Basketball <\/p>\n
Men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball \u2013 there’s no shortage of college ball, every night.<\/p>\n
Don’t worry, we’re here to help you figure out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in college basketball.<\/p>\n
It’s not even a negative at this point, rather a rite of passage or fact of life that you will eventually go into Williams Arena and get upset by the Minnesota Golden Gophers<\/a>. You can’t really call yourself a Big Ten<\/a> basketball coach if you don’t get trapped by the epitome of all trap games.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last season, Oregon<\/a> learned that fate on its first trip to St. Paul since joining the conference. The Ducks were ranked 15th in the nation at that point, and yet the Golden Gophers stunned them. This season, Minnesota did the same to No. 22 Indiana<\/a> in first-year head coach Darian DeVries’ introduction to the Golden Gophers. On top of that, it was Minnesota\u2019s first win over Indiana since 2019, and it was a team-wide effort.<\/p>\n Every Minnesota starter scored at least 11 points, and all but one played at least 37 minutes. Junior forward Bobby Durkin<\/a> had the fewest rebounds among the starters, with 4; senior guard Cade Tyson<\/a> led both Minnesota and the game as a whole with 8. Tyson also had a team-high 17 points, tied with senior guard Langston Reynolds<\/a>, who had 5 boards, 3 assists and a steal of his own.<\/p>\n Compare that to the Hoosiers, who had to lean on a bench that, with one exception in senior forward Sam Alexis (10 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists in 19 minutes) didn\u2019t provide much help for the starters who needed it. Taylor Conerway had a game-high 18 points, but played just 23 minutes: the Hoosiers needed more of him on a night where they shot just 30% from beyond the arc, but couldn\u2019t get it, and that\u2019s how Minnesota ended up winning 73-64.<\/p>\n Indiana has two basketball teams, you know, and while the men\u2019s suffered an upset loss in Minnesota, the women\u2019s edition of the Hoosiers dispatched of Western Michigan<\/a>, 71-53. While not ranked in the poll, Indiana is currently 51st in the nation by the NCAA Evaluation Tool, or NET, that helps determine which teams are selected for March Madness. They\u2019re a pretty good team, is the thing, and now 8-1, to boot.\u00a0<\/p>\n Senior guard Shay Ciezki<\/a> was once again at the center of the win, putting up a game-high 26 points in 36 minutes on 12-for-17 shooting \u2014 she also had 2 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals. It\u2019s been quite the breakout season for her so far, as she has never averaged more than 11.8 points per game either at Penn State<\/a> or Indiana, and she\u2019s now leading the Big Ten at 24.4, owing to scoring between 22 and 38 in seven of her nine games thus far. And even in the two sub-20 scoring performances, Chiezki still outscored her previous career-best average.<\/p>\n Well, at least Indiana doesn\u2019t have to feel lonely here, as No. 6 Louisville<\/a> also suffered an upset. No. 25 Arkansas<\/a> will surely be moving up in the rankings next week after defeating Louisville, 89-80, and they did it thanks to a strong performance from their bench combined with an abysmal night from three for the Cardinals.<\/p>\n The Razorbacks had three bench players enter the game for a combined 70 minutes, and they scored 10, 12 and 17 points while pulling down a total of 18 rebounds. Freshman guard Meleek Thomas led the way with 17 points \u2014 tied for the second-most of anyone on Arkansas, behind senior forward Trevon Brazile and his 21 on 8-for-11 shooting \u2014 while Louisville got no such help from their own bench.<\/p>\n Now, the Cardinals starters had a better night than the Razorbacks did, but their bench just didn\u2019t provide anywhere near what was needed to keep pace with Arkansas \u2014 especially not on a night where the team shot 8-for-37 from three, committed 10 more fouls and were outrebounded 46-36.<\/p>\n No. 9 Oklahoma<\/a> took on NC State, and it took two overtimes \u2014 and 33 points from freshman guard Aaliyah Chavez<\/a> \u2014 for them to avoid the upset. It might look bad on the surface for Oklahoma to have let NC State hang around this long, but two things were happening here: the Sooners came back to win, as they were at one point down by 10, and NC State isn\u2019t ranked but they are a really good basketball team, currently 39th in NET.<\/p>\n This is one of those games where NC State obviously would have wanted the win, but they came out looking great for hanging with the ninth-ranked team in the nation to this degree. It helps when you have your own star performance to guide you, of course. Khamil Pierre<\/a> has been\u00a0pulling rebounds down like wild<\/u><\/a> this season, and even set a new career-high with 21 in a game on Nov. 27. NC State\u2019s junior forward nearly matched that figure on Wednesday, as she led all of D-I with 20 rebounds, on top of scoring 19 points with 2 assists and a steal and block each. That was Pierre\u2019s second 20-rebound game of the season in nine games, and her sixth double-double \u2014 she also\u00a0just\u00a0<\/i>missed double-doubles in two of the other three games. She\u2019s on one.<\/p>\n Pierre now leads all of Division I in rebounds per game, at 13.6, pulling ahead of Texas-Rio Grande Valley\u2019s Charlotte O\u2019Keefe and UTEP\u2019s Mary Moses Amaniyo with Wednesday\u2019s performance. A dub would have made it that much better of a night, but the Wolfpack is a lot better team than their 5-4 record suggests, especially with Pierre playing like this.<\/p>\n Down by 23 points in the second quarter, things weren\u2019t looking great for Troy<\/a> against Longwood<\/a>. They started closing that gap before halftime, though, cutting the deficit to 15, and then erupted for a 50-point second half. The long ball wasn\u2019t working for the Trojans \u2014 they were 6-for-25 \u2014 so they adjusted midgame and ended up scoring\u00a058 points<\/i> in the paint. Which they were able to do because they pulled down 50 rebounds, including 23 offensive boards.\u00a0<\/p>\n Senior forwards led the way, with Fortuna Ngnawo<\/a> logging a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds in 22 minutes, while Zay Dyer<\/a> scored 8 but pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds. All the rest of the starters scored between 10 and 16 points, and while the bench didn\u2019t add much in the way of points, they did collectively grab 15 rebounds in their 66 minutes of subbing \u2014 Troy is 10th in D-I in rebounds per game, at 47.7 per game, and that skill is what allowed them to get back into this game and then secure the W.<\/p>\n Wake Forest<\/a> entered play on Wednesday at 9-0 to take on 2-4 William & Mary. Nothing went the way that Wake Forest expected once that first whistle blew. The Tribe and Demon Deacons were tied up 14-14 after the first quarter, but instead of it being Wake Forest pulling away in the second, it was William & Mary: the Tribe exploded for 28 second-quarter points while holding the Deacons to 9, and eventually extended their lead to 25 points. While William & Mary were clearly outplayed from that point forward, Wake Forest had a second opponent to contend with: the clock.<\/p>\n Wake Forest outscored William & Mary 20-13 in the third quarter, and 21-12 in the second. They brought it to within 2 points, 66-64, on the first 3-pointer of the season for freshman guard Caitlyn Jones<\/a>, whose 14 points off of the bench were a huge part of why Wake Forest was able to get back in this thing in the first place. The problem is that there were just six seconds left on the clock by that point, and fouling to get the ball back made it 67-64 with four seconds to go.<\/p>\n A desperation three from Mary Carter<\/a> didn\u2019t land, and William & Mary ended up with their first-ever win over Wake Forest in six attempts.\u00a0<\/p>\n UCLA<\/a> and Washington<\/a> had one hell of a back-and-forth game that ended 82-80, but at multiple points within it seemed like anything that close wouldn\u2019t be the case. UCLA\u2019s largest lead of the game was 16, but Washington had their own 11-point lead at one point, too. UCLA shot 53% percent; Washington 52%. They both hit nine 3-pointers, and were separated by just 4 points in the paint. The difference, in the end, came down to turnovers: the Huskies turned it over 15 times against the Bruins\u2019 7, and UCLA capitalized to the tune of 20 points on them against Washington\u2019s 6.<\/p>\n Even with that, though, it still came down to one final play that went UCLA\u2019s way.<\/p>\n College basketball, baby.<\/p>\n No. 6 Michigan<\/a> and No. 7 Maryland<\/a> were both in action on Wednesday, and both handled it no problem. The Wolverines faced off against the Central Michigan Chippewas<\/a>, while the Terrapins took on Mount St. Mary\u2019s Mountaineers. Sophomore \u2014 it\u2019s always a sophomore with this team \u2014 Olivia Olson<\/a> had a game-high 21 points, but also grabbed 11 rebounds for the double-double. The guard added an assist and a steal, too, and while she had 5 turnovers, Central Michigan had far more of them and lost 82-40.<\/p>\n As for Maryland, they won 92-44 to move to 10-0 on the season. Just one starter \u2014 senior guard Yarden Garzon<\/a> \u2014 played for over 20 minutes, with the Terrapins using this game to get the bench some reps. Seven bench players picked up minutes, and combined for 108 of them total, with freshman forward Breanna Williams<\/a> the standout thanks to 12 points on 5-for-7 shooting, 7 rebounds and 3 assists in just 15 minutes.<\/p>\n Izzy Callaway<\/a>, a sophomore guard at Akron<\/a>, scored a Division I-high 36 points on Wednesday against Heidelberg. And saying it came out of nowhere would be an understatement: her two highest-scoring games of the season were her previous two, but with just 10 and 11 points total. On Wednesday, though, Callaway was 13-for-17 overall and 8-for-11 on threes, and the result was a career-high that\u2019s going to be tough to match even if she keeps on scoring from here on out.<\/p>\n Want great stories delivered right to your inbox?\u00a0<\/i>Create or log in to your FOX Sports account<\/u><\/i><\/a> and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!<\/i><\/p>\nBasketball Indiana\u2019s women won, though<\/h2>\n
Basketball Arkansas takes down Louisville<\/h2>\n
Basketball Oklahoma wins in double-OT, but Pierre is the star<\/h2>\n
Basketball Troy\u2019s massive comeback<\/h2>\n
Basketball Undefeated Wake Forest undefeated no more<\/h2>\n
Basketball UCLA survives Washington<\/h2>\n
Basketball Michigan and Maryland took care of business<\/h2>\n
Basketball A surprise scoring leader<\/h2>\n