Texas Stops Beard, Beats Duke

Texas Coach Jody Conradt had a simple plan for containing Duke All-American Alana Beard on Sunday in the Women’s Tip-Off Classic at West Lafayette, Ind.

“You can’t shut her down, you can’t even slow her down a lot of the times, but you can force her to take harder shots, which is what we were trying to do,” Conradt said.

The No. 2-ranked Longhorns succeeded where most teams have failed. Beard, who made only four of 17 shots, scored 12 points and No. 2 Duke lost, 85-77.

In other women’s top 25 games:

No. 7 Purdue used a 9-0 run in the second half to beat No. 5 Kansas State, 79-69, in the second game of the Tip-Off Classic.... Cathrine Kraayeveld scored 26 points to lead Oregon to a 76-67 victory over No. 9 Louisiana State in the championship game of the Women’s Sports Foundation Classic at Eugene, Ore. The victory was the first for the Ducks against a top 10 team in three years.... No. 10 Texas Tech (2-0) closed the first half with an 18-3 run and beat Western Kentucky, 88-47, at Lubbock, Texas, in the quarterfinals of the preseason NIT.... Cappie Pondexter scored 21 points to lead No. 16 Rutgers to a 65-50 victory over Mississippi in the quarterfinals of the preseason NIT at Piscataway, N.J.

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Jeff Gloger made two free throws with 18 seconds left to give UC Irvine a 65-60 victory over San Diego in a consolation game of the Black Coaches Assn. Classic in Cincinnati.

Gloger led the Anteaters (1-1) with 17 points. Brice Vounang led San Diego (0-2) with 16 points.

UC Irvine plays Ohio today for fifth place. The Bobcats (1-1) beat Coppin State, 51-47. Coppin State (0-2) tied the score, at 42-42, with 7:02 left. Jaivon Harris then scored seven consecutive points to give Ohio a 49-42 lead.