LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Pryce Sandfort scored 23 points to lead No. 7 Nebraska past Washington 76-66 Wednesday night, extending the unbeaten Cornhuskers’ winning streak to 23 games.
The Huskers (19-0, 8-0), who earned their highest ranking in program history this week, were in control throughout against injury-plagued Washington and are alone in first place in the Big Ten. The Huskies (10-9, 2-6) lost for the fifth time in six games.
Sandfort had his third straight game with at least 20 points. Sam Hoiberg added 14 points, Rienk Mast had 12 and Jamarques Lawrence 11.
Hannes Steinbach had his 11th double-double with 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Huskies, who were playing their fourth top-15 opponent in 15 days and have used nine different starting lineups because of a run of injuries. Zoom Diallo added 18 points and six assists.
NO. 1 ARIZONA 77, CINCINNATI 51
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Motiejus Krivas scored 17 points, Ivan Kharchenkov added 14 and the Arizona pulled away late to beat Cincinnati and remain one of three unbeaten teams in the country.
Cincinnati (10-9) tested Arizona with an early 14-1 run to take a 20-16 lead midway through a rugged first half, but Arizona responded for a 33-27 halftime advantage. The 7-foot-2 Krivas thrived in the physical environment with 8 points, five rebounds and a block before the break.
Krivas continued his good work in the paint during the second half, scoring a handful of tough, close-range buckets to keep the Wildcats ahead.
Arizona used a 20-4 run over a nearly 10-minute stretch of the second to methodically build a 58-44 lead. The Wildcats had a 48-14 advantage on points in the paint.
Cincinnati was coming off a 79-70 win over No. 2 Iowa State on Saturday. They were trying to become the first team to knock off the No. 2 and No. 1 teams in consecutive games during the regular season since Kansas did it during the 1989-90 season, beating LSU and UNLV.
The Bearcats were led Baba Miller’s 14 points. Cincinnati couldn’t overcome a tough shooting night, finishing just 17 of 56 (30.1%) from the floor.
NO. 8 GONZAGA 84, PEPPERDINE 60
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Davis Fogle scored 17 points and Gonzaga pounded Pepperdine, beating the Waves for the 51st consecutive time despite missing its top two scorers because of injuries.
Tyon Grant-Foster and Mario Saint-Supery each scored 12 points for Gonzaga (20-1, 8-0 West Coast Conference) which won its 13th straight game overall. This is also the 29th consecutive season the Bulldogs have won at least 20 games. They rank second to only Kansas, which has a streak of 37 20-win seasons.
Styles Phipps scored 13 points and Aaron Clark 10 for Pepperdine (6-15, 1-7 West Coast), which lost to Gonzaga by 40 points at home this season. The Waves have not won in Spokane since 1998. Their last victory in the series was in 2002 in Malibu, California.
NO. 11 ILLINOIS 89, MARYLAND 70
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Andrej Stojakovic had 30 points and nine rebounds to lead Illinois to a victory over Maryland.
David Mirkovic had 15 points and nine rebounds, Keaton Wagler scored 13 points and Jake Davis had 12 points for the Illini (16-3, 7-1 Big Ten), who won their eighth straight.
The Illini played without senior guard and second-leading scorer Kylan Boswell, who broke his right hand in practice on Monday, will have surgery Thursday and is expected to be sidelined until mid-February. Boswell is averaging 14.3 points per game.
He had played in all 124 games in his college career — 71 in two seasons at Arizona and 53 in two seasons at Illinois — before Wednesday.
Diggy Coit, who scored 43 points Sunday in Maryland’s win over Penn State, was held to 15 points and guarded primarily by Stojakovic.
Andre Mills had 16 points and Solomon Washington had 13 points and 10 rebounds for the Terrapins (8-11, 1-7), who are in a stretch of four of five games on the road.
NO. 22 NORTH CAROLINA 91, NOTRE DAME 91
Caleb Wilson had 22 points while frontcourt mate Henri Veesaar added a double-double to help North Carolina beat Notre Dame.
The 7-foot Veesaar had 15 points and 12 rebounds for the Tar Heels (15-4, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), who had lost three of four amid an abrupt defensive downturn — notably against shots from behind the arc.
The Tar Heels didn’t have any trouble this time, with the Fighting Irish (10-9, 1-5) struggling since losing leading scorer Markus Burton to left-ankle surgery in early December. North Carolina got off to a fast start from outside and kept firing, making a season-high 13 3-pointers while shooting 50.8% overall to send the Irish to a fifth straight loss.
The Tar Heels led 42-33 at halftime, then rolled out of the break with 10 unanswered points to blow the game open — powered by Veesaar’s immediate jumper, a 3-pointer and a layup during the spurt.
Wilson was strong out of the gate while working more in the post, with the star freshman finishing 8 for 11 from the field to go with seven rebounds and five assists.
Sir Mohammed scored 14 points, while Jalen Haralson added 13 to lead Notre Dame, which shot 36%. The Fighting Irish did manage to shoot well from outside early, but Notre Dame went just 2 of 13 on 3s after halftime and finished the game at 8 for 25 (32%).
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