Mbakwe, Minnesota take down Indiana 77-73
Tennessee knocks off Florida
MINNEAPOLIS, Feb 27, (AP): Indiana was starting to settle in again at No. 1 after weeks of shuffling at the top of the national rankings in this wildly unpredictable season of college basketball.
Trevor Mbakwe and Minnesota stepped forward, flexed their muscles and did their best to push the Hoosiers out.
Mbakwe had 21 points and 12 rebounds to help the Gophers take down top-ranked Indiana 77-73, the seventh time the No. 1 team in The Associated Press’ poll has lost a game this season.
“We’re trying to do big things so we have to learn from this mistake, but we have to dust it off real fast,” Hoosiers star Victor Oladipo said.
Andre Hollins added 16 points for the Gophers (19-9, 7-8 Big Ten), who outrebounded Cody Zeller and the Hoosiers by a whopping 44-30 and solidified their slipping NCAA tournament bid with an emphatic performance against the Big Ten leader. The fans swarmed the court as the last second ticked off, the first time that’s happened here in years.
“We weren’t physical enough on the glass. That’s the bottom line,” Indiana coach Tom Crean said.
Zeller was held to nine points with four turnovers for the Hoosiers (24-4, 12-3), who have held the No. 1 ranking for 10 of 17 polls this season including the last four. Oladipo scored 16 points, but 14 of the 17 points by Jordan Hulls came before halftime.
“Cody’s certainly capable of a lot,” Crean said, “and I think he’ll bounce back just fine.”
Mbakwe, a sixth-year senior, posted his conference-leading seventh double-double. At 24 years old, he was a man among boys in many ways in this game, dominating both ends of the court when the Gophers needed him most. Minnesota had 23 offensive rebounds.
“We did need to play with a sense of urgency, play with a little edge,” Gophers coach Tubby Smith said. “I think Trevor set that tone for us.”
Tennessee 64, Florida 58 In Knoxville, Tennessee guard Jordan McRae doesn’t enjoy answering questions about his team’s NCAA tournament prospects.
McRae and the Volunteers are making enough of a statement on the floor.
McRae scored 27 points as Tennessee boosted its postseason hopes by beating No. 8 Florida 64-58, the Vols’ sixth consecutive victory. McRae had a career-high 34 points against LSU and 23 points against Texas A&M in the two games leading up to this one.
“I keep saying the same answer,” McRae said. “We won this one. We’ll try to win the next one and try to win the next one. We’re not looking at the SEC (standings). We’re not trying to find out what seed we’re going to be. We’re just trying to do everything we can, that we can control now. We can’t control the committee or our seed in the SEC.”
Jarnell Stokes had eight points and 14 rebounds as Tennessee (17-10, 9-6 Southeastern Conference) outrebounded Florida 41-31 and won the lone regular-season meeting between these rivals. This marks the first time since 1964 that Florida and Tennessee aren’t facing each other twice in the regular season.
Mike Rosario scored 16 points, Patric Young added 15 and Casey Prather had 10 for Florida (22-5, 12-3). The Gators were playing without injured forward Will Yeguette (knee) and guard Michael Frazier II (concussion).
“I feel like we expected to win this game,” Stokes said. “After the game, I didn’t even get that sort of ‘upset’ feeling. ... I felt coming into these games we expect to win. I’m celebrating because we won. I’m happy we won, but those are our expectations.”
Valparaiso 73, Youngstown St 64 In Valparaiso, Indiana, Ryan Broekhoff and Kevin Van Wijk recorded double-doubles in their final regular-season home game, and Valparaiso clinched at least a share of the Horizon League regular-season title by beating Youngstown State 73-64.
Broekhoff had 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Crusaders (23-7, 12-3), and Van Wijk added 15 points and 14 boards. Valparaiso stayed a game ahead of Detroit, which beat Loyola of Chicago. Both teams play their last regular-season conference game Saturday: Valparaiso at Green Bay, Detroit at Illinois-Chicago.
Blake Allen led the Penguins (16-13, 7-8) with 22 points, and DJ Cole had 15.
Youngstown State led by as many as 13 early, but Valparaiso closed within 40-33 at halftime, then opened the second half on a 205 run, capped by two Broekhoff free throws, to lead 53-45 with 9:03 left. The Penguins couldn’t get closer than six points down the rest of the way.
Alabama 61, Auburn 43 In Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Trevor Releford had 21 points and Alabama used a strong second half to win a rematch with rival Auburn 6143.
The Crimson Tide (19-9, 11-4 Southeastern Conference) held the Tigers (9-19, 3-12) to 30 percent shooting — 15 of 50 - and a season-low in points.
Alabama scored 38 points in the second half, 24 more than the team managed in the first meeting - a 49-37 loss 20 days earlier that remains Auburn’s lone win during a 1-12 stretch.
Releford turned in a nice follow-up to a career-best 36 points in a triple-overtime loss at LSU. He made 4 of 9 3-pointers.
Trevor Lacey added 12 points while Nick Jacobs had 10 points and 10 rebounds for his second double-double. Retin Obasohan also had 10 points for the Tide, which visits No. 8 Florida on Saturday and is hoping to salvage its NCAA tournament hopes with a strong finish.
Rob Chubb led Auburn with 13 points on 6of-11 shooting. Leading scorer Frankie Sullivan was 1-of-9 shooting for six points and made just one of 22 shots in the two meetings.
Chris Denson, who came in averaging 11.3 points, missed all five attempts for two points.