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.
What a win, what a game
Three overtimes. That’s how long it took for USC to defeat Troy on Thursday, but even that impressive bit of context doesn’t tell the full story. What it actually took was a buzzer-beater 3-pointer from USC to finally wrap things up and send everybody home. To reach the level of tension that three overtimes brings, and then to release all of that pressure at once with a Hail Mary heave that results in a 1-point victory? Man, is there anything better than basketball?
No. No there is not.
Again, “three overtimes” implies a level of evenly matched that somehow doesn’t tell the whole story. The score after the first half? USC 29, Troy 29. What did the two teams score in the second half? You’re never going to believe this (unless you think it through for a second), but 39 points a piece. They were tied after the first OT, naturally, and the second, but the third? Well, you saw the shot that made sure it didn’t happen a fifth time. This was not an instance of one team catching the other through a huge comeback — USC’s largest lead of the game was 11, and Troy’s was 6 — nor was it the case that one team was clearly outplaying the other but their opponent hung in. Troy shot 40%, USC 43%. Troy was 11-for-32 on threes, USC was 9-for-29. Troy had 18 assists, USC 23.
Outside of rebounds — a battle Troy won 63 to 39 — and points off turnovers — USC was well ahead there — everything was as close as the final score. That was even the case at the line, which can fluctuate wildly in college ball: the Trojans sank 71% of their free throws, while the… other Trojans shot 74%. Hey, no wonder these two teams were able to keep pace with each other like this, in the weirdest adaptation of “The Iliad” yet.
Three players logged over 50 minutes — Thomas Dowd for Troy, and both Chad Baker-Mazara and Rodney Rice for USC. Dowd was one of two Troy players with a dozen rebounds — the other was Cooper Campbell — while Baker-Mazara led all scorers with 34 points, and Campbell chipped in 26 of his own. It was junior guard (and UNC Asheville transfer) Jordan Marsh who hit the game-winner, however: it was his second attempt at a three, and his second made three, which also accounted for his only makes of the evening. He had 5 assists and a single rebound to go with what was otherwise an unremarkable 16 minutes of play, but none of that preamble mattered: in the end, he was the hero, the one who forced a desperation shot he had no choice but to force, that was as ugly as any other you’ve seen come out of the hands of a basketball player, until it found the net and was as beautiful as anything in sports.
Troy’s women had more luck
While Troy’s Trojans faltered on the men’s side, the women’s team thrived. Their game started out much like the other, however: the final score after the first quarter against Missouri was 31-30 in what was very much a shootout, and at halftime it was 61-54, Troy. The Trojans would pull away in the second half, though, limiting Missouri to 27 total points there while continuing to rack ‘em up on the side, resulting in a 100-82 victory.
The 61 first-half points are the most in any half for Troy on the season, and hitting the century mark against a Power 4 conference team is something they had not done since 2013. The victory was just their fifth-ever against an SEC team in program history, and their first-ever win against Missouri, specifically. It was not just notable, but a wildly impressive win, too.
Senior guard Emani Jenkins, who began her career in junior college before transferring to Troy last season, scored 11 of Troy’s first 14 points, and 16 of 31 for the quarter, ending the first quarter with a banked buzzer beater to put the Trojans in front. She has not been known for her scoring in the past, but finished here tied for the team-high with 22. The first quarter featured 11 made 3-pointers between the two teams. Senior guard Ashley Baez had the game’s lone double-double, with 14 points and 11 rebounds, thanks to a strong fourth quarter to help wrap things up. Six-foot-two senior forward Zay Dyer scored her 1,000th career point, then scored 8 more to just miss her own double-double.
Troy, despite not being a ranked powerhouse, did what they always do here: rebounded. The Trojans have have led D-I in rebounding for seven consecutive seasons, and here they won that battle 45 to 35, a number that included 19 offensive rebounds that helped lead to 28 points in the paint. Shooting 48% on 27 shots from beyond the arc obviously powered the Trojans here, but picking up the misses under the basket for second-chance points helped lead to this notable dub just as much as that performance.
Is Purdue winning by enough?
This question is being asked for a specific reason: Purdue already fell from No. 1 in the poll once because they failed to defeat an unranked opponent by enough, and now they took down Memphis just 80-71. Senior guard Fletcher Loyer led with 20 points, and a more dominant second half might mean voters are more forgiving than last time around — Purdue won the second half 44-36 after leading by just a single point after the first half — but you wonder if that will be enough, with so much talent in the top 5 as is.
Let’s forget about that, though, so we can just go “hey, that’s a pretty play.”
Sometimes that’s enough.
For example, Houston
Okay sorry to go back to this after showing off the pretty play, but one of those teams in the top 5 with a ton of talent? The other No. 1 we’ve seen this year, Houston. And they took care of business on Thursday, defeating unranked Rider 91-45. Their first half went a lot differently than Purdue’s, as they had a 47-25 lead going into the second.
Hey, sometimes you just can score at will.
No one on Houston put up a huge game on their own, but as far as team efforts go, this was one to remember. Five different Cougars reached double-digits, and two others scored 8. They made their threes, with 10 makes on 38% shooting, but it was points in the paint that gave them their massive lead over Rider: Houston scored 46 of their 91 points in the paint, logged 25 fast break points and only lost the offensive boards battle because they hit 56% of their shots, compared to Rider’s 31%.
Scoring at will is great! However…
If you’re the only one on your team who is scoring? Well, that makes things more difficult. Ask Fordham’s Alexis Black about that. The junior guard put up 42 points on Thursday in a double-overtime effort against Seton Hall… in a Fordham defeat. Just one of her teammates made it to double-digit scoring — junior forward Ugne Sirtautaite, with 15 in 35 minutes off the bench — while the rest of the starters combined for all of 18 total points.
Black shot 13-for-22 overall and 7-for-12 on 3-pointers while hitting all nine of her free throws, a performance that meant she led all of D-I in scoring on Thursday. Those 42 points also represented the most by a Fordham player in a game — it wasn’t all for naught by any means, but it sadly didn’t result in a W for the Rams.
Seton Hall couldn’t be stopped in the second overtime. Black’s final points came with 2:22 left to put Fordham up 80-79, and then Seton Hall piled it on, finishing with 90 to Fordham’s 83.
Iowa upsets Baylor
No. 19 Iowa took on No. 7 Baylor on Thursday, and ended up winning 57-52 in a game where defense reigned. Iowa shot just 34%, while Baylor came in at 29%. Iowa picked up 47 rebounds, Baylor 41. Baylor’s Taliah Scott was dominant — the junior guard scored 32 points — but otherwise it seemed as if no one could break the defenses of the other side or get their shots to fall.
Iowa got 18 points and 11 boards out of sophomore guard Ava Heiden, however — her double-double was the standout performance among the Hawkeyes’ starters — while 12 points, 4 assists, a rebound and a steal in 25 minutes off of the bench from Taylor Stremlow proved to be the difference. The sophomore guard put up a help performance that none of Baylor’s non-Scott starters, nor anyone on their bench, could match, and in a game as close as this one, that’ll be the difference.
Ooping vs. Not
Gotta give it up for the alley oop, which is itself an act of giving it up.
Ohio State would defeat West Virginia 91-58, with Brady Swartz scoring 35% of the latter’s points on his own. That stat is the opposite of an alley oop, a play that requires help and teamwork. Much to consider.
Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!
