He didn’t like the 16 turnovers, which led to 23 points off turnovers for the Hurricanes, a number the Ute coach said he’s never heard of, nor the fact that they were outrebounded by nine and gave up 53.4 percent shooting.
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Kentucky held the Raiders (1-3) to 36 percent shooting and outrebounded them 37-27. He finished the evening with 32 points to along with 11 rebounds.
Grant Benzinger, the son of former major leaguer Todd Benzinger, had 19 points for Wright State. The Bulldogs’ leading scorer missed his first six shots of the game and didn’t make a basket for almost 14 minutes. Guys like Charles Buggs and (Joey) King, kids we recruited, we know a lot of people up there.
The championship game kicks off Sunday night at 7:30 ET on ESPN 2, and can be heard on 1070 AM or 93.5 FM. A 3-pointer by Ready had the lead trimmed to 59-58 with 8:58 left.
It was 61-58 before Rider’s Kahlil Thomas misfired on the front end of a 1-and-1. After starting the first two games, the 6-foot-11 Stone came off the bench to go 6-for-7 from the floor with five rebounds. The Hurricanes are 7-0 ATS in their last 7 non-conference games and 7-0 ATS in their last 7 games overall.
Utah: Faces Temple on Sunday in the third-place game. The Owls leave the Puerto Rico Tip-Off Tournament 1-2, although their record easily could have been the other way around. It took nearly 10 minutes for anyone besides the center to hit a field goal, and nearly 12 minutes before the Utes hit a 3-pointer.
The Butler Bulldogs rank 51st in offensive rebounds. I thought we let them loose for a few critical offensive rebounds in the first half that sort of got them where they needed to be.
Kris Jenkins had 17 points, and Phil Booth had 16 points – both career highs. This stat makes it all the more impressive that Temple only lost by six points.
Denzel Valentine, the star Tuesday night in the Spartans’ upset victory over Kansas, had 11 assists for the Spartans (3-0). Matt Costello added 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Spartans.
A personal 8-0 run by Missouri State’s Camyn Boone sparked a second-half rally by the Bears here Friday in the consolation round of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off, but Minnesota made four big free throws in crunch time to hang on for a 74-69 win.
Minnesota: The Gophers made 14 of their first 21 shots but finished at 45 percent for the game.
NO. 20 BAYLOR 77, JACKSON STATE 60: Al Freeman scored 20 points and Baylor overcame a slow start to beat Jackson State.
Five different Red Raiders reached double figures in the contest. Rico Gathers had 12 points and 16 rebounds.
The win came on the heels of the Red Raiders ending their 18-game neutral/road losing streak with a losers-bracket win over Mississippi State. Boone scored again with 79 seconds left to get MSU within 70-66. Lewis helped seal the game by hitting all eight of his free throws. Effective shooting from more than Jordan Loveridge will certainly help, but it’s about limiting turnovers and playing an aggressive style of defense that will help negate opposing teams’ depth.
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Troyce Manassa led Savannah State (3-1) with 15 points, and Chris Martin and Lenjo Kilo each had 11.
