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Texas and Big 12 Basketball Capsules: Acy helps No. 17 Baylor past La Salle
WACO (AP) — Quincy Acy grabbed his own rebound, took another shot and watched it fall through the hoop as he fell to the floor after being fouled hard.
Baylor’s dominating 6-foot-7 junior forward had earlier dunked over a defender an inch taller than him.
Acy had 25 points and 11 rebounds, providing plenty of highlights in the made-for-ESPN midweek afternoon game, and the 17th-ranked Bears overcame some sloppy moments to beat La Salle 74-64 on Tuesday.
"Quincy Acy is going to be one of my favorite players in college basketball this year. He’s everything coaches admire in a player," La Salle coach John Giannini said. "If there were an expansion draft, if every Division I team in the country could draft whoever they wanted, I’d be stunned if he wasn’t a high draft choice."
The second half began with Acy swatting 6-10 center Aaric Murray’s shot into the courtside band.
La Salle (1-1) maintained possession then and Ruben Guillandeaux hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 32. After Earl Pettis drew a charging foul from A.J. Walton for another Baylor turnover, Pettis passed inside to Jerrell Williams to put the Explorers in the lead — but that didn’t last long.
Anthony Jones then scored three consecutive baskets to ignite a 13-2 run, scoring on a layup, a goaltending call and then an easy lay-in on an ally-oop pass from Fred Ellis. The Bears (2-0) had stretched their lead to 45-36 when Acy drove through a small gap between defenders for a rim-rattling one-handed slam.
"He came in young, came in where he struggled to make multiple layups in drills," coach Scott Drew said of Acy. "The first year he was a great athlete, the second year he was a great athlete with a little more skill and now he’s in his third year, he’s pretty consistent from 15 to 17 feet, he can score one-one-one, he’s gotten better and better defensively."
Then came the rest of the statement from the coach that should worry Baylor opponents about Acy, who had 20 points and 12 rebounds in the opener last week.
"I think he’s definitely not reached his full potential," Drew said. "And I think he’ll continue to get better and better."
Anthony Jones had 14 points and seven rebounds while freshman sensational Perry Jones had 12 points and 11 rebounds in the game that started at 1 p.m. local time as part of ESPN’s Tip-Off marathon.
"They’re gigantic, and they’re active," Giannini said of Baylor’s three big men who led them in scoring.
Murray led La Salle with 17 points, while Williams had 15 and Guillandeaux had 11. Williams and Murray had nine rebounds each.
The Bears played their second of three games without suspended guard LaceDarius Dunn, who was arrested last month for a domestic dispute charge involving his girlfriend. The woman, the mother of Dunn’s 3-year-old son, has disputed police accounts, saying Dunn didn’t hit her and her jaw wasn’t broken. She has asked that all charges be dropped.
Baylor had 22 turnovers that led to 20 points by the Explorers. After 15 turnovers before halftime that led to 12 La Salle points, Baylor led only 32-29.
"Going into halftime, Coach Drew told us we needed to focus on turnovers, we were looking a little sloppy," Acy said. "He told us to work on being perfect everything we do. ... That was the agenda in the second half."
Still, Acy had a couple of sloppy plays in the second half. He was called for an intentional foul against Murray, then after rebounding a missed 3-pointer that gave the Bears the ball back, he was called for basket interference to wipe out a Baylor field goal.
But after Murray scored with about 8 minutes left to get La Salle back within a field goal, Acy had his eye-popping three-point play.
Acy grabbed the rebound and took a shot in traffic that he missed. But he got the ball right back and went up again and was fouled hard by Murray. Acy then made the free throw for a 54-49 lead.
"That was impressive," Perry Jones said. "I’m trying to be like him, trying to get all the rebounds, all the putback dunks I can."
The other highlight-worthy offensive rebound for Acy came in the first half, when he grabbed the ball and dunked over the back of 6-foot-8 Devon White. Then on the next Baylor possession, Acy hit a long jumper from just inside the 3-point line.
Acy had an all-around performance. He finished 11 of 16 shooting with five dunks, made all three of his free throws, had seven offensive rebounds and only one turnover in 35 minutes.
Asked his secret, Acy said "late nights in the gym."
Veterans face two young teams in 2K Sports Classic
NEW YORK (AP) — There are basically two kinds of teams in the early part of a college basketball season. There are veteran teams and young teams. The semifinals of the 2K Sports Classic benefiting Coaches vs. Cancer have two of each.
The first game of Thursday night’s doubleheader at Madison Square Garden will have No. 5 Pittsburgh, which has four starters back from last season, against Maryland, which is turning to a talented freshman class to replace three starters, including star point guard Greivis Vasquez.
The nightcap will follow the same script with No. 13 Illinois, which welcomed back all five starters, going against Texas. The Longhorns had to replace three starters, including swingman Damion James.
"Pittsburgh is ranked where they are for a reason," Maryland coach Gary Williams said. "They have great guards, you can start right there. Great leadership from seasoned guards is a pretty good combination most people don’t have. In college basketball veteran guards make a difference, like we had last year."
After four years of turning to Vasquez for every big shot, pass or defensive assignment, the Terrapins (3-0) are trying to find an identity. They set a tournament record with 105 points in a 29-point win over Seattle in the opener, then survived a scare when freshman Pe’Shon Howard’s jumper with 4.6 seconds left gave them a 75-74 win over Charleston.
"I’m seeing some good things out of our young players," Williams said. "We do have some veterans from last year, guys who have been there before. We need to get a rotation and a game like Pittsburgh gets you ready for the season."
The Panthers (3-0) have what many consider one of the best backcourts in the country in Brad Wanamaker and Ashton Gibbs. They took turns being the leading scorer in the two regional games and the duo makes things a lot easier for coach Jamie Dixon.
"They obviously had really good years last year and they’re better this year," Dixon said. "I always felt Brad was overlooked and underrated. Now he’s scored a few points in some games on TV and people are talking about him. He does a lot of things for us."
Illinois (3-0) has that same type of guard in Demetri McCamey, and the Fighting Illini also have some quality big men in 7-foot-1 Mike Tisdale and 6-9 Mike Davis.
"That was one of the comments two coaches said last week, ‘Man, we’re not going to see that kind of length maybe the rest of the year,"’ Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "You don’t realize something like that as a coach. Our guards have some size, too. It’s a difference for us. We block shots and get a lot of deflections. If we have that intensity we need on defense it will really help."
Texas (2-0) had a terrible second half of the season after reaching No. 1 for the first time in school history. It got big games from sophomore Jordan Hamilton, who averaged 22.5 points, and key contributions from freshmen Tristan Thompson and Cory Joseph.
"The biggest thing is we have a group of guys who have really started to do the things we need them to do," Longhorns coach Rick Barnes said. "This is a much different style than we have played in the past. They bought in to it so far, but we know we have a lot of growth ahead of us.
"Our two freshmen belong in the conversation with anyone if you’re just talking freshmen."
This is the 16th tournament supporting Coaches vs. Cancer. The Gazelle Group, which produces the event, said it has raised more then $4.5 million for cancer research.
The third-place and championship games are Friday.
-- Jim O’Connell
Wichita State beats Texas Southern 79-67
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Wichita State's David Kyles scored a career-high 20 points to lead the Shockers past Texas Southern 79-67 Tuesday night at Koch Arena.
Eleven players scored for Wichita State (1-0). That included newcomer Joe Ragland, who had 11 points and five assists.
Texas Southern (0-2) was led by freshman Lawrence Johnson-Danner's 22 points.
Playing its only regular-season game before facing Connecticut in the Maui Classic, Wichita State spent much of the game with mass substitutions to try different combinations. Eleven Shockers played at least 12 minutes.
Wichita State could really afford to experiment after the first five minutes of the second half. Kyles hit two 3-pointers in an 11-3 run after halftime, which extended Wichita State's lead to 48-28 with 16 minutes remaining.
Kyles had his 20 points — four better than the junior's previous career high — five minutes into the second half.
The Shockers would lead by as many as 23 — 65-42 on two J.T. Durley free throws with 10:20 to play — and never led by less than 12 after that.
Texas Southern's Kevin Galloway tried to keep his team in the game, scoring 18 of his 20 points in the second half. Galloway also had a game-high eight rebounds. He was the only Tiger to score during a nearly seven-minute stretch in the second half, when he scored eight points.
Wichita State's Graham Hatch had a career-high six assists. The Shockers finished 11 of 26 from the 3-point line and outrebounded the Tigers 22-8 in the second half.
Texas Southern used an active two-three zone to frustrate the Shockers in the first half. Wichita State went five minutes without a basket and the Tigers' Johnson-Danner got his team off to a good start. A Johnson-Danner 3-point shot gave Texas Southern a 13-12 lead with 10:06 to play in the half, and he would score 11 by halftime.
But Wichita State started to make shots and find its stride late in the first half. Demetric Williams and Kyles hit consecutive 3-pointers for an 18-13 Wichita State advantage, and the Shockers would outscore Texas Southern 25-12 over the first half's final 10 minutes for a 37-25 lead. The stretch culminated with two Toure' Murry 3-pointers for the Shockers, the second one coming with 2 seconds remaining in the half.
Another first-half highlight for Wichita State was the two minutes played by 7-foot newcomer Ehimen Orukpe, who had four points, two blocks and a rebound in that time.
Kyles had 11 points in the half on 4-of-5 shooting to lead the Shockers.
North Texas beats Texas Tech 92-83 in overtime
DENTON (AP) — Josh White scored 32 points and George Odufuwa had 14 points and 15 rebounds as North Texas defeated Texas Tech 92-83 in overtime Tuesday night.
The Mean Green (2-0) trailed 74-72 before White hit a runner in the lane with 3 seconds left in regulation to force overtime. North Texas then hit 4 of 5 shots and 8 of 10 free throws in the extra period to hold off the Red Raiders (1-1).
Dominique Johnson added 12 points and Tristan Thompson had 11 for the Mean Green.
Brad Reese scored 20 points to lead Texas Tech. David Tairu finished with 14 points, Mike Singletary had 13 and John Roberson 11.
North Texas improved to 3-0 at home against Big 12 schools under 10th-year coach Johnny Jones.
A free throw by Jaye Crockett gave the Red Raiders a 67-60 advantage with 5:39 left in regulation. The Mean Green then went on an 8-0 run to take the lead with 3:45 left. From there, the lead changed hands five times and there were five ties before the game went into overtime.
White then hit two 3-pointers to spark an 8-0 run in the first 1:36 of the extra period, and North Texas led the rest of the way.
Texas Tech missed 9 of 11 shots in overtime.
TCU runs past crosstown rival SMU 84-64
FORT WORTH (AP) — Sammy Yeager and Garlon Green each scored 17 points and Hank Thorns had a double-double as TCU defeated Southern Methodist 84-64 on Tuesday night.
Thorns finished with 13 points and 10 assists and Ronnie Moss added 16 points for the Horned Frogs (2-0), who have won three straight in this cross-town rivalry.
Robert Nyakundi led the Mustangs (0-2) with 14 points, Papa Dia had 11 and Justin Haynes 10.
TCU hit 11 3-pointers, including three by Thorns. His first 3 gave the Horned Frogs their first double-digit lead — 27-15 10 minutes into the game — and he closed the half with another 3 to put TCU up 49-35.
The Horned Frogs, who shot 53.8 percent, never trailed and led by as many as 23.
SMU shot 48.1 percent but turned the ball over 18 times.
Hot-shooting Long Island rips Texas State 91-67
SAN MARCOS (AP) — Kyle Johnson sank 8 of 11 shots, including 4 of 5 on 3-pointers, and scored 22 points to lead Long Island past Texas State 91-67 on Tuesday night.
Jamal Olasewere added 12 points and Julian Boyd pulled down 11 rebounds for the Blackbirds (2-0), who shot 50 percent (31 of 62) in opening a four-game road swing with a decisive victory.
Tony Bishop had his second consecutive double-double for the Bobcats (1-1) with 10 points and 11 rebounds. J.B. Conley scored 11 points for Texas State, and Cameron Johnson had 10.
Long Island, which blew out to a 46-26 lead at the half, also dominated the boards 49-41.
The Blackbirds' lead never dipped below 19 in the second half and went as high as 34 when Kenny Onyechi made two free throws with 5:08 left to make it 88-54.
This was the first meeting between the teams.
Texas-Arlington beats Texas-Tyler 96-56
ARLINGTON (AP) — Darius Richardson scored 18 points, LaMarcus Reed scored 17 points and Texas-Arlington beat Texas-Tyler 96-56 Tuesday.
The Mavericks (2-1) had an early lead over the Patriots (0-1) with an wave of 3-pointers and ended the first half with a 50-24 advantage.
They hit 46.7 percent of their 3-pointers and made 18 of 19 from the free-throw line. UTA shot 51.6 percent from the field while the Patriots shot 33.3 percent.
Richardson finished with four 3-pointers, while he and Reed led two other Mavericks in double-digit scoring, with Armani Williams adding 12 points and Bradley Gay adding 11 points.
Shaqui White-Miller had six assists and seven points.
Kevin Murray had four rebounds and one assist and led the Patriots' scoring with 10 points.
Chapman, Prairie View beat Arlington Baptist 82-58
PRAIRIE VIEW (AP) — Demondre Chapman came off the bench to score 16 points and grab 10 rebounds and Prairie View defeated Arlington Baptist 82-58 on Tuesday night.
Cortney Bell added 13 points and seven rebounds, Beloved Rogers had 12 points and Jeff Wherry 11 for the Panthers (1-2). Antoine Thompson scored 16 points to lead the Patriots (2-3), who were held to 36.4 percent shooting.
Prairie View took a 48-22 lead at halftime and pushed its advantage to 30 less than two minutes into the second half. A 3-pointer by Rogers gave the Panthers their largest lead, 75-40, with 8:18 to play.
Prairie View shot 42.9 percent and took advantage of 26 turnovers by the Patriots.
State Women
No. 1 UConn tops No. 2 Baylor to wins 80th in row
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Maya Moore missed, and suddenly Connecticut's grip on women's college basketball was in jeopardy.
Baylor had one more shot to topple the No. 1 Huskies and end their record winning streak. But the No. 2 Lady Bears simply ran out of time, their last try a little too short and a little too late.
Coach Geno Auriemma and UConn rallied from a late eight-point deficit and held on for their 80th straight victory, 65-64 Tuesday night — by far the toughest test since the streak started exactly two years ago.
Showing they could win the close ones, too, the Huskies overcame 6-foot-8 Baylor star Brittney Griner and a 56-48 gap with 6:42 to go. They moved within eight victories of matching the 88-game string put together by UCLA's men's teams in the 1970s.
"I thought we played great for long stretches. Obviously Baylor is a great team and they made their run," Auriemma said. "Then the improbable happened, people other than Maya began scoring."
"They don't know what it's like to come back from a run," he said.
It's true. The Huskies have spent the last two seasons rolling over every opponent, waiting for a real challenge. They got one Tuesday night.
Moore scored 30 points, but it was freshman Bria Hartley who saved the Huskies after they wasted a 15-point lead early in the second half.
Moore missed with an airball from the corner with 6 seconds left as the shotclock went off and Melissa Jones grabbed the rebound. Instead of giving the Lady Bears the ball on the side for a shotclock violation, the officials let the game continue.
Having just used its last timeout, Baylor had no choice but to get to the basket. Odyssey Sims brought the ball up the court but her 30-foot attempt was nowhere close.
Auriemma covered his head with hands as he went to meet Baylor coach Kim Mulkey at midcourt.
"I think there's always something cool when you do something for the first time with a group of people," Auriemma said. "You know you don't have all the answers. For the last two years it's been let's do that. Now it's not going to be like that."
After the game Mulkey wondered about that final sequence.
"Was that a shotclock violation?" she asked the media. "Did anyone watch that?"
The Big East quickly answered her question.
"If the other team has the ball as the horn is going off that's a possession so there's no shot clock violation," said Big East assistant commissioner Barb Jacobs, who is in charge of officiating.
Mulkey downplayed the result.
"Do you see us crying? Could we have won the game," Mulkey said. "I learned I have a talented basketball team," she said.
Tiffany Hayes added 16 points for Connecticut (2-0). Griner scored 19 points and had nine blocks for the Lady Bears (3-1), but was 5-for-13 from the free throw line — including some key misses down the stretch.
"I don't really know what happened on my free throws," Griner said.
Sims added 17 points and Kimetria Hayden had 15.
Ahead 44-29 early in the second half, the Huskies suddenly found themselves in trouble when Griner took over. The Bears rallied using a 27-4 run.
Then, Hartley emerged for the Huskies, who closed the game with a 17-8 burst. Hartley had eight of her nine points during that spurt after doing virtually nothing for the first 37 minutes she took over.
"Bria reacted exactly how I thought she would react, it just took a little longer," Auriemma said.
It was the 46th time that the top two teams in The Associated Press Top 25 poll have played. The No. 1-ranked team holds a 27-19 lead.
This is the earliest that the top teams have played in either men's or women's basketball. UConn improved to 10-1 in those contests as the top team.
During its current run, UConn has faced the No. 2 team four other times and won by nearly 17 points a game.
Griner and Bears nearly changed that.
After going scoreless for nearly 21 minutes, the sophomore phenom keyed Baylor's huge run over the next 9 minutes, scoring 11 points on an array of post moves.
Sims' layup tied the game at 48 with 9:15 left. Jordan Madden followed with a 3-pointer that gave the Lady Bears their first lead since early in the first half.
They extended the lead to 56-48, hitting five of six free throws. That was the biggest second-half deficit UConn had faced late in the game during its vaunted streak.
Moore wouldn't let the string end there. The senior had an acrobatic three-point play that made it 56-51, Hayes followed with a layup and two free throws and Hartley's 3-pointer tied it at 58 with 3:57 left.
After a turnaround by Griner, Hartley hit a layup over Griner and followed it up with a 3-pointer to make it 63-60.
"I don't know there's been a bigger shot made in her life than the 3 she made from the wing to tie the game," Auriemma said. "It must have been a great feeling for her."
Hayden's reverse layup cut Baylor's deficit to one before Moore hit a sweet pullup from just above the foul line to extend the advantage to 65-62. Jones had a putback for Baylor that made it 65-64 with 36.5 seconds left.
The game was a rematch from last season's national semifinal, which Connecticut won 70-50. While the Lady Bears had mostly everyone back, UConn graduated national player of the year Tina Charles.
The Huskies started freshman Stefanie Dolson on Griner and the Lady Bears went right at the first-year player. Griner scored six of the team's first 10 points and picked up two fouls on Dolson in the first 3 minutes. Her two free throws with 16:54 left were her last points of the half.
Auriemma turned to 6-foot-1 freshman Samarie Walker, who despite giving up 7 inches more than held her own against Griner. She settled for turnaround jumpers and didn't try attacking the basket at all. Griner didn't score for nearly 21 minutes, taking only four shots over that span as UConn sent two and sometimes three defenders at her.
"It was kind of like every other game," Griner said. "You know, doubling and bringing the four player over, and just trying different people on me. I mean, it's kind of like what I'm going to see all season and what I'm going to see."
UConn greats Sue Bird and Swin Cash were part of the crowd of 12,628.
-- Doug Feinberg
Adams leads Aggies over Trojans
COLLEGE STATION (AP) — With a player like Danielle Adams, No. 8 Texas A&M figured going inside would be the best way to win. Coach Gary Blair and the Aggies were right.
Adams had 24 points and 10 rebounds and the Aggies got an easy 87-41 win over Arkansas-Little Rock on Tuesday night. Texas A&M dominated in the paint behind the performance of Adams and outscored the Trojans 56-10 in that area.
"Coach Blair just wanted to pound the ball inside and see if they could adjust to it," Adams said.
Blair likes that his plan to go inside worked Tuesday, but knows the Aggies won't be able to rely so heavily on scoring inside as the season progresses.
"We're going to have to get those guards back shooting the ball better from the perimeter and they really struggled with that particularly in the first half," he said.
Adams, last year's Big 12 conference newcomer of the year, had 20 points by halftime in the season-opener for the Aggies. It was the third double-double at Texas A&M for Adams, who transferred from Jefferson College before last season after being named junior college player of the year.
Arkansas-Little Rock coach Joe Foley was impressed with Adams.
"I love the way the kid plays," he said. "She's got great moves, she's got great footwork and great hands. That's what makes a team. Anytime you can score in the paint like they do, that makes a great basketball team."
The Aggies led by 21 at halftime and outscored Arkansas-Little Rock 7-2 in the opening minutes of the second half to stretch the lead to 48-21. A 17-1 run later in the second half extended Texas A&M's lead to 69-26.
Arkansas-Little Rock (1-1) was led by Chastity Reed who had 17 points.
Adams and most of the other Texas A&M starters went to the bench with about 10 minutes remaining. Blair has enjoyed watching the 6-foot-1 Adams develop as a player since joining the team before last season.
"She plays with so much poise," Blair said. "She scores easy. A lot of post players it takes them too many moves and they don't know how to score easy or use their body."
Texas A&M outrebounded Arkansas-Little Rock 47-23 and had just 12 turnovers to the 24 committed by the Trojans.
Highly rated recruit Karla Gilbert, who is 6-foot-5, made her debut for Texas A&M and had 12 points and four rebounds in 14 minutes.
"Once we got her over her jitters in the first couple of minutes she just makes things happens," Blair said.
Maryann Baker added a career-high 10 points for Texas A&M and three players added eight points apiece.
Arkansas-Little Rock, which made its first appearance in the NCAA tournament last season, opened its season Friday with a 76-51 win over Davidson.
The game was tied at 2 before Texas A&M went on a 14-1 run to take a 16-3 lead with 14 minutes remaining in the first half. Adams scored seven of her 20 first half points in that span.
The Aggies were ahead by 14 points later in the first half before scoring six straight points to push the lead to 34-14 about four minutes before halftime.
Texas A&M was without point guard Sydney Colson, who has a sore foot and is day to day.
-- Kristie Rieken
Fontenette scores 23 points in Texas' 112-53 win
AUSTIN (AP) — Ashleigh Fontenette scored 23 points to lead No. 17 Texas to a 112-53 victory over Northwestern State on Tuesday night.
Chassidy Fussell and Kathleen Nash each had 21 points, and reserve Chelsea Bass added 18 for Texas (2-0) in the lopsided effort.
The Longhorns jumped out to an insurmountable 16-2 lead. Northwestern State (2-1) struggled to score against Texas' defense that had 18 steals, 12 blocks and forced 29 turnovers. Texas continued its sharp-shooting, making 36 of 67 shots from the floor, including 11 of 22 from 3-point range.
Kottia White had 12 points for Northwestern State and Trudy Armstead added nine.
Big 12 Men
No. 3 Kansas State beats No. 22 Va Tech 73-57
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — Curtis Kelly was in street clothes and Jacob Pullen was on the bench — not exactly the ideal place for Kansas State's only two seniors while facing an experienced and well-traveled Virginia Tech.
Martavious Irving, Rodney McGruder and Nick Russell came off the bench to hold things together in the first half and then helped spark a 28-9 run when Pullen got back, carrying the third-ranked Wildcats to a 73-57 victory Friday over the 22nd-ranked Hokies.
"When they saw me go out with that second foul, a lot of them just put their chins up and stepped up to the challenge," said Pullen, who got in quick foul trouble and played just 2 minutes in the second half. "Good teams don't win games because of a person. They win games because of a team. Today the team just came together."
Kelly, a 6-foot-8 senior who's being heavily counted on this season by the Wildcats (2-2), missed his second straight game because of unspecified disciplinary action. But the cold-shooting Hokies (1-1) failed to take advantage and Kansas State led 30-29 at halftime. Then, after Malcolm Delaney's basket put Virginia Tech on top 40-38 early in the second half, McGruder got the Wildcats rolling on a decisive 28-9 run.
"Everybody had a big play, a big play that was a momentum-builder or to sustain the run," said Pullen, the Wildcats' preseason All-American. "That's all you can ask for, is your team to be prepared."
Twice during the second half the Virginia Tech bench was called for a technical foul, and it hurt the Hokies. Each time, Pullen made two free throws.
"I have nothing to say about the officiating," Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. "They do their job. I do mine."
Asked what he was trying to tell the officials when the technicals were called, he said, "There were a lot of things I was trying to say, but honestly there wasn't a lot of listening going on."
Delaney, the top returning scorer in the Atlantic Coast Conference, had 22 points for Virginia Tech. Pullen, McGruder and Jamar Samuels all had 13 for Kansas State while Jordan Henriquez-Roberts had 10 and Irving nine.
Kansas State coach Frank Martin, not always easy to please, admitted he was proud of the way his young players handled adversity.
"Effort's not an issue with our team," he said. "It's a matter of us staying focused on the task at hand, and not having breakdowns. We made mistakes but we were more attentive to our jobs."
Two baskets by McGruder helped get the big run started, then Freddy Asprilla blocked Victor Davila's shot and Irving drained the first of his 3-pointers. Delaney's 3-pointer a moment later was answered by another 3 by Irving. After a free throw by Samuels, McGruder hit a 3-pointer to give the Wildcats their biggest lead, 53-44, with 8:40 to go.
Samuels' basket put Kansas State on top 59-49 with 5:16 to go, then during a subsequent timeout the first technical was called on the Virginia Tech bench. Pullen made both free throws for a 61-49 lead.
After another 3-pointer by Irving, Henriquez-Roberts blocked a Virginia Tech shot and Pullen teamed with Samuels on the other end for a dunk off an alley-oop pass for a 66-49 lead.
Delaney's usually unerring foul shot failed him in the first half. After hitting his first two from the line, making him 13 for 13 for the season, the 6-foot-3 senior missed the front end of a 1-and-1.
For the game, he was 8 for 9 from the line, making him 19 for 20 in two games.
Both teams shot miserably in the first half, with Kansas State hitting only 12 of 33 and Virginia Tech making 9 of 25. The Wildcats were equally weak at the foul line, going 3 for 11. For the game, Kansas State hit only 41 percent while Virginia Tech hit 35 percent on 19 of 55 shooting.
"We can't win games against teams of this caliber if we give up, I think, 12 offensive rebounds in the second half and don't get 50-50 balls, and we didn't get 50-50 balls," Greenberg said. "I thought they just found a way to get the loose balls. We did a bad job on that one stretch in defensive transition. They really pushed it hard and we didn't get the ball under control and then eventually they started to make a couple shots."
-- Doug Tucker
Robinson, Georgia defeat Colorado 83-74
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Georgia is counting on its early success in close games to pay off later in the season.
Gerald Robinson Jr. scored 21 points and Georgia overcame poor free-throw shooting to edge Colorado 83-74 on Tuesday night.
Georgia won despite making only 27 of 43 free throws and blowing a first-half lead of 17 points.
Georgia led only 72-70 when Robinson scored on a layup to push the lead to four points with 1:32 remaining. After a turnover by Colorado, Dustin Ware made two free throws for a 76-70 lead.
Travis Leslie had 19 points before fouling out for Georgia (2-0). Jeremy Price had 17.
The Bulldogs beat Mississippi Valley State 72-70 in their opener before holding off the Buffaloes in another close game.
"You have to learn how to win these games," Robinson said. "It's easy to win blowout games, but winning close games brings you together and builds the confidence of everybody, which helps you win games in the future."
Georgia finished 14-17 last season, including a 5-8 record in games decided by no more than five points.
The Bulldogs have more depth this year, thanks in part to the addition of Robinson, a transfer from Tennessee State.
"Our backcourt with Dustin Ware and Robinson played like upperclassmen in the final minutes," said Georgia coach Mark Fox. "They made the right plays and kept us organized. It helps us to have experiences like this. Close, hard-fought games will help us down the road."
Georgia continues to play without Trey Thompkins, the team's leading scorer and rebounder last season who is recovering from a high ankle sprain.
Alec Burks had 23 points for Colorado (1-1), which suffered its first loss under first-year coach Tad Boyle.
"I thought that our fight, our grit and our competition was good, but we settled for way too many jump shots early," Boyle said.
Cory Higgins added 15 points for the Buffaloes.
"We just needed a couple more stops toward the end," Higgins said.
"We've played in hostile environments before. The game was there for us to win, and we just didn't come away with it."
Georgia led 56-49 when Price went to the bench with four fouls. Fox was forced to bring Price back 3 minutes later after Colorado took a 60-59 lead.
Fouls hurt Georgia again when the Bulldogs, leading 68-64, had Leslie foul out. Price responded with a quick basket to help Georgia retain its momentum.
Connor Nolte, Robinson and Leslie had 3-pointers in an early 13-0 run to give Georgia a 16-4 lead.
The Bulldogs stretched the lead to 17 points but collapsed after leading 31-14. Georgia's barrage of fouls, missed free throws and turnovers helped the Buffaloes close the half with a 19-2 run for a 33-33 halftime tie.
Leslie missed an attempt at an open one-handed breakaway jam during the Colorado run, the ball bouncing off the back of the rim out of bounds.
Nate Tomlinson and Levi Knutson completed the Colorado comeback with 3-pointers in the final minute of the half. Colorado scored 15 points off Georgia's 13 turnovers in the half.
"We dug ourselves a hole, but then we got ourselves out of it because our defense really solidified in the last 15 minutes of the half," Boyle said. "I think that (Georgia) is a good team and that we can take this and learn from it."
Boyle was called for a technical foul with 9.9 seconds remaining when Higgins was called for his fifth foul.
"I told our guys if you fight and scratch and claw, I'll do it with you," Boyle said of his technical foul. "It's a tough game out there."
-- Charles Odum
