Georgetown, Villanova pull upsets; Duke rolls

Up nine at the break, La Salle withstood a 17-0 run from the Rams to start the second half and answered with a 10-3 run of its own to retake control.

In the final minute, the Explorers made nine out of ten free throws to prevent VCU from pulling off the comeback.

In total, Wichita State outscored Bradley 41-16 in the second half to turn a nine-point game at halftime into a laugher in the final minutes.

No. 8 Florida cruised to a comfortable eighth-straight victory on Saturday, easily dispatching unranked Mississippi State by a score of 82-47. Florida shot 56.4 percent on the night and managed to dominate the boards, pulling down 40 rebounds to the Bulldogs’ 16.

After the first half, Florida led by a score of 41-19, and it was smooth sailing from there. They started the second half off with a 15-2 run and didn’t look back. They slowed down near the end, but that was with some key players on the bench and without worry of a comeback from the Bulldogs, who are now 7-11 on the season, with a 2-4 mark in the SEC.

San Francisco, meanwhile, turned it over 17 times and lost the rebounding battle, 36-29.

On the other end, the Bulldogs held the Dons to 39.2 percent from the field. Eight players scored for San Francisco, but none hit double figures. Chris Adams had a team-high nine points, all from beyond the arc.

No. 16 Oregon is now 7-0 in conference, climbing in the national rankings and has emerged as the team to beat in the Pac-12.

A scorching performance from the field was the key Saturday night for the Ducks, who shot 26-for-45, good for 58 percent. Singler made seven of his nine attempts.

But it wasn’t all positive for the Wolfpack, who gave up 57 points in the second half. If not for some late offense from North Carolina, the score might have been more lopsided. The Tar Heels trailed by 28 at one point, only to cut it to five in the final minute.

For the Trojans, the story begins and ends with their ice cold shooting. The team shot under 30% both from the floor and from three point range, and just plain weren’t able to keep up with Arizona. Jio Fontan led the team with nine points, but did so on 2-9 shooting. The Trojans also turned the ball over 16 times, and could only manage six assists as a team.

The Owls put up a fight, tying the game at 56-56 with 7:23 to go, but a quick 8-2 run, led by two threes from Dunham, put Butler back in the driver’s seat. After Temple’s Khalif Wyatt answered with a layup, the Bulldogs unraveled another seven in a row to seal the victory.

Wyatt had 22 points, including 4-6 shooting from three, to lead the Owls. Forward Anthony Lee had 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds.

In last Wednesday’s 90-63 loss to the Hurricanes, Plumlee had 15 points and 11 rebounds, playing all but three minutes. He followed that up on Saturday with a 19-point and seven rebound performance at home against the Terrapins, on 9-of-12 shooting. He even threw down a reverse, two-handed dunk that had him trending on Twitter. Duke eventually defeated the Terrapins, 84-64.

For the season, Plumlee has easily been Duke’s most reliable player. He leads the Blue Devils in scoring (17.3 points per game) and rebounding (11.4), while playing more minutes than anyone else per contest (34.2).

Kansas State shot the ball well enough to win, but allowed Iowa State to get 10 offensive rebounds, including five from Clyburn. The Wildcats trailed for most of the first half but rallied from six points down to take a one-point lead at halftime. The game remained close throughout the final buzzer, but the Cyclones again held the advantage for the majorirty of the half.

Iowa State never led by more than six points in either half, but was able to fend off the Wildcats every time they tried to put a run together.