New Mexico crushes Falcons in 1st round
JT Toppin had 18 points and Jaelen House added 16 points and three steals to help No. 6 seed New Mexico cruise past Air Force 82-56 on Wednesday in the first round of the Mountain West tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.
The Lobos (23-9) play third-seeded Boise State in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
Rytis Petraitis led the 11th-seeded Falcons (9-22) with 26 points and 10 rebounds.
■ Colorado State 72, San Jose State 62: Joel Scott had 18 points and six rebounds, and Joe Palmer added 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting to lead the No. 7 Rams past the No. 10 Spartans. Colorado State (23-9) plays No. 2 seed UNR on Thursday in the quarterfinals.
The Spartans (9-23) were led by Alvaro Cardenas Torre, who finished with 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
■ Fresno State 77, Wyoming
73: Isaiah Pope had 13 of his 22 points in the second half, and Leo Colimerio hit the go-ahead basket with 20.6 seconds remaining as the No. 9 Bulldogs (12-20) knocked off the eighth-seeded Cowboys (15-17). Fresno State will play top-seeded Utah State on Thursday in the quarterfinals.
Pac-12
■ Southern California 80, Washington 74: At T-mobile Arena, Boogie Ellis scored 25 points to eclipse 2,000 for his career, and the ninth-seeded Trojans survived two late turnovers to beat the No. 8 seed Huskies. USC (15-17) faces top-seeded Arizona in Thursday’s quarterfinals. Sahvir Wheeler had 20 points and seven assists to lead Washington (17-15) in what might have been coach Mike Hopkins’ last game.
■ UCLA 67, Oregon State 57: Dylan Andrews made seven 3-pointers and scored 31 points — both career highs — to help the No. 5 Bruins (1616) defeat the No. 12 Beavers (13-19) in the first round. UCLA plays No. 4 seed Oregon in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
■ Stanford 87, California 76, OT: Maxime Raynaud had 21 points and 13 rebounds to help the No. 7 seed Cardinal (14-17) overcome an 18-point second-half deficit against the No. 10 Bears (13-19). Stanford faces Washington State in the second round Thursday.
Big West
■ UC Riverside 83, Cal State Bakersfield 78: At Dollar Loan Center, Barrington Hargress led four players in double figures with 20 points, and the No. 5 seed Highlanders (16-17) topped the No. 8 Roadrunners (13-19). Riverside faces No. 4 Long Beach State in the second round Thursday. Kaleb Higgins led Bakersfield with 35 points.
WAC
■ California Baptist 74, Utah Valley 63, OT: At Orleans Arena, Blondeau Tchoukuiengo had 21 points, and Hunter Goodrick added six of his 14 points in overtime to help the No. 8 seed Lancers (16-16) upset the fifth-seeded Wolverines (16-16). Cal Baptist faces No. 4 Seattle in the second round Thursday. Utah Valley’s Drake Allen made two free throws with three seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.
Top 25
■ Cincinnati 72, No. 16 Kansas 52: At Kansas City, Mo., Dan Skillings Jr. scored 25 points for the 11thseeded Bearcats (20-13), who led 38-25 at halftime and moved to a
Big 12 quarterfinal. The sixth-seeded Jayhawks (22-10) were without the league’s top two scorers, Hunter Dickinson (shoulder) and Kevin Mccullar Jr. (knee), because of injuries.
■ No. 20 Brigham Young 87, Central Florida 73: At Kansas City, Mo., Fousseyni Traore had 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Cougars (23-9), who hit 14 of 30 3-point tries and reached a Big 12 quarterfinal. Darius Johnson scored 32 points for the Knights (17-15). Conference finals
■ Mcneese State 92, Nicholls State 76: At Lake Charles, La., Shahada Wells scored 27 points for the top-seeded Cowboys (30-3), who shot 61.4 percent to win the Southland tournament and advance to their first NCAA Tournament since 2002. Diante Smith had 33 points for the thirdseeded Colonels (20-14), who lost by a combined 64 points in three matchups with Mcneese State this season.
■ Colgate 74, Lehigh 55: At Hamilton, N.Y., Braeden Smith had 15 points and 12 rebounds for the top-seeded Raiders (25-9), who shot 55.6 percent and notched their fourth straight Patriot League tournament title by beating the sixth-seeded Mountain Hawks (14-18).