Monday, November 20
Louisiana 80, Iowa 71
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands -- Bryce Washington scored 15 points and pulled down 10 rebounds and Louisiana-Lafayette defeated Iowa 80-71 in the opening game of the inaugural Cayman Islands Classic on Monday.
Frank Bartley IV led the Ragin' Cajuns (3-1) with 17 points. JaKeenan Gant added 16 points and four blocks, and Justin Miller scored 14 points to go with seven rebounds. Louisiana was only 5 of 21 from 3-point range but shot 49 percent overall.
The Hawkeyes (3-1), who opened their season with three home games, were led by Isaiah Moss, who made all 10 of his free throws, with a career-high 24 points. Jordan Bohannon added four 3-pointers and 21 points. Iowa shot just 37 percent overall and 32 percent from the arc, where they had been shooting at a 44 percent clip, tops in the Big Ten.
The teams were tied at 10 when the Ragin' Cajuns went on a 21-1 run capped by a Washington bucket with 2:22 left in the half, which ended with Louisiana ahead 37-17.
Iowa committed 10 first-half turnovers.
"There were a lot of shots that went in-and-out of the basket," Bohannon said. "That was frustrating because we were getting open looks and those are shots that we are normally hitting. The ball was halfway in the basketball and popped out and we were missing layups."
The lead reached 24 points early on after the break but Moss led an Iowa rally in the second half in which he scored 20 points. His 3-pointer with just under two minutes left got the Hawkeyes within nine, 70-61, and he added seven more points but Gant hit a pair of free throws with 49 seconds left and his dunk with a half-minute to go made it a 13-point game.
"We fought, played, and executed better in the second half," Iowa coach Fran McCaffery said. "There was a lot of good stuff in the second half, but not much good in the first half. You have to give them credit."
The eight-team tournament runs through Wednesday.
Georgia Southern 74, Missouri State 73
ESTERO, Fla. -- Tookie Brown scored 20 points, Ike Smith added 19 and Georgia Southern survived a late Missouri State rally to remain undefeated with a 74-73 victory on Monday in a first-round game at the Gulf Coast Showcase.
Mike Hughes' 3-pointer with 7 1/2 minutes to go gave the Eagles (4-0) a 13-point lead but Georgia Southern made 1 of 10 shots after that, as the Bears (2-2) scored seven straight to trail 73-70 with 22 seconds left. Brown missed a free throw but the Bears' Alize Johnson missed a 3-pointer. Brown returned to the line to make 1 of 2 with five seconds left before Missouri State's Jarred Dixon made a 3-pointer as the game ended.
Jake Allsmiller scored 13 points and Hughes 11 for the Eagles, who scored 19 points off 17 turnovers.
J.T. Miller scored 19 points and Johnson had 17 points and 14 rebounds for the Bears.
A 9-0 run, with four points from Smith, gave the Eagles the lead for good at 63-55 with 10 minutes left.
Georgia State 68, Eastern Washington 50
AS VEGAS -- Devin Mitchell posted career highs of seven 3-pointers and 23 points to lead Georgia State to a 68-50 victory over Eastern Washington on Monday.
With Georgia State leading 31-23 at halftime, Mitchell made a pair of 3-pointers in a 14-2 run to open the second half and had two more treys in a 10-0 run that left the Panthers ahead 58-31 with 7 1/2 minutes remaining. He finished 7 of 8 from the arc and 8 of 10 overall. The Panthers were 10 of 15 on 3-point tries.
D'Marcus Simonds scored eight straight points to give Georgia State (3-1) the lead for good at 15-12 with six minutes left in the first half. Simonds finished with 19 points.
Ron Hunter got his 400th victory in his 24th year as a head coach, the last seven at Georgia State after leaving IUPUI.
Jacob Davison came off the bench to score a career-high 20 points, the only Eagle to score in double figures. EWU gave up 23 points off 21 turnovers.
Georgia State will play Prairie View A&M for the championship of the "Middleweight Bracket" at the MGM Main Event on Wednesday. EWU will face Eastern Kentucky.
#8 Kentucky 70, Troy 62
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Kevin Knox scored 17 points and No. 8 Kentucky built a big lead in the second half before having to withstand a late rally by Troy to hold on for a 70-62 victory on Monday night.
After having to rally in each of its previous games, the Wildcats (4-1) led throughout against the Trojans (2-3). They built a double-digit lead early and extended it to 21 twice in the second half, a needed cushion as Troy fought back to within eight on Wesley Person's three-point play with 1:08 remaining.
Knox came up with the last of Kentucky's season-high 53 rebounds that preserved its second victory in the Adolph Rupp Classic named for the legendary coach.
Quade Green had 13 points and reserve forward Wenyen Gabriel 12 for the Wildcats. Hamidou Diallo had a career-high 10 rebounds to go along with eight points.
Person had 17 points and Jordon Varnado and Kevin Baker 15 each for Troy.
Troy visits East Tennessee State on Wednesday in the third game of the Rupp Classic before wrapping up play Monday against Illinois-Chicago.
Kentucky hosts Fort Wayne on Wednesday in the third game of the Rupp Classic before taking Thanksgiving off.
Arkansas State 92, Howard 78
JONESBORO, Ark. -- Ty Cockfield scored a career-high 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range, and Rashad Lindsey added 17 points to help Arkansas State beat Howard 92-78 on Monday night.
Tamas Bruce had 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting and Tristin Walley grabbed a career-best 11 rebounds for Arkansas State (2-2).
RJ Cole scored the final six points of an 8-0 run that trimmed Howard's deficit to 76-72 with five minutes to go, but Lindsey hit two free throws before Connor Kern made a 3-pointer and then a layup to spark a 16-4 run that gave the Red Wolves a 16-point lead with 30 seconds left.
Charles Williams tied a career high with 30 points, including a career-best tying six 3-pointers, and Cole finished with 22 points for Howard (0-4).
Arkansas State made 31 of 58 (53.4 percent) from the field, including 10 of 23 from 3-point range, and outrebounded the Bison 40-27.
San Diego 66, Little Rock 52
SAN DIEGO -- Isaiah Pineiro had 20 points, 7 rebounds, four assists, four steals and two blocks and San Diego defeated Arkansas-Little Rock 66-52 on Monday night despite going almost nine minutes without a field goal late in the second half.
Pineiro's jumper at 10:47 of the second half put the Toreros (4-0), who made 9 of 11 field goals after halftime, ahead 54-34. They missed their next four shots and had four turnovers but made 5 of 6 free throws before until Pineiro scored again at the 1:59 mark.
The Trojans (0-4) only shaved the deficit to 12 while the Toreros were cold. The Toreros finished 12 of 18 in the second half.
Isaiah Wright added 12 points, going 3 for 3 from 3-point range, with seven rebounds and five assists San Diego, which is 4-0 for only the third time in 39 seasons. Cameron Neubauer also had three 3s and scored 11.
The Toreros hit seven of their 10 3-pointerrs in the first half to take a 28-18 lead as the Trojans were just 6 of 21, missing all nine of their shots from distance.
Cameron Corcoran had all three of Little Rock's 3s and scored 11 points.