Morning Dribble: North Carolina Holds Off Miami, Two Other Ranked Teams Fall

The San Diego St. Aztecs dropped from the top of the Mountain West Conference standings on Wednesday night after losing at home to the New Mexico Lobos. The Lobos moved to 7-2 in the conference and into the Mountain West lead.

New Mexico hit on 10 of its 19 three-point attempts and shot 50 percent overall from the field. Drew Gordon had a monster game with 17 points and 17 rebounds. Kendall Williams had a game-high 21 points and sank five of the team's 10 successful threes. Jamal Fenton came up with 15 points off the bench, but no other scorer had more than eight points.

A few more successful threes for the Aztecs and maybe the game would have tipped the other way; however, they were just 3-of-14 from beyond the arc. Jamaal Franklin put up a double-double of 16 points and 10 rebounds but missed on all four of his three-point attempts. Tim Shelton and James Rahon added 13 and 11 points, respectively.

New Mexico will look to upend the UNLV Rebels on Saturday. San Diego St. goes on the round for a contest with the Air Force Falcons.

Visit Mountain West Connection for more on these teams. Check out SB Nation NCAA Basketball for more news and notes around the college hoops world.

The Missouri Tigers kept pace with the Kansas Jayhawks in the race for the Big 12 regular season title. Wednesday's 83-65 victory over the Oklahoma St. Cowboys has the Tigers in a first-place tie with Kansas at 11-2.

Scoring came in almost equal parts for the Tigers. Senior guard Marcus Denmon led Missouri with 17 points while Ricardo Ratliffe added 15 points and had a game-high 12 rebounds. Guards Kim English and Phil Pressey each put in 13 points, but the latter pulled down seven rebounds and dished the ball out for seven assists. Some of the night's best shooting came from Michael Dixon who scored 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting.

Keiton Page did his best for the Cowboys by scoring 23 points, but he distanced himself in that category by the time the buzzer ended the game. Michael Cobbins and Le'Bryan Nash put in 12 and 11 points, respectively, to round out Oklahoma St.'s double-digit scorers.

Missouri visits the Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday, a team they beat earlier in the season, 70-51.

Visit Missouri blog Rock M Nation and Oklahoma St. blog Cowboys Ride For Free for more on these teams. Head over to SB Nation NCAA Basketball to stay in the know as we approach the NCAA Tournament.

The Wichita St. Shockers (23-4) extended their win streak to five games with a 73-58 victory over the Missouri St. Bears on Wednesday night. The Shockers moved to 14-2 in Missouri Valley Conference play and remained in first place by two games over the Creighton Bluejays.

The Shockers were on fire, shooting 59.5 percent overall from the field and 57.9 percent from beyond the arc (11-of-19). Center Garrett Stutz had game-highs with 21 points and 10 rebounds. He knocked down all four of his three-point shot attempts. Forward Ben Smith chipped in 14 points. Guard Joe Ragland had a solid game with nine points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals, but he did contribute four of the team's 12 turnovers.

Missouri St., however, managed to shoot just 39.1 percent from the field. Junior guard Anthony Downing had 17 points while center Caleb Patterson added 14 points off the Bears bench. The team attempted just two free throws for the entire game, putting only one through the hoop.

Wichita St. has just three games remaining on its schedule and will play the Davidson Wildcats on Saturday.

Head over to SB Nation NCAA Basketball to keep up with the latest as we approach March Madness.

The No. 18 Indiana Hoosiers staved off a second-half rally by the unranked Northwestern Wildcats and improved to 20-6 with a 71-66 win at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind., on Wednesday night.

Freshman forward Cody Zeller was 9-of-11 from the floor to lead the Hoosiers with 23 points and added a team-high seven rebounds. The Hoosiers got 12 points apiece from Christian Watford and Victor Oladipo, with Verdell Jones III, Matt Roth and Will Sheehey each adding six points off the bench.

Now 8-6 in the Big Ten, the Hoosiers will travel to Iowa City to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday night.

Northwestern senior forward John Shurna played all 40 minutes and was 11-of-21 from the floor, including 2-of-6 from beyond the arc, to lead the Wildcats with 29 points. Junior swingman Drew Crawford chipped in with 18 points in the loss, which dropped the Wildcats to 15-10 overall, but 5-8 in the Big Ten with a home game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers on the docket for Saturday night.

For more on the Hoosiers, check out The Crimson Quarry. For updates on the Wildcats, visit Sippin' On Purple.

The eighth-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels got 23 points from sophomore Harrison Barnes to rally from an eight-point second-half deficit for a 73-64 win over the Miami Hurricanes at the BankUnited Center in Coral Gables, Fla., on Wednesday night.

Trailing by five at intermission, the Tar Heels' deficit swelled to eight points in the first five minutes of the second half before pulling even on a pair of free throws by P.J. Hairston with 13:40 to play. The two teams went back and forth before a pair of buckets by Barnes, including a three-pointer with 8:18 to play, gave the Tar Heels a seven-point lead they would not relinquish.

Junior forward John Henson posted a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while sophomore guard Reggie Bullock added 10 for the Tar Heels, who improved to 22-4 overall and 9-2 within the ACC with Wednesday night's win. The Tar Heels will host the Clemson Tigers at the Dean E. Smith Center in Chapel Hill on Saturday afternoon.

For the Hurricanes, who fell to 15-9 overall and 6-5 in ACC play, junior guard Durand Scott was 7-of-12 from the floor for a team-high 15 points, while Kenny Kadji had 13 points. Center Reggie Johnson had 11 points and a team-high 10 rebounds, and Trey McKinney-Jones had 11 points.

The Hurricanes host the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Saturday afternoon.

For more on the Tar Heels, visit Carolina March. For updates on the Hurricanes, check out The 7th Floor.

The Murray St. Racers continued their rebound after suffering their first loss of the season last week. After Saturday's victory over Austin Peay, the Racers made it two wins in a row by defeating the Southeast Missouri St. Redhawks on Wednesday night, 75-66.

Donte Poole led the Racers with 25 points off the bench. He was 7-of-13 from the field and hit on 4-of-6 three-pointers. Also coming off the bench, Jewuan Long scored 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Ivan Aska led all starters with 14 points and nine rebounds. Ed Daniel took just four shots, but he made all of them count, as well as two of his three free throws. He finished the game with 10 points and eight rebounds.

Southeast Missouri St. had four scorers hit double-digit points, but none more than Leon Powell's 13 points. He also led the team in rebounds with eight. The Redhawks had trouble finding the basket, though, hitting on just 37.3 percent of their field goal attempts.

The Racers will headline ESPN's BracketBusters 2012 event Saturday when they face off against the St. Mary's Gaels.

Check out SB Nation NCAA Basketball for more news and notes around the college hoops scene.