COLLEGE BASKETBALL: No. 1 Tennessee sets school record at Texas A&M
Published 11:19 pm Saturday, February 2, 2019
COLLEGE STATION (AP) — Top-ranked Tennessee didn’t take much time to celebrate breaking a 100-year old school record.
This team has much bigger goals.
Grant Williams scored 22 points to help the Volunteers beat Texas A&M 93-76 on Saturday night and with their 16th straight game, setting a new school mark.
“We have a long way to go,” Williams said. “We have a long season ahead of us. It’s nice to set that record but we want more. We can’t ever settle because if we settle or we start thinking that’s all we want we’re going to drop to teams left and right.”
The Volunteers (20-1, 8-0 Southeastern Conference) surpassed the 15-game streak they had from February 1915 to January 1917 and are off to their best start in conference play since also going 8-0 in 1981-82.
Tennessee was clinging to a two-point lead midway through the second half before a 5-0 run, capped by a three-pointer from Jordan Bowden, made it 70-63. Those five points were the start of a 10-3 spurt, with a three from Lamonte Turner that extended the lead to 75-66 with 8 1/2 minutes to go. Williams added a dunk in that stretch and had a big defensive play with a block on TJ Starks.
Wendell Mitchell and Savion Flagg made three-pointers for A&M to power 6-3 run after that, but Tennessee scored the next seven points to stretch the lead to 85-72 with about 6 1/2 minutes remaining.
Mitchell finished with 18 points for Texas A&M (8-12, 1-7), which lost for the fifth time in the last six games.
“When they play that well you’ve got to do everything right and we didn’t do everything right,” Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy said.
Jordan Bone went 7 for 7 and finished with 18 points and 10 assists for Tennessee and Turner had 19 points and seven assists. Williams, the SEC’s leading scorer, had 10 rebounds and four assists.
No. 11 Kansas 79, No. 16 Texas Tech 63
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas coach Bill Self had been waiting most of this season for a moment to galvanize his team.
He may have gotten it during practice on Friday.
First, the Jayhawks lost starting guard Marcus Garrett to a sprained ankle, robbing them of their defensive stopper. Then, they learned that sophomore forward Silvio De Sousa would be ineligible for this season and next after the NCAA determined his guardian had accepted impermissible benefits.
With everything going against them, the No. 11 Jayhawks responded Saturday by throwing haymakers from the opening bell in their showdown with No. 16 Texas Tech. Dedric Lawson piled up 25 points and 10 rebounds, Devon Dotson added 20 points and Kansas cruised to a 79-63 victory over the Red Raiders.
Lagerald Vick added 13 points and Ochai Agbaji had 10 for the Jayhawks (17-5, 6-3 Big 12), who came into the showdown of Big 12 title contenders having lost two straight and three of four.
The Jayhawks roared to a 20-point halftime lead against the Red Raiders (17-5, 5-4), the league’s dominant defensive team, then weathered a shaky start to the second half before pulling away again.
No. 20 Iowa State 65, Texas 60
AMES, Iowa (AP) — For once, Marial Shayok couldn’t buy a basket.
But when the Cyclones absolutely had to have one go down, the Big 12’s leading scorer came through.
Talen Horton-Tucker scored 15 points, Shayok had 12 — including a crucial jumper with 25 seconds left — and No. 20 Iowa State held off Texas 65-60 on Saturday for its fifth win in six games.
Nick Weiler-Babb had 11 points and seven rebounds for the streaking Cyclones (17-5, 6-3 Big 12), who hit their last four field goals to avoid the upset.
Kerwin Roach finished with 19 points and Matt Coleman had 13 points and five assists for Texas (12-10, 4-5), which made a game of it late despite committing 13 turnovers and shooting just 26 percent on threes.
Baylor 90, TCU 64
WACO (AP) — Makai Mason got the ball right back from a teammate after passing it away, and hit a three-pointer. There was a blocked shot that led to another three, and then Baylor’s guard drew a charge that he immediately followed by making yet another long-range shot.
Mason made nine three-pointers, the most by a Big 12 player this season, and scored a career-high 40 points as the Bears stretched their winning streak to six games with a 90-64 victory over rival TCU on Saturday night.
“It was pretty fun. I was just kind of locked in and my teammates did a great job of finding me,” said Mason, who finished 14-of-20 shooting, including 9-of-12 on three-pointers. “I got some pretty easy looks just by some penetrations and kicks.”
Baylor’s first 16 points after halftime were scored by Mason, part of a longer incredible 7 1/2-minute stretch when he made his first eight shots after the break — six of them from beyond the arc.
“I wasn’t even looking at the three-point line, I was just looking at the basket,” he said. “It was just kind of one of those nights.”
The Bears (15-6, 6-2 Big 12) won their fifth consecutive Big 12 game. They remained in a tie for the conference lead with Kansas State after the Wildcats won at Oklahoma State earlier in the day.
JD Miller had 17 points for TCU (15-6, 3-5). Alex Robinson had 16 and Kouat Noi 15.
Cincinnati 73, SMU 68
CINCINNATI (AP) — Against their wishes, the Bearcats have gotten a lot of practice at pulling them out in the end.
Jarron Cumberland scored 24 points Saturday night, and Cincinnati let a 12-point lead slip away before rallying for a 73-68 victory over SMU.
Cumberland hit a three-pointer after SMU tied it late, helping the Bearcats (19-3, 8-1 American Athletic) pull out their seventh straight victory. The first two wins in that streak came in overtime, and this one came down to SMU (12-9, 4-5) missing a shot to tie in the closing seconds.
SMU’s Jimmy Whitt Jr. hit a three-pointer with 19 seconds left that cut it to 70-68. After Cincinnati’s Keith Williams made one of his two free throws, Jahmal McMurray was short on a three-point attempt to tie it with 4.3 seconds left. Cane Broome sealed it with a pair of free throws.
McMurray had 21 points for short-handed SMU , which has lost four of five.
Sam Houston State 94, Stephen F. Austin 72
HUNTSVILLE (AP) — Cameron Delaney had 18 points and Kai Mitchell 16 with 10 rebounds as Sam Houston State came out smoking to take a big halftime lead and coasted to a 94-72 victory over Stephen F. Austin on Saturday night to remain undefeated in Southland Conference play.
Sam Houston State (14-8, 9-0) which finished the nonconference schedule 5-8, has not lost in 2019. The Lumberjacks, preseason favorites, had beaten SHSU in 16 of their last 17 meetings. This was the largest margin of victory for SHSU over the Lumberjacks since 1979.
The Bearkats took a 58-34 lead into the break after shooting 69 percent (20-29) from the floor and nailing 6 of 8 from long range in the first half. They were also perfect at the line, going 12-12. SHSU finished shooting 51 percent (33-65) while making 12 of 26 from distance. The Bearkats also won the rebound battle 45-25.
Chad Bowie added 13 points and Josh Delaney chipped in 11 for the Bearkats.
Kevon Harris had 20 and Shannon Bogues 19 points for SFA (11-9, 4-4) which saw its three-game win streak snapped.
Prairie View A&M 81, Alabama A&M 65
PRAIRIE VIEW (AP) — Devonte Patterson scored a season-high 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Prairie View A&M rolled to an 81-65 win over Alabama A&M on Saturday night.
Antione Lister added 18 points and six rebounds for the Panthers (10-11, 9-0 Southwestern Athletic Conference), who have won nine in a row. Gerard Andrus had 16 points and five rebounds and Dennis Jones had 13 points and nine assists.
The Panthers trailed early in the first half but a 10-0 run midway through capped by back-to-back three-pointers by Jones and Lister gave them a 20-18 edge, and they stretched it to 36-28 at the break.
Alabama A&M closed to 55-51 early in the second half, but a Patterson dunk sparked a 9-0 run that pushed the Panthers’ lead to 64-51 with 8:50 to play. They led by double figures the rest of the way.
Tre Todd scored 15 points to lead the Bulldogs (4-18, 3-5). Evan Wiley added 13 points.
WOMEN
No. 1 Baylor 96, Texas Tech 37
WACO (AP) — Kalani Brown and Moon Ursin set the tone early for Baylor in its first home game in nearly six years as the No. 1 team. The five freshmen for the Lady Bears showed late how they are improving for coach Kim Mulkey.
Brown dominated inside with 23 points on nine layups, adding free throws on five of those after being fouled, and Ursin scored 12 points while holding down the nation’s top-scoring freshman as the Lady Bears won their 32nd consecutive Big 12 game, 96-37 over Texas Tech on Saturday.
“It’s just fun as a coach when you can watch everybody play, and everybody does something good,” Mulkey said.
Baylor was up 46 points when Brown, the 6-foot-7 senior center, and 6-4 junior post Lauren Cox exited the game for good with 3 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter. Freshmen basically finished the game, extending the margin to what ended up being the biggest ever in a Big 12 game for the Lady Bears (19-1, 9-0 Big 12).
Four weeks ago at Texas Tech (10-11, 1-9), Baylor had a 31-point lead before the posts went to the bench and the freshmen filled the floor. The Lady Bears won that game by 17 points.
No. 12 Texas 76, Oklahoma 67
AUSTIN (AP) — Jatarie White scored 17 points, Joyner Holmes added 14 with 10 rebounds, and No. 12 Texas led the whole way in a 76-67 win over Oklahoma on Saturday.
Danni Williams added 13 points and Sug Sutton 10 with seven rebounds, six assists and four steals for the Longhorns (18-4, 8-2 Big 12 Conference).
Texas scored the first four points of the game and a 7-0 spurt put the Longhorns on top 18-6 at the 3:24 mark of the first quarter. The lead got to 18 in the second quarter, which ended with Texas up 42-30.
A 12-4 run with Madi Williams scoring the first nine helped the Sooners remain close and her free throw late in the third quarter made it an eight-point game. Texas was only 3 of 8 from the foul line in the fourth quarter, which helped the Sooners cut the deficit to single figures with less than two minutes to go.
Ana Llanusa had 17 points and Williams 16 for Oklahoma (5-15, 1-8), which lost its eighth straight, including 73-63 at Texas.