Butler hits 15 3-pointers, shocks No. 1 Villanova

By The Associated Press

No. 1-ranked Villanova learned a tough lesson Saturday in Indianapolis.

The defense needs to improve dramatically if the Wildcats want to be the nation’s best team.

Kelan Martin scored 24 points, Paul Jorgensen added a career-high 23 and Butler made 15 3-pointers in a 101-93 Big East Conference upset over one of Division I’s last unbeaten teams.

“This is the best offense we’ve played so far and it showed,” coach Jay Wright said. “We’ve really been outscoring teams to this point and we weren’t going to outscore this team tonight.”

Villanova came into the game allowing 65.8 points and 6.6 3s per game with 10 wins by 14 or more points.

Oklahoma

Standout freshman Trae Young scored 39 points, including the tiebreaking free throws with 7.9 seconds left, and had 14 assists to give visiting Oklahoma (11-1) a 90-89 victory in a Big 12 Conference opener for both teams. The Horned Frogs (12-1) had won 17 games in a row under former Pitt coach Jamie Dixon, Division I’s longest winning streak.

Texas A&M

John Petty made five 3pointers and scored 18 points to help Alabama (9-4) knock off No. 5 Texas A&M 79-57 in the SEC opener for both teams. Texas A&M (112) were without leading scorer DJ Hogg, serving the second of a three-game suspension for violating school policy.

Virginia

Ty Jerome Jerome hit 6 of 9 3-point tries and scored a career-high 31 points, including two free throws with 53 seconds left, as the Cavaliers (12-1, 1-0 ACC) held off visiting Boston College (10-4, 1-1), 59-58.

Penn State

Tony Carr scored 15 of his 21 points in the first half and Penn State (11-4) routed visiting Coppin State (0-15), 8843. Josh Reaves scored 12 points with seven assists for the Nittany Lions.