ODU women secure bye in SBC tourney
En’Dya Buford continued her offensive tear with 20 points and eight rebounds and Old Dominion’s women secured a spot in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament quarterfinals with a 61-54 victory over Georgia Southern on Tuesday night at Chartway Arena.
The Monarchs (21-7, 12-5), who have won three straight, are a lock to finish in the top four of the Sun Belt and clinched a bye in the league tournament as a result. They moved into sole third place, a half-game ahead of James Madison (19-10, 11-5), which didn’t play Tuesday.
Buford is averaging 19.5 points and 7.0 rebounds in her past four games. She added five assists, four steals and a blocked shot in the game.
Jordan McLaughlin also had a strong all-round performance for ODU with 10 points, nine rebounds, five assists and a steal.
Simone James paced the Eagles (14-16, 4-13) with 18 points.
The Monarchs trailed 27-26 at the half and the game was tied at 42 going into the fourth quarter. It remained close until Buford’s layup with 3:10 left put ODU ahead to stay at 54-52 and sparked a 7-2 run to close it out.
ODU will conclude its regular season against JMU at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
ACC men Syracuse 84, Virginia Tech 71:
Judah Mintz scored 29 points and Syracuse again withstood a second-half rally before pulling away from Virginia Tech in the Orange’s season home finale.
Mintz was 10-of-17 shooting and made all eight of his free throws for the Orange (19-10, 10-8).
Sean Pedulla scored 18 points, Lynn Kidd had 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting and eight rebounds, Hunter Cattoor added 12 points and Mylyjael Poteat 11 points for the Hokies (15-13, 7-10), who have dropped six of their past eight games.
Virginia Tech will host Wake Forest at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
Notre Dame 70, Wake Forest 65:
Freshman Markus Burton scored a career-high 31 points as Notre Dame (11-17, 6-11) stunned Wake Forest (18-10, 10-7) at home, just three days after the Demon Deacons beat then-No. 8 Duke.
Florida State 90, North Carolina State 83:
Jamir Watkins scored 19 points and Florida State (15-13, 9-8) built an early lead and beat North Carolina State (17-11, 9-8) in Tallahassee.
Clemson 69, Pittsburgh 62: Chase
Hunter and Joe Girard scored 15 points apiece and PJ Hall and Ian Schieffelin each recorded double-doubles as Clemson (20-8, 10-7) beat Pittsburgh (18-10, 9-8) at home.
Top 25
BYU 76, No. 7 Kansas 68: Dallin Hall and Jaxson Robinson scored 18 points apiece as BYU (20-8, 8-7 Big 12) rallied from a 12-point deficit to beat Kansas (21-7, 9-6), ending the Jayhawks’ 19-game home winning streak.
No. 1 Houston 67, Cincinnati 59:
L.J. Cryer scored 22 points, J’Wan Roberts added 15 and Houston (25-3, 12-3 Big 12) won its sixth straight game by beating Cincinnati (16-12, 5-10) at home.
No. 16 Kentucky 91, Mississippi State 89:
Reed Sheppard made a runner from just inside the foul line with less than a second remaining and finished with a career-high 32 points, giving Kentucky (20-8, 10-5 SEC) a wild road victory over Mississippi State (19-9, 8-7).
No. 20 San Diego State 72, San Jose State 64:
Jaedon LeDee had 27 points — 21 in the second half — and 11 rebounds as San Diego State (22-7, 11-5) held off last-place San Jose State (9-20, 2-14) at home to keep pace in the tight Mountain West Conference race.
No. 21 Dayton 80, Davidson 66:
Koby Brea came off the bench to score 17 points, including 5-for-9 shooting from 3-point range, and Dayton (22-5, 12-3 Atlantic 10) bounced back from a road loss with a comfortable win over Davidson (15-13, 5-10) at home.
No. 22 Utah State 77, Fresno State 73 (OT):
Great Osobor had 21 points and 11 rebounds, Darius Brown II drained two clutch 3-pointers as visiting Utah State outlasted Fresno State in overtime to remain atop the Mountain West Conference standings.
State Fordham 61, George Mason 60:
Kyle Rose scored 16 points, including the game-winning 3-pointer with four seconds left, to lift Fordham (12-16, 6-9 Atlantic 10) past George Mason (18-10, 7-8) in New York.
Military
Boise State 79, Air Force 48: Tyson Degenhart’s 21 points helped Boise State (20-8, 11-4 Mountain West) defeat Air Force (9-18, 2-13) in Colorado Springs.