Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Cowan, Morsell, No. 5 Maryland bottle up Howard, Marquette
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Anthony Cowan Jr. scored 22 points and backcourt mate Darryl Morsell helped fifth-ranked Maryland limit Marquette star Markus Howard to six points as the Terrapins remained unbeaten with an 84-63 victory over the Golden Eagles on Sunday in the championship game of the Orlando Invitational.
Howard scored a combined 91 points in his first two games of the eight-team tournament at Disney World. However, Marquette’s alltime scoring leader was just 1 of 12 from the field in this one, including 0 for 6 on 3-point attempts.
Cowan captured tournament MVP honors with 72 points in three games, including a career-best 30 against Temple on Thanksgiving. Morsell had 17 points and 10 rebounds, while guarding the 5-foot-11 Howard most of the afternoon.
Maryland (8-0) is off to its best start since the 2006-07 season.
Aaron Wiggins scored 15 points for the Terps.
Brendan Bailey led Marquette (5-2) with a career-high 27 points, including seven 3-pointers.
NO. 22 VILLANOVA 83, LA SALLE 72
VILLANOVA, Pa. — Justin Moore had 25 points off the bench, Saddiq Bey scored 19 and Villanova beat La Salle.
Villanova (5-2) went on a 28-6 run midway through the first half to build a 48-28 cushion at halftime. The Explorers closed within 10 twice in the second half.
Ed Croswell led La Salle (4-3) with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting and 10 rebounds. David Beatty had 12 points for the Explorers.
Moore scored 15 points in the first half to help Villanova build the lead. Bey and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl each had 10 rebounds.
WOMEN NO. 12 FLORIDA STATE 80, NO. 6 TEXAS A&M 58
FORT WORTH, Texas — Nausia Woolfolk scored a season-high 24 points, Kiah Gillespie added 22 points with nine rebounds and the 12th-ranked Florida State women led most of the way in an 80-58 victory over No. 6 Texas A&M on Sunday night.
The first meeting between the teams since the Seminoles won on the Aggies’ home court in the second round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament came at TCU in the Maggie Dixon Classic, named for the late sister of Horned Frogs men’s coach Jamie Dixon.
It’s the second straight year TCU has hosted the event, in its 14th season. The previous year, coach Gary Blair and his Aggies were the hosts. Maggie Dixon died of heart arrhythmia in 2006. The first tournament in her honor was held later that year at Army, where she coached.
Chennedy Carter, the Southeastern Conference preseason player of the year, scored 20 points but had a rough shooting night. Carter missed all seven of her 3-point attempts, including a good look that could have pulled the Aggies (5-1) within four late in the third quarter. She was 8 of 22 from the field.
Gillespie was 5 of 6 from inside the 3-point line while going 3 of 10 outside the arc, but one of those 3s opened the second half and gave the Seminoles (7-0) their first double-digit lead at 43-32.
Florida State’s 13-point lead in the third quarter was down to five late in the period before buckets late in the shot clock from Kourtney Weber and Nicki Ekhomu, a senior who had a career-high 12 assists and scored 15 points.
NO. 11 UCLA 73, VIRGINIA 62
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Michaela Onyenwere had 27 points and 11 rebounds, Lauryn Miller also had a double-double and No. 11 UCLA took control in the fourth quarter to defeat Virginia 73-62 on Sunday and go 2-0 in the Cavalier Classic.
Onyenwere opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer that pushed the Bruins’ lead to 58-52, Miller followed with a layup and Japreece Dean had a pair of baskets to make it 64-52 with 7:07 to play. UCLA outscored the Cavaliers 18-10 in the final period.
Miller had 14 points and 10 rebounds for UCLA (7-0), with Charisma Osborne adding 12 points and Dean 11. Miller and Ogyenwere, both juniors, picked up their second double-doubles of the year. Ogyenwere, who matched her season-high of 27 points, has 18 in her career and Miller two.
NO. 12 N.C. STATE 76, NORTH TEXAS 65
HONOLULU — Elissa Cunane scored 24 points and grabbed 19 rebounds and North Carolina State beat North Texas 76-65 in a Rainbow Wahine Showdown.
The unbeaten Wolfpack (8-0) never trailed.
Cunane shot 11 of 17 from the floor for NC State, which had a commanding 52-33 rebounding advantage. Kayla Jones added 13 points and Kai Crutchfield scored 11.
North Carolina State built a 147 lead when Crutchfield made a 3-pointer with 4:52 left in the first quarter. The Wolfpack led 19-15 before North Texas closed to 22-21 on N’Yah Boyd’s layup with 6:36 before intermission. That prompted a 102 run from the Wolfpack over the next four minutes and they went to intermission up 36-27.
Boyd led the Lady Eagles (3-4) with 22 points and Randi Thompson scored 11.
NO. 14 KENTUCKY 81, AUSTIN PEAY 52
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Rhyne Howard led a balanced attack with 14 points and Kentucky cruised to a win over Austin Peay.
KeKe McKinney added 12 points for the Wildcats (7-0) and three players had 10. Amanda Paschal had nine rebounds and six assists to go with her seven points.
Brianah Ferby led the Governors (6-1) with 13 points.
NO. 16 DEPAUL 70, NORTHWESTERN 68
EVANSTON, Ill. — Sonya Morris’ short jumper in the final minute lifted DePaul to a victory over Northwestern, handing the Wildcats their first loss and giving Doug Bruno his 700th victory as the Blue Demons’ coach.
Northwestern’s Veronica Burton missed a pair of free throws with 43 seconds left then Morris scored on the other end for a 69-68 lead. A turnover gave the ball back to Blue Demons (6-1) and Northwestern
(5-1) had to foul five times to get DePaul to the line. Dee Bekelja missed both free throws and the ball went out of bounds with 6.2 seconds remaining. After a review, a jump-ball was called with possession to DePaul which got a final free throw from Chante Stonewall with 2.2 seconds left.
NO. 20 TENNESSEE 81, AIR FORCE 54
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Rennia Davis and Rae Burrell scored 18 points apiece and Tennessee remained unbeaten with a win over Air Force.
Kasiyahna Kushkituah added 13 points as the Lady Vols (7-0) had five players in double figures. Burrell and Kushkituah, both reserves, combined to go 15-of-18 shooting as Tennessee shot 55% while the Falcons were below 30%.
Riley Snyder led the Falcons (17) with 20 points.
Kushkituah had seven points and Burrell four in an 11-0 run late in the first quarter that ended with the Lady Vols on top 24-15. A 12-2 run in the second quarter and a late 6-0 burst helped boost the lead to 43-27 at the break. Snyder hit 5 of 6 shots and had 14 points for Air Force while her teammates were 5 of 26.
Air Force is the first team to outrebound Tennessee this season, 4039. The Lady Vols came in at plus-18 on the boards.
NO. 22 GONZAGA 63, PURDUE 50
ESTERO, Fla. — Melody Kempton had a career-high 18 points, LeeAnne Wirth and Jessie Loera each scored 12, and Gonzaga beat Purdue to win the Gulf Coast Showcase.
Kempton made 7 of 12 from the field and 4 of 5 from the free-throw line.
Dominique Oden had nine points and eight rebounds for Purdue (6-1).