No. 7 Kentucky cruises past East Tennessee State
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Quade Green scored a career-high
21 points, Kevin Knox had 17 points with 10 rebounds and No. 7 Kentucky overcame an early deficit to run away from East Tennessee State 78-61 on Friday night.
Bouncing back from Tuesday’s 65-61, Champions Classic loss to No. 4 Kansas required the Wildcats (3-1) overcoming an 18-8 first-half hole. Green took charge to score 10 of their next 12 points to cut the lead to 23-20, and Hamidou Diallo and Wenyen Gabriel combined for 11 of the next 16 as Kentucky outscored ETSU 28-12 over the final 10:05 for a 36-30 halftime lead.
The Wildcats kept rolling behind defense that held the Buccaneers (1-2) to 32 percent shooting, including just
10 of 36 (28 percent) in the second half. They also owned the paint (38-22), fast break points (14-2) and registered eight blocks to win their first game of the Adolph Rupp Classic.
Green made 9 of 13 from the field to top his previous high of 15 points on Sunday against Vermont.
Peter Jurkin had 17 points and David Burrell 11 for ETSU.
Duke-Southern
DURHAM, N.C. — No. 1 Duke proved this week it’s talented enough to beat the best team on its schedule — but not so dominant that it can take one of the worst for granted.
The Blue Devils beat Southern 78-61 on Friday night behind 20 points and 11 rebounds from Wendell Carter Jr.
“We just didn’t come ready to play,” Carter said. “I can’t really speak for everybody, I don’t know if everybody was energized or not or if people were hurt or not. Just as a team, we didn’t play as a unit. We starters had an opportunity just to be selfish, and that’s not the way to go. We’ve got to take every game seriously, and we did not do that tonight.”
Marvin Bagley III added
19 points and 11 rebounds and Grayson Allen and Trevon Duval finished with 10 points apiece for the Blue Devils (40).
Coming off a victory over No. 2 Michigan State three nights earlier, Duke showed several classic symptoms of a letdown — in part, coach Mike Krzyzewski explained, because the Blue Devils didn’t practice the previous two days due to NCAA time-management rules.
The Blue Devils finished with a season-high 15 turnovers, shot just 4 of 20 from
3-point range and for a while struggled to keep Southern off the offensive glass before regrouping to finish with a 5134 rebounding advantage. “There was something missing tonight,” Krzyzewski said.
Gary Trent Jr. had 10 rebounds but was 3-of-11 shooting for Duke, which never led by fewer than 10 points in the second half, but also had trouble putting Southern away, not pushing its lead into the 20s until the final 5 minutes.
Jamar Sandifer had 14 points and Torrey Mayo added 11 to lead the Jaguars (0-4) — whose resume included a
102-55 loss to Illinois, an 86-58 loss at Missouri State and the No. 319 spot in an unofficial replication of the RPI formula.
They gave the Blue Devils about 15 minutes’ worth of serious headaches before Trent hit two 3-pointers during a 15-3 run late in the first half that pushed Duke’s lead into double figures to stay.
Louisville-Omaha
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Ray Spalding had a career-high 19 points and 11 rebounds, Deng Adel had a game-high 21 points and Anas Mahmoud had eight of his team’s 15 blocked shots as No. 18 Louisville outlasted Omaha 87-78 on Friday night.
Spalding scored 14 points after halftime, and Adel made
7 of 8 shots from both the field and the free-throw line to pace the offense for the Cardinals
(2-0), who led by 20 early in the second half but didn’t make a field for the last 4:36 of the game.
Omaha (0-4) was competitive in facing its highest-ranked opponent since becoming an NCAA Division I program in the 2011-12 season. The Mavericks hung around with a 12-0 second-half run and got within 71-64 on KJ Robinson’s 3-pointer with 5:45 left, but Louisville answered with seven straight points to keep the lead large enough to stay unbeaten under interim coach David Padgett.
Louisville’s three primary big men - Spalding (6-foot10), Mahmoud (7-0) and Malik Williams (6-11) - bothered Omaha with their length around the rim. Mahmoud flirted with a triple-double, posting 10 points and eight rebounds to go with his blocks. Williams, a former five-star recruit who made his first career start in place of Mahmoud, had eight points, four rebounds and three blocks. Spalding blocked three shots, too.
Daniel Norl led five Omaha scorers in double figures with
16 points and eight rebounds.
Women’s college basketball Arkansas State-South Florida
TAMPA, Fla. — Kitija Laksa scored 13 of her 25 points in the first quarter, Laura Ferreira and Shae Leverett had double-doubles, and No. 22 South Florida rolled to a 98-55 win over Arkansas State on Friday night.
Ferreira had 14 points and 10 rebounds, Leverett 13 and 10. Maria Jespersen scored 19 points for the Bulls (3-0) and reached 500 career rebounds. Alba Prieto had 12 points and Laia Flores 11 assists.
South Florida scored the first nine points and made its first eight shots, capped by backto-back 3-pointers from Laksa, to lead 19-5. The Bulls added a 9-0 run and led 30-10 after one quarter. Laksa had three 3s and USF was 10 of 17 from the field while the Red Wolves were 3 of 13.
Arkansas State shaved six points off the deficit in the second quarter but USF dominated the second half, especially the fourth quarter. The Bulls went 12 of 23 in the last 10 minutes and Arkansas State was 2 of 16.
Akasha Westbrook had 16 points and 10 rebounds for Arkansas State (1-2) but the Red Wolves were outrebounded 56-36.
U Conn-California
STORRS, Conn. — Crystal Dangerfield, Kia Nurse and Napheesa Collier all scored 14 points to help top-ranked U Conn rout No. 20 California 82-47 on Friday night.
The Huskies trailed 4-3 early before scoring 23 of the next 25 points to take command of the game. Gabby Williams got the run started with consecutive layups. Later in the burst she made a layup while falling that gave U Conn a 22-6 advantage. Sara Anastasieska hit a 3-pointer with 1:41 left in the opening period to end a string of 17 consecutive points scored by the Huskies.
U Conn (2-0) led 30-11 after one quarter and wasn’t really challenged by Cal (1-1) the rest of the way.
The Huskies had a brief scare though in the second quarter when Katie Lou Samuelson went down under the basket and injured her left foot. She walked off the court with a limp and headed straight to the locker room. She was icing the foot during the second half on the bench. Samuelson had 12 points before she got hurt.
Kristine Anigwe scored 14 points to lead the Golden Bears, who will play U Conn the next three years.