Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
UA women win
Jailyn Mason (above) had 15 points and 5 assists, and Kiara Williams scored 15 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the Arkansas women’s basketball team to a 68-58 victory over Auburn on Sunday in Auburn, Ala. Malica Monk had 14 points for the Razorbacks.
NO. 3 VIRGINIA 68, NC STATE 51
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Virginia’s lead was still 11, but North Carolina State was trying to rally and a sense of unease was growing at John Paul Jones Arena. There were eight minutes to play, and the Wolfpack were on an 11-2 run.
For Devon Hall, that meant time to do something.
He got the ball on the right baseline, drove hard and laid it in. Thirty seconds later, after a turnover, he scored on another drive, was fouled and converted the three-point play, allowing the No. 3 Cavaliers to feel a little better, up 52-36, in a 68-51 victory Sunday night.
“I thought he righted the ship,” Coach Tony Bennett said.
A fifth-year senior and one of three captains, Hall saw it more as doing his job.
“I’ve been here for five years and so that’s the time where a leader steps up,” he said after scoring a career-best 25 points.
Kyle Guy added 17 points and Isaiah Wilkins had 10 for the Cavaliers (16-1, 5-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), who were unranked to start the season. Virginia also has won 11 consecutive regular-season meetings against the Wolfpack.
Hall finished 7 for 9 from the field, including 4 of 5 on three-pointers, in topping his previous high of 20 points.
“Devon, he certainly answered when it got to those points,” Bennett said. “He played a heck of a game.”
Torin Dorn scored 16 points to lead N.C. State (12-6, 2-3), which arrived with a 3-0 record against ranked teams.
The Wolfpack has beaten the No. 2 team twice — Arizona on Nov. 22 and Duke on Jan. 6 — and was coming off a 78-77 victory against No. 19 Clemson, but they had a difficult time getting much going against the nation’s top defense.
N.C. State scoring leader Allerik Freeman (15.2 points per game) did not score in 29 minutes, missing all five of his shots from the field.
The Wolfpack allowed Virginia to convert 8 of 14 threepoint shots, including 5 of 9 in the second half.
“I thought we did a tremendous job early in the game of running them off the line. Not so much in the second half,” first-year Wolfpack Coach Kevin Keatts said.