Men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball – there’s no shortage of college ball, every night.
Don’t worry, we’re here to help you figure out what you missed but shouldn’t have. Here are all the best moments from last night in college basketball.
Halfcourt buzzer-beater — banked — to win
That’s right: from half-court, a buzzer-beater, off the backboard, to win it for Colgate. What a shot. What a shot!
With just 2.7 left on the clock and the game tied at 69 each, Siena’s defenders didn’t want to get in position to foul, lest they lose on a free throw, but they also wouldn’t let junior guard Jalen Cox cross halfcourt once he got the ball. So, he pulled up and heaved before time expired, and it went in. But not before banking off of the backboard first. That’s basketball, baby.
Cox had a game-high 22 points on 7-for-15 shooting, and that miraculous shot was just his second three of the day. He also pulled down 3 rebounds, a block and 4 steals while making 6-of-7 free throws. Pretty good Monday for Cox and Colgate.
DePaul couldn’t hit a free throw, and it cost them
DePaul entered play on Monday morning against unbeaten Northwestern with a 1-2 record, and they played in the first half like there was a significant gap between the two teams. The first quarter, really: the Wildcats were up 29-15 after one, but the Blue Demons actually outscored them the rest of the way, after going an even 17-17 in the second quarter.
The problem wasn’t just that initial deficit, but DePaul’s free throw shooting. They were just 12-21 on free throws, a 57% success rate, and lost 79-72. Being down 14 after the first quarter was a problem, but it was one they could have solved if they just hit some more free throws. Incredibly, DePaul is at 51.7% shooting on free throws for the year, which ranks 362 among 363 Division I women’s basketball teams in 2025-2026. A slightly better first quarter, even four or five more free throws made… it’s a different ballgame, and DePaul is 2-2 while Northwestern suffers their first loss of the season.
It wasn’t just the missed free throws, however. Northwestern’s size was just too much for DePaul as well — even with all those misses, DePaul nearly pulled off the win, but when Northwestern got back to scoring in the fourth, they did it by attacking the paint and the basket with their bigs.
Still, DePaul made it close — they went on a 16-1 run at one point to narrow the gap considerably, with the Wildcats scoring a single point over the course of the first 6.5 minutes of the fourth quarter.
DePaul lost this game, but Northwestern also won it, and they can thank senior forward Grace Sullivan, sophomore forward Tayla Thomas and senior guard Caroline Lau for that. Sullivan scored a game-high 26 points on 13-for-20 shooting with 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks. Thomas had 18 rebounds and a block, as well as an efficient 4-for-6 shooting day that resulted in 11 points. And Lau went 7-for-11 shooting to pick up 20 points, while grabbing 6 rebounds and 9 dimes.
Northwestern turned the ball over 22 times, and DePaul capitalized with 21 points off of those turnovers, but without the ability to reliably sink a free throw, it was all for naught.
Alley ooped
You take the shot. No, you take the shot. No no, I insist, you take it.
Nolan Winter eventually acquiesced, as the junior forward took that lofted pass and slammed it in for two more Wisconsin points. The No. 23 Badgers were piling on at that point, and would defeat SIU Edwardsville 94-69.
Johnson scores 33 points off the bench, ties record
Dior Johnson led all D-I players in scoring on Monday, thanks to a performance notable for more than just the total number of points. The Tarletan State guard took his time getting to the school, as he was a redshirt freshman who then played in a junior college before heading to UCF and the Big 12 as a sophomore, then transferred to Tarletan State for the 2025-2026 season. And they’re glad he did after he dropped 33 points on Angelo State. He took control before the first half ended, scoring 17 of the Texans’ final 18 points, helping them to a 44-25 lead at the break, and did all of that despite coming in off of the bench.
Overall, Johnson shot 7-of-15 from the field and attempted just two 3-pointers — the majority of his points came from free throws. Enough free throws that he tied a record for Tarletan in their D-I era: Johnson sank 18 of the things on Monday. That also represents the second-most made free throws in NCAA ball this season, and he’s tied for third in program history for made free throws in a single game, as well.
Johnson is shooting well early on in the season, as he is currently leading the Western Athletic Conference in points per game with 22.7 — a massive jump from his 2024-2025 campaign, where he averaged 2.9 points per game in 8.5 minutes per night for UCF. This is a transfer that’s working out for everyone involved at the moment.
Fantroy grabs 20 rebounds
Junior guard — and transfer from Texas Southern — Lay Fantroy had a huge game on Monday for Delaware against American University. She scored 16 points on 7-for-14 shooting, picked up a steal and an assist each and blocked 3 shots, but the number that catches the eye is her rebound total: Fantroy pulled down 20, nearly half of what her entire team would manage, and just nine fewer than her opponents, the Eagles, ended up with.
She was a menace under the basket on both sides of the ball, too, as she picked up the bulk of her rebounds on the defensive side with 13, but didn’t neglect the offensive glass, grabbing the other seven there. Those 20 rebounds are also the third-most in program history, behind two instances of Ty Battle grabbing 24 and 22, respectively, in 2022, and tied with Nicole Enabosi’s 2017 performance.
Fantroy stands 5-foot-11 — not short, but not tall for the sport by any means. And yet, she pulled down 20 boards. You can play big underneath without being big!
Smith is back and posting numbers
Adrianna Smith, a senior forward at Maine, missed the entire 2024-2025 season with a knee injury, but she returned to action this year. That was a significant blow to the Black Bears, as she had led the American East Conference in total rebounds (10.8 per game) and assists (4.7 per game) during the 2023-2024 season as a junior. She’s looked as good as she ever did outside of one rusty-looking shooting performance against NC State in the second game of the season, as Monday night’s line showed: Smith was 10-for-15 from the field for 26 points, with 6 rebounds and a pair of assists to go with it.
Smith’s performance was also notable for Maine, as she became just the second-ever Black Bears player to reach 1,200 career points, 700 rebounds and 300 assists.
While she’s not leading the AEC in rebounds and assists like in 2023-2024, she’s at 10.3 rebounds per game, 5 assists per game and leading the conference in scoring at 21 points per. It’s probably safe to say that she’s back.
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