Thornton helps unranked Ohio State stun No. 2 Purdue
Bruce Thornton scored 22 points and Jamison Battle added 19 as host Ohio State stunned No. 2 Purdue 73-69 on Sunday, giving interim coach Jake Diebler a victory in his debut with the Buckeyes.
Diebler replaced Chris Holtmann, who was fired Wednesday after several disappointing seasons. Ohio State (15-11, 5-10 Big Ten) entered the game having lost nine of its previous 11 games.
Zach Edey had 22 points and 13 rebounds for his 58th career double-double for the Boilermakers. Purdue (23-3, 12-3) had won nine straight and 16 of 17. Its last loss came against Nebraska, 8872, on Jan. 9.
SOUTH FLORIDA 90, NO. 24 FLORIDA ATLANTIC 86 >> Selton Miguel scored a careerhigh 25 points and Chris Youngblood added 23 as the American Athletic Conference-leading host Bulls won their 11th straight game.
USF (19-5, 12-1 AAC), under first-year coach Amir Abdur-rahim, nearly squandered a 25-point lead in front of a home record crowd of 10,659.
The Owls (20-6, 10-3) got 23 points from Vladislav Goldin and 20 from Johnell Davis.
Miguel had 16 points and Youngblood picked up 15 as USF built a 46-31 halftime lead.
NO. 1 UCONN 81, NO. 4 MARQUETTE 53 >> Donovan Clingan had 17 points and 10 rebounds to help the host Huskies rout the Golden Eagles on Saturday and take control of the race for the Big East regular-season title.
Uconn (24-2, 14-1) has won 14 straight games.
Kam Jones scored 15 points and Oso Ighodaro had 14 for second-place Marquette (19-6, 10-4), which came into the game with an eight-game winning streak.
Women
Juju Watkins scored 18 points, despite having an off-shooting night, to help visiting No. 10 USC beat 11th-ranked Oregon State 58-50 on Sunday.
The 6-foot-2 freshman guard, who is the secondleading scorer in Division 1 behind Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, was just 6 of 32 from the field.
Despite Watkins’ shooting struggles, USC (20-4, 10-4 Pac-12) extended its winning streak to six games, while the Beavers’ six-game winning streak came to an end.
Mckenzie Forbes scored 13 points for USC, and Rayah Marshall added 11 points and 17 rebounds for the Trojans, who never trailed.
Oregon State (21-4, 10-4 Pac-12) played without leading scorer and rebounder Raegan Beers, who sustained a facial injury early in the second quarter of Friday’s win over No. 9 UCLA. The 6-foot-4 sophomore forward was on the Beavers’ bench for Sunday’s game, but not in uniform and Oregon State missed her inside presence.
The Beavers made things interesting down the stretch.
Lily Hansford’s 3-pointer cut the deficit to 55-50 with 43 seconds left, but the Beavers would not get closer.
Timea Gardiner scored all 22 of her points in the second half to pace Oregon State. Talia von Oelhoffen, who made the gamewinning 3-pointer in the Beavers’ 79-77 victory over UCLA on Friday, had six points and 10 assists.
NO. 9 UCLA 74, OREGON 55 >> Lauren Betts had 17 points and nine rebounds to lead the visiting Bruins over the Ducks.
Londynn Jones added 15 points for the Bruins while Charisma Osborne had 11 points, 12 rebounds and six assists. Kiki Rice had 10 points and nine rebounds for UCLA (20-5, 9-5 Pac-12), which bounced back from a last-second loss to No. 11 Oregon State on Friday.
Grace Vanslooten had 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead Oregon (11-16, 2-12), which lost its ninth straight game.
Chance Gray added 15 points for the Ducks.
UCLA led 45-28 at halftime and extended the lead before Oregon closed within 53-40. The Bruins ended any hopes of an upset scoring the final nine points of the third quarter. Rice made a 3-pointer for the Bruins and Betts followed with a bucket before Osborne made two free throws.
Rice added a jumper to close out the quarter as UCLA took a 62-40 lead.