Texas Southern has jerseys stolen before loss to Oregon
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Texas Southern had its uniforms stolen before the game and any hope of an upset over No. 1 Oregon vanished quickly as Sabrina Ionescu and Ruthy Hebard were their usual dominant selves Saturday in leading No. 1 Oregon to a 99-63 win.
The Tigers’ game jerseys were in a black duffel bag according to police that was taken from a downtown hotel conference room. They were forced to wear practice uniforms with some players having taped numbers to the back of their maroon tops.
Ionescu raised her NCAA record for triple-doubles to 19 with 10 points, 13 rebounds and 14 assists, reaching the standard on a pair of free throws with 5:19 remaining in the third quarter as the crowd cheered in acknowledgment.
Fellow senior Hebard, meanwhile, recorded the 42nd double-double of her career with 31 points and 13 rebounds and like Ionescu didn’t play in the fourth quarter.
Ciani Cryor, a graduate transfer from Rutgers, led Texas Southern (1-1) with 22 points.
No. 13 KENTUCKY 50, VIRGINIA 47
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Sabrina Haines scored 17 points, Rhyne Howard had a double-double and Kentucky held off Virginia.
Jocelyn Willoughby’s 3-pointer pulled the Cavaliers with 48-47 with 44 seconds left and after a Kentucky timeout Willoughby stole the ball with 20.1 seconds to go. Virginia missed a 3-pointer with four seconds to go, Howard made two free throws with two seconds left, and the Cavs missed a tying shot.
Howard had 13 points and 11 rebounds for Kentucky (4-0), which has not allowed a team to score more than 52 points so far. Willoughby led Virginia (2-2) with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
The game was a defensive struggle with Kentucky’s biggest lead being seven points and Virginia’s best four points. A Howard 3 and Haines layup put the Wildcats up 39-32 with 6:44 to go but Dominique Toussaint had consecutive jumpers to bring the Cavs back.
No. 20 SYRACUSE 75, ALBANY 53
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Emily Engstler had her second-straight double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds and Syracuse used 10-point advantages in the second and fourth quarters to dispatch Albany.
Kiara Lewis led the Orange (3-0) with 17 points.
Syracuse broke away from a 16-all tie after one quarter, making 8 of 18 shots while Albany shot 3 of 16. The Orange had a 16-8 rebounding edge in the quarter. After an even third quarter, when Albany shot 57 percent and the Orange only upped the lead to a dozen, Syracuse again took control. Leading by nine, the Orange went on an 11-2 run with four different players scoring. The Great Danes went 1 of 4 from the field with two turnovers and were down 67-47 with 4:20 left.
Kyara Frames paced the Great Danes (1-3) with 12 points.
No. 24 MICHIGAN 80, AKRON 71
AKRON, Ohio (AP) — Naz Hillman scored 28 points and Michigan rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat Akron in the Akron Classic.
The Wolverines trailed 58-55 heading into the fourth quarter but scored 12 straight points and turned that into a 17-2 run to lead 74-63 with 2:49 to play.
Michigan (4-0) made 8 of 11 free throws in the fourth and Hailey Brown hit the Wolverines’ only two 3-pointers of the game.
Haliegh Reinoehl led a balanced attack for Akron (2-1) with 14 points. Shayna Harmon and Jordyn Dawson had 13 points apiece. Rachel Martindale went 4 of 6 behind the arc for 12 points.
Michigan led 25-12 after one quarter but the Zips closed within 41-34 at the half. Michigan had an 8-1 run in the third quarter but the Zips closed on a 10-0 run.
