The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
No. 13 Penn State tops Northwestern
STATE COLLEGE » Lamar Stevens scored 23 points to lead No. 13 Penn State over Northwestern 77-61 on Saturday.
Myles Dread scored 16 and Jamari Wheeler and Mike Watkins added 11 apiece for the Nittany Lions, who led for all but 6:29 to win their eighth straight.
Boo Buie and Pete Nance had 12 points, Pat Spencer scored 11 and Miller Kopp had 10 for the Wildcats (618, 1-13 Big Ten), who lost their ninth in a row.
The Nittany Lions (205, 10-4) led 42-28 at halftime and by as many as 18 midway through the second half.
Northwestern chipped away and cut Penn State’s lead to seven with 5:16 left before Dread drained a 3-pointer to help put the game out of reach.
Miller Kopp got the Wildcats started with a 3-pointer that quickly turned into an 11-9 lead for Northwestern. It didn’t last long.
Penn State extended its lead with back-to-back 3-pointers from Dread and Wheeler that sparked a 22-6 run, including a 10-0 stretch, that put Penn State up 35-19.
NO. 3 KANSAS 87, OKLAHOMA 70 » Marcus Garrett scored a career-high 24 points, Devon Dotson added 19 and third-ranked Kansas rolled to an 87-70 victory over Oklahoma on Saturday to keep pace with No. 1 Baylor in what has become a two-team race toward the Big 12 title.
Garrett hit a career-best six 3-pointers while adding seven assists, five rebounds and four steals. Udoka Azubuike added 15 points and 17 rebounds, and Ochai Agbaji scored 10 points, as the Jayhawks (22-3, 11-1) won their 10th straight since falling to the Bears at Allen Fieldhouse in early January.
Kristian Doolittle had 27 points and 12 rebounds to lead Oklahoma (16-9, 6-6), but the senior forward needed 20 field-goal attempts to get there. Austin Reaves added 12 points while leading scorer Brady Manek dealt with early foul trouble and was held to seven points and 1-for-6 shooting from the arc.
Oklahoma has now lost 19 straight at the Phog since 1993.
The Sooners spent the first half slumping into the paint, trying to keep Azubuike and fellow big man David McCormack from getting easy looks at the rim. As a result, they backed off the 3-point line and dared Garrett — not a particularly good shooter from deep — to begin hoisting up shots.
He finally did. And he made Oklahoma pay.
NO. 6 DAYTON 71, UMASS 63» Obi Toppin scored 19 points, Jalen Crutcher addeded 17 and No. 6 Dayton won its 14th straight game with a 71-63 victory over Massachusetts on Saturday.
Ryan Mikesell added nine points for Dayton (232, 12-0 in Atlantic 10), which hasn’t lost since a 78-76 overtime defeat against Colorado on Dec. 21. The Flyers remain unbeaten in regulation this season after carrying the fifth-longest winning streak in Division I into the game.
Tre Mitchell had a gamehigh 26 points and 10 rebounds and Samba Diallo added 10 points for the Minutemen.
UMass (10-15, 4-8) has dropped seven of 10. The Minutemen have lost 10 straight against AP top-10 teams, dating back to a 6159 upset of No. 7 Connecticut on Dec. 29, 2004.
Dibaji Walker’s layup with 11:23 remaining brought the Minutemen within 46-41 after the Flyers led by five at halftime.
Penn State’s Mike Watkins (24) makes a move to the basket against Northwestern’s Pete Nance, right, during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020, in State College, Pa.
Crutcher hit back-to-back 3-pointers and added a layup with 7:50 left to push Dayton’s lead up to 13.
UMass used a late 7-0 run to pull within single digits and trailed 67-61 after two Diallo free throws with 23 seconds to play.
Toppin missed both free throws and Carl Pierre made a quick layup to made it 67-63 with 14 seconds to go. Crutcher made two free throws to help seal it and Pierre missed a desperation 3 in the closing seconds.
Dayton led 31-26 at the break behind an 11-point first half for Toppin.
Mitchell scored six of his team’s first 10 points as UMass led 10-4 five minutes in. A 3-pointer by Mitchell made it 15-10 before Dayton rallied with a 15-0 run while holding the Minutemen scoreless over a nineminute span.
NO. 8 FLORIDA STATE 80, SYRACUSE 77 » Patrick Williams scored 17 points and pulled down seven rebounds as No. 8 Florida State played without star guard Devin Vassell and held off Syracuse 80-77 on Saturday.
M.J. Walker scored 16 points, including five 3-pointers, as the Seminoles (21-4, 11-3 ACC) won their 20th straight home game.
Elijah Hughes added 25
points and four rebounds, playing all 40 minutes as he returned from a groin injury that limited him to 3 minutes in Tuesday’s game against NC State. Hughes missed a 25-footer that went off the rim and would have tied the game in the final seconds.
Joseph Girard scored 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Syracuse (1411, 7-7), which has lost four of its last five games.
Trent Forrest scored 13 points, making two freethrow attempts with 8.5 seconds to go for FSU. RaiQuan Gray also had 10 rebounds as the Seminoles has a 47-29 edge on the boards.
NO. 12 KENTUCKY 67, MISSISSIPPI 62 » Nick Richards had 16 points, including two go-ahead free throws 1:11 remaining, and Immanuel Quickley and Keion Brooks each made two more in the closing seconds to help No. 12 Kentucky escape Mississippi 67-62 on Saturday.
The Wildcats (20-5, 10-2 Southeastern Conference) shot just 39% overall but made 48% in the second half to erase a seven-point deficit and create a backand-forth game for the final eight minutes. Richards followed two free throws with 2:11 left with two more a minute later to put Kentucky up 63-62.
Devontae Shuler then airballed a 3-pointer out of bounds with nine seconds left. Quickley, who had 17 points, was fouled a few seconds later and added two from the line with 6.6 left before Keion Brooks Jr. sealed the win with two more.
Tyrese Maxey had 14 points while EJ Montgomery and Richards combined for 15 rebounds as Kentucky beat the Rebels 41-33 on the glass.
Breein Tyree had 19 points, while Blake Hinson and KJ Buffen each had 13 for Ole Miss (13-12, 4-8), which had won three in a row. The Rebels dropped their 11th consecutive series game to the Wildcats. OKLAHOMA STATE 73, NO. 24 TEXAS TECH 70 » Jonathan Laurent and Kalib Boone each scored 16 points, and Oklahoma State beat No. 24 Texas Tech 73-70 on Saturday
for its first win over a ranked opponent this season.
Isaac Likekele added 14 points, seven rebounds, six assists and three steals for the Cowboys (13-12, 3-9 Big 12), who have won three of four after dropping their first eight conference games.
Kevin McCullar and Davide Moretti each scored 15 points and Jahmiús Ramsey added 14 for Texas Tech (169, 7-5), which had won its previous three games.
The Cowboys scored the first eight points and held the Red Raiders scoreless for more than four minutes at the start. Boone rose up and threw down a vicious one-handed jam on a lob from Likekele to put Oklahoma State up 20-17.
Tech responded, and a lob from Kyler Edwards for a layup by McCullar with a second left in the first half put the Red Raiders up 2927 at the break.