BOSTON — Blanca Millan scored with 17 seconds left to give the University of Maine women’s basketball team a 63-62 win over Northeastern on Sunday.
Northeastern (0-2) took a 62-61 lead with 2:15 left on a 3-pointer by Kendall Currence, but the Black Bears (3-0) didn’t allow another point on their way to the win.
Millan had 34 points on 14 of 22 shooting from the floor, including 3 for 6 from 3-point range. She added nine rebounds. Dor Saar added eight points and six assists for the Black Bears.
Stellar Clark had 21 points, eight rebounds and four assists for the Huskies. Currence added 19 points, five rebounds and two assists.
(4) NORTH CAROLINA STATE 78, MIAMI 74: Elissa Cunane scored 13 of her 18 points during No. 4 North Carolina State’s explosive first quarter, and the Wolfpack (8-0, 3-0 ACC) beat the Hurricanes (4-2, 1-2) in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Kai Crutchfield added 14 points and Jakia Brown-Turner and Kayla Jones each had 10 points for N.C. State (8-0, 3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference).
Cunane, a junior center, hit three 3-pointers in a span of about 5 1/2 minutes of the first quarter. The Wolfpack led 31-11 after the first 10 minutes.
Kelsey Marshall scored 14 points to lead Miami (4-2, 1-2), which was playing its first road game.
(6) ARIZONA 77, UTAH 60: Aari McDonald scored 19 points to lead the Wildcates (6-0, 5-0 Pac-12) to a victory over the Utes (2-4, 1-4 Pac-12) in Salt Lake City.
McDonald, the NCAA career scoring leader among active players, also chipped in six rebounds and six assists in a strong all-around effort that kept the Wildcats undefeated. Cate Reese and Sam Thomas added 11 points apiece.
(10) TEXAS A&M 57, RICE 53: Aaliyah Wilson scored 16 points, including a key basket late, as the Aggies (8-0) outlasted the Owls (4-1) in College Station, Texas.
Nancy Mulkey made two free throws to get the Owls within 1 with less than a minute left. But Wilson made a jumper soon after that to make it 56-53 and Ciera Johnson added a free throw with 3 seconds left to secure the victory.
Jasmine Smith had 18 points to lead Rice as the Owls lost for the first time this season.
The win is the eighth straight victory in the series for Texas A&M.
(13) MISSISSIPPI STATE 72, CENTRAL ARKANSAS 49: Jessika Carter scored a career-high 29 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and the Bulldogs (5-1) rolled to a win over the Bears (2-6) in Starkville, Mississippi.
Carter was 12-of-16 shooting.
The Bulldogs had a 17-3 run in the first quarter, taking a 22-10 lead after Jalisa Outlaw knocked down a buzzer-beating 3-pointer for the Bears.
(18) SYRACUSE 83, BOSTON COLLEGE 70: Freshman Kamilla Cardoso scored 24 points on 10-of-11 shooting and the Orange (5-1, 2-1 ACC) defeated the Eagles (4-3, 0-3) despite the absence of star point guard Tiana Mangakahia, in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
Mangakahia sat out with a left foot injury after getting hurt against Miami on Dec. 10, Mangakahia, who missed last season while being treated for breast cancer, was limited to three points in the loss to North Carolina on Thursday.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
HARTFORD 65, MAINE 50: The Black Bears (0-2, 0-2) struggled in the first half for the second-straight game and lost to the Hawks (5-2, 2-0) in Hartford, Connecticut.
Maine made 6 of 21 field goals in the first, a similar start as its season opener against the Hawks on Saturday when they managed just 9 of 28 field goals in the opening 20 minutes of a 63-60 loss. But unlike that game, the Black Bears were unable to recover from a 35-20 halftime deficit.
Maine got as close as seven (35-28) on a dunk by Adefolalrin Adetogun 3:46 into the second half, but the Hawks maintained at least a nine-point lead the rest of the way.
Vilgot Larsson had 11 points while Adetogun and LeChaun DuHart each finished with nine for Maine. Mitchell had 21 points and Miroslav Stafl added 17 points for Hartford.
NORTHWESTERN 79, (4) MICHIGAN STATE 65: Boo Buie scored a career-high 30 points and the Wildcats (4-1, 1-0 Big Ten) beat the Spartans (6-1, 0-1) for the first time in almost a decade, in Evanston, Illinois.
Pete Nance added 15 points, 12 rebounds and four assists in Northwestern’s biggest win since its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2017. Freshman Ty Berry had 12 points in the Big Ten opener for each school, including three of the Wildcats’ 10 3-pointers.
Northwestern stopped a 12-game slide in the series with its first victory over Michigan State since Jan. 14, 2012. It also was the Wildcats’ first win over a top-five team in the AP poll since an 83-65 victory over Magic Johnson and then-No. 4 Michigan State on Jan. 27, 1979.
(9) CREIGHTON 76, UCONN 74: Christian Bishop scored 19 points and the Bluejays (6-2, 2-1 Big East) beat the Huskies (3-1, 0-1) overtime in Storrs, Connecticut in the Huskies’ return to the Big East.
Mitch Ballock added 13 points for the Bluejays, who secured the win with a 9-0 run in the extra period. Marcus Zegarowski had 11 points and eight rebounds.
James Bouknight scored a career-high 40 points for the Huskies, who were playing for the first time in 17 days because of coronavirus-related issues.
(19) RUTGERS 91, (13) ILLINOIS 88: Ron Harper Jr. scored 28 points, Jacob Young added 24 and the Scarlet Knights (6-0, 2-0 Big Ten) overcame a double-digit first-half deficit to beat the Illini (5-3, 1-1) in Piscataway, New Jersey.
Illinois quickly jumped out to an 8-0 lead, leading by as many as 11 in the first half before going into the break up 41-37.
Rutgers would get to within one a couple of times in the second half before Harper hit a 3-pointer to give Rutgers its first lead of the game at 49-47 five minutes into the second half. Harper would finish the game 5-of-8 from beyond the arc.
COVID-19: The game between Utah and Arizona State scheduled for Tuesday has been postponed because of a positive COVID-19 test in the Utes program.
The schools will work with the Pac-12 Conference to reschedule the game.
A decision about Utah’s road games against UCLA and Southern California on Dec. 31 and Jan. 2 will be made later.
FOOTBALL
WISCONSIN: Quarterback Jack Coan has entered the transfer portal after an injury-riddled season in which he didn’t play.
Coan made 18 starts from 2018-19 and helped the Badgers reach the Rose Bowl in 2019, but he injured his right foot in preseason practice and underwent surgery. Although he dressed for Wisconsin’s final three games, the 6-foot-3 senior from Sayville, New York, didn’t play a single down.
BOWLS: Minnesota is the latest Football Bowl Subdivision team to opt out of bowl game consideration.
Coach P.J. Fleck announced that the decision was made collectively by athletic department leadership, coaches and players. The Gophers lost 20-17 in overtime at Wisconsin on Saturday to finish the season at 3-4. Fleck said the program’s focus is “strictly” on the off-the-field well-being of the players, with the goal of them “being able to responsibly spend some of the remaining holiday season with family and loved ones.”
There’s no guarantee the Gophers would have been invited to a postseason game with a losing record and so many bowls canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Penn State was the first Big Ten to preemptively decline an invitation. Close to 20 teams in the FBS have opted out, including seven each from the Pac-12 and the ACC.
• The Guaranteed Rate Bowl won’t take place this season due to what organizers cited as “unprecedented ramifications from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The game had been scheduled to take place Saturday in Phoenix. The cancellation announcement comes as numerous college teams have said they aren’t planning to participate in bowl games, a list that Boise State joined Sunday afternoon.
Guaranteed Rate Bowl officials said they expect their game to return for the 2021 season featuring teams from the Big Ten and Big 12.
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