Category: Basketball

Basketball News

Posted on

Top-seeded Florida downs UConn 77-75, ending Huskies’ historic NCAA tournament run

Walter Clayton Jr. and No. 1 seed Florida ended UConn’s pursuit of a third straight national championship, with Clayton burying two key 3-pointers in the final three minutes of a scintillating 77-75 victory for the Gators in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. Clayton, a first-team All-America guard, finished with 23 points as Florida (32-4), one of the favorites for this year’s title, survived a strong challenge from coach Dan Hurley’s Huskies (24-11), who came in with modest expectations as a No. 8 seed but led for most of the second half. Florida advances to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2017 and will play Colorado State or Maryland in the West Region semifinals in San Francisco.

Posted on

Caleb Love leads Arizona past Oregon 87-83 to set up a showdown with Duke in March Madness

Caleb Love had 29 points and nine rebounds, and fourth-seeded Arizona advanced to the Sweet 16, surviving a ragged finish to beat former Pac-12 rival Oregon 87-83 on Sunday night in the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats (24-12) will face top-seeded Duke in the East Region semifinals in Newark, New Jersey. Tobe Awaka added 12 points and 14 rebounds for the Wildcats, who had never faced the Ducks in the tournament.

Posted on

Clippers' five-game winning streak ends in loss to NBA-leading Thunder

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) drives to the basket.
Oklahoma City guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drives between Clippers defenders during the Thunder's 103-101 win at the Intuit Dome on Sunday. (Wally Skalij / Associated Press)

Facing the NBA's top team and one of the league's elite players, the Clippers needed to be at their best Sunday if they were to extend their winning streak to six games.

But they failed to deliver in the final seconds against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, losing 103-101 in a tense battle at the Intuit Dome.

“A lot of turnovers. Even at the end of the fourth, we had two or three turnovers at the end,” Kawhi Leonard said. “Yeah, we fought hard. We was in the game the whole game. Just calls could have gone either way. But salute to them. They've been the best team in the league.”

The Clippers missed an opportunity to tie the game when Derrick Jones Jr. made only one of two free throws with 1:22 left, leaving the Clippers down 101-100 before things really started to unravel.

Read more:James Harden scores 30 as red-hot Clippers pick up their fifth straight win

Two costly turnovers, including one by Ivica Zubac after he fumbled the ball out of bounds with 1:01 left, ended one chance to take the lead. Then, with 21 seconds left, Norman Powell missed a shot, and after Zubac got the offensive rebound, Kawhi Leonard missed a shot with four seconds remaining.

The loss dropped the Clippers (40-31) to eighth in an increasingly tight Western Conference postseason race. They are one game out of sixth place for the final automatic playoff berth with 11 games left.

"I already played in the play-in and I ain’t trying to do that again," said Powell, who finished with nine points. "So, you’re watching closely on positioning, wanting teams to lose, want to keep the way we’re playing going. Bounce back on this road trip. But, yeah, definitely, everybody is trying to avoid that play-in right now.”

Gilgeous-Alexander, held to seven-for-29 shooting from the floor, finished with 26 points. He made all 11 of his free-throw attempts, including two in the final seconds.

Leonard had 25 points and 10 rebounds. James Harden, who finished with 17 points, moved past Moses Malone for 11th on the NBA's all-time scoring list. Zubac had 15 points and 11 rebounds.

After the game, Harden limped around the locker room. He had been kneed in the left thigh by Thunder guard Luguentz Dort in the third quarter. Harden said he rolled his foot during the play.

The Thunder, who swept the season series against the Clippers, have the NBA's best record at 59-12 and the league’s leading scorer and most valuable player candidate in Gilgeous-Alexander (32.9 points per game).

It wasn't all bad news for the Clippers — coach Tyronn Lue was back on the sideline. He missed five of the previous seven games because of back pain, with the Clippers going 6-1 over that stretch with assistant coach Brian Shaw at the helm.

Lue thanked his coaching staff for keeping the team in good shape.

“I feel a lot better,” Lue said. “I’m just going to take it day by day, game by game. ... The pain from my shoulder and back kind of went down my leg a little bit. ... I feel really good as far as my back and shoulder. Now, it’s just trying to get the leg part better, but I do feel better from that regard. That’s what was giving me the most problems."

Sign up for the L.A. Times SoCal high school sports newsletter to get scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Posted on

Hohn puts up 22 in UC Irvine’s 66-61 win over Jacksonville State in NIT

Hohn shot 7 for 15 (4 for 9 from 3-point range) and 4 of 5 from the free-throw line for the Anteaters (30-6). Myles Che scored 11 points, shooting 3 for 12 (3 for 5 from 3-point range) and 2 of 3 from the free-throw line. Bent Leuchten shot 3 of 7 from the field and 4 for 4 from the foul line to finish with 10 points, while adding seven rebounds.

Posted on

Rick Pitino travels to Cleveland to watch his son Richard coach New Mexico in March Madness

Rick Pitino was hoping his son could accomplish something he couldn't this year — get his team to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Pitino traveled from New York to Cleveland to watch his son, Richard Pitino, coach New Mexico against Michigan State on Sunday night in the second round of the South Region. Richard Pitino said he found out Saturday night his father would be in attendance when he called and asked for six tickets.

Posted on

Heat snap 10-game losing streak with win against Hornets behind 42 from Wiggins

MIAMI (AP) — Andrew Wiggins scored 42 points for the second-highest scoring game of his career, Tyler Herro added 29 and the Miami Heat beat the Charlotte Hornets 122-105 on Sunday night to snap a 10-game losing streak.

Wiggins had the most points by a Heat player this season - Herro had 40 three times - and finished five shy of his career high of 47, done Nov. 13, 2016, for Minnesota against the Los Angeles Lakers.

He'll face his former team, Golden State, on Tuesday for the first time since getting traded to Miami last month. However, the bigger story coming into that game is the return of Jimmy Butler to Miami.

Nick Smith Jr. scored 19 and LaMelo Ball had 18 points and 11 assists for Charlotte, which led by 12 early but were eliminated from postseason contention. The Hornets haven't made the playoffs since 2016 — a seven-game Round 1 loss to Miami.

Miami closed the first half on a 24-4 run, shooting 10 of 14 over the final 7:05 before intermission. Charlotte shot 1-of-12 in that stretch.

The 10-game slide tied the sixth-longest in Heat history.

Posted on

Alabama rolls by Saint Mary’s 80-66 to reach the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 for a 3rd straight year

Alabama thundered past Saint Mary's 80-66 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday night, using a steady stream of alley-oop dunks to reach the Sweet 16 for a third consecutive year. Chris Youngblood led the second-seeded Crimson Tide (27-8) with 13 points. Six players finished in double figures for Alabama, including forward Grant Nelson, who had 12 points and eight rebounds after sitting out the majority of a first-round game against Robert Morris due to a knee injury.