College basketball: Top-ranked Tennessee rallies, beats Vanderbilt 88-83 in overtime

Grant Williams had the game of his life and the best free throw shooting performance by a college player in six decades.

Tennessee needed every last point in its first outing this season as the nation’s top-ranked team.

Williams scored a career-high 43 and made all 23 free throws as the Volunteers avoided a repeat of their last trip to Memorial Gym when also freshly minted No. 1, holding off Vanderbilt 88-83 in overtime Wednesday night.

By going 23 of 23 at the line, Williams turned in the most free throws without a miss in the NCAA since Arlen Clark was 24 of 24 for Oklahoma State on March 7, 1959.

at No. 7 Nevada 100, Colorado St. 60: Jordan Caroline scored 26 points and No. 7 Nevada cruised to a victory over Colorado State on Wednesday night, giving Eric Musselman his 100th win as a college coach.

Cody Martin added 19 points and brother Caleb Martin had 18 for the Wolf Pack (19-1, 6-1 Mountain West Conference), who shot 56 percent from the floor and 48 percent beyond the arc. Trey Porter scored 13 and Tre’Shawn Thurman 10.

J.D. Paige led the Rams (7-12, 2-4) with 18 points. Nico Carvacho had 11 points and 14 rebounds.

at No. 12 Marquette 79, DePaul 69: Markus Howard scored 13 of his 23 points in the final six minutes and Sam Hauser added 19 as 12th-ranked Marquette held off DePaul on Wednesday night to remain unbeaten at home.

DePaul, which trailed by 14 in the first half, pulled to 56-52 on Max Strus’ layup with 7:31 remaining. Hauser appeared to counter with a 3-pointer as the shot clock wound down, but it was waved off after review.

Howard then scored five consecutive points to trigger an 11-point run. Marquette extended the lead to 67-56 on two free throws by Hauser with 3:47 left. The Golden Eagles (17-3, 6-1 Big East) scored 17 of their final 23 points from the free throw line to improve to 14-0 at the new Fiserv Forum.

at No. 17 Houston 94, East Carolina 50: Houston had one of its best offensive nights of the season. Coach Kelvin Sampson was more impressed with his team’s intensity and defense.

Armoni Brooks scored 17 points, Corey Davis Jr. added 12 and No. 17 Houston hit 16 3-pointers while beating East Carolina on Wednesday.

Brooks and Davis combined to hit nine 3-pointers while the Cougars (19-1, 6-1 American Athletic Conference) finished 16 of 24 from behind the arc.

at No. 25 LSU 92, Georgia 82: A little more than a month ago, LSU point guard Tremont Waters went to the bench for two games.

Since returning to the starting lineup in the Tigers’ final non-conference game, Waters has been a different player. He delivered his best game of the season Wednesday night as No. 25 LSU beat Georgia to remain unbeaten in Southeastern Conference play.

Waters scored a season-high 26 points, making nine of his 14 field goal attempts and seven of 11 free throws. In addition, he had four assists and four steals with no turnovers in 32 minutes to help the Tigers win their eighth straight overall.

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at Cal State Northridge 86, Long Beach State 71: Terrell Gomez scored 21 points and all five Northridge starters scored at least 12 points as the Matadors (9-12, 3-2) pulled away in the second half to beat Long Beach State.

UC Riverside 74, at Cal Poly 51: Ajani Kennedy scored 15 points with nine rebounds and UC Riverside (8-13, 2-3) broke away in the second half. The Highlanders led 35-32 at halftime and pushed the lead to nine with a 13-7 run to open the second half.

UC Irvine 75, at Hawaii 74 (OT): Max Hazzard’s jumper with 10 seconds to go in overtime lifted the Anteaters. Hazzard, the grandson of former Bruin star Walt Hazzard, had 14 points, four rebounds and four assists in the game. Jack Purchase led Hawaii with 18 points.