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Wildcats start slow, roll on

Tyler Ulis (3), Kentucky guard, drives against Mississippi State forward Fallou Ndoye (22) in the second half of Wednesday game in Starkville, Miss.
Tyler Ulis (3), Kentucky guard, drives against Mississippi State forward Fallou Ndoye (22) in the second half of Wednesday game in Starkville, Miss.

NO. 1 KENTUCKY 74, MISSISSIPPI STATE 56

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Top-ranked Kentucky fought off a slow start but still cruised to a 74-56 victory over Mississippi State on Wednesday night to keep its undefeated season on track.

Freshman Trey Lyles scored a career-high 18 points and Aaron Harrison added 16 for Kentucky (28-0, 15-0 Southeastern Conference), which is the last remaining undefeated team in the country.

Kentucky's 28-game winning streak is the second longest in school history, trailing only a 32-game run that stretched from 1953 to 1955. It's the longest in a single season for the program.

The Wildcats had to work a little for this one, leading just 41-37 with 15:10 remaining. But they responded with an avalanche of points down the stretch -- punctuated by a thunderous dunk by Karl-Anthony Towns -- to turn the contest into another convincing blowout.

Mississippi State (12-16, 5-10) has lost eight in a row to the Wildcats. Fred Thomas led the Bulldogs with 14 points.

The 6-foot-10 Lyles made 7 of 12 shots from the field and also had six rebounds.

Kentucky has appeared unstoppable of late, especially during a 110-75 rout of Auburn on Saturday.

And the Wildcats had some more spectacular moments on Wednesday, including two alley-oop dunks finished by Lyles in the opening four minutes.

But Kentucky looked slightly mortal for most of the first half, letting a 14-point lead evaporate to 33-27. Tyler Ulis hit a three-pointer just before the halftime buzzer to push the Wildcats' advantage to 36-27.

The Wildcats had a few more careless defensive moments early in the second half, which helped Mississippi State briefly make things interesting. Sword's pass to a wide-open Roquez Johnson led to an easy layup, pulling the Bulldogs within 41-37 with 15 minutes remaining.

Kentucky responded with the next six points by pounding the ball into the paint and using its significant size advantage to pull away for the victory.

NO. 2 VIRGINIA 70, WAKE FOREST 34

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- No. 2 Virginia was missing two starters, Wake Forest never had a chance and the Cavaliers earned their seventh consecutive victory by routing the Demon Deacons.

Anthony Gill scored 11 points and Darion Atkins added 10 for the short-handed Cavaliers (26-1, 14-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), but as is often the case for them, the team numbers were much more impressive than any individual stat lines.

Virginia finished with its highest-scoring game since an 89-80 double-overtime win over Miami on Jan. 3, while Wake Forest had its lowest-scoring game in the history of Joel Coliseum, which opened in 1989.

The ACC leaders shot 50 percent, led by 38 and held Wake Forest to 15 points in the first half and a season-worst 22 percent shooting overall.

Dinos Mitoglou had 10 points for the Demon Deacons (12-16, 4-11), who took their most lopsided loss of the year.

NO. 11 WICHITA STATE 63, INDIANA STATE 53

NDIANAPOLIS -- Darius Carter had 20 points and 11 rebounds to lead No. 11 Wichita State to a victory over Indiana State.

Fred VanVleet added 15 points while Tekele Cotton scored 12 in a win that saw Wichita State score 30 points in the paint.

The Shockers (26-3, 16-1 Missouri Valley) won their seventh consecutive game inside the Hulman Center, making it the second longest streak in school history against an opponent at its own arena. It was the 25th victory in the last 29 meetings against the Sycamores.

Indiana State (14-15, 10-7) led for nearly 12 minutes of the first half but a 19-9 run by the Shockers put them up 28-24 at halftime.

RICHMOND 67, NO. 22 VCU 63, 2 OT

RICHMOND, Va. -- Terry Allen had a key block and two free throws in closing seconds of the second overtime to help Richmond beat No. 22 Virginia Commonwealth.

ShawnDre' Jones scored 22 points and Allen had 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Spiders (16-12, 9-6 Atlantic 10). Kendall Anthony added 13 points and T.J. Cline had 11, including a tying layup with 2 seconds left in the first overtime.

Treveon Graham had 25 points and 10 rebounds to lead VCU (21-7, 11-4), and JeQuan Lewis added 15 points.

Graham made a long three-pointer from in front of the Rams' bench to tie the score at 52 at the end of regulation. With VCU trailing 65-63, Graham had a chance to send it to a third overtime but had his layup blocked from behind by Allen.

NO. 23 BUTLER 73, MARQUETTE 52

INDIANAPOLIS -- Kellen Dunham scored 22 points and Kameron Woods added 14 to lead No. 23 Butler to a victory over Marquette.

The Bulldogs (20-8, 10-5 Big East) rebounded from their worst loss of the season by winning their 20th game of the season for the 20th time in school history. Butler also avoided losing back-to-back games for the first time since mid-December.

Marquette (11-16, 4-12) was led by Luke Fisher with 17 points. It has lost four consecutive.

The short-handed Golden Eagles still managed to make things tough on Butler for nearly 30 minutes.

But after taking a 37-30 halftime lead, the Bulldogs finally seized control on Dunham's back-to-back threes. That gave Butler a 44-35 advantage with 15:53 to play. The Bulldogs then used a 7-0 run to push the lead to 59-42 with 8:43 left, and the Golden Eagles never challenged again.

Sports on 02/26/2015

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