Sun Devils blow out Alford’s Nevada
Boston joins elite club of 3-timers
DAYTON, Ohio — DJ Horne had 20 points and Arizona State raced to a big halftime lead and scored the most points ever in a First Four game, burying Nevada 98-73 on Wednesday night.
Desmond Cambridge Jr. — a Nevada transfer — scored 17 points as Arizona State (23-12) led 53-26 at the half and then kept up the pressure on the way to the rout. The first-half output was a season high for Arizona State, which advanced as a No. 11 seed to face TCU in a West Region first-round game on Friday in Denver.
Arizona State hit 67.7% of its shots from the floor and forced 10 turnovers in the first half, piling up a 22-2 run over eight minutes to pull away from the Mountain West squad, coached by Steve Alford.
Will Baker scored 17 and Tre Coleman had 14 for the Wolf Pack (22-11). One of Nevada’s top players, Kenan Blackshear, picked up three fouls early and sat on the bench for more than five minutes of the opening half. Averaging 14.4 per game, he was held to four points.
FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON 84, TEXAS SOUTHERN 61: In the eariler game in Dayton, Ansley Almonor scored 23 points and Fairleigh Dickinson earned its first NCAA Tournament win in four seasons.
Fairleigh Dickinson (2015) shot 50% and advanced to the East Region to play top-seeded Purdue in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday.
Joe Munden Jr. scored 17 points for Fairleigh Dickinson. John Walker III led Texas Southern (14-21) with 22 points.
LINE OF DEFENSE: In Birmingham, Ala., Alabama star Brandon Miller was accompanied by an armed security guard to the NCAA Tournament on Wednesday because of threats directed his way, his coach Nate Oats said.
“If you guys saw some of what I’ve seen sent his way, I think you would understand why that’s the case,” Oats said of the extra protection that the school lined up for Miller. “I don’t want to get into all that. The entire situation, as you know, is just a heartbreaking situation on all accounts.”
Miller name surfaced last month in court testimony involving the capital murder case of former Alabama player Darius Miles and another man, who are charged in the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Jamea Harris on Jan. 15.
A police officer testified that Miles texted Miller asking him to bring Miles’ gun in the early morning hours of the shooting. Fellow freshman starter Jaden Bradley was also at the scene. Neither Miller nor Bradley has been accused of any crime, and the university has described Miller as a cooperating witness, not a suspect.
Women
FIRST FOUR: In South Bend, Indiana, Jessika Carter had 22 points, nine rebounds and four blocks, Anastasia Hayes added 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists and Mississippi State beat Illinois 70-56 on Wednesday night to begin the NCAA Tournament. Mississippi State (21-10) advances to the field of 64 to take on No. 6 seed Creighton. … Kelsey Wood had her second double-double of the season, Ny’Ceara Pryor had 11 points, eight rebounds and a careerhigh 10 assists and Sacred Heart won its first NCAA Tournament game with a 57-47 victory over Southern. Sacred Heart (19-13) plays fifth-ranked and topseeded Stanford in the first round Frida
ALL-AMERICANS: The South Carolina star Aliyah Boston was honored for the third straight year as an All-American by The Associated Press on Wednesday. She’s just the 10th player to earn that honor three times. Boston was joined on the first team by Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist, LSU’s Angel Reese and Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes.
South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson, Baylor’s Brittney Griner, Tennessee’s Chamique Holdsclaw, Duke’s Alana Beard, Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris, Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu and UConn’s Breanna Stewart and Maya Moore are the only other players to earn first-team honors at least three times.