Davis tops Roadrunners in overtime
DAVIS — Ty Johnson’s 22 points helped UC Davis defeat CSU Bakersfield 78-71 in overtime on Saturday night.
Johnson also had seven rebounds and five assists for the Aggies (10-7, 5-1 Big West Conference). Elijah Pepper added 18 points while going 6 of 21 from the floor, including 3 for 9 from 3-point range, and 3 for 4 from the line, and he also had nine rebounds. Kane Milling was 2 of 5 shooting, including 2 for 4 from 3-point range, and went 5 for 5 from the line to finish with 11 points.
Kaleb Higgins finished with 17 points, six rebounds and two steals for the Roadrunners (5-11, 0-5). Naseem Gaskin added 14 points and two steals for CSU Bakersfield.
The Roadrunners outscored the Aggies 39-31 in the second half to force a tie at 65 at the end of regulation. Pepper’s 3 pointer with 29 seconds left in the second half tied the score at 65.
The Aggies controlled the extra period with a 13-6 advantage for the victory.
Next up for the Roadrunners will be a home game at 7 p.m. Thursday against UC Riverside.
The Highlanders were 7-10 overall and 2-3 in the Big West entering Saturday night’s game in Hawaii.
WAZZU TOPS NO. 8 ARIZONA
PULLMAN, Wash. — Isaac Jones had 24 points and 13 rebounds and Washington State upset No. 8 Arizona 73-70 on Saturday.
After a 26-point outing in a victory at Southern California on Wednesday night, Jones was magnificent again. He got a short jumper to fall with 1:11 left to put the Cougars (12-5, 3-3 Pac-12) up by four and grabbed the game-ending rebound after Caleb Love’s 3-point attempt fell short.
It was the second straight season the Cougars have beaten Arizona (12-4, 3-2) with the Wildcats ranked in the top 10. Washington State won 74-61 in Tucson last season when Arizona was No. 5. The last time the Cougars beat a top-10 team at home was Jan. 16, 2020, against then-No. 8 Oregon.
Love led Arizona with 28 points on 10-of-25 shooting. Oumar Ballo had 11 points and 14 rebounds.
Arizona’s Keshad Johnson banked in a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left to cut Washington State’s lead to 71-70. Myles Rice, who finished with 18 points, then made two free throws with 11.9 seconds left, and Love’s 3-pointer was off the mark to end the Wildcats’ comeback hopes.
Washington State led for most of the game and all the second half until Love’s 3-pointer – his fourth of the game – put Arizona up 57-55 with five minutes left. A few minutes later, Rice responded with a 3-pointer of his own from the top of the key to give the Cougars a 62-59 lead.
The Cougars stymied Arizona, the No. 1 scoring team in the nation, for much of the afternoon. They blocked eight shots and held the Wildcats to 34.7% shooting in their second upset over Arizona in the last two seasons.
KANSAS DEFEATS OKLAHOMA
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Kevin McCullar scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half as No. 3 Kansas surged past No. 9 Oklahoma 78-66 Saturday, extending its winning streak over the Sooners to six games.
Hunter Dickinson led Kansas (14-2, 2-1 Big 12) with 24 points and 14 rebounds. KJ Adams had 15 points and 10 rebounds. Dajuan Harris had eight assists and no turnovers.
The Jayhawks committed two turnovers in the entire game, something the players said was an emphasis after combining for 35 in their last two games. Kansas coach Bill Self thought otherwise.
“I don’t know that we emphasize that nearly as much as what you guys (the media) think we do,” he said. “But we didn’t have to because the players all know.
“I thought we did a better job of taking care of the basketball. That’s probably about as well as we can take care of the ball. Two is a low number. We’re not good enough offensively to give away possessions. So our number needs to be under 10, or 10 or so.”
Kansas is looking for another offensive threat besides McCullar, Dickinson, Adams and Harris. On Saturday, those four were enough.
“Their ‘big four’ showed up and showed up big,” Oklahoma coach Porter Moser said. “We didn’t guard well enough the second half. We put a lot of pressure on our offense when (we) didn’t guard.”