Laszewski, Irish hold on for first win at Kentucky
LEXINGTON,KY.» Notre Dame made history Saturday.
Nate Laszewski scored 21 points as Notre Dame put Kentucky into a historic firsthalf deficit, and the Irish held on for their first-ever victory in Lexington, beating the Wildcats 64-63.
“We talked about growing up and getting one of these,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. “And we knew as good as we were in the first half offensively, that there was going to be a run coming. And for us to hold the run off and play enough defensive to escape, I’m really proud of our group, and I think it’s something we can build on.”
Notre Dame used a 19-0 run in the first half to open a 33-9 lead and were up 4826 at the half. It was the largest halftime deficit in a home game in Kentucky’s history.
“That may have been one of the most beautiful 20 minutes offensively that I have ever witnessed,” Brey said.
“And for me to say that, with the offensive lineups that I’ve had through the years, was unbelievable.”
The Wildcats got back in it with a 16-0 run and trailed by one when Isaiah Jackson’s block of a Laszewski’s
3-pointer led to a shot-clock violation with 12 seconds left. Olivier Sarr missed an open
15-footer from the right wing with a second left and Devin Askew was too late flying in from the left for a putback.
“We fumbled the ball,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “If we didn’t fumble the ball, we would have had the weak side rebound tip-in. So, we had a guy over there for a reason. It was either, you take it, you quickly get it to him, he’s going to shoot it, one of you two shoot, we’ll have weak side rebound.”
Prentis Hubb added 18 points for Notre Dame (2-3), which gave up an eight-point halftime on lead on Tuesday in losing to No. 22 Ohio State by five points. The Irish also lost their season opener to No. 13 Michigan State by 10.
Sarr led Kentucky (1-4) with 22 points and seven rebounds. Brandon Boston Jr., and Terrence Clarke added
14 points apiece.
(12) TENNESSEE 65, CINCIN
NATI56» John Fulkerson had
15 points and 12 rebounds, helping Tennessee (2-0) pull away late in the second half to beat Cincinnati (2-2).
A 3-pointer by David DeJulius put Cincinnati ahead
53-51 with 6:14 left. The
6-foot-9 Fulkerson came back with four foul shots, giving the Vols the lead for good.
(16) NORTH CAROLINA 73, NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL
67 » Armando Bacot had 19 points and 11 rebounds, and North Carolina (4-2) stopped a two-game slide by holding off North Carolina Central (1-3).
Caleb Love and Day’Ron Sharpe scored 12 points apiece for the Tar Heels, and Andrew Platek finished with 11.
(17) TEXAS TECH 77, TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI 57 »
Terrence Shannon Jr. scored 15 points in his return from an ankle injury and Texas Tech (6-1) beat Texas A&MCorpus Christi (1-5) for coach Chris Beard’s 100th victory with the Red Raiders.
No. 2 Baylor vs. No. 13 Texas nixed
WACO, TEXAS » No. 2 Baylor has paused team activities because of COVID-19 issues, leading to another high-profile game getting nixed for the Bears.
The Bears were scheduled to play their Big 12 opener Sunday against No. 13 Texas, but Baylor coach Scott Drew announced the pause in team activities Saturday.
Baylor’s scheduled game Tuesday night against Tarleton State, added just last week, has also been postponed and the status of a Dec. 19 game at Kansas State is still to be determined.
Both games could be rescheduled.
The school didn’t provide any additional details on what led the pause Saturday.
Baylor (4-0), the preseason Big 12 favorite, has now played only one of the first seven games as listed on its original schedule.
Women
(3) CONNECTICUT79, UMASS
LOWELL23» Freshman Paige
Bueckers scored 17 points in her UConn debut, and the Huskies routed UMass-Lowell (0-2).
Bueckers, last year’s national high school player of the year, also had nine rebounds, five assists and five steals.
Olivia Nelson-Ododa had
12 points and nine rebounds for UConn. Christyn Williams added 10 points and seven boards.
NORTHERN IOWA 65, (21) SOUTH DAKOTA STATE 48 » Karli Rucker scored 18 points and Northern Iowa
(3-2) dominated the middle quarters to hand South Dakota State (3-2) its secondstraight loss.