Shead, Sasser lead No. 1 Houston past Wichita St.
HOUSTON » Jamal Shead scored a career-high 25 points, Marcus Sasser added 24 and No. 1 Houston defeated Wichita State 83-66 on Thursday night.
Shead shot 10 of 17 from the field. The junior was 4 of 8 on 3-pointers.
Sasser tied the school career record for most 3-pointers set by Robert McKiver with 261. He also scored at least 20 points for the sixth straight game, and chants of “Sasser” filled the Fertitta Center after it was over.
Jarace Walker had 11 points and nine rebounds for Houston (28-2, 16-1 American Athletic Conference). The Cougars shot 47%, including 9 of 25 on 3s, in winning their 10th straight game.
Craig Porter Jr. had 17 points and seven rebounds, Jaron Pierre Jr. added 16 points and Kenny Pohto had 12 for Wichita State (15-14, 8-9).
RIDER 73, SAINT PETER’S 60 » >> Bonner-Prendergast All-Delco Tariq Ingraham’s 20 points helped Rider (16-12, 13-6 MAAC) defeat Saint Peter’s (11-17, 6-13).
Ingraham added eight rebounds and three blocks for the Broncs.
Women
(6) STANFORD 76, OREGON 65 »
Cameron Brink had 22 points and 11 rebounds as Stanford (284) overcame a lot of early misses and beat Oregon (17-14) in the Pac12 tournament quarterfinals.
(19) UCLA 73, (21) ARIZONA 59 »
Emily Bessoir had 18 points and 13 rebounds for her first career double-double, Charisma Osborne also scored 18 points and UCLA (24-8) beat Arizona (21-9) in the Pac-12 tourney quarterfinals.
(18) NORTH CAROLINA 68, CLEMSON 58 » Alyssa Ustby scored 15 points with six rebounds, four assists and two steals and North Carolina (21-9), the seventh-seed, pulled away from Clemson (17-15) in the second round of the ACC Tournament.
(24) MIDDLE TENNESSEE 72,
Jalynn Gregory led a balanced attack with 15 points and Middle Tennessee (244, 17-2 Conference USA) cruised to a win over North Texas (11-18, 8-11).
NORTH TEXAS 45 » (17) MICHIGAN 63, PENN STATE 61 »
Laila Phelia and Emily Kiser scored 13 points each and Michigan (22-8) survived a Penn State (14-17) comeback in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament.
Marisa McKenna and Leilani Kapinus scored 16 points each and Alexa Williamson 12 for the 13thseeded Lady Lions. They were without second-leading scorer and their top 3-point shooter, Shay Ciezki, who injured an ankle in Wednesday’s opening-round win over Minnesota.
Grill discloses mental illness after dismissal
AMES, IOWA » Former Iowa State player Caleb Grill said he has been battling mental illness and regrets what led to his dismissal.
Coach T.J. Otzelberger announced that Grill had failed to meet program expectations and was no longer on the team. Grill was the Cyclones’ third-leading scorer and started 22 of 25 games this season.
As part of a social media post in which he thanked Otzelberger for the opportunity to play for the Cyclones, Grill said he had been battling mental illness.
“Lastly, one day when I am brave enough, I hope to be able to share my story about my mental health and my mental illness I have been battling through all season,” Grill wrote.
Davis out as Bucknell coach
LEWISBURG » Nathan Davis is out as the men’s basketball coach at Bucknell, ending an eight-year tenure that included a pair of close losses to much higher-seeded opponents in the NCAA tournament.
The Bison went 12-20 this season, and Davis went 129-115 as Bucknell’s head coach.