No. 16 Texas A&M, TCU improve to 5-0
COLLEGE STATION — DJ Hogg scored 18 points, and Tyler Davis had seven of his 15 in a key second-half stretch to lead No. 16 Texas A&M past pesky Pepperdine 81-65 on Friday night.
Kameron Edwards scored 20 points to lead the Waves, who trimmed their deficit to six twice in the second half, the final time with 7:31 remaining. However, after Amadi Udenyi’s layup cut the Aggies’ lead to 60-54, Pepperdine went 5:35 without a basket, and A&M (5-0) pulled away.
Dunks by Hogg and Davis stretched the lead back to 15 after a 15-4 run.
A&M couldn’t break inside Pepperdine’s zone defense for much of the game, and the Waves (2-4) were content to let the Aggies shoot 3-pointers.
Starting point guard Duane Wilson, a graduate transfer from Marquette, paced the Aggies’ 41-28 first-half lead with 10 of his 15 points.
TCU 69, NEW MEXICO 67
Kenrich Williams scored 23 points as the Horned Frogs advanced to the Emerald Coast Classic title game with a narrow victory over the Lobos in Niceville, Fla.
TCU will face St. Bonaventure, a 63-61 victor over Maryland, for the title Saturday at Northwest Florida State College.
Williams also led TCU (5-0) with 17 rebounds. Desmond Bane added 11 points and Jaylen Fisher scored 10 for the Horned Frogs.
Sam Logwood led New Mexico (2-3), which dropped its third straight game, with a career-high 27 points.
New Mexico bolted to a 9-0 lead in the first two minutes of play, but TCU gradually closed the gap until a Fisher layup put the Horned Frogs ahead for good 24-23 at the 6:35 mark of the first half.
The Frogs expanded their advantage to 13 points in the second half, but the Lobos closed the gap to two on a 3-point shot by McNeal with 10.8 seconds remaining. McNeal, though, missed a potential game-winner as time ran out.
CLEMSON 84 TEXAS SOUTHERN 77
Elijah Thomas reached career highs with 26 points and 16 rebounds to lead Clemson to a victory over Texas Southern in Clemson, S.C.
Senior guard Gabe DeVoe added 21 points on 8-of-9 shooting and made all five of his 3-pointers, all career highs, for Clemson (5-1).
Demontrae Jefferson led TSU (0-6) with 22 points on 7-of-18 shooting.
WESTERN KENTUCKY 63 SMU 61
Jake Ohmer hit a 3-pointer with 4.5 seconds left to help the Hilltoppers beat the Mustangs in the fifth-place game of the Battle 4 Atlantis at Paradise Island, Bahamas.
The freshman’s 3 capped a comeback from 10 down in the final 10:22 for Western Kentucky (4-2).
SMU (5-2) had a final chance after a timeout, with Ben Emelogu taking an inbounds pass and racing up the court to launch a long, leaning 3-pointer.
The shot bounced off the rim at the horn.
Lamonte Bearden scored 12 of his 14 points after halftime for Western Kentucky, which shot 46 percent and scored 15 points off turnovers. The Hilltoppers were coming off an upset of No. 18 Purdue in Thursday’s consolation bracket after an opening-round loss to No. 5 Villanova.
Ethan Chargois scored 21 points for SMU, which upset No. 2 Arizona on Thursday night after an opening-round loss to Northern Iowa.
UC SANTA BARBARA 69 PRAIRIE VIEW A&M 66
Max Heidegger scored 30 points as the Gauchos slipped by the Panthers in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Gary Blackston had 21 points to lead Prairie View A&M (2-4).
PURDUE 89, ARIZONA 64
Dakota Mathias scored 24 points to help the No. 18 Boilermakers roll past the second-ranked Wildcats in the seventhplace game of the Battle 4 Atlantis at Paradise Island, Bahamas, sending Arizona home with three losses in three days.
KANSAS 102, OAKLAND 59
Udoka Azubuike had a career-high 21 points and 10 rebounds, and the No. 3 Jayhawks routed the Golden Grizzlies in Lawrence, Kan. Lagerald Vick added 15 points for Kansas (5-0), which won its 24th straight non-conference home game.
VILLANOVA 64 NORTHERN IOWA 50
Mikal Bridges scored 18 points, and the No. 5 Wildcats pulled away down the stretch to beat the Panthers in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship game at Paradise Island, Bahamas. Jalen Brunson added 16 points and was named the tournament’s most valuable player for Villanova (6-0).
NORTH CAROLINA 87 ARKANSAS 68
Luke Maye had career highs with 28 points and 16 rebounds, and the No. 9 Tar Heels defeated the Razorbacks in the semifinals of the PK80 Invitational at Portland, Ore.
ARIZONA ST. 102, XAVIER 86
Tra Holder scored a career-high 40 points to lead the Sun Devils to an upset of the 15th-ranked Musketeers in the championship game of the Las Vegas Invitational.
WASHINGTON ST. 84 SAINT MARY’S 79
Malachi Flynn had 26 points, and the Cougars held off the 21st-ranked Gaels to reach the championship game of the Wooden Legacy in Fullerton, Calif.
WEST VIRGINIA 83 CENTRAL FLORIDA 45
James Bolden scored 17 points, Jevon Carter had 16, and the No. 23 Mountaineers quickly responded after surviving an upset scare one day earlier by routing the Knights in a semifinal contest at the Advocare Invitational at Lake Buena Vista, Fla.