Men’s college basketball | T25 | Wednesday
No. 2 Alabama 66, Mississippi State 63
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Jahvon Quinerly scored 14 points and Alabama rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half to beat Mississippi State.
The Crimson Tide (18-2, 8-0 Southeastern Conference) had to climb out of a hole and then hold on two days after reaching the program’s highest ranking since rising to No. 1 in the 2002-03 season. The result was a ninth straight win and the first real scare during that stretch.
Tolu Smith led Mississippi State (12-8, 1-7) with 15 points and seven rebounds. Dashawn Davis added 14.
No. 3 Houston 82, UCF 71
ORLANDO, Fla. — Emanuel Sharp came off the bench to score 18 points and No. 3 Houston bounced back from a loss that knocked it from the top spot in the rankings, beating UCF.
Jarace Walker added 17 points, Jamal Shead had 14 points and 10 assists, and Marcus Sasser also scored 14 for the Cougars (19-2, 7-1 American Athletic Conference), who lost 56-55 at home to Temple on Sunday.
Ithiel Horton scored 18 points and Taylor Hendricks had 17 for UCF (13-7, 4-4).
No. 4 Tennessee 70, Georgia 41
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Zakai Zeigler had 11 points and seven assists and Tennessee held its 10th opponent to 50 or fewer points.
Tobe Awaka came off the bench to score 10 points. Santiago Vescovi had six rebounds, four assists and six steals to go with his eight points as Tennessee (17-3, 7-1 Southeastern Conference) got its first win at home since having its 25game home winning streak snapped by Kentucky more than a week ago.
No. 13 Xavier 82, No. 19 UConn 79
STORRS, Conn. — Souley Boum scored 21 points, Colby Jones added 20 and Xavier won its 13th in 14 games.
Jack Nunge had 12 points and Jerome Hunter added 11 for Xavier (17-4, 9-1 Big East), which led by 17 in the first half and 39-24 at halftime.
Jordan Hawkins scored 26 of his 28 points in the second half for UConn (166, 5-6), leading a comeback that fell just short. Tristen Newton added 23 points for the Huskies.
Texas A&M 79, No. 15 Auburn 63
AUBURN, Ala. — Tyrece Radford had 30 points and nine rebounds and Texas A&M ended the nation’s longest active home winning streak at 28 games.
The Aggies (14-6, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) used a strong offensive start to hand Auburn its first loss at Neville Arena since Feb. 23, 2021.
Johni Broome and Wendell Green Jr. each scored 16 points for the Tigers (16-4, 6-2), who had won five straight games overall.
No. 23 Providence 79, Butler 58
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Bryce Hopkins had 16 points and seven rebounds as Providence dominated Butler inside.
Devin Carter added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Friars (16-5, 8-2 Big East), who have won two straight since back-to-back losses at Creighton and Marquette.