Canes hold off Illinois comeback
Chris Lykes scored 28 points and Miami held off a furious second-half comeback to beat Illinois 81-79 on Monday at Champaign, Illinois.
Illinois (6-2) trailed 5031 at the half — at one point down by 27 points — and was outplayed at every level by Miami (5-3) before making adjustments and outscoring the Hurricanes 48-31 in the second half.
Dejan Vasiljevic scored 20 points, Kameron McGusty 13 and Sam Waardenburg 12 for Miami.
Kofi Cockburn scored 23 points to lead Illinois.
Trent Frazier scored 14, Ayo Dosunmu had 12 and Trent Frazier added 11 points for the Illini.
The Hurricanes put together a series of runs in the first half and jumped to a 25-9 lead with 12 minutes left before the break. Illinois answered late in the half with a 7-0 run that featured a three-pointer from Alan Griffin, s layup by Dosunmu and a jumper by Da'Monte Williams.
MEN’S TOP 25
Louisville is the latest No. 1 following a loss by Duke. Michigan has matched a record by debuting at No. 4.
Louisville became the fourth team in five weeks to claim the top spot, receiving 48 of 65 first-place votes from a national media panel in The Associated Press men’s basketball poll released Monday.
No. 2 Kansas, coming off the Maui Invitational title, had three first-place votes and No. 5 Virginia received five. Maryland rose to No. 3 — the Terrapins’ highest ranking since hitting No. 2 in 2015-16 — in a week when every spot in the poll changed from last week.
Michigan (7-0) knocked off Iowa State, No. 7 North Carolina and No. 9 Gonzaga to win the Battle 4 Atlantis title in the Bahamas. The Wolverines were rewarded with nine firstplace votes and matched Kansas in 1989 for the biggest jump from being unranked in the history of the poll that dates to 1949.
WOMEN’S TOP 25
Tara VanDerveer and Stanford are No. 1 for the first time in seven years.
The Cardinal moved up two spots after a weekend that saw previous No. 1 Oregon and No. 2 Baylor both lose. It was only the third time since the Top 25 became a writers’ poll before the 1994-95 season that the top two teams lost the same day.