STORRS, Conn. — Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 16 points and 14 rebounds to lead No. 4 UConn to a 75-52 win over No. 18 DePaul on Tuesday night.
Freshman Paige Bueckers added 18 points for the Huskies (6-0, 5-0 Big East), who had five players score in double figures in their first game this season against a ranked opponent.
Darrione Rogers had 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead DePaul (5-3, 2-1), which averaged better than 88 points over its first seven games.
The Huskies held the Blue Demons to 25% shooting (16 of 64), including 9 of 37 (24.3%) from 3-point range.
UConn also dominated underneath, outscoring DePaul 38-12 in the paint. Nelson-Ododa hit seven of her 11 shots in her third double-double of the season and 12th of her career.
Christyn Williams scored the 1,000th point of her UConn career on a layup that gave UConn an early 4-0 lead, but the Huskies led just 20-16 after a quarter. Williams finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and five assists.
A 3-pointer by Bueckers from the left corner gave the Huskies their first double-digit lead at 28-17 and UConn took a 38-27 advantage into intermission.
(19) TEXAS 77, LAMAR 49: Charli Collier scored 28 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, freshman DeYona Gaston had her first double-double and host Texas (7-1) beat Lamar (1-7).
Collier scored eight points during Texas’ game-opening 12-3 run and the Longhorns led 20-11 after the first quarter. Collier finished the half with 19 points and five rebounds to help build a 40-25 lead. She was 8 of 10 from the field as the Longhorns shot 55%. Lamar’s starters combined for three points in the half.
Sabria Dean scored 15 points and Jadyn Pimentel added 11 for Lamar.
SMU: The SMU women’s basketball team has decided not to play the remainder of its 2020-21 season, with players opting out because of health and safety concerns surrounding COVID-19.
The school said in a statement that while the players agreed that all possible steps and precautions had been taken to keep them healthy and safe, they decided “that the totality of the circumstances was resulting in an in-season experience that they did not wish to prolong.”
Athletic Director Rick Hart said it was a difficult decision for the players to make, and that the school supported them.
The women’s basketball team was 0-6 overall after losing its first two American Athletic Conference games.
Other SMU programs will continue to compete as scheduled.
SMU follows the Duke women’s basketball team, which also ended its season.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
(2) BAYLOR 93, CENTRAL ARKANSAS 56: MaCio Teague scored 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting, preseason AP All-America guard Jared Butler had 17 points and host Baylor (7-0) remained undefeated by beating Central Arkansas (1-7).
Jonathan Tchamwa-Tchatchoua finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Matthew Mayer also scored 13 points and Adam Flagler had 10 after missing the previous two games.
DeAndre Jones led Central Arkansas with 19 points, including six 3-pointers.
(9) WEST VIRGINIA 73, NORTHEASTERN 51: Derek Culver scored 18 points, Oscar Tshiebwe had 12 points and 15 rebounds and West Virginia (8-2) used its size advantage to beat visiting Northeastern (1-5).
Tyson Walker scored 10 points for Northeastern but was held seven points below his team-leading average.
(13) TEXAS TECH 79, INCARNATE WORD 51: Kevin McCullar scored 11 points in his season debut coming off an ankle injury and host Texas Tech (8-2) cruised to a win over Incarnate Word (1-4).
(14) RUTGERS 81, PURDUE 76: Montez Mathis had a career-high 25 points, including 16 in the second half, and Rutgers (7-1, 3-1 Big Ten) beat visiting Purdue (7-4, 2-2 Big Ten) without leading scorer Ron Harper Jr.
Harper tweaked his ankle in practice and was scratched an hour before tipoff.
CLEMSON 77, (18) FLORIDA STATE 67: Clyde Trapp scored 15 points and Nick Honor had all his 13 points in the second half, including the go-ahead 3-pointer, as Clemson (7-1, 1-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) rallied past visiting Florida State (5-2, 1-1).
The Tigers were down 36-29 when Balsa Korprivica had a layup to start the second half. That’s when things began to turn for Clemson, as Al-Amir Dawes hit a 3-pointer and Trapp scored three points, tightening the game.
The teams traded the lead 13 times over the next 10 minutes, and Korprivica tied things at 54.
Honor, a transfer from Fordham, broke the tie and put Clemson ahead for good with a 3-pointer with 7:01 to play.
(24) VIRGINIA TECH 80, MIAMI 78: Keve Aluma scored a career-high 26 points and Virginia Tech (8-1, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) made crucial free throws in the final minute to beat visiting Miami (4-3, 0-2).
Aluma hit 9 of 16 shots from the floor and 7 of 10 from the free-throw line for the Hokies, who won their fourth straight game and will enter 2021 at the top of the ACC standings. Aluma added six rebounds and four assists.
Isaiah Wong and Matt Cross paced Miami with 16 points apiece.
ARIZONA: The Arizona men’s basketball program has self-imposed a one-year postseason ban related to its long-running NCAA rules infractions case.
Arizona was accused of nine counts of misconduct, including five Level I violations, in a Notice of Allegations sent by the NCAA in October. The violations include a lack of institutional control and failure to monitor by the university, and lack of head coach control by basketball coach Sean Miller.
The school announced the one-year ban Tuesday.
Arizona is off to a 7-1 start this season, including a 1-1 mark in the Pac-12, but won’t have the opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats have a revamped roster after freshmen stars Josh Green, Zeke Nnaji and Nico Mannion were all selected in the NBA draft.
SKIING
ALASKA: The University of Alaska ski team has raised enough money to save the alpine squad from elimination.
A $12,000 donation two days before Christmas Day lifted the team’s collections to $628,000 in cash and pledges, enough to save the program, The Anchorage Daily News reported Monday.
The University of Alaska’s board of regents voted in September to eliminate three sports, including alpine skiing, hockey and gymnastics. The board also said it would consider reinstatement for any program that could raise two years of operating costs before the next meeting in February.
The hockey program needs to raise $3 million and the gymnastics team needs to raise $880,000. They haven’t met their goals yet.
“The kind of support we’ve seen and the timeline it arrived in should demonstrate to the regents and president and chancellor that this is a quality program and it should stick around,” Ski Coach Sparky Anderson said Monday.
The $12,000 donation came Dec. 23 while Anderson was on the phone with William Bamber, the father of freshman skier Moro Bamber of Toronto.
“He said, hey, you’re really close, let’s just make this happen. He wrote a check and he did it online so it was immediate, (and) that effectively gave us the best Christmas present the athletes and the team could have wanted,” Anderson said.
The University of Alaska Foundation must next certify the donations.
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