LAWRENCE, Kan. — Third-ranked Kansas and Kansas State ended their bitter showdown Tuesday night with a wild melee behind the basket that included punches, shoving and at least one player picking up a stool, moments after the Jayhawks tried to dribble out the time on their 81-60 victory.

Silvio De Sousa was stripped by the Wildcats’ DaJuan Gordon near midcourt and Gordon tried to go in for a layup. The Jayhawks’ big man recovered and blocked his shot, sending Gordon to the floor, then stood over him barking. That triggered benches to empty and punches to be thrown in what amounted to a rugby scrum. At one point, De Souza picked up a stool and held it above his head before assistant coach Jerrance Howard grabbed it from him.

It took both coaching staffs and security to separate the teams. Then, adding to the bizarre finish, both teams were summoned back from the locker rooms by officials and one-tenth of a second was put on the clock. Kansas State shot technical free throws to booing from a few thousand fans left — necessitating a change to the final score.

“Well, obviously it’s an embarrassment,” Jayhawks Coach Bill Self said. “It’s not something to be proud of. What happened showed zero signs of toughness. It’s a sign of immaturity and selfishness more so than toughness.”

(9) VILLANOVA 76, (13) BUTLER 61: Saddiq Bey hit four 3-pointers and scored 14 points and Jermaine Samuels had 20 points to lead No. 9 Villanova (15-3, 5-1 Big East)  over No. 13 Butler (15-4, 3-3).

(15) KENTUCKY 89, GEORGIA 79: Ashton Hagans scored 14 of his 23 points in the second half and No. 15 Kentucky (14-4, 5-1 Southeastern Conference) used a 14-4 run to pull away and beat Georgia (11-7, 1-4) in Lexington, Kentucky.

(21) ILLINOIS 79, PURDUE 62: Kofi Cockburn finished with 22 points and 15 rebounds, Trent Frazier added 21 points and No. 21 Illinois (14-5, 6-2 Big Ten) pulled away in the second half to win at Purdue (10-9, 4-4).

The Fighting Illini have won five straight league games for the first time in nearly seven years and are off to their best conference start since 2005-06. They also swept the Boilermakers for the first time since 2008-09.

ST. JOSEPH’S 98, COLBY-SAWYER 83:  Nicholas Curtis scored 20 of his 36 points in the first half as the Monks (7-9, 1-1 Great Northeast Athletic) opened with a 12-2 run, raced to a 46-29 halftime lead and beat the Chargers (6-9, 0-1) in Standish.

Jack Casale had 26 points, going 7 for 7 at the line, for St. Joseph’s, while Tatsuaki Sakai and Griffin Foley tossed in 10 points apiece.

Patrick Coffey led Colby-Sawyer with 23 points.

COLBY 97, HUSSON 70: Dean Weiner’s jumper gave the fifth-ranked Mules (16-0) the lead at 24-23 ignited a 28-6 run and Colby opened a 56-38 cushion at halftime and beat the Eagles (6-9) in Bangor.

Sam Jefferson led Colby with 21 points. Alex Dorion had 20 points, Matt Hanna added 17 and Weiner finished with 10.

Justice Kendall had 31 points for Husson.

EVANSVILLE: Walter McCarty has been fired as Evansville’s coach after an investigation revealed additional allegations of off-court misconduct, the university announced Tuesday. McCarty was placed on administrative leave on Dec. 26 so university officials could investigate allegations of sexual misconduct and violations of the school’s Title IX policy.

In a statement announcing the decision, which is effective immediately, the school said it had received new reports of misconduct with members of the “campus community” during McCarty’s tenure of less than two seasons. It also noted that McCarty had previously participated in a training program about unacceptable behavior.

Interim coach Bernie Seltzer will continue to lead the team.

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

UNE 4, USM 0: Julia Benjamin made 16 saves and Jessie Scott scored a pair of goals as the University of New England (10-4-1) shut out the University of Southern Maine (6-10-2) in a non-conference game.

Bella Crugnale and Meagan Accardi also scored for UNE. Whitney Padgett recorded 27 saves for Southern Maine.

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