The top four teams in the country were all in action Tuesday night, but only Louisville received any sort of test. The fourth-ranked Cardinals overcame a four-point halftime deficit to best College of Charleston, 69-62. Syracuse, Ohio State and Kentucky, meanwhile, won their games by a combined 71 points.
Louisville Holds Off Charleston As The Rest Of The Top Four Rolls
The nation’s top four teams all picked up home victories on Tuesday, but No. 4 Louisville’s didn’t come easily.
TOP 25 SCORES
No. 1 Syracuse 80, Bucknell 61
No. 2 Ohio State 70, Lamar 50
No. 3 Kentucky 82, Samford 50
No. 4 Louisville 69, College of Charleston 62
No. 15 Pittsburgh 71, Saint Francis (PA) 47
GAME OF THE NIGHT: Louisville 69, College of Charleston 62
The fourth-ranked Cardinals trailed 57-55 with 5:06 to play but went on a 9-2 run over the next 3 minutes to take control for good. Senior forward Kyle Kuric finished with 17 points while Gorgui Dieng added 14 points and 12 rebounds for the No. 4 team in the country.
U of L allowed Charleston to knock down a season-high 12 three-pointers, but counter-balanced that by forcing the Cougars into a season-worst 22 turnovers, many coming in the game’s final minutes.
“It was a heck of a ballgame,” Charleston coach Bobby Cremins said. “Their pressure finally caught up to us down the stretch.”
Louisville will play Western Kentucky on Friday in their final tune-up before a monster week that includes opening Big east play against Georgetown (12/28) and heading to Lexington to face No. 3 Kentucky (12/31).
UPSET OF THE NIGHT: Ohio 76, Northern Iowa 59
The fact that Ohio won this game isn't entirely surprising, but the Bobcats going into the McLeod Center and walking out with a 17-point margin of victory was certainly something that made you look twice. Tuesday night was just the fourth time NIU - which had been 6-0 at home this season - had lost in the building by double-digits.
Ohio (10-1) is off to its best start since the 1940-41 Bobcat squad opened 11-1 and wound up playing in the NIT championship game. OU has also started 5-0 in road/neutral site games for the first time since 1920-21. Their lone setback remains a 59-54 loss at Louisville in Nov.
PLAYER OF THE NIGHT: Darien Brothers, Richmond
Brothers came into Tuesday night averaging 10.5 points per game and had hit his previous career best (22) just last month versus Illinois. He shattered that mark in the Spiders’ 90-82 win over Old Dominion, making 9 of 15 shots and 7 of 11 from 3-point range, as well as 13 of 14 free throws and finishing with 38 points. He scored 11 of UR’s 18 points in overtime.
HONOR ROLL:
Julius Mays, Wright State - Scored 28 points and buried a trey at the buzzer to lift Wright State to an 80-78 overtime win over Idaho.
Doron Lamb, Kentucky - Scored 26 points in Kentucky's 32-point thrashing of Samford.
Trey Ziegler, Central Michigan - Led the Chippewas with 20 points, eight assists and eight rebounds in a 72-69 loss to Nebraska.
Preston Medlin, Utah State - Scored 27 points and shot 6 of 9 from 3-point range to lead Utah State past Texas-Arlington 73-69.
Reggie Hamilton, Oakland - Dropped 31 in an 85-73 loss to Arizona.
HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT:
Apparently there's no video of the Wright State/Idaho game, which featured a halfcourt buzzer-beater to send the game into overtime and then another buzzer-beater in OT to win it for the Raiders. We'll have to settle for C.J. Leslie and NC State beating the St. Bonaventure at the buzzer.
IMAGE OF THE NIGHT:
Potential foul during Georgia’s 72-58 win over Mercer.
FIVE TO END:
1. It was a victory for Jared Sullinger on Wednesday night in the ongoing battle between he and his foot injury. The big man played 30 minutes and scored 18 points to go with 11 rebounds in Ohio State's 70-50 win over Lamar. You still have to wonder why Thad Matta would risk playing the POY front-runner that much against that opponent at this point in the season.
2. With its win over Saint Francis (PA) on Tuesday, Pittsburgh has now started 11-1 in 11 of the past 12 seasons. That’s unreal.
3. Seth Greenberg is refusing to let his Virginia Tech players use the word “chilling” or any variation.
“Chilling is out of the vocabulary,” Greenberg said with a smile during his postgame news conference. “If I see ‘chilling’ on Twitter, they immediately get a message from me: Coach Greenberg doesn’t chill, he just strictly grinds. Chilling is a bad word. You can’t have success and chill in the same sentence. If you’re chilling, you’re going backwards.”
This is what a decade on the bubble does to a man.
4. Arizona State's Ruslan Pateev will miss just one game for his sucker punch against Southern Mississippi Tuesday night. Color me a bit surprised, especially after the national splash that the Xavier/Cincinnati brawl made.
5. UConn point guard Shabazz Napier suffered an ankle injury during practice on Tuesday and could miss the Huskies' Thursday night game against a tough Fairfield team.
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