Category: Basketball

It’s Javon Small’s world and West Virginia was living in it on Saturday. The Mountaineer point guard was honored prior to West Virginia hosting UCF at the WVU Coliseum. Small put the stamp on his personal achievements scoring 25 points, to go with seven rebounds and nine assists, as the Mountaineers led by as many as 27 in the first half, before that lead was cut to three in the second half.

Zach Freemantle's 25 points helped Xavier defeat Providence 76-68 on Saturday. Freemantle had eight rebounds for the Musketeers (21-10, 13-7 Big East Conference). Ryan Conwell scored 21 points and added five assists.

Malique Ewin scored a career-high 26 points and Florida State defeated SMU 76-69 on Saturday to give Leonard Hamilton a win in his final game coaching the Seminoles in Donald L. Tucker Center. Hamilton, who is retiring at season's end after 23 seasons heading the program, collected his 200th ACC regular-season win, which ranks fourth in conference history. Ewin also had eight rebounds as did Jamir Watkins, who scored 20 points.

Yaphet Moundi had 24 points in Iona's 90-88 victory against Sacred Heart on Saturday. Moundi added 14 rebounds and three steals for the Gaels (15-16, 12-8 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference). Dejour Reaves scored 19 points while going 6 of 17 from the floor, including 4 for 10 from 3-point range, and 3 for 6 from the line and added seven rebounds and three steals.

Trey Galloway and Malik Reneau scored 16 points each and Indiana erased a 10-point second-half deficit en route to a 66-60 victory over Ohio State on Saturday. With the win, Indiana (19-12, 10-10 Big Ten) finishes the regular season in ninth place in the conference and will have a first-round bye in the conference tournament. Ohio State (17-14, 9-11 Big Ten) fell to 10th place and will have to play on Wednesday, the first day of the tournament in Indianapolis.

Asa Newell spoke with confidence after Georgia's 79-68 win over Vanderbilt on Saturday when he proclaimed, “We're going to be dancing.” It has been 10 years since a Georgia player could make that boast about the Bulldogs' NCAA Tournament outlook following their final regular-season game. The Bulldogs improved to 20-11 overall and 8-10 in the Southeastern Conference with the win in one of many games on Saturday involving teams which may have been on the NCAA bubble.

Al Green's 20 points helped Louisiana Tech defeat UTEP 76-58 in a regular season finale on Saturday. Louisiana Tech finished sixth in Conference USA and will advance to the quarterfinal-round of the tournament to face the third seed in Huntsville, Ala. on Thursday.

Deuce Jones' 27 points off of the bench helped La Salle to an 81-74 victory over Saint Joseph's on Saturday. Jones added five rebounds for the Explorers (13-18, 5-14 Atlantic 10 Conference). Corey McKeithan scored 22 points while shooting 9 for 19, including 3 for 6 from beyond the arc.

Mark Sears hit a game-winning floater as time expired, and No. 7 Alabama spoiled the home finale of rival and No. 1 Auburn with a 93-91 overtime road win Saturday. The off-balance buzzer-beater from the free-throw line was only the third made basket of the game for Sears, who finished with nine points. Alabama (24-7, 13-5 Southeastern Conference) got 23 points from Grant Nelson and 15 points each from Labaron Philon and Clifford Omoruyi.