Notre Dame Score Nice Comeback Win Over Pitt 52-42
The #25 Notre Dame Fighting Irish started out every slowly at the #20 Pittsburgh Panthers. They scored a measly three points in the first 13:54 and found themselves down by 16 points. But led by Jack Cooley and Jerian Grant who each had 13 points, the Irish rallied. They closed the half on a 16-3 run to get back to within three points at halftime on their way to a 51-42 win. The Irish improved to 21-6 and 9-5 in the Big East while Pitt fell to 20-7 and 8-6. Pitt was led by Tray Woodall with 11 points.
The #13 Kansas State Wildcats beat the West Virginia Mountaineers 71-61. Will Spradling led the Wildcats with 19 points as they improved their record to 21-5 and 10-3 in the Big 12. The game was the return of Coach Bob Huggins to K-State who left to take the West Virginia job. The win puts the Wildcats into a first place tie with the winner of Wednesday night’s Kansas Jayhawks at Oklahoma State Cowboys game.
The game was physical one with 49 fouls called and 53 free throws taken by the two teams. Nino Williams chipped in 13 points for K-State and three other Wildcats ended in double figures as they went on a 18-2 run to take control early in the game. They took a 13 point lead into the halftime locker room and never looked back from there. West Virginia dipped to 13-13 and 6-7 in the Big 12, their first season in the conference.
The Villanova Wildcats beat the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in Big East action 71-63. Rutgers took a 31-21 lead into the halftime locker room but the Wildcats rallied in the second half. Ryan Arcidiacono, Darrun Hilliard and JayVaughn Pinkston had 14 points each as the Wildcats out-scored Rutgers 50-32 in the second half. The Wildcats have now won four of five and are 17-10 and 8-6 in the Big East. Rutgers was led by Myles Mack with 24 points as they fell to 13-12 and 4-10.
In women’s college basketball action, the #1 Baylor Bears beat the #3 Connecticut Huskies 76-70. Brittney Griner led the Bears with 25 points as she reached 3,000 in her career. The defending champions are now 25-1 and 14-0 in the Big 12. Griner was held to four points in the first half but rallied her team in the second half to win a tough battle against the Huskies who fell to 24-2 and 11-1 in the Big East. The win was Baylor’s 23rd in a row and 65th in their last 66 games dating back to the beginning of last year.
There are some great college basketball games on the schedule for Tuesday night including #1 Indiana and #3 Michigan State from East Lansing and also #5 Florida is at Missouri.
