Texas Southern stuns Baylor in season opener; Texas and Rice win.
WACO — Jaylyn Patterson helped give his old coach Johnny Jones quite a start in his new job at Texas Southern.
Patterson, a graduate transfer from LSU, scored 23 points and made the go-ahead 3-pointer with 21 seconds left as Texas Southern rallied from a 17-point deficit in the second half to upset Baylor 72-69 on Tuesday night in the season opener for both teams.
“We just kept fighting. We came to win, play hard. Just played the whole 40 minutes,” Patterson said.
The Bears never had lost to a Southwestern Athletic Conference school. The Bears had won the previous 56 such games, including 11 against the Tigers.
Jones was LSU's coach before spending last season as associate head coach at Nevada. He took the TSUn job after the departure of Mike Davis, who went to Detroit Mercy after leading the Tigers to four NCAA Tournaments the last five years.
“This is a great win for our program against a quality team like Baylor,” Jones said. “It's about growth, and we're hopeful that we'll grow from tonight.”
Patterson's 3 from the left wing was part of a game-ending 34-14 run for TSU. He also had two free throws with four seconds left.
King McClure, the lone returning senior among three returning lettermen, also had 23 points.
KANSAS 92 MICHIGAN ST. 87
Quentin Grimes scored 21 points in his college debut, and Dedric Lawson added 20 points and 14 rebounds to lead the topranked Jayhawks past the No. 10 Spartans in the season-opening Champions Classic at Indianpolis.
Michigan State was led by Joshua Langford with 18 points, and Kenny Goins with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
DUKE 118, KENTUCKY 84
RJ Barrett scored 33 points, Zion Williamson added 28 and Cameron Reddish had 22 as the fourth-ranked Blue Devils took control early and never let up in a resounding rout of the No. 2 Wildcats at Indianapolis.
Starting four freshmen, Duke shot 54 percent while making 12 3-pointers. In addition to their scoring, the freshmen contributed in other ways. Jones had seven assists while Barrett collected six. Williamson had seven of the Blue Devils’ 38 rebounds.
No team had scored more points against a John Calipari-coached Kentucky team.
NORTH CAROLINA 78 WOFFORD
Luke Maye had 24 points, and Cameron Johnson provided a huge spark in the second half as the eighth-ranked Tar Heels won at Spartanburg, S.C., to avenge an upset loss to Wofford last year.
Johnson made five 3pointers and had 17 points along with eight rebounds. Garrison Brooks added 20 points as North Carolina improved to 15-1 in season openers under coach Roy Williams.
TEXAS TECH 87 INCARNATE WORD 37
Jarrett Culver scored 16 points, and Matt Mooney had 12 points and six assists as the Red Raiders opened the encore to the school's first Elite Eight season with an easy victory at Lubbock.
Texas Tech outscored Incarnate Word 48-7 in the second half, holding the Cardinals to 10 percent shooting (3-of-30) after halftime.
SAM HOUSTON ST. 85 EAST TEXAS BAPTIST 64
Cameron Delaney scored a career-high 21 points to lead the Bearkats past the Division III Lions at Huntsville.
CALIFORNIA 80 HOUSTON 79
Kristine Anigwe had 37 points and 13 rebounds to help the No. 24 Golden Bears survive a late rally by the Cougars at Berkeley, Calif.
California led 78-71 on Asha Thomas' pair of free throws with 58 seconds left.
Houston’s Angela Harris hit a 3-pointer 14 seconds later, and Jasmyne Harris made a trio of free throws to cut the deficit to 78-77 with 10 seconds left.
Jaelyn Brown then sank a pair of free throws to push the Golden Bears’ lead to three, and Jasmyne Harris missed a 3-point attempt that would have tied it in the closing seconds before Tatyana Hill scored the putback that left UH a point short.
Jasymne Harris led the Cougars with 17 points.
BAYLOR 100 NICHOLLS ST. 39
Preseason All-America post Kalani Brown scored the first four points for the fourth-ranked Lady Bears, who opened the season by scoring the first 24 points and had seven players in double figures on the way to an easy victory over the Colonels at Waco.
Brown finished with 13 points, matching Moon Ursin for the team high. The 6-7 Brown also had four rebounds while playing only 18 minutes.
Cassidy Barrios had 20 points and nine rebounds for Nicholls State.