St. John’s hands Providence costly defeat
St. John’s 73, No. 20 Providence 68: A grieving David Jones scored 16 points, AJ Storr added 15 and host St. John’s (1511, 5-10 Big East) beat Providence on Saturday, handing the Friars (18-7, 10-4) a costly defeat in their pursuit of a second consecutive regular-season conference title.
Joel Soriano had 10 points and 13 rebounds for the Red Storm, who had lost three straight and five of six. It was his 20th double-double this season – he entered the game second in the nation in that category.
Posh Alexander added 10 points and a season-high nine assists, and Dylan Addae-Wusu scored 13 for St. John’s, which built a big early lead at Madison Square Garden and led nearly the entire way.
No. 3 Alabama 77, Auburn 69: Rylan Griffen scored 16 points, Mark Sears added 15 and No. 3 Alabama (22-3, 12-0 SEC) held off a big challenge from its in-state rival, beating host Auburn (17-8, 7-5).
The Crimson Tide remained the only Power-5 team without a league loss.
The Tigers missed nine straight shots in the final minutes. They have dropped five of their last six after being ranked most of the way.
No. 5 Texas 94, West Virginia 60: Sir’Jabri Rice scored 24 points in just 17 minutes and host Texas (20-5, 9-3) defeated West Virginia (15-10, 4-8) to remain in first place in the Big 12, while West Virginia lost for the sixth time in its last seven games against the Longhorns.
Rice, a guard who transferred this season from New Mexico State, was nearly perfect. He converted 5 of 6 field-goal attempts, including 4 of 5 3-pointers and all 10 free throws. The Longhorns only missed one free throw in 25 attempts. Marcus Carr added 16 for Texas, making 7 of 11 shots and contributing four assists and three steals. Timmy Allen had 14 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
Emmett Matthews led West Virginia with 13 points. The Mountaineers shot 35.2%, which is their second-worst accuracy of the season, and matched the most turnovers of the season with 20.
No. 8 Virginia 69, Duke 62 (OT): Armaan Franklin scored 23 points, including a 3-pointer with 39 seconds left, to lift host Virginia (19-4, 11-3 ACC) over Duke (17-8, 8-6).
Kihie Clark added 16 points and Ben Vander Plas 13 for the Cavaliers, who won despite a 9 for 22 performance from the free-throw line.
Duke seemed poised to win when Ryan Young drove on the final play of regulation and two defenders contested his shot. The officials initially whistled a foul, but waved it off after a lengthy review. Jeremy Roach led the Blue Devils with 16 points.
No. 9 Kansas 78, Oklahoma 55: Jalen Wilson scored 18 points, and Kansas (20-5, 8-4 Big 12) rolled past host Oklahoma (12-13, 2-10).
Wilson, who entered the day leading the Big 12 with nearly 21 points per game, bounced back from a two-point outing against Texas on Monday.
Dajuan Harris scored 16 points and Kevin McCullar added 13 for the Jayhawks.
No. 10 Marquette 89, Georgetown 75: Kam Jones, Oso Ighodaro and Tyler Kolek each scored 14 points to lead a balanced scoring attack and Marquette (20-6, 12-3 Big East) beat host Georgetown (6-20, 1-14).
Olivier-Maxence Prosper had 11 points and Chase Ross added 10 as Marquette moved into first place in the conference. The Golden Eagles are a half-game ahead of No. 13 Xavier, which lost at Butler on Friday.
Marquette bounced back after having their five-game winning streak snapped at No. 21 UConn on Tuesday.
No. 23 Creighton 56, No. 21 UConn 53: Trey Alexander scored 17 points to lead Creighton, UConn had what would have been a tying 3-pointer erased on video review in the final seconds, and
the host Bluejays (17-8, 11-3) held off the Huskies (19-7, 8-7).
Creighton is a half-game behind Big East-leading Marquette with its eighth straight win. The Huskies lost for the first time in four games.
Alexander, who went to the bench after committing his fourth foul with 7:08 to play, returned four minutes later with his team ahead 52-49. Alexander scored inside to make it a five-point game, but Jordan Hawkins’ second-chance basket pulled the Huskies within three with a minute left.
No. 22 North Carolina State 92, Boston College 62:
Jarkel Joiner scored 26 points and D.J. Burns Jr. added 18 with 10 rebounds to lead North Carolina State (20-6, 10-5 ACC) to a victory over host Boston College (12-14, 6-9).
Terquavion Smith scored 17 points for the Wolfpack, giving him 1,000 points for his career.
N.C. State led for the last 37 minutes of the game to bounce back from a loss to eighth-ranked Virginia on Tuesday.
Illinois 69, No. 24 Rutgers 60: Coleman Hawkins scored 18 points and host Illinois (17-7, 8-5 Big Ten) held Rutgers (16-9, 8-6) scoreless for more than 10 minutes in the second half. The Illinois trailed 47-41 with 141⁄2 minutes left before Hawkins’ 3-pointer started a 19-0 run.
No. 25 San Diego State 82, UNLV 71: Adam Seiko scored all 18 points on 3pointers and Matt Bradley added 17 points for host San Diego (20-5, 11-2), the Mountain West Conference front-runner that beat UNLV (16-9, 5-8) for its third straight win and seventh in eight games.
The Aztecs buried the Runnin’ Rebels in a blizzard of 3-pointers and slam dunks, including during a 14-0 run midway through the first half, to sweep the season series and top UNLV the fifth straight time.