UCF stages big rally to take down third-ranked Kansas
Jaylin Seller scored 18 points, Darius Johnson added 17 and UCF erased a 16-point deficit to beat visiting No. 3 Kansas 65-60 on Wednesday night.
UCF's victory came one night after No. 1 Purdue and second-ranked Houston lost.
Ibrahima Diallo broke a 57-57 tie with less than three minutes left with a hook shot over Hunter Dickinson of the Jayhawks (13-2, 1-1 Big 12). He then blocked a KJ Adams Jr. shot with 50 seconds left to help the Knights (10-4, 1-1) preserve the lead and score the program's first Big 12 win.
Diallo had 13 points, five rebounds and a block to help anchor a UCF defense that forced eight turnovers and blocked four shots in the second half alone. Kansas had 18 turnovers. Kevin McCullar Jr. scored 16 points to lead Kansas. Dickinson had only 12 points and played 28 minutes because of foul trouble.
UCF used a 9-0 run in the second half to take the lead for the first time since it was 7-5 early in the game.
NO. 4 UCONN 80, XAVIER 75 >> Cam Spencer scored 19 points and Tristen Newton had 16 as the Huskies held off the host Musketeers.
UConn (14-2, 4-1 Big East) won its fourth straight game since dropping its conference opener by 15 at Seton Hall.
The defending national champions got some payback against Xavier (7-8, 1-3), which swept the twogame season series last year.
MISSISSIPPI ST. 77, NO. 5 TENNESSEE 72 >> Tolu Smith scored 23 points, including a three-point play with 14.7 seconds remaining, to lead the Bulldogs to a home win over the Volunteers.
The win was Mississippi State's first over a Top 5 team since beating Oklahoma in December 2002.
Freshman Josh Hubbard led the Bulldogs (12-3, 1-1 in SEC) with 25 points, highlighted by a 5-of-10 showing from 3 point territory.
Dalton Knecht scored 26 of his 28 points in the second half for Tennessee (114, 1-1). Zakai Zeigler added 26 points for the Volunteers.
Mississippi State led 3522 at halftime, which was Tennessee's lowest firsthalf scoring output of the season.
Mississippi State shot 50% in the first half while holding the Volunteers to 33% in the opening half.
NO. 7 NORTH CAROLINA 67, NC STATE 54 >> RJ Davis scored 16 points and Harrison Ingram had 19 rebounds to help the visiting Tar Heels beat the rival Wolfpack.
Freshman guard Elliott Cadeau added 11 points and six assists for UNC (12-3, 4-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), which ran off a 15-2 spurt to go up 63-48.
Davis, who leads the ACC in scoring at 20.6 points per game, overcame a 2-for-9 first half to score 11 points after the break.
Casey Morsell had 12 points and six rebounds to lead the Wolfpack (11-4, 3-1).
TCU 80, NO. 9 OKLAHOMA 71 >> Emanuel Miller had 27 points and nine rebounds as the Horned Frogs won at home over the Sooners, who became the fifth Top 10 team over two nights to lose to an unranked opponent.
Oklahoma (13-2, 1-1 Big 12) quickly erased a sixpoint halftime deficit when Javian McCollum hit two 3-pointers in the first 32 seconds after the break — the tying shot coming off a TCU turnover.
But the Sooners didn't score again until almost four minutes later and they trailed 49-44 then.
Miller scored seven in that span for TCU (12-3, 1-1).
McCollum had 17 points to lead Oklahoma,
Women
NO. 3 IOWA 96, PURDUE 71 >> Caitlin Clark finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists and the visiting Hawkeyes made 15 3-pointers in a rout of the Boilermakers.
Clark now has 15 career triple-doubles, four this season.
Iowa (16-1, 5-0 Big Ten) extended its winning streak to 13 in a row since a Nov. 16 loss to Kansas State. Last year's national runner-up also has won eight straight in this series.
The Boilermakers (9-6, 2-2) were led by Abbey Ellis with 15 points.
KANSAS 87, NO. 4 BAYLOR 66 >> Taiyanna Jackson had a career-high 27 points with 19 rebounds and the Jayhawks snapped a 19-game losing streak to the visiting Bears.
S'Mya Nichols had 22 points and Holly Kersgieter scored 19 for Kansas (8-7, 1-3 Big 12), which used a 16-0 run spanning halftime to turn an eight-point deficit into a lead it would never relinquish in its first win over a top-five team in 15 years.
It was the first time the Bears (14-1, 3-1) have lost at Allen Fieldhouse since Jan. 19, 2014, and the lopsided defeat left only top-ranked South Carolina and No. 2 UCLA unbeaten in women's Division I college basketball.