Young’s 31 lead Sooners to victory over Wildcats
NO. 17 OKLAHOMA 104, NORTHWESTERN 78
NORMAN, Okla. — Trae Young had 31 points and 12 assists to help No. 17 Oklahoma defeat Northwestern 104-78 on Friday night.
Young, the nation’s leader in scoring and assists, tied an NCAA record with 22 assists in a 105-68 victory over Northwestern State on Tuesday night. He followed it up by making 9 of 16 shots, including 8 of 13 three-point attempts. He became the first Oklahoma player since Stacey King in 1988-89 to post at least 10 consecutive games with 20 or more points.
Christian James matched a career high with 19 points and Brady Manek and Jamuni McNeace each added 11 for the Sooners (10-1), who won their eighth consecutive since losing to Arkansas on Nov. 23. The Sooners have scored at least 90 points in 8 of their 11 games.
Dererk Pardon had 17 points and 9 rebounds for Northwestern (9-5), which had won 4 consecutive.
The Sooners jumped to a 7-0 lead and forced Northwestern to call a timeout 72 seconds into the game.
It didn’t get much better for the Wildcats. Young got Sooners fans out of their seats with a lob to James for a dunk that gave the Sooners a 41-22 lead.
Young hit a deep three in the final seconds of the first half to give the Sooners a 6838 lead. He had 25 points and 10 assists before the break.
The Wildcats had no answer for Young, but no one has found one yet. Northwestern shot a respectable 45 percent and still got blown out.
In other Top 25/SEC men’s games Friday, Mikal Bridges scored 20 points and No. 1 Villanova remained unbeaten with a 95-71 rout of Hofstra. Bridges was one of five players in double figures for Villanova (12-0). Justin Wright-Foreman had 25 points for Hofstra (7-5), which has lost two consecutive . ... Shannon Evans II scored 21 points, Tra Holder added 19 and No. 3 Arizona State dominated from the start in a 104-65 victory over Pacific. The Sun Devils (12-0) have been plagued by slow starts in recent games, but Arizona State jumped on Pacific (5-8) early and didn’t let the Tigers up . ... J.P. Macura scored 15 points and No. 9 Xavier hung on to beat Northern
Iowa 77-67 for its seventh consecutive victory. Trevon Bluiett scored 12 points with seven rebounds for the Musketeers (12-1). Bennett Koch had 26 points for the Panthers (8-4). … Landry Shamet scored 23 points to push No. 11 Wichita
State past Florida Gulf Coast 75-65. Darral Willis finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds for Wichita State (10-2). Brandon Goodwin scored 20 points to lead Florida Gulf Coast (7-7), and Zach Johnson had 19. Goodwin and Johnson were a combined 15 of 38 from the field. … Kyle Guy had 15 points, DeAndre Hunter had 14 and Ty Jerome added 10 as No. 13 Virginia wrapped up its nonconference schedule with an 82-48 victory over Hampton. The Cavaliers (11-1) held Hampton to 20.6 percent from the field in the second half. Virginia shot 51.5 percent in the second half and outscored Hampton (5-9) 34-10 in the paint. Alex Robinson scored a season-high 23 points and No. 15 TCU set a school record with its nation-leading 17th consecutive victory, beating William & Mary 86-75 in the Horned Frogs’ final Big 12 tuneup. Jaylen Fisher had 17 of his career-high 21 points in the second half for TCU (12-0). Matt Milon was 6 of 11 from long range and scored 22 points for the Tribe (7-4). … Zach Smith scored 16 points in his first game since not getting to start because of a violation of team rules and No. 21 Texas Tech beat Abilene Christian 74-47 in the Red Raiders’ final tuneup for the rugged Big 12. Texas Tech (11-1) won its fifth consecutive game and extended its nonconference home winning streak to 38 games. Tevin Foster and Hayden Howell scored nine points each for the Wildcats (8-5). … Yante Maten’s season-high 30 points and suffocating defense in the first half led Georgia to an 84-66 victory over Temple. Maten also had 12 rebounds for Georgia (9-2), which is off to its best start in Mark Fox’s ninth season. Obi Enechionyia led Temple (7-4) with 27 points. … Terence Davis scored 25 points, including 6 three-point shots, as Mississippi defeated Bradley 82-59. Davis was 9 of 14 from the field as Ole Miss (7-5) raced to a 40-22 halftime lead. Bradley (10-3) was led by Darrell Brown with 16 points and five assists. … Chris Chiozza scored 16 points, Jalen Hudson added 13 and Florida beat
Incarnate Word 75-60. Florida (8-4) made 6 three-pointers and converted 2 three-point plays in the first 11 minutes of the second half to turn a close game into a lopsided affair. Charles Brown III led Incarnate Word (5-5) with 13 points. Simi Socks added 11. … Jeff Roberson scored 21 points, including 5 three-pointers, and Vanderbilt won its final tune-up before SEC play with a 92-51 rout of Alcorn State. Vanderbilt (5-7) set a season high for three-pointers for the second consecutive game by going 17 for 35 from beyond the arc. A.J. Mosby led Alcorn State (4-9) with 11 points and Troymain Crosby added 10. … Tremont Waters and Duop Reath each scored 15 points as LSU defeated North Florida 104-52. Waters and Reath were a combined 12 of 21 from the field for LSU (8-3). Waters, who made 3 three-pointers, matched his season high in assists with 10. Reath, who made 7 of 12 field-goal attempts, grabbed 9 rebounds. Trip Day was the leading scorer for North Florida (5-10) with 11 points . ... Mohamed Bamba had 17 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocked shots to lead Texas to a 66-50 victory over Alabama. The Longhorns (9-3) scored 12 consecutive points to pull away down the stretch. John Petty led Alabama (8-4) with 14 points.