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 the weekend in college basketball.
“You can’t scout her”
Following Ohio State’s 100-68 defeat at the hands of UConn, sophomore guard Jaloni Cambridge said of Sarah Strong, “You can’t really scout her. It’s hard to scout her, she can do everything.” And that’s not wrong: the Huskies’ sophomore forward was a revelation against the Buckeyes, nearly putting up a triple-double in her 33 minutes on the court, while playing exceptional defense, too.
Strong scored 29 points — tops among D-I women’s basketball players on Sunday — pulled down 13 rebounds, logged 7 assists, stole the ball 5 times and blocked 3 shots, as well. While she didn’t get the triple-double, that had more to do with a few of her teammates’ shots not falling than anything on her end: she set them up for wide-open makes, but sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in, “limiting” her to 7 assists on the day. Strong also had no turnovers of her own despite the ball being in her hands often enough to rack up all those numbers, and shot 12-for-17 from the field and 3-for-3 on free throws.
The rest of UConn was hitting their shots, too, even if they missed a few open looks that Strong helped provide them with: they shot 52% as a team and 44% from three, and pulled down 14 offensive rebounds despite all of those makes. The size advantage that Strong (6-foot-2), senior forward Serah Williams (6-foot-4, 12 points) and freshman guard Blanca Quinonez (6-foot-2, 18 points) provided against Ohio State was in full effect on both sides of the ball.
For the more visual learners:
And also:
Ohio State admitted they couldn’t even figure out how to prepare for Strong, but someone is going to have to in order to slow down UConn.
Houston survived Auburn
No. 1 Houston took on No. 22 Auburn, and the good news for Cougars fans is that they won. The less good news is that the final score was 73-72 — they just won. A W is a W, of course, but these things end up mattering in the top 25 poll — Auburn might even look better in defeat here than Houston does in victory. That being said, this was still a top-25 matchup, and if anything, Auburn showed they were a problem if you displayed any weakness to them.
Said weakness for Houston was the bench: in 49 minutes of play, the bench scored a combined 5 points, all coming from Isiah Hartwell across 21 of those minutes, as he went 1-for-4 with a three and sank both of his free throws. The starters, at least, were excellent, and the reason the Cougars won. Freshman guard Kingston Flemmings led the offense — and all scorers — with 22 points, while adding 5 rebounds, 7 assists, and a block in 35 minutes.
Another freshman, center Chris Cenac Jr., just missed a double-double with 18 points and 9 rebounds. The game was also in question right up until the end, as Houston was held scoreless for the last 2:57 of regulation: a three Milos Uzan put the Cougars up 73-66, and then it was the defense that held on for the rest of the game. Auburn did score 72, but they didn’t score 73, and with the offense not providing anything for three minutes, that’s noteworthy.
USC vs. USC
South Carolina vs. Southern California, USC vs. USC. The Gamecocks came into the game ranked No. 2 in the country, while the Trojans sat at No. 8. Despite this being a top-10 matchup, South Carolina was in control nearly throughout, and ended up winning 69-52. The Trojans made it close with 1:38 left in the first half, when a Malia Samuels layup put them up 28-26, but then the Gamecocks started piling on.
They outscored USC 23-15 in the third quarter, and then, despite scoring just 14 in the fourth quarter, held the Trojans to seven points. They scored on a Kennedy Smith jumper with 8:19 left in the game to reach 49 points, then didn’t score again until there was just 3:31 left and South Carolina was up to 63 points.
USC doesn’t have JuJu Watkins on the court while she recovers from a torn ACL, but at least she’s at the games doing her part from the bench.
500 wins for Painter
No. 2 Purdue defeated Akron 97-79 on Sunday, thanks to having four of their five starters score at least 14 points, and it gave coach Matt Painter his 500th career victory.
Oscar Cluff, a 6-foot-11 senior, didn’t lead the Boilermakers in scoring, but he did manage a double-double with 14 points and rebounds each and had this dunk, to boot:
That would have been the most dominant performance of the game, easy, if not for teammate and fellow senior forward Trey Kaufmann-Renn: he had a Purdue-high 17 points to go with 15 rebounds for his own double-double. That combo was far too much for the Zips, even before getting into both Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer scoring 16 each.
BYU vs. UConn was an instant classic
It had all the makings of a big game, with No. 7 BYU visiting No. 3 UConn — but playing at TD Garden, home of the Boston Celtics — on Saturday night. It didn’t play like that for some time, though, with the Huskies going up 59-39 with 14:55 remaining in the second half. The final score? UConn 86, BYU 84. Freshman phenom AJ Dybantsa had his shot wake up in the second half, and ended up scoring 25 points with 6 rebounds and a pair of steals. UConn stuck with an 8-man rotation, never assuming that their lead was safe against an explosive BYU team, and good thing for them, too, given they ended up needing every point that their starters could muster: UConn’s starting five accounted for 73 of their 86 points, and 63 of those points came from the trio of Alex Karaban, Tarris Reed Jr. and Silar Demary Jr., all three of which finished with 21.
DeMary, especially, was effective down the stretch, and helped keep UConn in the game even as it became more and more physical and their lead narrowed further. You missed out if you turned it off earlier in the second half, that’s for sure.
Shelton leads the weekend’s scorers
Merrimack took on Boston University on Saturday, and from that game came Saturday and Sunday’s leading scorer: 6-foot-5 junior guard Ernest Shelton, in his fourth game with Merrimack, dropped 33 points in a 91-79 dub. Despite Shelton scoring over one-third of the Warriors’ total points, they had a more balanced attack than you’d imagine from that bit of math: all five starters reached double-digits in scoring, and freshman guard Kevair Kennedy logged a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. It was the bench — just 4 points — that was quiet, but Shelton made up for that with a huge game that also included 4 rebounds, an assist and a block, and saw him go 9-for-12 on 3-pointers and 4-for-4 from the line.
Those nine made threes also tied Merrimack’s school record, and he managed to score 7 points in 50 seconds during one stretch late in the second.
Shelton, a transfer from Division II Gannon University, is now leading the MAAC in points per game, at 22.8, and is shooting 51.4% on threes in this young season.
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