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Duke's Austin Rivers delivered the moment of the season so far when his buzzer-beater buried rival North Carolina, but there was much more happening Wednesday night outside of Chapel Hill.
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The No. 19 Virginia Cavaliers had few problems defeating the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Wednesday night, 68-44. Mike Scott scored 19 points for the Cavaliers, a game-high total. He made all nine shots he took from the field.
The Cavaliers shot nearly 54 percent from the field and made 5-of-11 three-point shots. Joe Harris scored 11 points while Akil Mitchell, Jontel Evans and Malcolm Brogdon each added 10 points.
Travis McKie scored 16 points for Wake Forest, hitting on 4-of-7 seven shots. But it was a bad night shooting for the majority team: they shot 34 percent from the field. The team committed 17 turnovers, as well.
The Cavaliers travel to the Dean E. Smith Center on Saturday for a contest against the North Carolina Tar Heels, a team coming off a last-second loss against the Duke Blue Devils.
For more on these teams, visit Virginia blog Streaking the Lawn and Wake Forest blog Blogger So Dear. Head over to SB Nation NCAA Basketball for more news and notes from around the league.
Austin Rivers scored 29 points, a Duke freshman scoring record against UNC, including a ridiculous buzzer-beating three as the Blue Devils stunned the Tar Heels on Wednesday night, 85-84. Rivers' shot immediately elevates him into Duke-UNC lore, with the game-winner falling into place among some of the best moments of the series. And it all came after a surprising late-game collapse by the Tar Heels, who seemed to have everything under control for much of the second half.
Rivers was understandably excited after the game, amped up just moments after his game-winner went in. In a live shot on the court, Rivers said he came into the matchup "pissed off" because he felt people were underestimating Duke. Later, he was a bit more measured when reflecting on the win.
"Obviously this is my favorite win I've ever had in my entire life," Rivers said. "And it's because we were down the whole game. The whole game, we were down. They just kept it on us -- 10-point lead, 10-point lead. And then there was 3 minutes left and probably everybody thought we were going to lose, and we just kept fighting. To get a W, it's amazing."
More from SI.com: How Austin Rivers' buzzer beater went down
It was a bad last few minutes for Tyler Zeller, who was in the spotlight with the game on the line. His accidental tip-in, into his own basket, gave Duke two points and brought the Blue Devils within two. At the line with a chance to put North Carolina up three, he made the first and missed the second free throw, setting up Rivers' heroics.
And then there was the final possession. Zeller, at 7-feet tall, got caught on a switch, stuck defending Rivers on the perimeter. The Duke guard dribble around, measured Zeller and drained the game-winning three right over him as time expired, stunning the Tar Heels.
But there was no singular person at fault for the late-game meltdown. North Carolina held a double-digit lead for most of the second half and was up 10 with two and a half minutes to go. From then on, the wheels came off, with Duke hitting a barrage of threes while North Carolina was unable to answer on the other end.
"It really hurts just because of how we played the whole game. For us in the last three minutes just to give it up like that is really depressing," John Henson said after the loss.
If you missed it, here's Rivers' shot one, along with the entire late-game sequence, one more time:
Via BIAHTroyMachir
Never a dull moment in the Duke-UNC series.
The Kansas Jayhawks picked up its second victory of the season over the Baylor Bears, 68-54, on Wednesday night. The Jayhawks had dealt the Bears its first loss of the season back in the middle of January and now the Bears picked up a third loss on the season. For Kansas, this victory also meant not letting the weekend's loss to the Missouri Tigers drag them down.
Kansas coach Bill Self saw perseverance in his team on Wednesday night (via KansasCity.com):
"I’ll be honest, they showed me something," Self said. "I thought we may pout up and feel sorry for ourselves, but we didn’t. We showed some toughness."
Center Jeff Withey showed some of that toughness with his monster scoring game. He dropped 25 points on the Bears to be the Jayhawks' leading scorer. Thomas Robinson chipped in 15 points and 11 rebounds while Tyshawn added 19 points. Only two other Jayhawks scored, combining for nine points.
Quincy Acy gave the Bears 11 points and 10 rebounds. Cory Jefferson put in 11 points from off the bench. Pierre Jackson led Baylor with 16 points. Perry Jones III scored just five points and was 1-of-8 from the field.
Baylor fans aren't feeling great after this loss, offering harsh words for this contest (via Our Daily Bears):
Call it bad coaching, call it player effort, call it whatever you want. This was, unequivocally, the worst game Baylor has played this season. What they had thought would work wasn't working anymore and they didn't know what to do. Their attitude reflected their leadership; our players reflected their coach.
Baylor will look to get back on track with a road game against the Missouri Tigers on Saturday. They lost to Mizzou at home the game after losing to Kansas back in January. The Jayhawks, meanwhile, return to Phog Allen Fieldhouse to host the Oklahoma St. Cowboys on Saturday.
For more on these teams, visit Baylor blog Our Daily Bears and Kansas blog Rock Chalk Talk. Check out SB Nation NCAA Basketball for more news and notes as we approach March Madness.
Syracuse Orange head coach Jim Boeheim probably would have liked his 880th career victory to not be so nerve-racking, but at least he got it with a 64-61 victory over the Georgetown Hoyas on Wednesday night. He passed North Carolina's Dean Smith for third all-time on the Division I coaches' win list.
However, Boeheim certainly wasn't pleased with how this game went. As he said after the game (via Syracuse.com):
“The only reason we won this game,’’ said Boeheim, “is we hit a couple key shots late and our defense was good late.’’
A large part of that anger with Syracuse's performance had to deal with the Hoyas winning the rebound battle, 48-30. Boeheim called it a "disaster."
The Orange overcame a four-point halftime deficit to lead by four points, 55-51, in the final two minutes of play. However, Jason Clark hit a three-pointer and Greg Whittington hit on just one of his two free throws at the one-minute mark that ended the scoring during regulation. In overtime, the Orange outscored the Hoyas, 9-6, but it was Kris Joseph who secured that. He hit a three-point shot with 29 seconds left to put the Orange in the lead and in place for the victory.
Joseph led all scorers with 29 points and played all 45 minutes of the game. He made a career-high six three-pointers, largely a result of Georgetown leaving him open.. Fab Melo followed with 11 points, 7 rebounds and 6 blocks.
Otto Porter led the Hoyas with 14 points and 13 rebounds while Hollis Thompson added 10 points and 10 rebounds. The Hoyas shot just 33.3 percent from the field, but the Orange only shot 34.9 percent.
Syracuse hosts the Connecticut Huskies on Saturday. Georgetown welcomes St. John's to the Verizon Center on Sunday.
For more on these teams, visit Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and Georgetown blog Casual Hoya. Head over to SB Nation NCAA Basketball for more news and notes around the college hoops scene.
Freshman guard Jordan Daniels scored a career-high 21 points as the Boston College Eagles stunned the 17th-ranked Florida St. Seminoles Silvio O. Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts on Wednesday night
Daniels was seven of 13 from the floor, setting a career-high with four three-point field goals. The Eagles also got 15 points from Matt Humphrey, 14 points from Ryan Anderson and 12 points from Lonnie Jackson. Like Daniels, Anderson and Jackson are freshmen.
With the win, the Eagles snapped a six-game losing streak in improving to 8-16 on the season and 3-7 in the ACC. The Eagles travel to the Virginia Tech Hokies on Saturday night.
For Florid State, junior guard Michael Snaer had a team-high 34 minutes, was six of 18 from the floor for a team-high 16 points and tied for the team lead with seven rebounds. Bernard James and Ian Miller added 12 points for the Seminoles, who dropped to 16-7 on the season and are 7-2 in the ACC. They host the Miami Hurricanes on Saturday afternoon.
For more on the Seminoles, be sure to visit Tomahawk Nation. For more on the Eagles, check out BC Interruption.
No. 22 Michigan vs. Nebraska: Wolverines Cruise To Victory As Zack Novak Reaches 1,000 Points
The Michigan Wolverines not only picked up a 62-46 victory over the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Wednesday night; they saw senior Zack Novak score his 1,000th career point. Novak entered the game with 994 career points and he emphatically crossed that line with 14 points in the victory.
Stu Douglass and Trey Burke added 13 and 12 points, respectively, for the Wolverines. The only other scorers were Jordan Morgan (8 points), Tim Hardaway Jr. (6) and Matt Vogrich (9). The team shot 52.2 percent overall and 45.8 from beyond on the arc.
Nebraska's Bo Spencer scored 13 points and was the team's only double-digit scorer. While they won the rebounding battle, 27-20, the 13 turnovers hurt them badly.
The 18-7 Wolverines host Illinois at the Crisler Center on Sunday afternoon.
For more on these teams, check out Michigan blog Maize N Brew and Nebraska blog Corn Nation. Head over to SB Nation NCAA Basketball for more news and notes around the college hoops scene.
Feb 09 8:02a by Russ Oates - 0 comments