St. John’s Latest Upset Victim

Samford wanted to earn a little respect from the team that blew the Bulldogs out of last year’s NCAA tournament. It got a lot more than that.

The Alabama school and member of the Trans America Athletic Conference delivered the latest upset of a top 25 team, beating 15th-ranked St. John’s, 68-60, Friday in the opening round of the CoSIDA Classic at Albuquerque, N.M.

Samford (1-0) had its first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament spoiled last March by St. John’s, 69-43, in the first round of the South Regional at Orlando.

This time, guard Will Daniel scored 17 points and led a second-half surge as St. John’s joined Connecticut, Ohio State and Duke as ranked teams beaten in their first games this season.

“They may have respected us at the end of that [NCAA tournament] game, but we didn’t earn it,” said Samford Coach Jimmy Tillette. “You can demand attention, but you can’t demand respect. That was our focus tonight. I hope we earned it.”

St. John’s Coach Mike Jarvis said the Bulldogs didn’t have to.

“At least now you know we weren’t lying when we said Samford was good,” he said. “We made a lot of bad decisions and took a lot of bad shots and we paid the price.”

No. 3 Auburn 65, Alabama Birmingham 59--Mamadou N’diaye had 11 points and a career-high 14 rebounds to lead the Tigers over the Blazers in a sloppy season opener at Auburn, Ala. The game was never really close, but Alabama Birmingham was able to hang in it by fouling Auburn down the stretch.

No. 7 Florida 96, Florida State 61--Running and trapping in midseason form, the Gators forced 29 turnovers in front of a record crowd of 12,487 at Gainesville, Fla., in the season opener for both teams.

Udonis Haslem scored 18 points and Teddy Dupay and Mike Miller had 15 each for the Gators, who enter this year with the highest expectations ever at what has for decades been known as a football school.

No. 8 Connecticut 89, Vermont 52--Khalid El-Amin scored 28 points as the Huskies (2-1) rolled over the Catamounts (0-1) at Storrs, Conn., in the first meeting between the schools in 19 years.

El-Amin hit the opening basket seven seconds into the game to give Connecticut a lead it would not relinquish. The junior guard, who finished two points shy of his career high, scored 18 first-half points.

No. 10 Arizona 84, New Mexico State 60--Michael Wright dominated play inside with a career-high 24 points and 13 rebounds as the Wildcats (2-0) overpowered the Aggies (1-1) at Tucson to reach the semifinals of the Preseason NIT.

The Wildcats, who play Notre Dame on Wednesday night at New York, broke open the rough contest with runs of 17-5 and 14-0 in the second half.

No. 11 Kansas 97, Fairfield 71--Kenny Gregory scored 19 points as the Jayhawks forced 28 turnovers at Lawrence, Kan., in winning their season opener for the 27th consecutive season.

No. 14 Kentucky 56, No. 16 Utah 48--Saul Smith and Desmond Allison made clutch jump shots in the final two minutes as the Wildcats (2-0) held off the Utes (1-1) at Lexington, Ky., and advanced to the semifinals of the Preseason NIT.

No. 17 Illinois 76, Western Illinois 53--Frank Williams sparked Illinois with a pair of three-point baskets early in the second half and the Illini used a 32-4 run to win easily at Champaign, Ill., in the opener for both teams.

No. 23 Oklahoma State 87, Appalachian State 75--Joe Adkins had 18 points and the Cowboys started the second half with a 14-2 run en route to victory in the America’s Youth Classic at Stillwater, Okla.

Nevada Las Vegas 99, Mississippi Valley State 73--Point guard Mark Dickel scored 17 points, pulled down a career-high 10 rebounds and matched a career high with 12 assists for the first triple-double of his career, leading the Rebels in an opener at Las Vegas.

WOMEN

No. 5 Tennessee 133, Tennessee Martin 60--Freshman Kara Lawson scored 23 points, including five three-point baskets, to lead the Volunteers (1-1) over the Skyhawks (0-1) at Knoxville, Tenn.

It was the most points ever scored by a Lady Volunteer team, surpassing the 130 points Tennessee ran up on Hawaii Pacific in 1985. And it came against Tennessee Coach Pat Summitt’s alma mater.

No. 6 Iowa State 77, Creighton 61--Angie Welle scored 23 points as the Cyclones broke out early and rolled over the Jays at Omaha, Neb., in the season opener for both teams.

No. 16 Old Dominion 91, Hampton 64--Lucienne Berthieu had 22 points and nine rebounds as the Monarchs romped at Norfolk, Va., in the opener for both teams. Freshman Kim Giddens had nine blocked shots for Old Dominion, which set a Colonial Athletic Assn. women’s record with 16 blocks overall.

No. 21 Purdue 60, Dayton 58--Katie Douglas scored 31 points, including a short jumper in the final second, to lead the Boilermakers at Dayton, Ohio.

No. 24 Nebraska 113, Georgia Southern 77--Amanda Went scored 14 points to lead the Cornhuskers in the first round round of the Time-Warner Classic at Lincoln, Neb.

No. 25 Arizona 75, Oklahoma 59--Elizabeth Pickney scored 22 points to lead the Wildcats at Honolulu.