Louisville ‘Gaines’ Upper Hand on Marquette

Louisville’s Reece Gaines made sure the largest crowd to ever see a college basketball game in Wisconsin went home disappointed Saturday.

Gaines made a three-point basket with six seconds left to lift the No. 2 Cardinals past No. 11 Marquette, 73-70, before 18,850 at Bradley Center.

Gaines’ heroics also ended Marquette’s home winning streak at 28. The last time the Golden Eagles (18-4, 9-2 Conference USA) lost at home was on Feb. 24, 2001, in triple overtime, 77-74 -- to Louisville.

Gaines initially wanted to drive to the basket. “I knew that was the best shot I was going to get because I couldn’t move to the basket,” Gaines said. “They were going to trap me, and [force me] to pass it to somebody else.”

Louisville (19-2, 9-1) rebounded from a 59-58 loss at Saint Louis on Wednesday that ended its winning streak at 17.

“We were on edge because of that loss and we played a great game,” Coach Rick Pitino said. “If we hadn’t lost that game, I don’t know if we’d have been able to win here today.”

With Louisville leading, 70-67, Marquette point guard Travis Diener came off a screen and made a three-point basket with 15.3 seconds left.

Gaines, who had 20 points, came back and made his winning shot from above the key.

“We just didn’t cover it very well,” Marquette Coach Tom Crean said.

Diener was short on a final try at the buzzer.

No. 3 Kentucky 68, Louisiana State 57 -- Keith Bogans scored 20 points and Gerald Fitch added 15 at Lexington, Ky., as the Wildcats extended their winning streak to 14, longest in the nation.

Kentucky (20-3, 10-0 Southeastern Conference) shot 39%, but outrebounded LSU, 46-30. Jaime Lloreda had 18 points for LSU (14-9, 3-8).

Tennessee 66, No. 4 Florida 59 -- Ron Slay, the leading scorer in the SEC, had 20 points at Knoxville, Tenn., as the Volunteers extended their winning streak to six games.

Brandon Crump had a career-high 19 points for Tennessee (15-6, 7-3), which ended a losing streak at five to the Gators (20-4, 9-2).

No. 5 Oklahoma 63, Texas Tech 58 -- Quannas White scored a career-high 23 points as the Sooners won at Lubbock, Texas, on a day proclaimed “Coach Bob Knight Day” by the city’s mayor.

Marc McDougal made the proclamation to honor the Red Raider coach for his 800th victory on Feb. 5, but Oklahoma (17-4, 8-2 Big 12) came out in the second half and used an 11-3 run to take a 45-38 lead and was never seriously threatened after that.

Texas Tech is 14-7 and 4-6.

No. 6 Texas 75, Nebraska 63 -- Brandon Mouton scored 14 of his 24 points in a row at Lincoln, Neb., as the Longhorns (17-4, 8-2 Big 12) rallied to defeat the Cornhuskers (9-14, 1-9).

Seton Hall 73, No. 7 Pittsburgh 61 -- At East Rutherford, N.J., the Pirates scored their second major upset in 10 days and stretched their winning streak to five.

Andre Sweet scored 15 of his 17 points after halftime for Seton Hall (12-9, 6-4 Big East). The Pirates defeated No. 10 Notre Dame last week. Pittsburgh is 17-4 and 7-3.

No. 8 Duke 78, Virginia 59 -- Shelden Williams scored a career-high 20 points at Charlottesville, Va., as the Blue Devils (17-4, 7-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) ended a four-game road losing streak in league play. Virginia (14-9, 5-6) lost for the first time in 11 home games.

No. 17 Syracuse 82, No. 10 Notre Dame 80 -- The Orangemen (17-4, 8-3) ran their home winning streak to 16 by defeating the Fighting Irish (19-5, 7-3) at Syracuse, N.Y.

Wichita State 80, No. 12 Creighton 74 -- At Wichita, Kan., Aaron Hogg scored 27 points, including the go-ahead layup with just under a minute left, as the Shockers (14-8, 9-4 Missouri Valley) scored their first victory over a ranked team since Dec. 4, 1990. Creighton is 22-3 and 12-2.

Baylor 74, No. 13 Oklahoma State 72 -- Kenny Taylor made a three-point basket with 1:54 remaining at Stillwater, Okla., and the Bears (11-10, 2-8 Big 12) made four defensive stops after that to stun the Cowboys and end their road losing streak at 22. Melvin Sanders scored a career-high 30 for Oklahoma State (19-4, 8-2).

Purdue 70, No. 14 Illinois 61 -- Kenny Lowe scored 23 points at West Lafayette, Ind., as the Boilermakers (16-6, 8-3 Big Ten) remained tied with Michigan and Wisconsin for the Big Ten lead. Michigan visits Purdue on Wednesday. The Fighting Illini fell to 16-5 and 6-4.

No. 18 Xavier 93, Rhode Island 70 -- Romain Sato matched a career high with 34 points at Cincinnati as the Musketeers (18-4, 9-1 Atlantic 10) won their ninth in a row. Rhode Island is 15-7 and 7-4.

No. 19 Mississippi State 68, Mississippi 64 -- At Starkville, Miss., Mario Austin had 19 points and converted a three-point play with 52 seconds left in overtime that put the Bulldogs (16-5, 6-4 SEC) ahead for good. Justin Reed had 18 points for Mississippi (12-10, 3-8).

No. 20 Georgia 83, Vanderbilt 70 -- Ezra Williams and Jarvis Hayes each scored 16 points for the Bulldogs (14-7, 6-4 SEC) at Athens, Ga., in a game marred by 61 fouls, including two technicals on Commodore Coach Kevin Stallings that resulted in the first ejection of his 10-year coaching career.

“It was ugly, kind of like a root canal,” Georgia Coach Jim Harrick said.

Vanderbilt is 10-12 and 3-8.

No. 21 Missouri 71, Kansas State 63 -- Arthur Johnson had 17 rebounds and 14 points as the Tigers (15-6, 6-4 Big 12) improved to 12-0 at Columbia, Mo. Frank Richards equaled his career best with 20 points for Kansas State (12-11, 3-7).

Villanova 79, No. 23 Connecticut 70 -- Gary Buchanan scored 28 points at Philadelphia as the Wildcats (14-9, 7-3 Big East) forced 24 turnovers and defeated the Huskies (15-6, 6-4).

Ben Gordon, Connecticut’s leading scorer, started and scored 25 points despite being arrested Friday on charges of slapping a female student, who also was arrested for allegedly hitting him. Gordon was released on $1,000 bond and is scheduled for a court appearance Feb. 25.

Dayton 66, No. 25 St. Joseph’s 56 -- The Flyers (18-4, 10-1 Atlantic 10) improved to 13-0 at Dayton, Ohio, and have won 14 of 16 games. Brooks Hall scored 13 points and had nine rebounds as Dayton continually broke the full-court press applied by St. Joseph’s (18-4, 8-3).

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OTHER GAMES

Britton Johnsen scored 21 points at Salt Lake City to lead Utah (18-4, 6-1 Mountain West) to a 76-62 victory over San Diego State (12-9, 3-5).... Blake Stepp scored seven of his 27 points during a late 12-0 run that pushed Gonzaga (19-6, 10-1 West Coast Conference) to an 82-71 victory over San Francisco (11-12, 6-4) at Spokane, Wash.... Damon Jackson and Noel Felix scored 16 points each as Fresno State (18-5, 11-3 Western Athletic Conference) held on to first place in conference play with a 76-56 victory over Southern Methodist (12-11, 7-6) at Fresno.... Jacksonville’s Hugh Durham coached his 1,000th Division I game as the Dolphins (12-12, 7-5 Atlantic Sun) cruised to an 89-54 victory over Florida Atlantic (7-18, 3-10) at Jacksonville, Fla.