College hoops Saturday: The madness continues

Atkins scored five straight points in the fifth overtime period to give Notre Dame a 103-100 lead with 15 seconds remaining, and the Irish were able to clinch the game from the free-throw line the rest of the way.

Smith had another opportunity to break a 75-75 tie with 15 seconds left in the second overtime but missed a running layup as time expired to force a third overtime period.

Player of the Year candidate Doug McDermott had his typical monstrous game with 24 points and a game-high 13 rebounds in the loss. Despite his gaudy numbers, McDermott missed all five of his three-point attempts, but made up for it with 10 points from the free-throw line.

Brown, however, scored 25-plus points for the second straight game and has emerged as one of the league’s elite players. He was 10-18 overall and hit two critical threes early in the second half to put his team up after trailing by three at the break. That was part of a stretch in which he scored ten consecutive points for Illinois State.

UNLV led the entire 40 minutes and never let the Lobos close to within less than seven the entire second half. New Mexico did come out of halftime quickly with five quick points to pull to within nine, but Bennett then answered with two quick scores and Reinhardt hit a three to silence the threat.

The Lobos could not close to within single digits until the final minutes.

With the win, Oregon moves to within a half game of Arizona for first place in the Pac-12, while Utah drops to 2-9 and is alone in the league’s basement.

This was the sixth win in a row for the Bulldogs, who have not lost since that classic buzzer beater against Butler a few weeks back. The Bulldogs led this game for all but about a minute of play, and they were never really threatened.

Gonzaga, the nation’s second-best shooting team, shot 51.1 percent, including a 14-19 combined performance from Pangos and Olynyk.

With the loss, Purdue drops to 12-12 overall and 5-6 in the Big Ten. The Spartans are now 9-2 in the conference and, for now, are alone in first place.

McGruder finished with 22 points on 7-13 shooting, while Rodriguez had 20 for a Wildcats team that has now won four straight games.

Iowa State hung with Kansas State for most of the game, trailing by just one at the half. Then, with the Cyclones still within a point midway through the second half, the Wildcats went on a 12-3 run to create some distance. From there, Iowa State would get no closer than seven as Kansas State held off every comeback attempt.

Florida used an 11-0 run midway through the first half to provide some distance and never allowed the Bulldogs back into the game. The lead was 42-26 by halftime and grew to 25 points in the second half as the Gators continued to roll.

This is the first time since 2005 that Kansas has lost three in a row, a stat that is certainly not lost on head coach Bill Self. Following the Jayhawks’ shocking defeat to TCU last week, Self ripped his team in the postgame press conference, calling them “the worst team Kansas has ever put on the floor since Dr. Naismith was there.”

Osby connected on a three less than three minutes in to put Oklahoma up for good, though the lead never stretched into double digits.

While George Washington entered the Saturday match-up just one game above .500 this season, Butler had to battle on the road to avoid its fifth loss of the season. The Bulldogs carried a nine-point advantage into halftime and led by double digits throughout the second half, but simply couldn’t put away the Colonials.

After a pair of Rotnei Clark jumpers, Butler had expanded its lead to 48-31 with roughly 12 minutes left, seemingly pulling away as GW struggled to make any shots. The Bulldogs would proceed to score just two more field goals over the final 12 minutes as the Colonials trimmed the lead to just one point with 45 seconds left in regulation.

Brandon Young finished with 21 points and six assists to pace the Blue Demons (10-13, 1-9 Big East) in the losing effort.

Smart scored half of the Cowboys’ first 42 points as Oklahoma State began to run away from the Longhorns early in the second half. Later in the game, as the rest of the Cowboys started to get in on the scoring, Smart filled up the box score in other categories, racking up seven rebounds, five steals, three assists and a couple of blocks.

Oklahoma State (17-5, 7-3 Big 12) has won two straight road games after losing their previous eight away from home, dating back to last season. The Cowboys have won five consecutive games overall, and will go for number six on Wednesday at Texas Tech.

After bursting out to a 9-0 lead in the first two-plus minutes of the game, it became immediately apparent that the Hurricanes were aiming for an effort similar to their 90-63 blowout of then-No. 1 Duke on Jan. 23. Miami didn’t disappoint, never trailing in a dominant all-around effort.

The Tar Heels battled throughout the first half, still trailing by just nine points with four minutes left before halftime, but the wheels came off after that. Miami finished the half on a 14-6 run, then expanded that lead to as many as 26 points just five minutes into the second half.

Couple things I didn’t expect to see today. First, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are at the Miami-North Carolina game. Sure, the two play for the Miami Heat and all, but this has to be a sign that the Hurricanes basketball program is doing pretty well for itself.

The two are courtside, of course, because that’s the only way to go. And look at who is sitting next to them:

There’s a wild affair going on up in Madison, Wisconsin this afternoon between the No. 3 Michigan Wolverines and the Wisconsin Badgers. A back and forth affair all game long, the Wolverines took a 57-54 lead in the final minute.

But then, Badgers big man Jared Berggren did this, sending the Kohl Center crowd into a frenzy:

Ben Brust made a game-tying three pointer from just inside the halfcourt line at the buzzer in regulation and hit another clutch trey in overtime to lift the Wisconsin Badgers to a 65-62 upset victory over the No. 3 Michigan Wolverines on Saturday at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wisc.