College basketball scores, winners & losers: Duke gains control after big win, Texas continues to slip

Unquestionably, No. five Louisville headlined the losers in university basketball on Saturday with a measly fourteen-position initially-half effort and hard work in a 77-62 loss at Clemson. It was the Cardinals’ 2nd straight Quadrant 2 loss, and it remaining No. 7 Duke on your own atop the ACC standings as the Blue Devils throttled Notre Dame ninety four-60.

But the Cardinals’ distress featured a great deal of firm at the bottom of the top rated 25, where No. 25 LSU, No. 24 Texas Tech, No. 22 Illinois, No. twenty Houston and No. 19 Butler all shed. Louisville may obtain itself somewhere in that array when the new polls appear out Monday as yet one more weekend of university basketball chaos swept the place.

It was a day of buzzer-beaters and bubble battles, near calls and collapses. And, in some scenarios, a one game brought all the over. Searching at you, Mississippi Condition and Arkansas.

Elsewhere, Baylor and Kansas ongoing to display their supremacy in the Big twelve, with the Bears throttling No. fourteen West Virginia and Kansas managing Oklahoma with relative ease. If Texas Tech held any hopes of catching up, people died in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in a loss to Oklahoma Condition.

And in the SEC, Kentucky emerged as a winner, irrespective of finding a check from Ole Overlook. The Wildcats held on for a sixty seven-62 victory and ascended to sole possession of initially spot in the league, thanks to losses by LSU and No. eleven Auburn.

Here is a style of the rest of the motion from all around the place as we recap the day with winners and losers.

Winner: Duke’s likelihood at an ACC title

Duke is arguably the most significant benefactor of Louisville’s misfortune, as the Blue Devils (22-3, twelve-2 ACC) are now a game forward of the Cardinals (21-five, twelve-3) in the conference race. Louisville holds the tiebreaker by virtue of its head-to-head victory on Jan. eighteen, but Duke is probable to be favored in its remaining 6 common-year game titles. The Blue Devils don’t perform Louisville or Florida Condition yet again, and enter the remaining stretch of ACC perform on a seven-game profitable streak. The absence of third-major scorer Cassius Stanley, who skipped the game with an eye personal injury, was scarcely recognizable Saturday as Duke rolled to a ninety four-60 earn in excess of the Preventing Irish.

Winner: Florida State’s depth

Exterior of Louisville, Florida Condition is the only group with a practical shot at catching Duke in the ACC standings. The Seminoles flashed their depth yet again Saturday when they played with out major scorer Devin Vassell and conquer Syracuse eighty-77. The check became even more genuine for the No. 8 Seminoles (21-four, eleven-3 ACC) when third-major scorer M.J. Walker took an elbow to the encounter in the initially half and was constrained to just eighteen minutes. But mentor Leonard Hamilton’s squad however went ten deep and out-rebounded the Orange forty seven-29. Hamilton declined to say why Vassell did not perform, but Walker however managed to rating sixteen points, even in his constrained motion.

Winner: Marcus Garrett

Kansas senior Marcus Garrett entered Saturday’s game against Oklahoma with 5 3-position can make in Big twelve perform. He strike a profession-high 6 against the Sooners and concluded with one more profession-high 24 points in an 87-70 Jayhawks victory.

“If Marcus can make 6 3s (every game), we would be really hard to deal with,” Kansas mentor Bill Self reported. “But he essential to, due to the fact it was a night time we skipped a ton shots we normally make in restricted, especially in the initially half.”

Talking of Self, the Kansas mentor been given his initially technological foul of the year when he ran down the sideline and bumped an formal while protesting an out-of-bounds simply call with the Jayhawks major by sixteen late in the game.

Loser: Texas 

Iowa State’s Hilton Coliseum is a notoriously complicated spot to perform, but the Cylcones have been significantly from imposing there — or any place — this year. A game against Texas remedied that Saturday. The Longhorns shot 29.3 % and shed 81-52. It was just two weeks back that Shaka Smart’s squad appeared to be trending up with a file of fourteen-7 (four-four Big twelve). Now the Longhorns have dropped 4 straight and seem destined to miss out on the NCAA Event for the third time in Smart’s 5 seasons as mentor.

Winner: The Buckeyes are back 

No, definitely. You can belief them this time. The Ohio Condition group which rose to No. 2 in December, only to obtain itself unranked 4 weeks afterwards, is locating its groove yet again. The Buckeyes enhanced to .five hundred in Big 10 perform for the initially time given that December with a 68-52 victory in excess of Purdue. It was their fifth earn in their previous 6 game titles and their best defensive outing yet in conference perform. That stretch of 6 losses in seven game titles a handful of weeks back? Just pretend it under no circumstances took place

Loser: South Florida starts off sluggish

South Florida scored eleven points in the initially half. You may be shocked to master that was a year-low for the Bulls, who rallied to rating 37 in the 2nd half of a 56-forty eight dwelling loss to Tulsa. USF (eleven-fourteen, four-8 AAC) turned the ball in excess of thirteen instances in the initially half and made just five of 17 shots as it fell driving by fourteen points getting into the split. It was the fourth time Frank Haith’s Tulsa squad (17-8, nine-3) has held a conference opponent underneath 50 points this year.

Winner: Georgetown’s skeleton crew

Two bench gamers put together for just fifteen minutes as three Georgetown starters played all forty minutes in a 73-sixty six earn at Butler that was large for the Hoyas’ NCAA Event hopes. It’s been a year of adversity for mentor Patrick Ewing’s squad, and Saturday’s game embodied it. A roster currently depleted by three early-year departures was with out both equally of its top rated two scorers as Mac McClung and Omer Yurtseven skipped the game thanks to personal injury. But senior guard Terrell Allen matched his profession high with 22 as the Hoyas (fifteen-ten, five-7 Big East) claimed their fifth Quadrant 1 victory of the year.

Loser: Arkansas’ Cinderella season 

An Arkansas group predicted by media to end 10th in the SEC is abruptly seeking the section with out sophomore guard Isaiah Joe, who continues to be out indefinitely pursuing knee surgical procedure. The Razorbacks dropped their fourth straight game — a streak spanning the length of Joe’s absence — Saturday in an NCAA Event bubble battle with Mississippi Condition. The loss came in crushing vogue as Mississippi State’s Abdul Ado tipped in a miss out on with .6 seconds remaining to support the Bulldogs escape Bud Walton Arena with a 78-77 earn. Now sixteen-nine (four-8 SEC), the Razorbacks will want to end with a flurry to land on the suitable aspect of the bubble appear Collection Sunday.