Jayhawks hand Bears their 1st loss
Baylor’s No. 2-ranked men’s basketball team will not go undefeated this season.
David McCormack scored 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting and senior point guard Marcus Garrett added 14 points and seven rebounds to pace the No. 17 Kansas Jayhawks to a 71-58 victory over the previously unbeaten Bears (18-1, 10-1) on Saturday night — Senior Night — at Allen Fieldhouse.
Jalen Wilson grabbed 14 rebounds and scored seven points, while Christian Braun had 11 points and nine boards for KU (18-8, 12-6), which won its 38th straight game on Senior Night, a stretch of victories closing in on four decades, that started in the 1983-84 season.
Baylor, which won at Allen Fieldhouse last year, was trying to become the first team to win in back-to-back seasons in Lawrence in the 18-year Bill Self era.
Williams gets win No. 900: Freshman Walker Kessler scored a season-high 20 points to help North Carolina beat No. 11 Florida State 78-70 on Saturday, a game that saw the Tar Heels rally from 16 down on the way to giving Roy Williams his 900th career win.
Williams joins Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun and Bob Knight as the only Division I men’s basketball coaches reach 900 victories. He’s the fastest coach in Division I to reach the milestone, doing it in just his 1,161st game as a head coach.
“I’ll look back on it one of these days and say, ‘Hey, that was pretty neat,’” Williams said. “But I was focused on one thing: Trying to help this team get to 15 (wins).”
The thirdranked Wolverines blew out Indiana, 73-57, in Bloomington, Ind., on Saturday afternoon at Assembly Hall, and drew one game closer to winning their first conference title since the 2014. Michigan can secure the title by winning one of its three remaining games.
Wolverines maul Hoosiers:
Alabama wins the SEC: Jaden Shackleford scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half, and No. 6 Alabama beat Mississippi State 64-59 on Saturday to clinch its first Southeastern Conference regular-season championship since 2002.
The Crimson Tide (19-6, 14-2) led by double digits for much of the game before the Bulldogs (13-12, 7-9) closed to 56-53 on Iverson Molinar’s layup with 4:17 left. Alabama closed the game with big shots and at the free-throw line.
Xavier boosts tourney resume: Paul Scruggs scored 23 points and Zach Freemantle added 17 leading Xavier to a 77-69 victory over No. 13 Creighton on Saturday. Xavier, which has a 22-point win over No. 7 Oklahoma from December on its resume, badly needed this one — especially after losing three of four.
Cunningham drops 40: Freshman star Cade Cunningham scored 10 of his season-high 40 points in overtime and Oklahoma State defeated No. 7 Oklahoma 94-90 on Saturday.
Cunningham’s previous scoring high was 29 points. In his first Bedlam rivalry game, he made 12 of 21 field goals and 13 of 14 free throws. He also finished with 11 rebounds three steals and two blocks.
Matt Mitchell hit two free throws with 3.3 seconds left and fellow senior Jordan Schakel made four free throws in the final 8.7 seconds for San Diego State, which beat Boise State 62-58 for its 10th straight victory.
Aztecs make it 10 in a row:
Mac McClung had 16 points to lead No. 18 Texas Tech (15-8, 7-7 Big 12) to a 68-59 win over No. 14 Texas and end its three-game losing streak. He was one of six different Red Raiders to score in a 19-6 run to open the second half after the game was tied at half.
Texas Tech ends skid: