No. 3 Kansas’ victory over Kansas State ends in wild brawl
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Third-ranked Kansas and Kansas State ended their bitter showdown Tuesday night with a wild melee behind the basket that included punches, shoving and at least one player picking up a stool, moments after the Jayhawks tried to dribble out the time on their 81-60 victory.
Silvio De Sousa was stripped by the Wildcats‘ DaJuan Gordon near midcourt and Gordon tried to go in for a layup. The Jayhawks’ big man recovered and blocked his shot, sending Gordon to the floor, then stood over him barking. That triggered benches to empty and punches to be thrown in what amounted to a rugby scrum. At one point, De Souza picked up a stool and held it above his head before assistant coach Jerrance Howard grabbed it from him.
It took both coaching staffs and security to separate the teams. Then, adding to the bizarre finish, both teams were summoned back from the locker rooms by officials and one-tenth of a second was put on the clock. Kansas State shot technical free throws to booing from a few thousand fans left — necessitating a change to the final score.
Christian Braun scored a career-high 20 points, Devon Dotson added 18 and Udoka Azubuike finished with 10 points and 14 rebounds for Kansas (15-3, 5-1 Big 12), which beat the Wildcats for the 14th straight time at Allen Fieldhouse.
Xavier Sneed had 16 points and David Sloan had 14 for the Wildcats (8-10, 1-5).
NO. 9 VILLANOVA 76, NO. 13 BUTLER 61
VILLANOVA, Pa. (AP) — Saddiq Bey hit four 3-pointers and scored 14 points and Jermaine Samuels had 20 points to lead Villanova past Butler.
The Wildcats (15-3, 5-1 Big East) methodically pulled away in the second half in a game in which neither team shot particularly well.
The Wildcats have won five straight and 11 of 12. They improved to 27-1 in Big East games at the Pavilion since 2013.
Kamar Baldwin led the fading Bulldogs (15-4, 3-3) with 21 points. Butler missed 15 of 20 3-pointers.
NO. 15 KENTUCKY 89, GEORGIA 79
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Ashton Hagans scored 14 of his 23 points in the second half and Kentucky used a 14-4 run to pull away and beat Georgia.
The Wildcats (14-4, 5-1 Southeastern Conference) had to work to put away the stubborn Bulldogs, who trailed 41-35 at halftime.
Nick Richards had 20 points and eight rebounds for the Wildcats, who shot 54% in the second half and 53% overall.
Rayshaun Hammonds and Anthony Edwards each scored 16 points for Georgia (11-7, 1-4), which lost for the fourth time in five games.
NO. 17 MARYLAND 77, NORTHWESTERN 66
EVANSTON, Ill. (AP) — Jalen Smith scored a career-high 25 points and Maryland rallied to beat Northwestern.
The Terrapins trailed by as much as 15 in the first half and were down 10 in the second when they went on a 15-2 run.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Aaron Wiggins and Anthony Cowan Jr. gave Maryland (15-4, 5-3 Big Ten) its first lead of the game at 56-55 with 9:10 remaining. The Terps won their second straight after back-to-back losses.
Pat Spencer led Northwestern (6-12, 1-7) with 17 points. Miller Kopp scored 16.
TCU 65, NO. 18 TEXAS TECH 54
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Desmond Bane scored 27 points, Kevin Samuel had 11 points and 11 rebounds and TCU returned home after a miserable week on the road to upset Texas Tech.
The Horned Frogs (13-5, 4-2 Big 12) pushed ahead to stay with a 13-2 run to start the second half.
Jahmi’us Ramsey had 15 points for Texas Tech (12-6, 3-3), which lost for the first time in its seven meetings as a ranked team against TCU. Terrence Shannon and TJ Holyfield each had 10 points.
TCU, a 2 1/2-point underdog, has won 14 of its last 19 conference home games, but was coming off losses of 32 points at No. 14 West Virginia and 20 at Oklahoma last week.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Kofi Cockburn finished with 22 points and 15 rebounds, Trent Frazier added 21 points and Illinois pulled away in the second half to beat Purdue.
The Fighting Illini (14-5, 6-2 Big Ten) have won five straight league games for the first time in nearly seven years and are off to their best conference start since 2005-06. They also swept the Boilermakers for the first time since 2008-09.
Nojel Eastern had 14 points and Trevion Williams scored 12 to lead Purdue (10-9, 4-4). The Boilermakers have lost four of five and had a 15-game winning streak in conference home games end.
