South Carolina edges Irvine, 67-65

Devan Downey scored nine straight points down the stretch, including a tying three-point basket and six foul shots in the final 1:14, to help South Carolina to a 67-65 win over UC Irvine on Friday night in Columbia, S.C.

Downey’s three-pointer with 2:19 remaining tied it at 60-60, and his first of six straight free throws gave the Gamecocks (7-5) the lead for good in a game in which they trailed by 13 early in the second half.

A pair of free throws by Downey with 24 seconds left put South Carolina ahead, 64-60. Brett Lauer made a three-pointer for the Anteaters (4-8), but Downey made two more foul shots with 12 seconds left to put the Gamecocks up, 66-63.

UC Irvine’s Michael Hunter missed a three-pointer the next trip down, and Dominique Archie made one of his two free throws to put the game away.

Archie led South Carolina with 18 points and Downey had 17 on five-for-14 shooting.

Darren Fells tied a career high with 20 points, and Patrick Sanders also scored 20 for Irvine.

The Anteaters led by seven at halftime and started the second half on an 8-2 run to take their biggest lead at 44-31 with 16 minutes to go. But the Gamecocks forced three straight turnovers and kept rallying until Chad Gray’s three-pointer with 8:14 cut the deficit to 50-49.

California 102, Long Beach State 65 -- Jerome Randle scored 14 of his 20 points in the first half to shake his team out of its offensive slump and the Golden Bears (8-2) made a school-record 16 three-pointers in a first-round game of the Golden Bear Classic at Berkeley.

Randle finished with 20 points, including five three-pointers, and had four assists for Cal, which held the 49ers to 15 points in the first half and kept Long Beach State (3-7) winless on the road this season.

Cal State Fullerton 103, Furman 72 -- The Titans (7-3) set school and tournament records by making 15 three-pointers in their victory over the winless Paladins (0-11) at Moraga, Calif.

Josh Akognon made seven of 13 three-point shots and scored 31 points to lead Fullerton to a victory in which it never trailed. Scott Cutley had 22 points as Fullerton was not seriously challenged, even though Furman shot 50% from the field.

Cal State Northridge 73, Utah Valley State 65 -- Jayme Miller and Tremaine Townsend each had 12 points in leading the Matadors (8-3) at Orem, Utah.

Northridge held on for the win after it took a two-point lead with just under three minutes left.

The Wolverines (5-9) got close with the score at 66-65 with 58.3 seconds left after Jordan Brady made two free throws. Ryan Toolson and Kevin Woods scored 15 points each in leading Utah Valley State.

WOMEN

USC 77, Arizona 70 -- Morghan Medlock scored a career-high 18 points and made four of USC’s season-high 13 three-point shots and the Trojans won the Pacific 10 Conference opener for both teams in Tucson.

Medlock made her final three-pointer with 15:51 remaining to give USC a 46-35 lead. It was part of a 17-1 second-half spurt by the Trojans (8-4).

Medlock finished with her first double-double of the season as she also had a career-best 13 rebounds.

Amina Njonkou had a career-high 22 points to lead Arizona (6-6).

Arizona State 62, UCLA 59 -- Sybil Dosty scored a career-high 20 points, including the deciding basket with 1:20 remaining, and grabbed 15 rebounds to lead the Sun Devils over the Bruins in the Pac-10 opener for both teams in Tempe, Ariz.

Jill Noe made two free throws with 2.7 seconds left to secure the win for the Sun Devils (7-5), who fell out of the top 25 rankings this week.

UCLA (5-7) had two chances to go ahead in the final 21 seconds but missed shots, including Lindsey Pluimer’s layup that was grabbed by Noe.