MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Jermaine Haley had 15 points and nine rebounds, Miles McBride scored 15 points and No. 14 West Virginia broke open a close game with a huge run early in the second half to beat cold-shooting Missouri 74-51 in the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Saturday.
West Virginia’s Bob Huggins earned his 876th win to tie Adolph Rupp for seventh place on the NCAA Division I coaching list.
Oscar Tshiebwe added 14 pounds and eight rebounds, Gabe Osabuohien grabbed 12 rebounds and Derek Culver had 11 rebounds for the Mountaineers (16-3).
Torrence Watson scored 19 points to lead Missouri (9-10).
With Missouri’s Jeremiah Tillman missing his sixth straight game because of a stress fracture in his left foot, the Tigers had no answer for the Mountaineers’ inside game and were outrebounded 50-30.
West Virginia used its rebounding dominance and several Missouri turnovers to pull away.
Haley scored six points during a 20-0 run that started just after halftime. McBride’s 3-pointer capped the big rally for a 47-25 lead with 12:28 remaining.
Missouri missed 18 of its first 20 shots of the game to fall behind 20-6, but the Tigers’ speed started causing problems for the bigger Mountaineers. Missouri got numerous baskets in its transition offense to close the half on a 17-4 run and trailed 24-23 at halftime.
BIG PICTURE
Missouri: Leading scorer Dru Smith had five turnovers and was held to two points, 10 under his scoring average. He missed both of his field-goal attempts.
West Virginia: The Mountaineers entered the game third in the nation in field-goal defense at 36.2% and held Missouri to 28% (15 of 53) shooting.
Auburn 80 Iowa State 76
Isaac Okoro scored 19 points, Samir Doughty had 18 and No. 16 Auburn held off Iowa State 80-76 in the opening game of the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Saturday.
Okoro had 10 straight points to help the Tigers (17-2) take a 76-62 lead with under six minutes to play. The Cyclones (9-10) responded with 10 points in a row.
Okoro, a true freshman, hit two foul shots with nine seconds left to seal it.
Rasir Bolton led the Cyclones with 23 points and Tyrese Haliburton, the team’s leading scorer going into the game, added 12.
Auburn made nine 3-pointers in the first half, with Danjel Purifoy hitting shortly before the buzzer, in taking a 42-31 lead. The Tigers finished 10 of 28 from behind the arc.
BIG PICTURE
Iowa State: The Cyclones led the Big 12 in field goal percentage entering the day but were held to 36% from the field and only made 7 of 27 from beyond the arc.
Auburn: This was the Tigers’ first win in the Big 12/SEC Challenge since a victory over TCU two years ago.
Oklahoma 63, Mississippi State 62
OKLAHOMA CITY — Brady Manek scored 18 points, and Oklahoma defeated Mississippi State 63-62 in the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Saturday.
Alondes Williams added a career-high 13 points for the Sooners (13-6) in a game played at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Robert Woodard II scored 15 points and Tyson Carter added 14 for Mississippi State (12-7). Season scoring leader Reggie Perry scored just seven points and played just 21 minutes because of foul trouble.
Mississippi State had a chance to win at the end. With the Bulldogs trailing by a point, Woodard missed a jumper from near the free-throw line and the Bulldogs couldn’t get another shot off.
Perry was called for a technical foul and picked up his third personal with 12:47 left in the first half. Oklahoma took advantage for a while and led by 15 before Mississippi State rallied with Perry on the bench. The Sooners held on to lead 38-30 at the break.
Mississippi State dominated the early part of the second half, and Perry banked in a 3-pointer that tied the game at 38.
Williams responded with a 3-pointer, then a breakaway dunk. An alley-oop dunk by Kur Kuath on a lob by Jamal Bieniemy put the Sooners up by seven.
Mississippi State rallied, and a layup by D.J. Stewart put the Bulldogs up 58-57 with 4:06 to play.
Oklahoma bounced back again. A reverse layup by Manek put the Sooners up 63-59 with just over two minutes to play. Carter made a 3-pointer with 1:10 to go, but those were the Bulldogs’ last points.
BIG PICTURE
Mississippi State: A missed opportunity for the Bulldogs to build momentum. Mississippi entered the game on a three-game win streak.
Oklahoma: The Sooners got a solid non-conference win that could be important come Selection Sunday.
Kansas 74, Tennessee 68
LAWRENCE, Kan. — Devon Dotson scored 22 points, Udoka Azubuike added 18 and No. 3 Kansas beat Tennessee 74-68 Saturday in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.
Azubuike was the lone big man for the Jayhawks (16-3) after Silvio De Sousa was suspended 12 games and David McCormack banned five for their roles in a brawl Tuesday against Kansas State.
After Azubuike went to the bench with two fouls early, Yves Pons hit consecutive 3-pointers to put the Volunteers (12-7) on a 14-2 run for a 20-13 lead. Kansas answered when Azubuike checked back in, stringing together a 12-0 run en route to a 37-30 lead at halftime.
Azubuike finished with 11 rebounds and four blocks.
Pons led the Volunteers with 24 points, and Jordan Bowden came alive early in the second half, knocking down three 3-pointers and finishing with 19 points after a scoreless first half.
Tennessee pulled within three late in the second half, but Azubuike had a block and hit four free throws late to keep the Volunteers in check.
BIG PICTURE: Kansas: The pressure will stay on Azubuike, whose early foul trouble stalled Kansas’ offense and allowed for a substantial Volunteer run.
Tennessee: Only three Volunteers — Pons, Santiago Vescovi and John Fulkerson — scored in the first half, and Tennessee turned the ball over 15 times. Despite the offensive struggles, the Volunteers were able to stay within arms’ length.
Alabama 77, Kansas State 74
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama point guard Kira Lewis Jr. played for Kansas State coach Bruce Weber last summer in Greece on the gold medal-winning USA U19 team. On Saturday, Weber’s team was on the receiving end of a Lewis scoring outburst.
Lewis scored 26 points and Alabama earned another win for the SEC in the SEC/Big 12 challenge, beating Kansas State.
A 14-0 Alabama run in the second half extended the lead to 16 for the Crimson Tide, but the Wildcats responded with a 15-2 run that eventually cut the deficit to one.
Lewis made back-to-back baskets on the next two Alabama possessions, and Alabama never relinquished the lead.
The Crimson Tide was in unfamiliar territory in the first half after their recent success during a three-game winning streak.
During the win streak, the Crimson Tide only trailed for a total of 3:49 overall. Kansas State scored on the first possession of the game and led for more than 15 minutes in the first half.
Alabama had a mini 6-0 run to take their first lead at 31-30, but the Wildcats took a 37-36 lead into halftime.
Kansas State controlled the boards throughout the game and finished with 22 offensive rebounds compared to three for the Crimson Tide.
Kentucky 76, Texas Tech 74
LUBBOCK, Texas — Nick Richards scored seven of his 25 points in overtime, including the game-deciding free throws with 10 seconds left, and No. 15 Kentucky beat No. 18 Texas Tech 76-74 in the only Big 12/SEC Challenge game Saturday featuring two ranked teams.
Richards scored the first five points in overtime for the Wildcats (15-4), who blew a 10-point lead in second half and went the final six minutes of regulation without a field goal. His last two free throws came after he fouled when Terrence Shannon missed on awkward shot when defended by EJ Montgomery.
Texas Tech (12-7), which had won 54 consecutive non-conference home games since December 2013, had one last possession. But Davide Moretti was stripped by Ashton Hagans when starting a drive in the lane.
Immanuel Quickley had 21 points for the Wildcats, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from halfcourt that put them up 36-34 at halftime.
Kyler Edards had 18 points for the Red Raiders, while Moretti had 15 and Shannon 12.
Eight-time national champion Kentucky never trailed again after five points in the final five seconds of the first half. Tyrese Maxey made a contested one-handed floater before Chris Clarke’s deep inbound pass went out of bounds with 1.6 seconds left. Montgomery then inbounded to Quickley, who took one dribble and let go of the shot from the half-court line.
But the Red Raiders, who made it to their first national championship game last year, tied the game with their opening shot of the second half. Moretti twice tied the game late in regulation with free throws, though the 92% shooter missed the first of two from the line with 18 seconds left.
Texas Tech missed another potential go-ahead free throw in overtime after Kevin McCullar was fouled when making a layup that made it 74-all with 31 seconds left in overtime.
BIG PICTURE
Kentucky: The Wildcats held on for an impressive road win in a raucous sold-out arena. While they blew the 10-point lead, they still improved to 257-7 when taking a lead of at least 10 points in a game in coach John Calipari’s 11 seasons.
Texas Tech: The Red Raiders hadn’t lost a non-conference game at home since LSU, another SEC team, won there Dec. 18, 2013. They had been 34-0 in four seasons under coach Chris Beard. Their 54-game non-conference home winning streak was second to Butler’s 58 in a row.
Mississippi 70, Georgia 60
ATHENS, Ga. — Breein Tyree scored 20 points and helped Ole Miss end its six-game losing streak with a win over Georgia.
Tyree recorded his tenth game of 20-plus points and made a series of big plays late in the second half. He converted a three-point play and drove between two Georgia defenders for an uncontested fast-break layup to give the Rebels a 61-53 lead with 4:06 left.
Tyree was 8-for-15 from the field, one of them a 3-pointer, with four rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Ole Miss (10-9, 1-5 SEC) also got 16 points from Khadim Sy and 14 points from K.J. Buffen.
Georgia (11-8, 1-5 SEC) was led by Jordan Harris with 15 points and a season-high eight rebounds. Anthony Edwards scored 13, but was just 3-for-12 from the field, and Sahvir Wheeler scored 11 points.
Ole Miss shot 52% from the field and created 16 turnovers, which led to 20 points. Georgia shot only 31% from the floor.
Ole Miss surged to a 10-point lead when Blake Hinson scored from the paint with 4:46 left in the first half to give the Rebels a 32-22 lead. But Georgia got back in the game with a 7-0 run, five of those points coming from Harris, but failed to score in the final 2:52. Ole Miss led 35-29 at halftime.
Ole Miss scored the first five points of the second half to take an 11-point lead, but didn’t make another basket until 10:10 remaining. During that interim the Bulldogs outscored the Rebels 14-2 and took a 43-42 lead when Edwards hit a 3-pointer with 12:31 remaining.
The lead didn’t last long. Ole Miss regained the lead when Buffen made a pair of free throws 27 seconds later and the Rebels never trailed again.
