Utah sustained its first loss of the season Friday, losing to Miami 90-66 in the semifinal round of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Tournament.
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The Gophers had three plays in the second half in which a player caught the ball on the wing and immediately was whistled for stepping on the sideline.
But Holtmann had cautioned afterward that those two scoring outbursts represented only “a really small sample size”. “I think we’ll know more at the end of this week”.
Butler shot 60 percent and made 8 of 17 3-pointers, yet committed just eight turnovers in a clean offensive performance. Missouri State was able to draw 22 fouls on the Gophers and it resulted in a plentiful day at the free-throw line, where they went 26-for-37. “We responded to certainly getting popped there early and we responded in the right way”.
Rodriguez scored 11 points in his return to his hometown of San Juan.
“They’re an offensive machine at this point”, Missouri State coach Paul Lusk said of Butler in a release. “Go back to your fundamentals and they’ll carry you”. Senior Quenton DeCosey scored 12 points and cracked the 1,000-point mark for his career.
“When we’re out there, we just execute what (our coaches) want us to do”, said senior swingman Roosevelt Jones, who is averaging 12.0 points and a team-high 10.7 rebounds.
Gavin Ware and Craig Sword each scored 20 points for Mississippi State, which got no closer than 18 points after halftime in an ugly follow-up to Monday’s home loss to Southern.
York was one of four guards to finish the game in double figures Thursday night, but it could be argued that the most important of those contributions (with an eye towards the future) came from Jackson-Cartwright and Allen. The Bulldogs also have 50 assists against 19 turnovers, a ratio of 2.6-to-1 on the season.
Lewis had to spend all of last season after transferring from North Carolina State, and he is making up for lost time. Utah’s bench produced only seven points Thursday on 2-of-10 shooting.3.
He said Holtmann has challenged him to have as many assists as turnovers (he had 31 and 51, respectively, last season.) Dunham’s 5-to-0 ratio far exceeded that. “It’s unbelievable to play with him on the court”.
Temple shot just nine free throws to Butler’s 25, and the Bulldogs had a 13-point advantage at the foul line…
(Puerto Rico) The Owls exploded in the first half of the first half.
“We did a very good job obviously early in the game”, Owls coach Fran Dunphy said.
Butler advanced to play Temple in the second round Friday.
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Bond, who had a quiet opener against UNC with two points on 1-for-8 shooting, had a solid effort inside to help Temple advance in the winner’s bracket and sent Minnesota to the consolation rounds.
