No. 4 Alabama bounces back, tops No. 17 Kentucky

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Mark Sears scored 30 points and No. 4 Alabama came from behind for a 96-83 win over No. 17 Kentucky on Saturday night.

Alabama (22-5, 11-3 Southeastern Conference), which had lost its previous two games, got 19 points from Aden Holloway, who made five 3-pointers. Chris Youngblood had 14 points and Clifford Omoruyi had 11.

Koby Brea led Kentucky (18-9, 7-7 SEC) with 20 points while Andrew Carr and Amari Williams each scored 17. Travis Perry added 12 points.

Takeaways

Alabama: Alabama now has eight wins over AP top 25 opponents, which is a single-season program record. The Crimson Tide completed a season sweep of Kentucky for the first time since 2021.

Kentucky: Prior to Saturday, Otega Oweh was the only player in the SEC to score in double-figures every game this season and one of 10 players in Division I to do so. Oweh, who leads Kentucky with 16 points per game, was 1 of 9 shooting against Alabama and finished with two points, fouling out with about seven minutes left in the game.

Trailing 30-18 midway through the first half, Alabama went on an 18-2 run to take a 36-32 lead and never trailed again. Alabama was 6 of 9 during the run while Kentucky was 1 of 7. Alabama closed out the final eight minutes with a 29-10 run to lead 47-40 at halftime.

Kentucky started hot by hitting four of its first six 3-point shots but finished 9 of 26. Alabama was just 1 of 6 from 3-point range early, but finished 11 of 31.

The Crimson Tide stays at home Tuesday night to take on No. 21 Mississippi State. Kentucky is on the road to face Oklahoma on Wednesday night.

No. 2 FLORIDA 79,

LSU 65

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Rueben Chinyelu had a career-high 19 points to go with 13 rebounds and No. 2 Florida roared back from an eight-point second-half deficit to beat LSU 79-65 on Saturday night.

Thomas Haugh scored 16 points, Alijah Martin added 14 and Walter Clayton Jr. 13 for Florida (24-3, 11-3 SEC), which won its sixth straight.

LSU freshman Robert Miller III scored a career-high 19 points to go with 10 rebounds and was the big reason the Tigers (14-13, 3-11) looked poised to challenge Florida well into the second half.

Florida raced to a 29-15 lead during the opening 13 minutes. But LSU suddenly found its footing when Curtis Givens III hit a 3, sparking a stunning 22-2 run during the final 6:41 of the half.

Florida surged into the lead for good with a 15-2 run that gave the Gators a 53-48 lead. Chinyelu scored seven points during that spurt, including a put-back as he was fouled.

Florida played its third game without starting forward Alex Condon and backup Sam Alexis.

Clayton’s steal from Mike Williams III led to Martin’s right-wing transition 3, which gave Florida a 69-59 lead with 4:16 to go.

In addition to outrebounding LSU 48-33, Florida grabbed 19 offensive boards and converted those into 17 second-chance points.

Both teams return to action on Tuesday night, when Florida visits Georgia and LSU hosts No. 6 Tennessee.

No. 1 AUBURN 82, GEORGIA 70

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Johni Broome scored a season-high 31 points and added 14 rebounds as No. 1 Auburn defeated Georgia 82-70 on Saturday.

For the second straight game, Auburn (25-2, 13-1 SEC) found itself in a tight contest against an unranked opponent before pulling away in the final minutes.

Broome took over in the second half, including a run of seven straight points for the Tigers. The double-double was his 17th of the season.

Denver Jones added 17 points for the Tigers, while Chad Baker-Mazara and Miles Kelly had 11 each.

The Bulldogs have struggled mightily on offense in road games this season, and a low-scoring first half didn’t bode well for them. However, Georgia was able to score efficiently on Auburn after halftime, which could give Mike White’s team momentum moving forward.

In an odd twist, the SEC leaders have shot the ball much better on the road than at home in conference play. The Tigers will want to find their offense again for their final two games at Neville Arena.

Shortly after an incident in which four technical fouls — two on each team — were issued, Auburn went on a 7-2 run. That stretch included a wild fast-break play in which Dylan Cardwell secured a steal and threw the ball the length of the floor to Broome, who passed it to Baker-Mazara for a layup.

Broome, who did not play in Auburn’s first meeting with Georgia in January due to an ankle injury, went a perfect 7 for 7 from the field in the second half.

Georgia returns home to host No. 2 Florida on Tuesday. Auburn hosts No. 24 Ole Miss on Wednesday.

No. 5 HOUSTON 68, No. 8 IOWA STATE 59

HOUSTON (AP) — L.J. Cryer scored 28 points, Milos Uzan added 19 points and No. 5 Houston held on to beat No. 8 Iowa State 68-59 on Saturday.

Cryer and Uzan combined to shoot 18 of 27, including 8 of 12 on 3-pointers. Emanuel Sharp added 11 points for Houston (23-4, 15-1 Big 12), which won its sixth straight.

Milan Momcilovic scored all 16 of his points in the second half to lead a furious rally for the Cyclones (21-6, 11-5). Nate Heise added 12 points, and Tamin Lipsey scored 11.

Trailing by 16 midway through the second half, the Cyclones used an 18-3 run to cut the lead to 48-47 on a 3-pointer by Heise with eight minutes remaining. Houston responded with four straight points to push the lead back to five.

The Cyclones struggled offensively at times without their two leading scorers, but they did well defensively forcing Houston into a season-high 17 turnovers. Keshon Gilbert was out with a muscle strain and Curtis Jones missed the game due to illness.

The Cougars inched closer to a second straight Big 12 regular-season title, leading second-place Arizona by 2 ½ games with four games left. Houston is 30-4 in the Big 12 in its two seasons in the league.

Iowa State closed within 58-56 on two free throws by Momcilovic with 4 ½ minutes left, but Uzan responded with a 3 and the lead never dipped below four the rest of the way.

Houston shot 53% and went 10 of 17 from distance, while Iowa State shot 39%, including 8 of 20 behind the arc.

Houston travels to No. 9 Texas Tech on Monday. Iowa State travels to Oklahoma State on Tuesday.

No. 6 TENNESSEE 77, No. 7 TEXAS A&M 69

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Chaz Lanier had a season-high 30 points, including 8 3-pointers, and No. 6 Tennessee defeated No. 7 Texas A&M 77-69 on Saturday.

Lanier, a senior transfer from North Florida, went 8 of 13 from beyond the arc and 10 of 18 overall in game that featured 11 lead changes and eight ties.

Jordan Gainey made a 3-pointer with 3:33 to left to give Tennessee (22-5, 9-5 Southeastern Conference) a 63-59 lead. Zakai Zeigler hit a 3 in front of the Vols’ bench on an inbound pass with 21 seconds remaining to seal the victory.

The Aggies (20-7, 9-5) started the game with three consecutive dunks before the Vols finally scored a little more than three minutes into the raucous setting at Reed Arena.

A&M led 17-8 early before the Vols scored the next seven points to climb back in the game.

Wade Taylor IV led the Aggies with 18 points, despite missing all nine of his 3-point attempts.

The Aggies led 40-38 with 15:27 remaining when Tennessee’s Jahmai Mashack collected an acrobatic, improbable tip-in while trying to grab the rebound off a Gainey missed 3-pointer.

Both teams made 90% of their free throws, each hitting 18 of 20.

The Volunteers play at LSU on Tuesday night. The Aggies host Vanderbilt on Wednesday night.

No. 9 TEXAS TECH 73, WEST VIRGINIA 51

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — JT Toppin scored 22 points, freshman Christian Anderson had a season-high 21 points with five 3-pointers in his first career start and ninth-ranked Texas Tech beat West Virginia 73-51 on Saturday.

Toppin and the Red Raiders (21-6, 12-4 Big 12) overcame a slow start, with the 6-foot-9 reigning AP national player of the week making nine of his last 10 shots after missing his first six. Tech fell behind 24-15 when missing 18 of its first 23 shots before ending the first half with a 15-3 run to go ahead to stay.

Amani Hansberry had 14 points and 11 rebounds for West Virginia (16-11, 7-9), his second double-double in a row. Javon Small had 10 points.

Anderson started in place of Chance McMillian, the Big 12’s top 3-point shooter, who was out after rolling his right ankle late in the Red Raiders’ 69-66 loss at TCU on Tuesday night.

Kevin Overton and Elijah Hawkins both had 10 points for Tech.

Overton had six points and Toppin two layups in a 10-0 run over the final 3 1/2 minutes of the first half to put Tech up 30-27.

Texas Tech hosts fifth-ranked Houston on Monday night. West Virginia is home against TCU on Tuesday night.

No. 14 MICH. ST. 75, No. 12 MICHIGAN 62

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Jase Richardson scored 21 points and Tre Holloman had 18, leading No. 14 Michigan State to a 75-62 win over No. 12 Michigan on Friday night to take sole possession of first place in the Big Ten.

The Spartans (22-5, 13-3) have surged atop the highly competitive conference with their third straight win.

The Wolverines (20-6, 12-3) fell out of first place with their first loss in seven games.

Michigan’s Vladislav Goldin scored 21 points, Danny Wolf had 11 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, and Nimari Burnett added 12 points.