Watson’s 29 lead Friars past Creighton
OMAHA, NEB. » Nate Watson let himself down with his performance the first time Providence played Creighton this season.
The big man was better than ever Wednesday night, scoring a career-high 29 points to lead the Friars past the 11th-ranked Bluejays 74-70.
Providence (8-6, 4-4 Big East) won for the first time in four games and avenged a loss to the Bluejays three weeks ago.
“I feel there was urgency,” Watson said. “Creighton is a really good team. They didn’t really have the size in there. I most definitely was aggressive. I stayed up last night watching film of the first game versus Creighton. I didn’t like the way I played. I was 4 for 11, missing too many shots.”
The 6-foot-10, 260-pound Watson outweighs Creighton’s 6-7 Christian Bishop by 40 pounds and 7-footer Ryan Kalkbrenner by 25.
“I continue to say he’s truly one of the best, if not the best, post scorers in America,” Friars coach Ed Cooley said.
Creighton (10-4, 6-3) lost its second straight after one of its worst offensive games of the season.
“Happy for Friar-town,” Cooley said. “We’ve got another monster game coming up against a top-five team in Villanova. We’ll enjoy today for about five minutes and we’ll start preparing for Villanova tonight.”
GEORGIA TECH 83, (20) CLEMSON 65 » Georgia Tech (7-3, 3-1 ACC) returned from a 17-day layoff with one of its most impressive showings of the season, getting more than 20 points from three players and routing Clemson (9-3, 3-3).
(8) HOUSTON 86, TULSA 59 » Marcus Sasser scored 26 points, Quentin Grimes added 18 points and seven rebounds as Houston (12-1, 7-1 American) avenged its only loss to Tulsa (8-5, 5-3).
(10) WISCONSIN 68, NORTHWESTERN 52 » Tyler Wahl paced a balanced attack with 14 points and Wisconsin (12-3, 6-2 Big Ten) pulled away in the second half in a win over Northwestern (6-7, 3-6), which has lost six straight.
Women
(9) BAYLOR 77, OKLAHOMA STATE 58 » Moon Ursin scored 20 points and Baylor (9-2, 4-1 Big 12) bounced back from a rare loss to beat Oklahoma State.