TOP 25/SEC WOMEN
NO. 4 LOUISVILLE 87, BOSTON COLLEGE 52
BOSTON -- Asia Durr and her teammates were left with a bad taste after No. 4 Louisville's loss at No. 1 Connecticut earlier this week. They were ready to turn the page Thursday night against Boston College.
Durr scored 16 points to lead the Cardinals to an 87-52 victory against the Eagles for their sixth victory in seven games.
"We try to take it one game at a time," Durr said. "It was a great game, but we've got to start getting off on faster starts. We can't get off on slow starts."
The Cardinals led 32-27 at halftime after trailing by 12 in the opening period and outscored the Eagles 55-25 in the last two quarters.
"We just started to play hard," Louisville Coach Jeff Walz said. "They knocked (shots) down, and then we started to put some pressure and make things a little bit more difficult."
Louisville (26-2, 12-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) had its five-game winning streak snapped in the 69-58 loss at UConn on Monday, when it trailed by as many as 22 points and came no closer than the final margin in the second half.
Sam Fuehring totaled 14 points and 7 rebounds against the Eagles, Myisha Hines-Allen scored 13 points, Arica Carter and Kylee Shook had 11 each, and Jazmine Jones added 10.
Georgia Pineau followed up Sunday's career-high, 23-point game against Pittsburgh with 22 points and 7 rebounds to lead Boston College (7-9, 2-11). Eagles leading scorer Milan Bolden-Morris was held to nine points.
"I think (our focus now is) just finishing off strong," Pineau said. "Come into the (ACC Tournament) with some confidence."
Boston College was unable to build off Sunday's 72-61 victory over the Panthers, a victory that snapped the Eagles' season-high, nine-game losing streak. The Eagles' last victory against the Cardinals came Dec. 28, 1985.
Louisville stayed ahead of No. 5 Notre Dame atop the ACC standings with each team earning its 12th conference victory on Thursday.
In other Top 25/SEC games Thursday, Arike Ogunbowale scored 27 points and No. 5 Notre Dame (24-2, 12-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) opened with a 20-2 run and cruised past Virginia (16-10, 9-4) 83-69 at Charlottesville. ... Tyasha Harris scored 20 points, A'Ja Wilson added a double-double and No. 8 South Carolina (21-5, 10-3 SEC) took control in the second half to beat No. 20 Georgia (21-5, 9-4) 77-65 at Athens. ... Dominique Oden made two consecutive three-pointers late in the game, and Purdue (17-10, 8-5 Big Ten) shocked No. 10 Maryland (22-4, 11-2) 75-65 to end the Terrapins' seven-game winning streak at College Park, Md. ... Jordan Lewis scored 14 of her 19 points in the fourth quarter as Alabama (16-10, 7-7 SEC) upset No. 11 Tennessee (21-5, 9-4) 72-63 in Knoxville for its first road victory over the Lady Volunteers in school history. ... Shakayla Thomas scored 19 points, Imani Wright had 16 and No. 12 Florida State (22-4, 10-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) defeated Clemson (11-16, 1-13) for the 18th consecutive time, 91-43, at Tallahassee. ... Jordan Frericks scored 19 points and No. 13 Missouri (21-5, 9-4 SEC) built an early lead and held off Auburn (13-12) 59-51 at Auburn to win its fourth consecutive. ... Tiana Mangakahia scored 19 points, including the winning three-pointer with 57 seconds left, and Syracuse (19-7, 8-7 Atlantic Coast Conference) upended No. 17 Duke (20-7, 9-5) 68-65 at Syracuse. ... Ashanti Abshaw, Khayla Livingston and Olivia Voskuhl each scored 21 points and Cleveland State (18-8, 10-5 Horizon League) ended the 11-game winning streak of No. 19 Green Bay (22-3, 12-2) with a 71-60 victory at Cleveland. ... Darby Maggard and Kylee Smith combined for 49 points, 33 in the first half when Belmont (25-3, 15-0 Ohio Valley Conference) made 11 three-pointers, and the No. 24 Bruins made their debut in the Top 25 an impressive one with a 95-62 victory over Eastern Kentucky (8-16, 5-10) at Nashville, Tenn.
SEC
KENTUCKY 78,
ARKANSAS 57
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (12-14, 3-10 SEC) led by a point after a quarter, but it was all Kentucky (13-14, 5-8) after that at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Ky.
The Razorbacks made 5-of-11 three-pointers in the first quarter and led 20-19 heading into the second. From there, the Wildcats outscored the Razorbacks 59-37 including 20-12 in the second quarter and 21-10 in the fourth.
Arkansas was just 6-25 (24 percent) on three-pointers after their first-quarter burst.
Kentucky had five players score 10 or more points, including Maci Morris’ game-high 20. After Alyssa Rice’s 13 points, Keke McKinney and Tatyana Wyatt each scored 11, while Dorie Harrison added 10 more.
Jailyn Mason led Arkansas with 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting, including 4-of-8 three-pointers.
Malica Monk scored 14, while Bailey Zimmerman added 12 for the Razorbacks who finished the game shooting 30.4 percent.
Kentucky outscored Arkansas 38-12 in points in the lane and 32-7 in bench points. The Lady Wildcats outrebounded the Razorbacks 44-31 with Rice leading all players with 9.
Sports on 02/16/2018