No. 1 Houston clinches at least share of American Athletic title
J’Wan Roberts had a careerhigh 26 points and seven rebounds, Marcus Sasser scored 22 points and No. 1 Houston clinched at least a share of the American Athletic Conference regular-season championship with an 89-59 victory over Tulane at home Wednesday night.
The Cougars (26-2, 14-1) have won eight straight games, and the regular-season title is their fourth in the past five seasons.
Jalen Cook scored 23 points for his seventh straight game with at least 20 points for Tulane (17-8, 10-4).
MORE TOP 25 No. 18 UConn 87, No. 20 Providence 69:
Jordan Hawkins scored 20 points and host UConn (21-7, 10-7 Big East) beat Providence (20-8, 12-5) to split the regular-season series between the New England rivals.
Adama Sanogo and Alex Karaban each added 16 points for the Huskies, who won for the fifth time in their past six games.
Bryce Hopkins scored 16 points and Jared Bynum had 14 for the Friars.
ACC North Carolina 63, Notre Dame 59:
Caleb Love and Armando Bacot scored 16 points each and Bacot had a milestone double-double, leading UNC (17-11, 9-8) to a victory over Notre Dame (10-18, 2-15) in South Bend, Indiana.
Bacot grabbed 11 rebounds for his 67th career double-double, tying him with 1971-74 N.C. State star Tom Burleson for the fourth-most in ACC history. Tim Duncan had the most, compiling 87 for Wake Forest from 1993-97.
Cormac Ryan had 14 points for Notre Dame.
Clemson 91, Syracuse 73: Hunter Tyson scored 29 points, all five starters scored in double figures and Clemson (20-8) set a program single-season record for its most ACC wins, rolling past Syracuse (16-12, 9-8).
The host Tigers improved to 12-5 in the conference. Their previous best league marks were 11-4 in the Southern Conference in 1951-52 and 11-7 in the ACC in 2017-18.
Judah Mintz paced Syracuse with 23 points.
North Carolina State 90, Wake Forest 74:
Jarkel Joiner scored 29 points, D.J. Burns Jr. added 21 and the Wolfpack (22-7, 12-6) beat Wake Forest (17-11, 9-8) in Raleigh.
N.C. State led by just eight points with seven minutes remaining, but Joiner and Burns combined to score 12 straight Wolfpack points to extend the lead to 82-67 with 4:11 left. The lead stayed in double figures the rest of the way.
STATE Marshall 92, James Madison 83:
Taevion Kinsey scored 31 points as Marshall (24-6, 13-4 Sun Belt) beat James Madison (20-10, 11-6) in Harrisonburg.
The Thundering Herd pulled even with Southern Miss for the conference lead. Since Marshall has the head-to-head tiebreaker, the Herd will be the Sun Belt Tournament’s top seed if it wins at Old Dominion tonight.
Terrence Edwards paced the Dukes with 26 points and 11 rebounds.
High Point 69, Radford 64:
Zach Austin scored 20 points as High Point (14-15, 6-11 Big South) knocked off Radford (17-13, 11-6) in North Carolina.
DaQuan Smith had 19 points
and six rebounds for the Highlanders.
Liberty 85, Queens 77: Darius McGhee scored 35 points and became the Atlantic Sun’s all-time career scoring leader to lead Liberty (23-7, 14-3 Atlantic Sun) past Queens (17-13, 7-10) in Charlotte, North Carolina.
McGhee went 11 of 24 from the field, including 5 for 11 from beyond the arc, and 8 for 9 from the line.
Coming into the night, McGhee needed 33 points to pass Centenary’s William Jackson. McGhee made 4 of 4 free throws in the closing 21 seconds to break the record and finish the night with 2,538.
VMI 87, Wofford 83 (OT): Rickey Bradley Jr. scored 24 points as VMI (7-23, 2-15 Southern) beat Wofford (15-15, 7-10) in overtime for the Keydets’ first home conference victory of the season.
SERVICE ACADEMIES Navy 70, American 54:
Daniel Deaver had 19 points as Navy (18-11, 11-6 Patriot League) topped American (15-13, 7-10) in Washington.
Boston University 73, Army 67: Ethan Brittain-Watts scored 16 points as Boston University (14-16, 7-10 Patriot) beat Army (15-15, 9-8) in West Point, New York.