Florida Falls to Arizona

Rick Anderson wasn’t around for Arizona’s run to last season’s national championship game. He came up with the big plays Friday night that made it possible for the Wildcats to win the Coaches vs Cancer Classic with a second consecutive upset of a top 10 team.

The junior forward, who sat out last season as a redshirt, scored Arizona’s final six points and the Wildcats defeated No. 6 Florida, 75-71, to win the season-opening event at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

On Thursday night, Arizona, which returned one starter from last season, shocked No. 2 Maryland, 71-67. Maybe it wasn’t such a shock.

Anderson, who finished with 11 points, hit an 18-footer as the shot clock expired with 1:41 to play to give Arizona a 71-69 lead over Florida.

Orien Greene scored on a drive with 1:05 to play to tie it.

Jason Gardner, who led the Wildcats with 23 points, was forced to call a timeout with 28 seconds left when he lost his dribble with three seconds on the shot clock.

After three 30-second timeouts, two by Arizona, Gardner inbounded the ball to Anderson, who took two strong dribbles and made a left-handed layup, again as the shot clock expired, and the Wildcats had the lead for good.

No. 2 Maryland 82, No. 16 Temple 74--Juan Dixon scored 15 of his 25 points on three-pointers and the Terrapins improved dramatically on their long-range shooting from their opening-game loss, defeating the Owls in the third-place game of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.

On Thursday night, the Terrapins (1-1) were just seven for 27 from behind the arc. With Dixon leading the way against Temple’s matchup zone, Maryland improved to 63.2% (12 of 19).

Dixon, who was five of 10 on three-pointers in both games, hit three consecutive three-pointers in Maryland’s 14-2 run to close the first half, giving the Terrapins a 39-32 lead. He hit another one 39 seconds into the second half to give them their first double-digit lead of the game.

Temple (0-2), which lost, 72-64, to Florida on Thursday, moved within 61-58 on a rebound basket by Kevin Lyde with 4:20 to play, but Byron Mouton and Steve Blake started and ended an 8-0 run with three-pointers to give the Terrapins a 69-58 lead with 2:11 to play.

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In games involving top 25 women’s teams:

No. 1 Connecticut 93, Fairfield 50--Sue Bird had 21 points and a career-high 12 assists and Diana Taurasi of Chino had 16 to lead the top-ranked Huskies to a victory in the Preseason Women’s NIT at Storrs, Conn.

The Huskies (1-0) will play Florida International in a second-round game Sunday.

No. 3 Vanderbilt 91, Eastern Kentucky 62--Chantelle Anderson scored a game-high 23 points and the Commodores opened their season at Nashville, Tenn., with a victory in the first round of the Preseason NIT.

The Commodores will play a second-round game Sunday against Oregon State.

No. 12 Colorado 78, Oral Roberts 49--Tera Bjorklund had 28 points and 14 rebounds as the Buffaloes won at Boulder, Colo., in the first round of the Preseason NIT.

Mandy Nightingale added 13 points for Colorado, which advanced to play New Mexico on Sunday.