GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Tim Williams scored 21 points, De-Andre Hersey had a put back with 1.8 seconds remaining and South Alabama stunned No. 18 Florida 67-66 on Tuesday night.
Williams drove through the lane in the closing seconds, but his shot clanged off the rim. The Gators failed to block out Hersey, who grabbed the rebound and put it back up for the game winner.
Florida had one final chance, but Erving Walker’s shot from half court hit the back of the rim and the Jaguars (9-4) started to celebrate. Florida (8-3) has lost three consecutive and could fall from the rankings.
The Gators rallied from a seven-point deficit in the second half and had the lead and the ball with less than a minute to play. But Chandler Parsons, who finished 1 of 8 from the field, misfired on a wild runner in the lane with 18 seconds remaining.
Alex Tyus led Florida with 16 points and seven rebounds, Kenny Boynton added 14 points, and Vernon Macklin finished with 13 points and 7 rebounds.
MISSISSIPPI STATE 88, CENTENARY 51
JACKSON, Miss. - Ravern Johnson scored 20 points, Barry Stewart added 14 and Mississippi State (1-2) beat Centenary (4-7).
The Bulldogs won their seventh consecutive this season and their ninth consecutive in Jackson, using the long range game to send the Gents to their fifth consecutive loss.
Johnson hit 5 of 8 three-pointers and the Bulldogs were 14 of 27 from the field, making at least 10 three-pointers for the eighth time this season.
He had at least one three-point field goal in the three key runs that clinched the victory for Mississippi State.
AUBURN 94, ALABAMA STATE 78
AUBURN, Ala. - Brendon Knox scored a career-high 18 points off the bench to lead Auburn (6-6) over Alabama State (2-8).
DeWayne Reed added 15 points, Lucas Hargrove had 14 and Tay Waller chipped in 13 for Auburn.
Auburn pulled away in the first half with an 11-2 run and led by as many as 16 points with 5:10 to go before halftime. Reed hit a basket as time expired to give the Tigers a 46-33 halftime lead.
Menji Mundadi, Alabama State’s leading scorer, finished with 15 points after getting into early foul trouble. Mundadi scored nine points in the second half. Tramaine Butler added 14 points for the Hornets.
NO. 1 KANSAS 84, CALIFORNIA 69
LAWRENCE, Kan. - Sherron Collins keyed a late surge to finish with 17 points as Kansas (11-0) beat California (6-4).
Marcus Morris had 14 points, Tyshawn Taylor had 13 and 7 assists, and Xavier Henry added 12 points for Kansas, which shot 55 percent to extend the nation’s longest home winning streak to 49 games.
Patrick Christopher had 21 points for Cal. Jamal Boykin had 15 points and 15 rebounds, and Jerome Randle added 16 points.
Kansas used a quick 9-2 run and a long, pull-up three-pointer by Collins to go ahead 65-56 with 9 1 /2 minutes left.
A another long three in transition by Collins put Kansas up 75-63 with 4:43 left.
NO. 2 TEXAS 79, NO. 9 MICHIGAN STATE 68
AUSTIN, Texas - Damion James had 23 points and 13 rebounds, leading Texas (11-0) past Michigan State (9-3).
Chris Allen had 12 points for the Spartans.
Jordan Hamilton had 14 points, including four three-pointers, for the Longhorns, who now have a week off.
Kalin Lucas and Durrell Summers had 11 points each for Michigan State.
The Longhorns trailed 37-34 at halftime, and quickly started chipping away at the deficit.
J’Covan Brown hit a corner threepointer with 12:58 left to tie the game at 52-52. James gave the Longhorns the lead back seconds later, hitting a floater in the lane to put Texas ahead for the first time since the first half.
From there, the Longhorns slowly pulled away - then abruptly put the game out of reach.
NO. 4 PURDUE 90, SIU-EDWARDSVILLE 63
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - JaJuan Johnson scored 16 points and E’Twaun Moore added 15, leading Purdue (11-0) past SIU-Edwardsville (2-10).
The Boilermakers matched the second-best start in school history and the longest winning streak under Coach Matt Painter. The 1936-1937 Boilermakers were 11-0 and the 1993-1994 Boilermakers started 14-0.
SIU-Edwardsville lost its fourth consecutive. Mark Yelovic had 23 points for the Cougars, who are in the second year of a four-year transition to Division I.
Purdue took control by closing the first half on an 11-0 run to make it 48-28, then closed it out with spurts of 11-5 and 16-3 in the second half.
NO. 5 SYRACUSE 92, OAKLAND, MICH. 60
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Freshman guard Brandon Triche had a season-high 27 points, Wes Johnson added 19 pointsand 11 rebounds, and Syracuse (12-0) beat Oakland, Mich. (6-7).
Drew Maynard led Oakland with 18 points, Keith Benson had 10 points and six rebounds and Derick Nelson had 10 points.
Triche was 6 of 6 on three-pointers and 9 of 11 from the field, and had four assists with one turnover. Rick Jackson had 14 points and Mookie Jones had 13 in just 16 minutes.
NO. 10 NORTH CAROLINA 98, MARSHALL 61
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Ed Davis had 19 points and 10 rebounds and Tyler Zeller matched a career high with 18 points to lead North Carolina (9-3) past Marshall (9-2).
Marcus Ginyard and Deon Thompson added 14 points each and Will Graves had 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Tar Heels.
Shaquille Johnson had 16 points and Tyler Wilkerson added 12 for Marshall. The Herd had their seven-game winning streak snapped.
North Carolina held a 53-34 advantage in rebounding against a Thundering Herd team that started three guards.
NO. 11 CONNECTICUT 71, MAINE 54
HARTFORD, Conn. - Jerome Dyson scored 22 of his 27 points in the second half when Connecticut (8-2) pulled away to a victory over Maine (5-5).
Stanley Robinson added 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Huskies, who broke from a 26-all halftime tie. Kemba Walker had nine assists for UConn, but scored four points on 1-of-10 shooting from the field.
Terrance Mitchell had 13 points to lead Maine and Gerald McLemore added 10.
NO. 17 OHIO STATE 72, CLEVELAND STATE 59
COLUMBUS, Ohio - David Lighty, a junior picking up the slack for the injured Evan Turner, scored 22 of his career-high 30 points against his hometown team, leading Ohio State (10-2) past Cleveland State (4-9) for its third consecutive victory.
William Buford added 13 points and Dallas Lauderdale had 12 for the Buckeyes, who won their third in a row.
Jeremy Montgomery had a careerbest 23 points for Cleveland State. Norris Cole, the Vikings’ leading scorer at 17 points a game, did not score, missing all 10 of his shots from the field. He had six turnovers and one assist.
NO. 24 CLEMSON 79, WESTERN CAROLINA 57
CLEMSON, S.C. - Trevor Booker scored a season-high 31 points and his brother Devin added 10 to lead Clemson (11-2) over Western Carolina (10-2) for its fourth consecutive victory.
The Catamounts trailed 56-51 with eight minutes to go when the Bookers took over. Clemson scored the next 19 points, with Trevor and Devin each scoring six during the run.
Western Carolina missed 10 consecutive three-pointers during the run and by the time Harouna Mutombo hit a three with 1:05 left, the Catamounts were down 75-54.
Mutombo led Western Carolina with 19 points.
SEC WOMEN
NO. 4 TENNESSEE 89, SAN FRANCISCO 34
SAN FRANCISCO - Angie Bjorklund scored 19 points in 17 minutes and moved into third place on Tennessee’s all-time three-pointers list with 165, and the Lady Vols (10-1) beat San Francisco (4-10).
Glory Johnson added 13 points and nine rebounds for the Lady Vols.
Rheina Ale scored 11 points to lead San Francisco. Tennessee forced 10 first-half turnovers and 18 in all and outrebounded the Dons 52-32.
NO. 9 GEORGIA 66, DETROIT 42
ATHENS, Ga. - Freshman Jasmine Hassell scored a career-high 14 points as Georgia (11-0) beat Detroit (1-9).
Meredith Mitchell and Ashley Houts added 12 each for Georgia, which shot just 32 percent from the field. Hassell hit six of her nine field-goal attempts and the rest of the Bulldogs were 18 for 65 (28 percent).
Brigid Mulroy scored 14 for Detroit.
NO. 11 LSU 72, SE LOUISIANA 27
BATON ROUGE - Allison Hightower scored 16 points and added five steals to help LSU (10-1) beat Southeastern Louisiana (6-6).
LaSondra Barrett had 11 points and a season-high 10 rebounds and 5 assists for LSU.
Kim Edmonson led the Lady Lions with 10 points. Southeastern Louisiana’s leading scorer Quantae Thomas was held to five points. The scoring output was a season-low for the Lady Lions, who shot just 23 percent from the field.
Sports, Pages 20 on 12/23/2009