College Basketball Roundup : No. 6 Auburn Defeats Eastern Kentucky

Auburn basketball Coach Sonny Smith said his sixth-ranked Tigers had to swallow some pride Monday night in order to beat Eastern Kentucky, 97-82, at Richmond, Ky.

“This is the only team we’ve played where we had to back off running,” Smith said after the Tigers’ victory. “My players weren’t expecting that. We thought we would just have to stop the three-point shot.”

Eastern Kentucky came into the game hitting 51% of its three-point field goal attempts (53 of 104) but made only 7 of 23 against the Auburn defense, which extended to the three-point line. Auburn sank 7 of 13 from the same range.

Auburn used the aggressive inside power of center Jeff Moore, who had a career-high 32 points, and forward Chris Morris, who added 25.

Moore also had 18 rebounds in helping Auburn to a 55-31 edge on the boards.

Eastern Kentucky Coach Max Good said: “The missed shot was their best pass because they were so big they just outrebounded us. I think the game will help us. We felt we were weak on the boards and they exposed that.”

Auburn, which trailed, 48-47, at halftime, outscored Eastern Kentucky, 21-10, in the first six minutes of the second half to take charge of the game and improve its record to 5-0. Eastern Kentucky fell to 4-2.

Guard Antonio Parris led Eastern Kentucky with 34 points, including five three-point field goals. Jeff McGill added 15 points.

Auburn’s biggest lead came at 97-80 on Frank Ford’s two free throws with 12 seconds left.

Forward Mike Jones scored 16 for Auburn, and Ford added 13.

St. Mary’s 88, USIU 65--Forward Robert Haugen scored a career-high 27 points to lead the Gaels to victory at Moraga, Calif.

Haugen had 15 first-half points as St. Mary’s took a 40-24 halftime lead.

Guard Paul Robertson scored 20 points for St. Mary’s (4-3).

U.S. International was led by guard Mark Moses, who scored 19 points, and Joe Yezbak, who added 17. The Gulls are 0-6.

St. Mary’s outrebounded the shorter U.S. International team, 50-29, with Haugen accounting for 10 of the rebounds.

Michigan 76, Bowling Green 64--Senior guards Antoine Joubert and Garde Thompson each scored 16 points as the Wolverines won at Ann Arbor, Mich.

Thompson scored 12 points in the first half, and Joubert had 11 as Michigan (6-2) built a 47-20 lead.

Michigan outshot Bowling Green from the field, 61% to 32%, during the first half. Also, the Falcons (2-3) were hurt by nine missed free-throw attempts during the first half.

Bowling Green was led by senior guard Frank Booker with 21 points.

Oklahoma State 77, Minnesota 66--Sylvester Kincheon scored 20 points to lead the Cowboys at Stillwater, Okla. Kincheon, who also led the Cowboys with 9 rebounds, hit 9 of 11 shots from the field.

Oklahoma State is 2-4, and Minnesota is 3-2.

West Texas St. 100, Seattle 64--Charles Byrd made 5 of 6 three-point shots and finished with 18 points, and Melvin Faust also had 18 as West Texas State won at Amarillo, Tex.

West Texas improved to 4-2, and the Chieftains fell to 4-2.

SW Louisiana 93, Tennessee Tech 91--Southwestern Louisiana hit eight free throws in the final three minutes after blowing a 16-point lead and hung on to win at Lafayette, La.

The Cajuns (3-2) led by as many as 16 points in the second half before Tech (2-2) rallied. Randal Smith led Southwestern scorers with 18 points.