College basketball: No. 3 Gonzaga holds off No. 1 Duke 89-87 in Maui - Los Angeles Times
Advertisement

College basketball: No. 3 Gonzaga holds off No. 1 Duke 89-87 in Maui

Zion Williamson of the Duke Blue Devils splits the Gonzaga defense for a layup during the first half.
(Darryl Oumi / Getty Images)
Share via

Duke’s Maui mastery is over. Gonzaga blocked the Blue Devils out of another title.

Rui Hachimura scored 20 points and No. 3 Gonzaga blocked four shots in the final 46 seconds to hold off five-time champion Duke 89-87 Wednesday in the Maui Invitational title game.

Duke (5-1) trailed by 16 in the second half before mounting a massive charge with a series of dunks and drives to the basket. After the Blue Devils tied it at 87-all, Hachimura scored on a hard drive to put Gonzaga up.

The Zags (6-0) missed four free throws to give Duke a final shot, but Brandon Clarke blocked R.J. Barrett’s drive on the game’s final play.

Advertisement

Gonzaga beat a No. 1 team for the first time and ended Duke’s unbeaten streak on the Valley Isle (17-1) with its second Maui Invitational title.

Barrett had 23 points and Zion Williamson scored 22 for Duke.

Zach Norvell Jr. scored 18 points for the Zags.

No. 2 Kansas 77, Marquette 68: The Jayhawks (4-0) used a 22-0 run to open the second half to erase a nine-point halftime deficit and roll to victory in the semifinals of the NIT Season Tip-Off at Brooklyn.

Dedric Lawson scored 26 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Kansas, which will face No. 5 Tennessee in the championship game.

Advertisement

Sam Hauser scored 20 points and Markus Howard had 18 for Marquette (3-2).

No. 4 Virginia 74, Middle Tennessee 52: De’Andre Hunter had 15 points, nine assists and eight rebounds to help fourth-ranked Virginia beat Middle Tennessee 74-52 in the last first-round game at the Battle 4 Atlantis on Wednesday night.

No. 5 Tennessee 92, Louisville 81: Grant Will-iams scored 24 points and Tennessee had five players in double figures to beat Louisville in the first semifinal of the NIT Season Tip-Off in New York.

Admiral Schofield added 20 points for the Vols (4-0), who shot 54% from the field.

The win was the 664th of Tennessee coach Rick Barnes’ career. It moved him past John Wooden on the all-time Division I wins list.

Advertisement

No. 8 Auburn 73, Arizona 57: Bryce Brown scored 19 points, Malik Dunbar added 15 and No. 8 Auburn pulled away from Arizona to win the Maui Invitational third-place game.

No. 10 Kentucky 87, Winthrop 74: PJ Washington had 19 points and 11 rebounds, Tyler Herro added 15 points and the Wildcats (4-1) shot a season-best 56% to run away from the Eagles (2-3). Kentucky used its size to dominate in rebounding (37-20) and points in the lane (42-24).

Washington made seven of 11 shots and had his second straight consecutive double-double. Kentucky made 31 of 55 shots, its third consecutive game shooting at least 49%. Josh Ferguson, Charles Falden and Austin Awad each had 11 points for Winthrop.

No. 15 Mississippi State 61, St. Mary’s 57: A late 6-0 run lifted the Bulldogs (4-1) over the Gaels in the MGM Resorts Main Event at Las Vegas.

St. Mary’s (3-2) had a 16-6 run to take a 50-48 lead with 6:15 left before Mississippi State took control. Jordan Ford led all scores with 23 points for the Gaels.

Creighton 87, No. 16 Clemson 82: Sophomore Ty-Shon Alexander made seven three-pointers and scored a career-high 36 points to lead the Bluejays (5-1) to the championship of the second annual Cayman Islands Classic.

Advertisement

Marcquise Reed scored 27 points for Clemson (5-1).

at No. 20 Iowa 105, Alabama St. 78: Iowa freshman Joe Wieskamp had something to prove after back-to-back bad showings.

The Hawkeyes’ newest star was brilliant on Wednesday night, a display that showed why he earned the starting spot he’s had since the opener.

Luka Garza scored 22 points, Wieskamp had a career-high 20 and 20th-ranked Iowa rolled Alabama State 105-78 on Wednesday night in its home debut as a ranked team.

at No. 22 Buffalo 110, Dartmouth 71: With a nine-day layoff between games, Buffalo’s players challenged each other in practice to stay sharp.

They may have given each other a tougher test than Dartmouth did on Wednesday night.

Nick Perkins had 18 points and 10 rebounds, and No. 22 Buffalo scored the first 15 points and cruised to a 110-71 victory.

No. 25 Wisconsin, 62 Stanford 46: Ethan Happ had 16 points and 12 rebounds before fouling out late, and the Badgers (4-0) beat the Cardinal (2-2) in the first round of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in Paradise Island, Bahamas. Sophomore Nate Reuvers had a tournament-record nine blocked shots, a total that also tied the longtime Wisconsin single-game record.

D’Mitrik Trice added 16 points for Wisconsin, which shot just 35% after halftime yet came up with a 9-0 burst to seize control after Stanford had gotten within a basket with 6:53 left. KZ Okpala led the Cardinal with 11 points.

Advertisement

SOUTHLAND

Utah Valley 87, Long Beach State 72: Jake Toolson scored 20 points and Utah Valley won the consolation final of the MGM Main Event’s Middleweight bracket in Las Vegas. Deishuan Booker scored 23 of his game-high 29 points for Long Beach State in the second half.

at Hofstra 80, Cal State Fullerton 71: Justin Wright-Foreman scored 37 points with five rebounds and six assists to lead Hofstra. Wright-Foreman was 13 of 20 from the field and nine of 11 from the line.

Toledo 67, UC Irvine 60: Jaelan Sanford scored 18 points and had eight rebounds to lead Toledo at the Gulf Coast Showcase. Sanford was eight of 15 from the field.

at Loyola Marymount 76, Central Connecticut 74: Zafir Williams hit two free throws with a second left in the game to allow Loyola Marymount to avoid its first loss of the season and beat Central Connecticut, 76-74 on Wednesday night.

LMU is now 6-0 for the first time in program history.

Advertisement