Syracuse puts up a strong effort to knock off No. 16 Virginia Tech by 18.
Quincy Guerrier had 20 points, Marek Doelzaj added 18 and Alan Griffin had 15 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high seven blocks for his fourth doubledouble of the season, and Syracuse defeated No. 16 Virginia Tech 78-60 on Saturday.
The Orange (9-4, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), who badly needed a quality win to build its resume for the postseason, held a 40-34 lead at the half but took control in the final 20 minutes.
Virginia Tech closed to 47-44 on a lay-in by David N’guessan with 13:45 to go, then Syracuse outscored the Hokies 31-9 to build its biggest lead of the game at 78-53. Glens Falls graduate Joseph Girard III had five points in 33 minutes.
Baylor 81, Oklahoma State 66: Jared Butler scored 22 points and No. 2 Baylor overcame a halftime deficit to beat undermanned Oklahoma State.
Villanova 71, Providence 56: Collin Gillespie and Justin Moore scored 15 points apiece, and No. 3 Villanova used a dominating second half to defeat Providence.
Missouri 73, Tennessee 64: Xavier Pinson scored 27 points to lead No. 19 Missouri to a victory over No. 6 Tennessee.
Houston 68, Temple 51: Marcus Sasser and Quentin Grimes each scored 15 points and No. 8 Houston rolled to its sixth straight victory.
Oklahoma 75, Kansas 68:
De’vion Harmon scored 22 points and Oklahoma beat No. 9 Kansas for its second victory of the month over a Top 10 opponent.
Ohio State 74, Wisconsin 62: E.J. Liddell scored 20 points and No. 15 Ohio State never trailed vs. No. 10 Wisconsin.
Creighton 74, Uconn 66: Denzel Mahoney scored 20 points and No. 11 Creighton broke open a close game in the last 10 minutes to beat No. 23 Connecticut.
Virginia 64, Georgia Tech 62: Sam Hauser scored 11 of his 22 points during a 15-2 second-half run and No. 13 Virginia survived a scare.
West Virginia 79, Kansas State 47: Miles Mcbride scored 18 points to help No. 14 West Virginia beat Kansas State.
Maryland 63, Minnesota 49: Eric Ayala had 21 points and three steals to help Maryland deliver another road upset of a ranked Big Ten opponent, a wire-to-wire victory over No. 17 Minnesota.
Alabama 81, Mississippi State 73:
Herbert Jones had 17 points and seven assists to help streaking No. 18 Alabama beat Mississippi State.
Florida State 80, Clemson 61: Balsa Koprivica had 13 points and 10 rebounds and Florida State pulled away early to rout No. 20 Clemson.
Stanford 73, UCLA 72 (OT): Oscar da Silva scored off an inbound pass as time expired in overtime to lift Stanford over No. 24 UCLA.
Women
Uconn 72, Georgetown 41: Olivia Nelson-ododa scored 19 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead No. 3 Uconn to a win over Georgetown.
Baylor 84, Oklahoma 61: Nalyssa Smith scored 21 points, Moon Ursin had 14 points with 11 rebounds and No. 9 Baylor overwhelmed Oklahoma, a week after the end of the Lady Bears’ national-best 61-game home winning streak.
Texas 70, Iowa State 59: Charli Collier had 22 points and 19 rebounds, and Texas pulled away in the third quarter and beat No. 24 Iowa State.