Thornton propels unranked Ohio State over No. 2 Purdue
Bruce Thornton scored 22 points and Jamison Battle added 19 as host Ohio State stunned No. 2 Purdue 73-69 on Sunday, giving interim coach Jake Diebler a victory in his debut with the Buckeyes.
Diebler replaced Chris Holtmann, who was fired Wednesday after several disappointing seasons. Ohio State (15-11, 5-10 Big Ten) entered the game having lost nine of its previous 11 games.
Zach Edey had 22 points and 13 rebounds for his 58th career double-double for the Boilermakers. Purdue (23-3, 12-3) had won nine straight. SOUTH FLORIDA 90, NO. 24 FLORIDA ATLANTIC 86 >> Selton Miguel scored a careerhigh 25 points and Chris Youngblood added 23 as the American Athletic Conference-leading host Bulls won their 11th straight game.
USF (19-5, 12-1 AAC), under first-year coach Amir Abdur-Rahim, nearly squandered a 25-point lead in front of a home record crowd of 10,659.
The Owls (20-6, 10-3) got 23 points from Vladislav Goldin and 20 from Johnell Davis.
Women
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley knows better than anyone how hard it is to win in the Southeastern Conference.
Staley and her Gamecocks reached another milestone to show that these days, they have few rivals in one of college basketball's most difficult leagues.
Kamilla Cardoso had 16 points and 16 rebounds as No. 1 South Carolina rallied past visiting Georgia 70-56 to win its record 43rd straight Southeastern Conference regular-season game.
The Gamecocks (25-0, 12-0 SEC) broke a mark Tennessee the late, great Pat Summitt achieved with 42 straight SEC victories from January 1992 through a loss to Georgia nearly four years later.
Javyn Nicholson had 27 points for Georgia (11-14, 2-10).
NO. 21 BAYLOR 61, TEXAS TECH 32 >> Brittney Griner's No. 42 jersey was retired by Baylor on Sunday, when the two-time AP national player of the year and career blocks leader attended a Bears home game for the first time since her senior season 11 years ago.
Griner was part of Baylor's 40-0 national championship team as a junior during the 2011-12 season, the first of her consecutive AP player of the year awards. Her final home games were when the Bears won in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament at the Ferrell Center on campus in March 2013, including three dunks in her final game there, before losing the following weekend to Louisville in the Sweet 16.
The jersey was raised to the rafters in the new Foster Pavilion, where Baylor began playing last month. The ceremony before a game against Texas Tech included video highlights from her career. Griner was visibly touched by the reaction from the Baylor fans, waving at them and patting her heart though she didn't address the crowd.
Nicki Collen had said since becoming Baylor's coach three years ago that she wanted to retire the No. 42 jersey. That was delayed when Griner was detained and imprisoned in Russia for 11 months in 2022 before she came back to the U.S. in a high-profile prisoner swap. NO. 6 NORTH CAROLINA STATE 86, GEORGIA TECH 85 (OT) >> The host Wolfpack won an overtime game against the Yellow Jackets and coach Wes Moore believes the key to victory might have been a Journey concert he attended the night before.
“Don't Stop Believin,” Moore said.
North Carolina State (233, 11-3 ACC) needed that approach along with Aziaha James' 30 points and a lastsecond defensive stop.