College hoops Tuesday: No. 17 UConn falls in Houston

Villanova missed three consecutive free throws and Dunham hit two consecutive layups to bring Butler within one. He missed a three-point attempt with 11 seconds remaining and Pinkston hit his two free throws to close out the game and preserve the win.

It was an electric game, with Villanova leading throughout much of it. Villanova’s biggest lead of the game was nine points, but it just couldn’t quite shake a tenacious Butler team. Pinkston and Dunham scored a game-high 22 points.

The inside game wasn’t enough for South Florida, though. Memphis held USF to 42.3 percent shooting from the floor and the Bulls went 0-for-9 from beyond the arc.

The Tigers have now won their last 10 conference openers.

The Hawkeyes gave Nebraska plenty of opportunities to make it even closer. Iowa was just 22-of-39 from the free throw line, including 12-of-18 in the final eight minutes of the game. The Cornhuskers had an atrocious shooting night, though, and couldn’t capitalize -- they hit just 29.9 percent from the floor.

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Louisville jumped out early, beginning the game with a 15-2 run. The Cardinals extended their lead to 19 in the first half, before the Knights began to chip away. UCF cut Louisville’s lead to nine points at halftime, trailing 40-31, but that was the closest the Knights would get. The teams traded buckets early in the second half, before a big run by the Cardinals helped them blow the game wide open. Louisville led by as many as 27 points in the second half.

The Cardinals were effective from deep, hitting 14-of-27 three-point shots. UCF finished just 3-of-14 from deep. The game was a solid rebound win for Louisville after losing to Kentucky last week. The loss snapped UCF’s five-game winning streak.

It was a tale of two halves between Penn State and Michigan State on Tuesday. A huge second half from the No. 5 Spartans was good enough to secure a 79-63 win.

Brandon Taylor and D.J. Newbill combined for 35 of Penn State’s 63 points. The Nittany Lions gave the Spartans everything they could handle early on, but were unable to duplicate their first half performance in the second half. Michigan State dominated the boards, outrebounding PSU 45-26.

The win was the third straight for the Tar Heels (10-3), who shot 52.3% (34-for-65) from the field and outrebounded Wilminton 46-30.

UNC outscored Wilmington 53-28 in the second half.

If you like college basketball and you either have New Year’s Eve off work or have a job that won’t require much of your attention after lunch, Tuesday is the day for you. College hoops is full of action all day, and there’s probably a pun to be made about a ball dropping, but we’re too professional to make it.

Here’s a look at the rest of Tuesday’s games: