Penn State’s run stopped by Purdue
Boilermakers to face Michigan for Big Ten title
Carsen Edwards scored 27 points and No. 8 Purdue pulled away from Penn State in the second half of a 78-70 victory Saturday that put the Boilermakers in the Big Ten Tournament championship game for the second time in three seasons.
Third-seeded Purdue (28-5) faces No. 5 Michigan, which will try to repeat as tournament champs on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
Purdue frustrated conference scoring leader Tony Carr, holding him to 4-of18 shooting and 12 points. Shep Garner led the Nittany Lions (21-12) with 33 points.
The Boilermakers will be making their third appearance in the Big Ten championship since the tournament started in 1998. Their one championship came in 2009.
Devon Hall scored 17 points in his final game at John Paul Jones Arena and No. 1 Virginia outlasted Notre Dame 6257 on Saturday.
Ty Jerome added 13 points for the Cavaliers (282, 17-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), who won their fifth in a row.
Bonzie Colson, playing in just his second game since missing 15 with a broken foot, had 24 points and 14 rebounds for the Irish (18-13, 8-10). Martinas Geben added 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Mo Wagner scored 14 of his 15 points after a dreadful first half and fifth-seeded Michigan moved within a game of its second straight Big Ten Tournament title with a 75-64 victory over topseeded Michigan State in the conference semifinals Saturday, ending the No. 2 ranked Spartans’ 13-game winning streak.
Muhammad-Ali AbdurRahkman and Zavier Simpson also had 15 for the No. 15 Wolverines (27-7), who were also the last team to beat Michigan State (29-4), when they did it on Jan. 13.
Trevon Bluiett scored 22 points, and No. 3 Xavier set a school record for regularseason wins while clinching the top seed in the Big East with a 65-62 victory over DePaul on Saturday.
The Musketeers (27-4, 15-3 Big East) hung on for their 12th win in 13 games after DePaul’s Eli Cain and Max Strus missed 3-pointers in the closing seconds. That ended Villanova’s four-year run of first-place finishes.
Kendall Smith scored a career-high 25 points and Mitchell Solomon had 16 points and seven rebounds to help lead Oklahoma State to an 8264 victory over No. 6 Kansas in the regular season finale for both teams on Saturday.
The Cowboys’ home fans rushed the court at the final buzzer as Oklahoma State finished the season with three wins in their final four games.
Smith, who had scored just nine points in each of his two previous outings, hit 20 for the seventh time this season and for the fifth time in the last nine contests.
Oklahoma State (1813, 8-10 Big 12) swept the season series from Kansas, marking the first time that the Jayhawks have been swept in a home-andhome since 2003-04, a span of 103 series.
Keenan Evans was looking at yet another low-scoring game since the foot injury that helped derail Texas Tech’s hopes of ending Kansas’ long Big 12 regular-season championship streak.
One half against TCU made it all feel better.
Evans scored all 23 of his points after halftime and the 12th-ranked Red Raiders stopped a four-game losing streak with a 79-75 win over the Horned Frogs in a Big 12 regular-season finale on Saturday.
Evans had three straight single-digit games, starting when he was injured late in the first half of a loss to Baylor that started the skid when the Red Raiders (238, 11-7) were in sole possession of the Big 12 lead. He sat out Monday’s loss at No. 20 West Virginia.
With Evans hobbled, the Jayhawks pulled away for an NCAA-record 14th straight conference title, clinching a tie for the championship a week ago on Tech’s home court. The Red Raiders and West Virginia finished tied for second.
Bryce Brown scored 29 points, making eight 3-pointers, and No. 14 Auburn claimed at least a share of the Southeastern Conference title with a 7970 comeback victory over South Carolina on Saturday.
The Tigers (25-6, 135) earned the top seed in next week’s SEC Tournament with their first regular-season title since 1999 and third overall. Auburn would win the outright championship if No. 16 Tennessee loses to Georgia, and holds the tiebreaker thanks to a win over the Volunteers.
Auburn fans began “SEC! SEC!” chants in the final two minutes, celebrating a rare title for a longstruggling program that’s also poised to end a 15year NCAA Tournament drought. Afterward, confetti rained down on the team as they donned SEC championship T-shirts on the court.
Brown led a comeback after Auburn trailed by 14 points midway through the first half, busted out of a shooting slump in a big way. He made 8 of 12 3-pointers after going 7 for 39 over the previous four games while nursing foot and shoulder injuries.
Oshae Brissett and Tyus Battle each scored 17 points and Syracuse rallied to beat No. 18 Clemson 5552 on Saturday to remain in the hunt for a postseason berth.
It was an opportunity for Syracuse (19-12, 8-10 Atlantic Coast Conference) to fill the biggest void on its resume — the lack of a marquee win — and the Orange capitalized. They were coming off a 15-point loss at Boston College, which put a big dent in their postseason hopes.
Clemson (22-8, 11-7) entered the game ranked eighth in RPI and already assured of its first NCAA Tournament berth in seven years. The Tigers finished 4-6 on the road and suffered just their second loss this season after leading at halftime.
Marcquise Reed had 21 points and Elijah Thomas 18 to lead Clemson as the pair accounted for every Clemson point in the second half. Gabe DeVoe was 2 of 13, 0 of 6 from beyond the arc, for four points.
Matt Coleman and Kerwin Roach II each scored 22 points and Texas used an 11-0 run early in overtime to pull away from No. 20 West Virginia for an 87-79 win Saturday that was critical for the Longhorns’ NCAA Tournament hopes.
The Longhorns (18-13, 8-10) were in desperate need of a big late-season victory to shore up an inconsistent resume and got it in their seventh overtime game of the season.
Jalen Hudson scored 22 points, Chris Chiozza broke the school’s all-time assist record and Florida beat No. 23 Kentucky 80-67 on Saturday, ending the Wildcats’ fourgame winning streak.
The Gators won their third straight, swept Kentucky for the first time in four years and secured the No. 3 seed in next week’s Southeastern Conference Tournament.
The Wildcats (21-10, 10-8 SEC) will be seeded fourth or fifth depending on the outcome of the ArkansasMissouri game later Saturday. No team seeded lower than third has won the SEC Tournament since it went to a 14-team format in 2013. James Demery scored 18 points and led five players in double-figure scoring as Saint Joseph’s beat La Salle 78-70 on Saturday in a regular season finale.
Shavar Newkirk added 16 points for the Hawks (15-15, 10-8 Atlantic 10 Conference), Anthony Longpré had 11 points and Chris Clover and Nick Robinson had 10 apiece, with Robinson grabbing eight rebounds.
The Hawks closed out the regular season on a three-game streak and are currently fourth place in the conference standings.
Saint Joseph’s led 3933 at halftime but La Salle kept pace early in the second half, taking a 48-47 lead with 12:48 to play. The Hawks inched ahead again on back-to-back 3-pointers by Newkirk and Demery and Clover hit a layup, James Demery a dunk and Pierfrancesco Oliva a 3-pointer as part of an 11-6 run late that pushed it to 77-67 with 39 seconds to go.
Pookie Powell scored 26 points with nine rebounds and six assists to lead the Explorers (13-18, 7-10).