LEXINGTON, Ky. — John Wall scored 19 points and No. 3 Kentucky pulled away in the second half for an 86-73 victory over Long Beach State on Wednesday.
DeMarcus Cousins shook off early foul trouble to finish with 15 points and 10 rebounds, Patrick Patterson added 15 points and 11 rebounds and Eric Bledsoe, playing on a sore ankle, had 11 points and 5 assists as the Wildcats (13-0) continued their best start since winning the first 14 games during the 1977-1978 season. The Wildcats won the national title that year.
For the first 30 minutes it looked like Kentucky had partied a little too hard after celebrating the program’s 2,000th victory Monday night. The Wildcats led just 58-55 before using their size to outmuscle the 49ers down the stretch.
Stephan Gilling and Larry Anderson scored 15 points each and T.J. Robinson had 13 points and 15 rebounds for Long Beach State (6-6), which caught a redeye after an 85-80 overtime loss at Loyola Marymount on Monday night, arriving in Lexington about 9 a.m. Eastern Tuesday for Wednesday’s game that started at 1 p.m.
NO. 6 WEST VIRGINIA 76, NO. 15 MISSISSIPPI 66
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Wellington Smith scored 17 of his career-high 19 points in the second half as West Virginia (9-0) beat Mississippi (10-2), which had won six consecutive.
Devin Ebanks added 14 points and 13 rebounds and Kevin Jones had 12 points for West Virginia, which is off to its best start since the 2004-2005 team started 10-0.
Zach Graham scored 14 points for Mississippi, which was held to its lowest scoring output of the season.
NO. 16 TENNESSEE 99, NORTH CAROLINA A&T 78
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Tyler Smith and reserve Kenny Hall each scored 16 points and Tennessee (9-2) scored the first 22 points of the game in a victory over North Carolina A&T (4-8).
Skylar McBee added 12 points and fellow reserve J.P. Prince had 10, starter Scotty Hopson scored 10 and Brian Williams grabbed 11 rebounds for Tennessee.
Dwane Joshua scored 20 points and James Porter had 11 rebounds for North Carolina A&T.
Tennessee had 21 steals, and North Carolina A&T committed 23 of its 34turnovers in the first half, leading to 33 Tennessee points.
ALABAMA 90, MERCER 71
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Sophomore forward JaMychal Green had a career-high 27 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Alabama to a victory win over Mercer.
The Crimson Tide opened the game with a 22-2 run, holding the Bears scoreless for the first 6:50.
Alabama (8-4) led 45-31 at the half and Mercer got no closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
Mikhail Torrance added 14 points for Alabama, while Senario Hillman chipped in 14 points.
James Florence scored 24 points to lead Mercer (4-7).
GEORGIA 77, FLORIDA ATLANTIC 60
ATHENS, Ga. - Trey Thompkins scored a career-high 35 points and had 15 rebounds and Dustin Ware scored 12 points as Georgia (6-4) beat Florida Atlantic (5-6) after trailing 30-29 at halftime.
Raymond Taylor and Shavar Richardson each scored 12 points for Florida Atlantic.
NO. 8 VILLANOVA 97, DELAWARE 63
VILLANOVA, Pa. - Scottie Reynolds scored 22 points, Taylor King had 19 points and 12 rebounds and Reggie Redding scored 16 points as Villanova (11-1) beat Delaware (3-8). Jawan Carter scored 13 points for Delaware.
ORAL ROBERTS 75, NO. 13 NEW MEXICO 66
TULSA - Michael Craion had 18 points and 13 rebounds and Dominique Morrison scored 17 points as Oral Roberts (7-6) beat New Mexico (12-1).
Phillip McDonald and Dairese Gary had 13 points each for New Mexico.
NO. 14 GEORGETOWN 86, HARVARD 70
WASHINGTON - Chris Wright had a career-high 34 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, Greg Monroe had 16 points and 16 rebounds, Austin Freeman scored 21 points, and Georgetown (9-1) used a half-ending 11-0 run to break open a tight game and beat Harvard (7-3). Jeremy Lin scored 15 points for Harvard
Sports, Pages 17 on 12/24/2009