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Big Ten states its case with seven teams in the Top 25

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Michigan coach John Beilein addresses the media at the NCAA Final Four.

Is the Big Ten regaining its swagger in NCAA Division I men’s basketball?

Led by undefeated Michigan, the Big Ten leads all conferences with seven teams in this week’s edition of the Associated Press Top 25, according to the poll released on Monday.

Michigan, an NCAA Tournament finalist last year, moved up one spot to fourth. Michigan State dropped one place to 10th.

Others from the Big Ten in the seventh installment of the Top 25 include Ohio State (15), Wisconsin (16th), Indiana (22), Iowa (23) and Nebraska (25).

The ACC has five teams in, including Duke (2), Virginia (5), North Carolina (9), Florida State (11) and Virginia Tech (13).

Last year, the Big Ten’s image took a blow when only four of its teams reached the field of 68 in the NCAA Tournament.

It was the lowest total for the conference since 2008.

In addition, only two Big Ten schools — Michigan and Purdue — reached the Sweet 16.

Michigan helped the conference save face when it stormed through the West as the No. 3 seed to reach the Final Four in San Antonio.

At the Alamodome, Michigan knocked off Loyola-Chicago to reach the championship game, where it was throttled 79-62 by Villanova.

–AP Top 25
1. Kansas 9-0 Big 12
2. Duke 9-1 ACC
3. Tennessee 8-1 SEC
4. Michigan 11-0 Big Ten
5. Virginia 9-0 ACC
6. Nevada 11-0 Mountain West
7. Auburn 9-1 SEC
8. Gonzaga 9-2 West Coast
9. North Carolina 8-2 ACC
10. Michigan State 9-2 Big Ten
11. Florida State 8-1 ACC
12. Texas Tech 10-0 Big 12
13. Virginia Tech 9-1 ACC
14. Buffalo 10-0 Mid-American
15. Ohio State 9-1 Big Ten
16. Wisconsin 9-2 Big Ten
17. Mississippi State 9-1 SEC
18. Arizona State 8-1 Pac 12
19. Kentucky 8-2 SEC
20. Marquette 8-2 Big East
21. Houston 10-0 American
22. Indiana 9-2 Big Ten
23. Iowa 8-2 Big Ten
24. Furman 12-0 Southern
25. Nebraska 9-2 Big Ten

Texas State beats UTRGV, 77-68, extends streak to eight

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Texas State won its eighth game in a row Saturday night, playing on the road and downing UT Rio Grande Valley, 77-68.

Within the winning streak, the Bobcats have won four straight on the road, claiming victories at Portland, UTSA, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and UT Rio Grande Valley.

Tre’Larenz Nottingham scored 19 and Nijal Pearson 16 for the Bobcats. Lesley Varner II had 20 for the Broncs.

Records

Texas State 10-1
UT Rio Grande Valley 7-5

Notable

Trailing by 16 with 13 minutes left, the Broncs rallied to within six. With about two minutes left, UT Rio Grande Valley had a chance to cut it to four twice on one possession, but Varner and Jaron Levi missed. Eric Terry responded with a layup and Nottingham hit a free throw to put the game away for the Bobcats, who haven’t lost since Nov. 17 at Drake.

LSU wins 91-50, as free throw streak for UIW’s Peevy ends at 24

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Christian Peevy’s streak of consecutive free throws made ended at 24 on Sunday afternoon in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Peevy, a University of the Incarnate Word sophomore from Chicago, hit his first three in a game against the LSU Tigers.

But he finally missed on the second of two with 9:52 left in the opening half during LSU’s 91-50 victory in the Maravich Assembly Center.

The Peevy streak included: 14 straight at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on Nov. 25. Seven (in seven attempts) at home last week against Trinity. Finally, three at LSU.

After his lone miss, he finished with six straight, giving him 9 of 10 for the game and 59 of 65 for the season (90.7 percent).

Before the game at LSU, Peevy vowed to try to break the NCAA record for consecutive makes held by UIW assistant coach Darnell Archey.

Archey made 85 in a row over parts of three seasons at Butler from 2001-03.

UTSA runs away from Mid-America Christian, 104-74

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Sophomore guard Keaton Wallace scored a career-high 35 points to lead UTSA to a 104-74 victory over Mid-American Christian on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018, at the UTSA Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

Sophomore guard Keaton Wallace scored a career-high 35 points to lead UTSA to a 104-74 victory over Mid-American Christian on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018, at the UTSA Convocation Center. – photo by Joe Alexander

With Keaton Wallace and Jhivvan Jackson leading a rejuvenated offense, the UTSA Roadrunners blew out the NAIA Mid-America Christian Evangels, 104-74, Saturday afternoon.

Yes, it was fun for the Roadrunners to win at home again, finally, after an 0-3 start at the Convocation Center. It also felt good to produce season-highs in points and field goal percentage (60.3).

But more than that, UTSA coach Steve Henson commended the players’ focus and work ethic in practices since a deflating 69-68 home loss to Texas State last Saturday.

“I liked the entire week,” Henson said. “Certainly, this is a results-based thing that we’re involved in here and we have to find a way to win ball games. But we also have to find a way to get better every week and every opportunity. I think we really took advantage of that this week.”

Individuals

UTSA — Wallace scored a career-high 35 points on 12 of 16 shooting. He was one off the school record with nine threes. Jackson produced a season-high 28 on an 11-for-21 effort.

Mid-America Christian — Char Beauregard, Jr., scored 15. Daniel William and Justin Bogle had 13 apiece.

Records

UTSA 3-6
Mid-America Christian 6-3

Notable

Henson shuffled his starting lineup, giving Jackson his first start of the season. Jackson responded with a 25-minute performance that included six rebounds, three assists and a team-high four turnovers. The move seemed to create space on the floor for Wallace, who was getting open looks consistently.

Quotable

Asked what went into the decision to start Jackson, Henson said: “Today was the first day we didn’t have to monitor his minutes. We didn’t know where his conditioning would even be prior to being unrestricted. So, it was good to see that that was not a factor. Really, just to give us a jolt offensively.”

Jhivvan Jackson. UTSA beat Mid-American Christian 104-74 on Saturday, Dec. 8, 2018, at the UTSA Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

Jhivvan Jackson produced a season-high 28 points against Mid-America Christian.

Texas State beats A&M-Corpus Christi for sixth straight win

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Freshman forward Alonzo Sule scored 22 points, and the Texas State Bobcats won their sixth game in a row Wednesday night with a 61-55 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Junior guard Nijal Pearson added 16 points to secure the road win for the Bobcats in Corpus Christi.

Jayshawn Talton scored 12 for A&M-Corpus Christi.

The Islanders pulled to within two points of the Bobcats with 13 seconds left (57-55) when forward Elijah Schmidt sank a layup.

Bobcats guard Tre Nottingham sank four free throws and forced a turnover in the last nine seconds to clinch it.

Texas State is off to its best start in men’s basketball since the 1960-61 season.

Records

Texas State 8-1
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 4-5

Pearson scores 25 as Texas State knocks off Rice, 74-60

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Junior guard Nijal Pearson hit five 3-point baskets en route to 25 points Wednesday night, pacing the Texas State Bobcats past the Rice Owls, 74-60, in San Marcos.

Texas State (6-1) has won four straight leading into a Saturday afternoon road game at UTSA.

In the game played at Strahan Arena, the Bobcats beat the Owls 40-30 on the boards and made 11 of 27 shots from beyond the arc.

Chris Mullins led the Owls (3-5) with 12 points and four steals.

Pearson, from Beaumont, will come into San Antonio leading Texas State in scoring at 21 points per game.

The 6-5 guard has scored a combined 58 points in his last two games, including 33 against in a 91-68 win at Portland on Saturday night in Oregon.

As a team, the Bobcats are limiting opponents to 57.7 points on 37 percent shooting.

Jackson, Frohnen score 21 as UTSA rallies past HBU, 86-82

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Keaton Wallace. St. Edward's beat UTSA 77-76 in men's basketball on Wednesday night, Nov. 8, 2018, at the UTSA Convocation Center. - photo by Joe Alexander

Keaton Wallace drives on a defender in a Nov. 8 home game against St. Edward’s.

Jhivvan Jackson and Byron Frohnen scored 21 points apiece Monday night as UTSA rallied past Houston Baptist, 86-82.

Frohnen, a junior from Las Vegas, hit 10 of 12 shots from the floor, scored his career high and led the Roadrunners to their second straight victory.

Keaton Wallace had 20 points, eight rebounds and two steals for UTSA.

The game was played in Houston at Sharp Gym. Houston Baptist came in with confidence, having knocked off Wake Forest, 93-91, on the road last weekend.

Huskies guard Ian DuBose led the home team with 15 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.

Benjamin Uloko had 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting off the bench, and 6-10 center Edward Hardt scored 13 for HBU.

In a game that went back and forth all night, the Huskies led by six with six minutes left but couldn’t hold on against the Roadrunners, who scored a dozen points in a row to take charge.

Notable

UTSA hit its season-high in scoring, while shooting 46.8 percent from the field. Frohnen scored 13 in the first half. Jackson, in his fourth game back since returning from a knee injury, was limited to 20 minutes. He scored 15 points in the second half. Jackson has scored 21 in back-to-back games. Wallace hit four three-pointers, giving him eight in his last two.

Quotable

“A lot of these teams have to focus on these great shooters in Keaton and Jhivvan. That just opens up some lanes for me, and I took advantage of it tonight.” — Frohnen told the team’s radio broadcast on KTKR.

Records

UTSA: 2-5
Houston Baptist: 2-3

Coming up

Texas State at UTSA, Saturday, 3 p.m.

How it happened

Houston Baptist appeared to be on the verge of winning when Oliver Lynch-Daniels drove for a layup and a 72-66 lead for the Huskies with 5:45 left.

Not to be denied, the Roadrunners surged 12-0 over the next two minutes, with Jackson scoring the first eight in the run.

UTSA point guard Giovanni De Nicolao capped the streak when he sank a free throw for a 78-72 lead with 3:03 remaining.

At the end, DuBose drilled a three-pointer to pull the Huskies within two with 8 seconds left.

But Jackson was fouled on the inbounds, and he hit two free throws to account for the final points.

Electrifying Jordan Davis leads Northern Colorado past UIW

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Northern Colorado guard Jordan Davis arrived at the McDermott Center Wednesday night billed as one of the top offensive threats in the Big Sky Conference.

Davis more than lived up to the hype with an all-around performance that lifted the Bears to a 90-64 victory over the Incarnate Word Cardinals.

With a quick first step, the nation’s 10th leading scorer made it tough on the Cardinals all night.

Not only did he produce 20 points on 7 of 12 shooting, he also grabbed five rebounds, passed for five assists and made four steals.

His drive and dunk over UIW’s Augustine Ene with four minutes remaining left a bystander behind the basket aghast, as he exclaimed, “Man, that was sick.”

(See video above).

Another Bears’ guard, Jonah Radebaugh, also hurt UIW with 20 points. Radebaugh nailed 5 of 6 three-point baskets.

Davis, 6-2, from Las Vegas, came in averaging 24.5 points.

“He’s really, really tough, really physical,” UIW coach Carson Cunningham said. “We knew he was a lot to deal with. I think he had 32 (points) on Pepperdine. We felt like he was going to present a major challenge for us. So we’re just going to keep battling.”

Davis seemed to turn up his intensity a few notches near the end of the game.

In a sequence of plays that lasted 71 seconds on clock, he drove down the lane for a layup (see video above), assisted on a layup for teammate Jalen Sanders and then threw down the dunk of the night.

“I definitely enjoy playing this pace, and making plays for my teammates,” Davis told The JB Replay. “I thought my teammates did a wonderful job of spacing the floor with screens and just getting me open.”

Records

Northern Colorado: 3-0
Incarnate Word: 4-4


UIW forward Christian Peevy drives to the basket for a field goal late in the first half Wednesday night.

Shooting a high percentage from the field, Northern Colorado surged into a 49-31 halftime lead.

The Bears opened on a 14-3 run in the first five minutes of the game. After UIW responded with a streak to trim the lead to 19-13, Northern Colorado surged again, scoring 13 of the next 16 points.

After the dust cleared, the Bears held a 32-16 lead. The visiting team didn’t look back, building the advantage to as many as 22 points. Long-distance shooting artist Bodie Hume led the way with 13 points, including three baskets from three-point territory, in the first half.

UIW enjoyed perhaps its best stretch of the game in the first four minutes after intermission. Christian Peevy scored seven points in a 14-3 run for the Cardinals that cut the lead to six points.

Notable

Peevy produced a season-high 26 points on 9 of 12 from the field and 8 of 9 at the free throw line. Guard Augustine Ene was 7 of 11 for 16 points.

Northern Colorado did a good job on two of UIW’s primary offensive weapons. Freshman guard Morgan Taylor was held to eight points on 3 of 11 shooting. Senior Charles Brown III was held scoreless on 0 for 5 from the floor.

UIW’s defense could use some work before its next game, set for Sunday at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. The Bears shot 55.6 percent from the floor for the third-highest percentage against the Cardinals this year. Previously, the Montana Grizzlies shot 62 percent on UIW. Texas Tech shot 59.6 percent.

Local connection

Johnatan Reyes, a Northern Colorado sophomomre from Clark High School, contributed a rebound and an assist in 11 minutes off the bench. His biggest impact on the game may have been a large gathering of family, friends and supporters from the local area who were wearing ‘Northern Colorado’ shirts and cheering for the Bears.

Jackson scores 10 points in return, but UTSA falls to UC Irvine

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UTSA's Jhivvan Jackson shoots around before the Roadrunners' game against Oklahoma on Monday, Nov. 12, 2018. The sophomore guard has not played yet this season while he rehabs from an injury he suffered last season. - photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA’s Jhivvan Jackson shoots around before the Roadrunners’ game against Oklahoma on Monday, Nov. 12, 2018. – photo by Joe Alexander

Sophomore guard Jhivvan Jackson scored 10 points in 15 minutes Monday afternoon in his return to basketball for the UTSA Roadrunners.

A good sign, indeed, for UTSA.

But with Jackson’s playing time limited, the UC Irvine Anteaters held off the Roadrunners 65-56 at the Gulf Coast Showcase.

Jackson led the Roadrunners in scoring last year with 18.4 points per game before he went down in late February with an injury to his left knee.

The injury knocked him out of tournament play, and it also kept him out of the first three games this season.

But after UTSA’s 82-60 loss at Oklahoma State last Wednesday and before the team left for Florida over the weekend, Jackson was cleared to play.

“It wasn’t a surprise that he’d be able to come in there and give us a boost,” UTSA coach Steve Henson told the UTSA radio broadcast. “He had been practicing at a high level. We’re excited to have him out there.”

Jackson entered the game mid-way through the first half and, in a couple of three-minute stretches, he missed a couple of shots.

In the second half, the former standout for Euless Trinity High School and the Puerto Rico junior national team scored on a breakaway layup and a three-pointer to get the cold-shooting Roadrunners moving.

Trailing by 25 at one point, UTSA put together a 16-2 run fueled by Jackson and Keaton Wallace to cut the lead to 11.

The free-flowing scoring spree was a welcome sight for Henson, whose team had been struggling in losses to St. Edward’s, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State with Jackson watching from the bench.

“Scoring (those) points in 15 minutes is great,” Henson said. “But it (also) makes other guys more comfortable. It opens up things for other people. It allows us to play a little faster. It has more effect (on the team) than just him scoring.”

Wallace scored a season-high 23 points, which was likely not a coincidence.

With Jackson running the floor and the defense spread, Wallace found his shooting stroke in the second half.

“We’ve got spacing when we’ve got those two guys out there together,” Henson said on KTKR radio. “When one of those guys is not on the floor, people are (playing) them pretty tight …

“When they’re in there together, the floor spacing is better and it helps Keaton.”

Coming up

UTSA (0-4) plays South Dakota State (3-2) on Tuesday and an opponent to be determined on Wednesday, before returning home.

Notes

UC Irvine (5-0) is picked to win the Big West Conference. The Anteaters have registered wins early against Texas A&M annd Santa Clara.

Jackson initially was credited with 13 points. But the final boxscore indicated he scored 10 points on 3 of 7 shooting from the field.

He also hit 2 of 3 from three-point territory. Playing with energy, Jackson had three rebounds, one assist and a steal.

Coming into the game, Wallace had made only 14 of 47 from the floor. He was 8 of 16 against Irvine.

UTSA’s other four starters continued to struggle. Byron Frohnen, Atem Bior, Nick Allen and Giovanni De Nicolao were a combined 4 for 28 afield.

Florida Atlantic holds off UIW, 71-68, in the Bahamas

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The Florida Atlantic Owls held off Incarnate Word in the second half Sunday for a 71-68 victory in The Islands of the Bahamas Showcase.

UIW (4-3) of the Southland Conference trailed by as many as 14 points before mounting a comeback.

The Cardinals pulled within one with less than a minute left but couldn’t sustain the rally.

Anthony Adger and Jaylen Sebree led FAU (4-1) on the final day of the tournament at Nassau, Bahamas.

Tournament summary

UIW finished 1-2 in three days of basketball at the tournament. The Cardinals lost 93-66 to Montana on Friday and then rebounded to beat North Dakota State 80-78 in overtime on Saturday.

Coming up

The Cardinals return home to face Northern Colorado on Wednesday night.

Texas’ first-year D-1 coaches

Carson Cunningham, Incarnate Word

Johnny Jones, Texas Southern

Chris Ogden, UT Arlington

Rodney Terry, UTEP