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Tri-State Morning Tip-Off
A quick and easy daily recap of the night in area CBB and a look ahead to tonight's action.
Yesterday
Marquette 72 Xavier 70
Marquette’s pressure defense smothered Xavier, allowing just 22 first half points. Down 15 with 7:11 left, XU mounted a furious comeback to lead with 2:17 remaining. Trailing by two in the closing seconds, Ryan Conwell appeared to be tripped on a drive near midcourt, but no call came, and time expired at Cintas Center. XU scored 48 second half points. Late turnovers crippled XU once again, with two in the final 1:37. Conwell, who entered XU’s leading scorer with 17 points a game, scored his first points with 4:44 remaining, and then two buckets in the final minute, for seven points. Four Musketeers reached double figures with Marcus Foster leading the way with 16. XU has dropped three straight, each vs a Top 25 opponent, by a total of 10 points.
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Ohio State 85 Kentucky 65
The Buckeyes, who lost by 38 to Auburn last weekend, stunned the Wildcats at Madison Square Garden. The Buckeyes (8-4) beat Kentucky for the third time in three CBS Sports Classic meetings. UK (10-2) entered the game with the nation’s leading offense, scoring nearly 91 points per game. The 65 points were the Wildcats’ lowest of the season. OSU got a career-high 30 points from junior point guard Bruce Thornton, the most points for a Buckeye against a Top 5 team since Duane Washington had 32 points against Illinois in the 2021 Big Ten Tournament Championship game. The Buckeyes shot 57 percent from the floor while holding Kentucky to a season-worst 29.8 percent. They also out-rebounded Kentucky 35-32. Otega Oweh led UK with 21 points.
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NKU South 58 Carolina State 47
The Norse (6-5) held South Carolina State to 13 second half points in winning for the sixth consecutive game. Trey Robinson scored 20 points -- his fourth game with 20+ this season and third this month, adding five rebounds and had a pair of assists. Sam Vinson scored 12 points, grabbed five boards and dished out three assists.
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Indiana 74 Chattanooga 65
Indiana (9-3) led by as many as 13 points, before the Mocs rallied to make it a four point game late. Malik Reneau and Mackenzie Mgbako each scored 14 points to lead the Hoosiers. Six different players scored at least eight points for the Hoosiers while nine of the 10 players that saw game action recorded at least one basket.
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Louisville 90 Florida State 76
The Cards (7-5/1-1) picked up their first ACC win of the year. Florida State sank the first bucket of the game, but UL immediately used a 16-2 run to take a 16-5 advantage six minutes into the game. Ryne Smith dropped 27 points to lead the Cards. Both Chucky Hepburn and Terrence Edwards Jr. logged eight assists apiece, the first time two Cardinals have had eight or more assists in the same game since March 16, 2013 against Syracuse when both Peyton Siva and Gorgei Deng had eight. Louisville made 15 3-pointers, marking the first time since Feb. 1, 2022 that a Cardinal team has achieved that feat.
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Eastern Michigan 86 Wright State 82
Alex Huibregtse's potential game-tying three-pointer in the final moments rattled out on the road. Wright State (7-7) closing the first half on a 13-3 scoring run to lead by eleven at the break. Four Raiders (7-7) scored in double figures. Jack Doumbia led four Raiders in double figures with 21 points, including 13 in the first half, as he added four rebounds, four steals and two assists.
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Auburn 87 Purdue 69, in Birmingham
Auburn All-American Johni Broome had 23 points and 11 rebounds in his return from a shoulder injury. The Boilers (8-4) have lost consecutive games and are now 2-3 against ranked teams this season. C.J. Cox scored a career-high 16 points, the first player outside of Purdue's top three (Kaufman-Renn, Loyer, Smith) to lead the team in scoring.
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Today
UC home to Grambling
The Bearcats have a quick turnaround after Friday night’s win over UD, hosting preseason SWAC favorite Grambling State at 4 p.m. It is the first all-time meeting between the schools. UC has won back-to-back games shooting under 38 percent, but it has risen to No. 5 in KenPom defense. Cincinnati is 8-0 when leading at the half.
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Miami welcomes the Sacred Heart Pioneers
The RedHawks rank 26th nationally in turnovers forced per game (16.0). Today marks the first time Miami and Sacred Heart have faced off. It will also be the first occasion that the Pioneers have taken on a MAC school in their program history.
