 44 in a loss to Duke in 1979.
UNC coach Roy Williams dropped to 1-4 against Syracuse, the most notable setback an 81-78 loss to the Orange for the 2003 national championship in New Orleans when he was coach at Kansas. Syracuse also beat Kansas in the 1996 NCAA tournament by three points (60-57) to reach the Final Four.
No. 5 MICHIGAN STATE 87
MINNESOTA 75, OT
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Keith Appling scored 24 points to help No. 5 Michigan State beat Minnesota after overcoming a double-digit deficit in the second half and blowing a lead late in regulation.
The Spartans (15-1, 4-0 Big Ten) scored 15 straight points while holding the Golden Gophers (13-4, 2-2) scoreless for nearly 8 minutes after trailing 53-43 with 15:57 left.
Michigan State missed an opportunity to win in regulation for the second straight game, losing a five-point lead in the last 13 seconds.
Minnesota’s Malik Smith made his fifth 3-pointer, Gary Harris missed two free throws with 11.3 seconds left for the Spartans and DeAndre Mathieu’s layup with 1.7 seconds left tied the game and sent it to overtime.
Michigan State scored the first nine points of OT.
No. 7 BAYLOR 88
TCU 62
WACO, Texas — Taurean Prince scored 15 of his career-high 23 points off the bench when Baylor took control before halftime and went on to a victory over instate rival TCU.
The Bears (13-2, 1-1 Big 12) won their 13th consecutive home game, the latest in the streak coming four days after they lost their conference opener 87-72 at No. 9 Iowa State.
Baylor went ahead to stay against TCU (9-6, 0-3) with a 16-3 run midway through the first half. Prince had a pair of layups in the 5-minute spurt that Brady Heslip capped with a 3-pointer that made it 25-14.
Brady Heslip had 15 points on five 3-pointers for Baylor, while Isaiah Austin had 14 points. Cory Jefferson had 11 points and 14 rebounds, his sixth double-double this season, while Rico Gathers had 10 points and 12 rebounds.
Brandon Parrish had 16 points to lead TCU.
No. 8 VILLANOVA 74
ST. JOHN’S 67
NEW YORK — JayVaughn Pinkston had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Villanova overcame some early shooting woes to beat St. John’s.
The Wildcats (15-1, 4-0 Big East) came into the game having shot better than 50 percent from the field and 3-point range in their last three games. Against St. John’s (9-6, 0-3) they struggled from both in the first half shooting 25.9 percent from the field (7 of 27) and 22.2 percent from 3 (2 of 9).
The game was close through the first 12 minutes of the second half with neither team having more than a three-point lead until Villanova went on a 10-1 run that gave it a 65-57 lead with 3:13 to go.
Josh Hart added 14 points for the Wildcats while Ryan Arcidiacono added 13.
OKLAHOMA 87
No. 9 IOWA STATE 82
NORMAN, Okla. — Buddy Hield scored 22 points and Ryan Spangler added 16 points and a career-high 15 rebounds to help Oklahoma knock off previously unbeaten Iowa State.
Isaiah Cousins added 17 points for the Sooners (13-3, 2-1 Big 12), who ended No. 9 Iowa State’s school-best winning streak at 14 games.
The Sooners won despite a rough day for Cameron Clark. The Big 12’s leading scorer finished with 12 points on 4-for-16 shooting. The Sooners were fine because they matched a season high with 13 3-pointers and outrebounded the Cyclones 41-34.
DeAndre Kane had 23 points and nine rebounds and Melvin Ejim added 21 points and six rebounds for Iowa State (14-1, 2-1).
No. 10 FLORIDA 84
ARKANSAS 82, OT
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Dorian Finney-Smith scored a career-high 22 points as No. 10 Florida overcame the absence of leading scorer Casey Prather to snap Arkansas’ 23-game home winning streak.
Finney-Smith, starting in place of Prather, also added a season-high 15 rebounds as the Gators (13-2, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) won their seventh in row.
Florida trailed 66-57 in the closing minutes of regulation, but Scotie Wilbekin sent it into overtime with a jumper with two seconds left that tied the game.
Wilbekin finished with 18 points, while Michael Frazier had 15 and Patric Young 10.
Ky Madden led the Razorbacks (11-4, 0-2) who had five players finish in double figures, with 23 points.
No. 11 OKLA. STATE 73
WEST VIRGINIA 72
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Markel Brown hit a 3-pointer with 12 seconds to lift Oklahoma State to a win over West Virginia.
The Cowboys (14-2, 2-1 Big 12) trailed for most of the game, but got solid efforts from their top two scorers in the final minutes.
Marcus Smart had 22 points and 13 rebounds. Le’Bryan Nash added 18 points and Brown finished with 12.
Terry Henderson scored a season-high 21 points for West Virginia (10-6, 2-1), which saw its three-game winning streak snapped. Juwan Staten added 20 points and Devin Williams had 12 points and 13 rebounds.
Henderson’s 3-pointer with 1:17 left put West Virginia ahead 72-70 before Brown answered a minute later.
Staten missed a layup in traffic in the closing seconds that would have won it for the Mountaineers.
No. 14 KENTUCKY 71
VANDERBILT 62
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Willie Cauley-Stein scored 15 points, and Kentucky beat Vanderbilt for the Wildcats’ fourth straight victory.
Aaron Harrison added 14 points and Andrew Harrison 10 and Kentucky (12-3, 2-0) started off a two-game road swing through the Southeastern Conference with a win. Julius Randle had 10 of his 11 rebounds in the first half.
Kentucky coach John Calipari has nine freshmen, the same number of total players Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings has available right now with leading scorer Eric McClellan first suspended from the university Wednesday before being dismissed from the program on Friday.
That left senior Rod Odom as Vandy’s leading scorer averaging 13.8 points a game, and he spent 10 minutes of the first half on the bench because of foul trouble. He finished with five points.
Damian Jones had a game-high 18 points for Vanderbilt. Kyle Fuller had 17 points and 10 assists, and Dai-Jon Parker added 17.
CLEMSON 72
No. 16 DUKE 59
CLEMSON, S.C. — K.J. McDaniels scored 24 points and Jaron Blossomgame had career highs with 14 points and 14 rebounds as Clemson defeated Duke, the Blue Devils second straight Atlantic Coast Conference road loss.
Duke (12-4, 1-2 ACC) led 36-26 late in the first half before the Tigers (11-4, 2-1) put together a 37-18 run over the next 14 minutes to take control. Blossomgame’s second 3-pointer of the half put Clemson ahead for good, 57-54, and Adonis Filer followed moments later with a driving layup to increase the lead.
Duke cut things to 59-57 on Quinn Cook’s three, but McDaniels hit a twisting layup and got fouled for a three-point play to restore Clemson’s margin.
The Tigers gradually built the lead to 69-59 with 2:06 go and Duke could not respond.
Rodney Hood led the Blue Devils with 20 points. Jabari Parker scored 15, only five after halftime.
No. 18 KANSAS 86
No. 25 KANSAS STATE 60
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Andrew Wiggins scored 22 points, fellow freshman Wayne Selden added 20 and Kansas beat Kansas State in its latest Sunflower Showdown beat down.
Another of the Jayhawks’ ballyhooed freshmen, Joel Embiid, contributed 11 points and nine rebounds, and Perry Ellis scored 12 in their sixth straight win over their I-70 rivals.
Kansas (11-4, 2-0 Big 12) shot 56 percent from the field and committed just seven turnovers while beating the Wildcats (12-4, 2-1) for the 48th time in the last 51 meetings. That includes eight wins in the Big 12 tournament, among them last year’s championship game.
The defeat ended the Wildcats’ 10-game winning streak.
No. 19 MASSACHUSETTS 73
ST. BONAVENTURE 68
AMHERST, Mass. — Trey Davis missed nine of his first 10 shots from the floor before scoring a pair of baskets in the closing two minutes to help Massachusetts rally for a win over St. Bonaventure.
Raphiael Putney led the Minutemen (14-1 overall, 2-0 Atlantic-10) with 17 points and eight rebounds. Cady Lalanne scored 16 and Davis finished with eight.
UMass point guard Chaz Williams, the team’s leading scorer, missed 6 of 7 shots and finished with eight points and nine assists.
Charlon Kloof led St. Bonaventure (11-5, 1-1) with 15 points and seven assists, and Youssou Ndoye scored 11.
The Bonnies lost their 23rd straight game against a ranked team, with the last win coming against then-No. 20 Temple on Jan. 15, 2000.
No. 21 MISSOURI 70
AUBURN 68
AUBURN, Ala. — Earnest Ross hit four free throws down the stretch and Jordan Clarkson scored 20 points to lead Missouri to a victory over Auburn on Saturday.
Ross, who spent two seasons at Auburn before transferring in 2011, scored 16 points for Missouri (13-2, 1-1 Southeastern Conference).
Unable to get off a tying 3-pointer, Chris Denson missed a layup with 5 seconds left but drew the foul for Auburn (8-5, 0-2). He made one free throw then Torren Jones stepped on the baseline after rebounding the missed second attempt.
Wes Clark batted away Tajh Shamsid-Deen’s long inbounds pass to end the game and Jabari Brown collected the ball just before time ran out.
KT Harrell led Auburn with 27 points.
No. 24 MEMPHIS 79
TEMPLE 69
PHILADELPHIA — Shaq Goodwin had 23 points and 11 rebounds to lead Memphis to a win over Temple.
Down four early in the second half, Memphis (12-3, 3-1 American) used a 17-6 run lasting nearly seven minutes to finally pull away and successfully follow up its win at No. 12 Louisville on Thursday. Memphis is only the second ranked team to win at Temple in the past six seasons. Then No. 1 Kansas topped the Owls in the 2009-10 season.
The Owls led 49-48 with 13:46 to play but came undone after switching to a zone defense out of a timeout. After air-balling its first attempt against the zone, Memphis hit three quick threes to spark a run and take a 10-point lead with 6:55 remaining.
Dalton Pepper scored 24 to lead Temple.
