UNDATED (AP) — Saturday’s best top-25 men’s basketball matchup of the day was won by Texas.
Andrew Jones hit a 3-pointer with 1.8 seconds left to lift the fourth-ranked Longhorns to a 72-70 victory over No. 14 West Virginia. The game-winning bucket came after West Virginia’s Emmitt Matthews missed two free throws with 11 seconds left.
Courtney Ramey scored 19 points for Texas, which trailed for most of the game and had to come from nine points down in the second half. Jones finished with 16 points, including the 1,000th of his college career.
In other top-25 action:
— Joel Ayayi posted the first triple-double in Gonzaga history and the top-ranked Bulldogs picked up their 16th straight win by blowing out Portland, 116-88. Ayayi had 12 points, 14 assists and 13 rebounds, and Drew Timme had 26 points for the Zags.
— Jared Butler poured in a season-high 28 points and No. 2 Baylor stayed undefeated with a 67-49 rout of TCU. Butler was 11 of 17 from the field, with all four of his 3-pointers coming after halftime. MaCio Teague added 12 points and Davion Mitchell had 10 for the 11-0 Bears.
— David McCormack’s 17-point performance included the clinching short hook shot with 12.8 seconds to go, leading No. 6 Kansas to a 63-59 victory against Oklahoma. Ochai Agbaji added 14 points and Jalen Wilson had nine with 11 rebounds, helping the Jayhawks avoid back-to-back losses in Allen Fieldhouse for the first time since 1988-89.
— Seventh-ranked Creighton coasted to a 97-79 win over St. John’s as Denzel Mahoney furnished a season-high 24 points to lead six Bluejays in double figures. Duke transfer Alex O’Connell came off the bench to add a season-high 16 points for the Bluejays, who were without Big East preseason player of the year Marcus Zegarowski because of an undisclosed injury.
— Sophomore guard Santiago Vescovi drained six 3-pointers while scoring a career-high 23 points in ninth-ranked Tennessee’s 68-54 victory at Texas A&M. Vescovi hit his first four shots from behind the arc as part of a 17-4 run that pushed the Volunteers’ lead to 14 midway through the opening half.
— Marcus Sasser scored 20 of his career-high 28 points in the first half to power 11th-rated Houston to a 71-50 thumping of Tulane. Sasser shot 7 of 9 in the first half, including 6 of 7 on 3-pointers as the Cougars built a 12-point lead.
— Chris Duarte provided 25 points and Eric Williams Jr. added 19 to lift No. 17 Oregon to a 79-73 victory over Utah. LJ Figueroa scored 15 points for the Ducks before exiting late in the second half with an apparent leg injury.
— Duane Washington Jr. provided 17 points and Ohio State closed the first half with a 22-4 run before defeating No. 15 Rutgers, 79-68. E.J. Liddell had 15 points and helped the Buckeyes shoot 51% for the game, including 42% from 3-point range.
— Kyler Edwards scored 16 of his 19 points while 18th-ranked Texas Tech was building a huge first-half lead in a 91-64 pounding of Iowa State. Mac McClung added 18 points for the Red Raiders, who used a pair of 12-0 runs to make it 54-28 with just over a minute left before the break.
— No. 21 Duke was a 79-68 winner against Wake Forest behind Matthew Hurt’s career-high 26 points. Freshman DJ Steward added 21 points for the Blue Devils, who had coach Mike Krzyzewski back on the bench after a one-game absence due to COVID-19 protocol.
— Jay Huff matched his career-high with 18 points and grabbed eight boards to send No. 22 Virginia past Boston College, 61-49. Sam Hauser scored 17 with 10 boards to help the Cavaliers win their third straight since a defeat to top-ranked Gonzaga.
SEC slate slashed by COVID-19
UNDATED (AP) — Tuesday’s SEC men’s basketball schedule has become a little lighter.
Games pitting Tennessee at South Carolina and Vanderbilt at No. 13 Missouri have been postponed due to a combination of positive COVID-19 tests, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the Missouri and South Carolina basketball programs.
It’s the seventh time in just over a month that the South Carolina men won’t be able to play a scheduled game due to issues with COVID-19.
