College Top 25 Capsules: No. 6 Purdue wins 76-64 at No. 10 Michigan State

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The Big Ten standings look a lot different than a week ago.

Purdue’s surge and Michigan State’s slump has a lot to do with it.

E’Twaun Moore scored a season-high 25 points and JaJuan Johnson added 19, lifting the sixth-ranked Boilermakers to a 76-64 victory over the 10th-ranked Spartans on Tuesday night.

"It was very big to get them here," Moore said.

The loss dropped Michigan State into a first-place tie with Illinois, which won at Wisconsin on Tuesday, and Purdue moved into second-place tie with No. 13 Ohio State.

The Boilermakers (20-3, 8-3) have won six straight and the Spartans (19-6, 9-3) have lost three in a row to lose their commanding lead.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo previously predicted the conference champion would have four or five losses.

"We’re getting closer to that number now — unfortunately," he said.

Michigan State point guard Kalin Lucas played after missing a game with a sprained right ankle.

"Kalin was unbelievable," teammate Chris Allen said. "Every time he came down, he tweaked it even more, but he sucked it up."

Lucas gave Michigan State a three-point lead with 13:16 left in the first half, then Purdue scored twice as much as the Spartans the rest of the first half to take a 47-33 lead.

The Boilermakers made 65 percent of their shots before halftime.

"We didn’t check anybody the first half," Izzo said. "Not anybody.

"We haven’t checked in three games and I don’t have an answer for us."

The Spartans have lost three straight for the first time since a four-game skid in 2007.

Michigan State trailed by 18 points early in the second half, but pulled within three with 4½ minutes left.

The Boilermakers responded with Moore’s 3-pointer and held off the rally to snap a nine-game skid at the Breslin Center and reach the 20-win mark for the fourth straight season.

"It was a great atmosphere — one of the best in college basketball — and it’s tough to play when you can’t hear yourself think," Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "This is an unbelievable place, and we’re fortunate to get a victory."

Allen, who scored 21 points, made a 3-pointer to make it 65-62.

"The crowd got real loud when they cut it to three," Moore said. "The long one put it back to six and we were OK after that."

Purdue closed the game with an 11-2 run, making the score lopsided, as it was for much of the night.

"The major surprise to me is a lack of effort right now," Izzo said. "When we’re jogging back on defense and they’re going in for layups and dunks, that is effort-related and that’s unacceptable."

The Spartans’ 12-point loss at home was their biggest since Illinois beat them 81-68 four years ago, and snapped their 18-game winning streak at the Breslin Center since losing to Penn State more than a year ago.

The Boilermakers, coming off their first win at Indiana in more than a decade, won at Michigan State for the first time since 1998.

"It’s great for our seniors because there’s only one place (Ohio State) where they haven’t won," Painter said. "You usually have to be 10 to 15 points better than your opponent on the road, and that’s pretty impressive to do that here."

Purdue has three wins over Top 10 teams for the second time in school history and the first since 1989-90, adding to its previous victories over then-No. 6 West Virginia and then-No. 9 Tennessee.

As usual, three Boilermakers led the way.

Moore scored 14 points and Johnson had 13 in the first half alone. Robbie Hummel finished with 15 points.

Lucas played through pain to scored 12 points in 29 minutes.

"If more guys had his heart, we’d be a little bit better," Izzo said.

Durrell Summers, who had a season-high 24 points in Michigan State’s previous home game, missed both his shots, scored just two points and watched the entire second half from the bench.

"I just played the guys I thought gave us the best chance to win," Izzo said when asked why Summers didn’t play after halftime.

As devastated as the Spartans were, Lucas tried to remain upbeat.

"We’re still tied for first place," he said. "A lot of people don’t look at it that way."

Wall, Cousins lead No. 3 UK over Bama, 66-55

LEXINGTON, Ky. — It was an historic night of scoring and rebounding for John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins, but most of the discussion after the game was about what Kentucky’s two freshman phenoms did wrong in yet another easy victory for the third-ranked Wildcats.

Wall had 22 points and 10 rebounds for his first double-double and Cousins got his seventh straight — best by a Kentucky player in 37 years — as the Wildcats outmuscled Alabama 66-55 on Tuesday night.

Yet coach John Calipari and the players were calling it an off night, even for the two stars — Wall because of turnovers, Cousins because he could have scored more.

As March Madness nears and Kentucky aims for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, Wall says he understands the expectations are growing.

"It’s kind of tough because we do great so much, and one night — or a couple nights in a row — they expect more from you," he said.

Although Wall lit up the scoreboard at the end, the game started ugly for him. While he came in ranked second in the country in assists, he only managed two in this game — both in the second half. By then, he had racked up six turnovers — many of them sloppy ones — forcing Calipari at one point to take him out.

"He lost three balls that weren’t even forced," Calipari said.

With 16 points and 13 rebounds, Cousins extended his UK freshman record with 15 double-doubles. The last Kentucky player to get seven in a row was Jim Andrews, who had a team-record 10 straight in 1973.

Five of Cousins’ rebounds were on the offensive end, while all of Wall’s career-high 10 were on defense. Still, there were problems there as well as his teammates seldom found him open in the middle early — a halftime adjustment Calipari made with great success.

Alabama coach Anthony Grant said Cousins was the key.

"It’s obvious on film how big he is," Grant said. "But what you miss is the skill level that goes with a guy that size."

With the victory, Kentucky (23-1, 8-1) remained in first place in the Southeastern Conference East Division, one game ahead of Vanderbilt, which beat Tennessee on Tuesday.

Tony Mitchell had 13 points for Alabama (13-11, 3-7).

Cousins got his 10th and 11th points on a one-handed heave in traffic midway through the second half that gave the Wildcats their biggest lead at 46-32.

He got his 10th rebound the next trip down the court, then scored again off Eric Bledsoe’s missed 3.

Alabama chipped away at the lead and cut it to 51-45 with 8 minutes left on a jumper by JaMychal Green. The Tide matched that six-point deficit with under a minute left on Anthony Brock’s 3-pointer but got no closer as two free throws by Wall and a dunk by Patrick Patterson helped seal the victory for the Wildcats.

Cousins, who grew up in Mobile, Ala., has acknowledged a sometimes-rocky high school career there, and was heavily recruited by former Alabama coach Mark Gottfried. Instead, he opted to sign the first letter of intent under Calipari at Kentucky.

The 6-foot-11, 260-pound center claimed Monday that the game against the Crimson Tide was "just another game," although he had assigned it far more weight in past statements to the media.

Early on, every shot taken by a Kentucky player seemed to come closely guarded by one, two or — at times — three Alabama defenders.

"They were just playing hard-nosed defense, playing rough," Bledsoe said. "We just had to adjust to it."

Nobody adjusted more than Wall, who despite his turnovers gave the Wildcats a scoring boost, especially in the first half when they needed it most. Other than a wide-open 3 that gave Kentucky its first lead at 15-13, the rest of Wall’s first-half points came under tight pressure from the stingy Alabama defense.

First, Wall faked a pass, drove to the basket and drew Charvez Davis’ first foul. A few minutes later came another three-point play on a similar drive, this one sending Davis to the bench with his third foul.

With Alabama up 11-4 early, Kentucky scored 13 of the next 15 points. The Wildcats took the lead for good with 5:45 before halftime on Patterson’s dunk off a steal by Bledsoe. Patterson added a 3-pointer seconds before halftime — just Kentucky’s second in 11 first-half attempts — to give Kentucky a 31-24 lead.

Although Alabama’s defense was tough, Kentucky’s was better — and seldom gave the Crimson Tide the benefit of foul shots.

Alabama made 9 of 10 free throws in the game, but didn’t manage their first until the second half. Kentucky, meanwhile connected on just 61 percent from the line, going 19 for 31.

Still, despite the win and the individual accomplishments, Calipari was displeased.

"There was effort but there wasn’t great play, top to bottom," he said.

-- Jeffrey McMurray

Wright leads No. 7 Georgetown past Providence

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Providence coach Keno Davis shudders at the suggestion that Georgetown, with its No. 7 ranking, is the worst team the Friars will play over the next two weeks.

"If it turns out it was the easy game, I’ll eat my words," Davis said Tuesday night after the Hoyas beat Providence 79-70 in the first of four straight games the Friars will play against team ranked in the top seven. "But there’s no reason that team can’t go deep in the NCAA tournament. I hope they do."

Chris Wright scored 21 points, Julian Vaughn scored a career-high 19 and Greg Monroe had 12 points and a career-high 12 assists for Georgetown. Wright scored 16 points in the second half as the Hoyas (18-5, 8-5 Big East) erased an eight-point deficit.

Jamine Peterson scored 23 points and Bilal Dixon had a career-high 16 rebounds for Providence (12-12, 4-8).

The Friars led 47-40 with 15 minutes left before Georgetown scored 14 of the next 15 points, getting a three-point play from Wright to tie it and then taking the lead with 12 minutes left.

"Road wins in this league are difficult to come by," Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. "This was a game where things were not going well for us in a lot of different ways. We were extremely frustrated for large parts of that game. That’s because of Providence, that’s because of what they were doing, that’s because of their offensive execution and their defensive tenacity."

Providence outrebounded Georgetown 42-31, but the Friars shot just 34 percent from the field and 64 percent from the free throw line. Players got tangled up under the basket with 16:43 left in the game, with Monroe and Dixon jawing before the referees sent the teams to their benches to cool off.

"They really hit the boards," Wright said. "It got very physical down there. Any way we could we tried to box them out and try to keep them off the boards."

Georgetown, which according to the RPI has the most difficult strength of schedule in the nation, was coming off a 103-90 win over then-No. 2 Villanova on Saturday.

But they will get no sympathy from the Friars.

Providence is in the middle of a 6-of-8 stretch of games against ranked teams, with the next three against No. 4 Villanova, No. 5 West Virginia and No. 2 Syracuse. The Friars have already beaten No. 19 Connecticut in Providence and lost at Syracuse.

Davis said he had never heard of a team playing four top-seven teams in a row.

"I think what that shows is the Big East, we’re not in a down year from last year," he said. "I thought our team gave as good as an effort as we possibly could, and for them to come away with a win shows why they are the seventh team in the country."

Providence led by as many as eight points in the second half before Georgetown came back, tying it on Wright’s steal and fast-break layup with 12 minutes left and taking a 49-48 lead when he hit the foul shot to convert the three-point play.

Peterson missed two free throws — Providence missed 12 foul shots in all — then Wright made a free throw. After Peterson missed a 3-pointer, Wright made two more free throws to give Georgetown a 54-48 lead with 9:40 left. Sharaud Curry hit a 3-pointer and PC later cut the deficit to 56-54, but never got any closer.

Providence had a last chance at a comeback in the last 2 minutes when Marshon Brooks made a layup to make it 69-64, then the full-court pressure forced a baseball pass that just missed the outstretched fingers of a Friar defender. Monroe caught it instead and moved in for a layup and foul, converting the three-point play to give Georgetown a 71-64 lead with 70 seconds left.

-- Jimmy Golen

McCamey gets 27, Illinois shocks No. 11 Wisconsin

MADISON, Wis. — Illinois celebrated with all its fans on Saturday. The cheers coming from the Illini locker room on Tuesday night were even sweeter.

Demetri McCamey scored 27 points and Mike Tisdale added 19 on 8-of-11 shooting to lead Illinois to a 63-56 upset over No. 11 Wisconsin, snapping the Badgers’ 51-0 home record against unranked Big Ten opponents under coach Bo Ryan.

"It’s even greater tonight than Saturday, because we put ourselves in real good position," McCamey said. "We got a road win in one of the toughest places to play in college basketball, so it just means so much more to beat a good Wisconsin team."

The Illini (17-8, 9-3) ended Wisconsin’s 18-game home winning streak, but more important, Illinois won its fifth straight game after a 78-73 win over then-No. 5 Michigan State last weekend that featured fans rushing the court.

This one was so much better because the Illini moved into a first-place tie with Spartans.

"This thing, I told our guys before, could make up for some of the early setbacks," Illinois coach Bruce Weber said. "No one beats them here."

The schedule isn’t easy for Illinois, which plays four more ranked teams in its final six games, including two games with No. 13 Ohio State beginning at home on Sunday and a rematch with the Badgers in the regular-season finale.

"Now we’ve got ourselves where we’re a little bit of a contender, but a long way to go and a very tough schedule ahead of us," said Weber, the only coach with three wins against Ryan in Madison.

It was a shock for Wisconsin (18-6, 8-4), which got 15 points from Jason Bohannon, 13 in the second half, and 12 from Trevon Hughes. The Badgers are 133-11 under Ryan at home and hadn’t lost to any unranked opponent in more than four years.

Just how disappointed was the Badgers’ locker room with this performance?

"Next (question)," Ryan said after a 6-second pause.

The Badgers built a 22-11 lead while only Tisdale could find the basket, hitting every field goal for the Illini until just over 6 minutes to play in the first half.

"Tis’ kept us in (it), and I just knew I had to take over and help my team to a victory," McCamey said.

He did.

McCamey, the Big Ten player of the week for his performances against Iowa and the Spartans, scored 15 of Illinois’ final 20 points of the half and the Illini hit 10 consecutive shots straddling halftime to erase the double-digit deficit.

"Early, I was sitting there, I’m worried. Here he just came off player of the week," Weber said. "I was thinking this is what we’ve been going through for three years, because every time he has something good and you compliment him, he seems to go back to his old ways."

Instead, McCamey and his teammates kept clicking and finally broke through late after Wisconsin tied it at 53-all with 5:16 left on a 3-pointer by Bohannon.

D.J. Richardson and McCamey answered with jumpers to push the lead to 57-53, and Wisconsin went cold, going scoreless for 5 minutes. The Badgers missed nine consecutive shots down the stretch, including a layup by Taylor with just over 2 minutes to play and 3s by Keaton Nankivil, Taylor, Hughes and Bohannon.

"We just had to find a way to make those shots, and they didn’t happen to go down tonight," Bohannon said.

McCamey hit one free throw with 58 seconds left and Richardson added two more 16 seconds later to give Illinois a 60-53 lead.

Wisconsin went up 22-11 on a four-point play by Hughes, while the 7-foot-1 Tisdale hit six of his first seven shots. His teammates, meanwhile, missed 10 in a row until McCamey’s layup with just over 6 minutes left until halftime. McCamey went on to hit three consecutive 3-pointers to end the half, rallying the Illini perhaps for the rest of the season.

"Our last stretch is real tough, we’ve got three of the top 15 teams in the country — Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan State. We got two, and we’re trying to get another Sunday to make it even sweeter and keep us in the race for the Big Ten championship," McCamey said. "We can’t be happy (just) off this win. We’ve got to keep it going. Celebrate tonight, then get back to business when we have practice on Thursday."

-- Colin Fly

No. 22 Vanderbilt routs No. 12 Tennessee 90-71

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings didn’t know when Jeffery Taylor would break out. He just felt it would be soon.

The sophomore guard’s timing couldn’t have been better.

Taylor scored 16 of his career-high 26 points in the first half, and No. 22 Vanderbilt never trailed Tuesday night in routing No. 12 Tennessee 90-71, grabbing sole possession of second place in the Southeastern Conference’s Eastern Division, one loss behind No. 3 Kentucky.

"I’m glad it came tonight," Stallings said. "Not surprised it came tonight. He was on the verge. He kind of had that look and (I’m) really happy for him."

The Commodores (18-5, 7-2) swept the season series against their instate rival for the first time since 2004-05 — the season before coach Bruce Pearl took over Tennessee. They did it with the best shooting performance at the free throw line in Stallings’ 11 seasons at Vanderbilt, connecting on 37 of 43.

Pearl noted Taylor, who was a perfect 12 of 12 at the line, hit one fewer than his entire team (13 of 21). Tennessee (18-5, 6-3) had a three-game winning streak snapped, and now the defending SEC East champs must visit No. 3 Kentucky on Saturday night.

"This puts us in a really uphill battle to defend our SEC East championship," Pearl said. "We’re obviously disappointed with the way we played."

Jermaine Beal scored 20 points and A.J. Ogilvy had 11 for Vanderbilt, which didn’t miss reserve John Jenkins. The freshman, who had been averaging 10.4 points, was hospitalized with flu Monday and was so ill he needed five bags of fluid intravenously.

Taylor hadn’t scored more than 10 points in a game since Jan. 23 against Auburn. He couldn’t miss against Tennessee as the sophomore was 4 of 5 from the field and perfect on all eight free throws in the first half.

"I just came in the game with the mentality of just shoot it right away instead of catching the ball and looking at what the defense is doing," Taylor said. "Everybody already knew they were going to back off me. So I just caught it and shot it, and it went in today."

J.P. Prince led Tennessee with 19 points, Wayne Chism had 16, Melvin Goins 11 and Scotty Hopson 10.

Brian Williams, suspended for nine games after a New Year’s Day arrest, returned to the rotation but didn’t enter the game until 13:34 was left and the game well in the Commodores’ control. He played 2 minutes, missed one shot, grabbed a rebound and picked up two fouls.

The Commodores needed this game, the first of five of six in Memorial Gym, and they were coming off an ugly 72-58 loss at Georgia.

They beat Tennessee 85-76 in Knoxville on Jan. 27, and they never let Tennessee get started in the Vols’ visit to Music City as they won for the third time in four games in this series. They improved to a perfect 12-0 at home this season, 17 straight dating to a Jan. 25, 2009, loss to Florida.

"You always want to win rivalry games," Stallings said. "It feels good that it puts us ahead of them in the league race temporarily. Hopefully, we can keep it going. You have to take care of your home court if you are going to have a successful season. Thus far, knock on wood, we have been able to do that."

The Commodores scored the first six points and led 44-27 at halftime. They hit eight of their first 11 shots as Tennessee missed 14 of its first 17 and eventually led by as many as 27 points twice.

"We got outplayed," Pearl said.

The Volunteers got as close as 10 points early in the second half as Prince scored to pull them within 46-36. He missed the free throw and the chance to cut the lead to single digits for the first time since the opening minutes.

Vanderbilt responded with a 20-3 run to put the game away, and Festus Ezeli capped the spurt with two free throws with 12:38 left that gave the Commodores their biggest lead yet at 66-39. The sellout crowd taunted the Vols late by chanting "Lane Kiffin" — the name of the football coach that bolted Tennessee for Southern California last month.

Prince said it was difficult putting Vanderbilt into the bonus before halfway into the first half.

"That helped us dig a hole. That first half, we spent a lot of time watching them make free throws. Can’t foul them like that. Forty-three attempts? Simple as that," Prince said.

Pearl, wearing his orange blazer for the rivalry, drew a technical foul at 12:14. It was just a blip as Vanderbilt eventually pushed its lead to as many as 20 when Taylor hit two free throws to make it 30-10 with 8:46 remaining.

Tennessee athletic director Mike Hamilton talked with Pearl at the bench during the game. Asked about it later, Pearl said he asked Hamilton if he liked his seat.

"There were a lot of things out there I wasn’t happy about," Pearl said.

-- Teresa M. Walker

Women

No. 4 Notre Dame beats Cincinnati 66-50

CINCINNATI — The crowd was small, the mood was subdued, the snow was falling outside. Fourth-ranked Notre Dame didn’t feel a whole lot of energy at the opening tip.

Lindsay Schrader and the Irish defense eventually provided it.

Schrader scored 14 of her 16 points in the second half Tuesday, and Notre Dame intensified its full-court pressure, building a 20-point lead and holding on for a 66-50 win over Cincinnati.

The Irish (22-1, 9-1 Big East) have won seven straight since their loss to No. 1 Connecticut on Jan. 16, a streak set up by offensive balance and unrelenting defensive pressure. Schrader led the way against Cincinnati (10-12, 3-7), shaking off a 1-for-7 shooting performance in a first half that lacked energy.

Only 472 fans showed up for a game played as the city was digging out from another major snowstorm.

"It was kind of dead," said Schrader, who missed only one of her seven shots in the second half. "We had to create our own energy. I don’t think we were up for that, either. So it was kind of a dull game.

"I don’t like to play like that. I like to play with a lot of emotion and a loud crowd and stuff like that, but it was just one of those games you have to get through, and we did."

The senior guard got the Irish revved by making three consecutive baskets early in the second half, pushing the lead to 20. When Cincinnati got the lead down to nine, Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw called a timeout and called a play designed to get the ball inside to Schrader.

She caught the pass, made a layup, was fouled and completed a three-point play that ended Cincinnati’s comeback.

"That’s generally the play when we need a basket — we go to her," McGraw said. "She came on in the second half. You know she’s going to, it’s just a question of when. We called her number quite a few times and she was able to score."

Becca Bruszewski added 14 points and eight rebounds, helping the Irish get through a night when they started very slowly.

"We probably missed 10 layups in the first half," McGraw said. "We were lethargic. I think we let the atmosphere get to us. It was dead. It’s snowing and we’re worried about getting home. They’re a veteran team. They need to put that behind them and come out and play hard."

Kahla Roudebush had 17 points for Cincinnati, which is 0-4 against ranked teams this season.

The Bearcats couldn’t take advantage of Notre Dame’s ragged first half. The Irish led only 19-16 with 7:35 left in the half. That’s when Notre Dame’s pressure and dominance inside let the Irish take control.

The Bearcats went 1 of 8 with four turnovers the rest of the half, allowing Notre Dame to pull ahead 32-18. The Irish had 12 offensive rebounds in the half, setting up 14 points.

Junior guard Brittany Mallory had a career-high eight rebounds in the first half alone. In one sequence during the late first-half run, the Irish got four offensive rebounds on one possession and finally scored on Devereaux Peters’ putback.

Notre Dame opened the second half with an 8-2 run that featured three straight baskets by Schrader and pushed the lead to 40-20.

The Irish force an average of 24 turnovers per game with their trapping, full-court pressure. It got the Bearcats’ offense out of sync and forced sloppy moments that left coach Jamelle Elliott pointing at her head. Cincinnati had an over-and-back violation, a shot clock violation, and threw the ball out of bounds on consecutive possessions.

Cincinnati finished with 23 turnovers, setting up 21 Irish points.

"The thing throughout the game that upset me the most was the unforced turnovers," Elliott said. "They’re going to make you turn the ball over X-number of times in a game. One of the things we tried to do in preparation for this game was to stay solid and not have unforced turnovers. We’d throw the ball away, make passes we knew wouldn’t be completed."

-- Joe Kay