Reserve leads Vols over Tennessee-Martin

Wire, Staff, Special Reports

Tennessee's leading scorer Tuesday night was a reserve forward who was almost an offensive lineman for Ohio State.

Ohio State's football coaches "used to come down to my prep school and take me out of basketball practice and offer me scholarships," Brian Williams said. "I would have been a left tackle."

Good thing for the 14th-ranked Volunteers he was on their side Tuesday night.

Williams scored a career-high 21 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in a 91-64 victory over Tennessee-Martin.

Williams said Coach Bruce Pearl motivated him to have a breakout game.

"Coach has been on me so hard, telling me I play soft and telling me I need to get in there and be a dominant force, and I tried to show him that today," Williams said.

It was the Volunteers' 34th consecutive home victory, breaking the school record set from 1966-68.

Nation men

No. 7 Texas 76, Tulane 51: Damion James scored 16 points as the Longhorns cruised at home.

Dexter Pittman, a 6-foot-10, 300-pound junior forward, muscled over the Green Wave for 10 points and six rebounds in his second career start for Texas (2-0), which had five players score in double figures.

No. 9 Gonzaga 80, Idaho 46: Micah Downs scored 18 points and Austin Daye added 16 as the Bulldogs won its ninth consecutive game over the Vandals.

No. 11 Purdue 78, Loyola of Chicago 46: E'Twaun Moore scored 14 points at home as the Boilermakers advanced to the NIT Season Tip-Off semifinals. Robbie Hummel scored 13 points and Marcus Green had 12 points and matched his career-high with 10 rebounds for Purdue (3-0).

No. 12 Oklahoma 82, No. 21 Davidson 78: Blake Griffin scored 25 points and pulled down a career-high 21 rebounds and freshman Willie Warren added 20 points as Oklahoma overcame the highest scoring game of Stephen Curry's career.

Curry tried to will his team back from a 21-point deficit in the second half, and got the Wildcats (2-1) within three points with a three-pointer in the final minute.

But Griffin, a fellow preseason All-America, snagged a key offensive rebound to help the Sooners close it out with three free throws by Cade Davis.

Curry scored 44 points on 12-for-29 shooting and went 6-for-15 from 3-point range.

The Sooners (3-0) advanced to the semifinals of the NIT Season Tip-Off next week in New York.

No. 19 Southern California 73, New Mexico St. 60: Taj Gibson tied his career high with 22 points and had 10 rebounds in Los Angeles for USC's first 2-0 start in eight years.

No. 24 Kansas 85, Florida Gulf Coast 45: Sherron Collins had a career-high 25 points for Kansas, which raised its 2008 national championship banner. Then the Jayhawks (2-0) swarmed Gulf Coast from the opening tip, starting with a 13-2 run, building the lead to 32 by halftime.

No. 25 Wisconsin 88, SIU-Edwardsville 58: Reserve Jon Leuer scored 19 points to lead the Badgers. The starters spent most of the second half on the bench.

SEC men

Georgia 61, E. Michigan 60: Corey Butler scored 12 points for the Bulldogs at West Lafayette, Ind., in a consolation game in the NIT Season Tip-Off.

Eastern Michigan had the ball in the closing seconds, trailing 61-60, but L.J. Frazier was called for a charge with 6.1 seconds to play.

Georgia's Zac Swansey missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 5.4 seconds left. Eastern Michigan's Antonio Green drove to the hoop for a layup, but didn't get his shot off before the final buzzer.

Mississippi 89, South Alabama 71: David Huertas scored 27 points, Chris Warren had 15 points and six assists for the Rebels at home.

Mississippi (2-0) got a career-high 16 points from Zach Graham in his first start as Eniel Polynice's replacement after Ole Miss lost its best defensive player earlier in the day because of knee surgery. Polynice was the second key perimeter player the Rebels lost to injury in the last 11 days.

State men

Eastern Kentucky 69, Winston-Salem State 44: Mike Rose scored 20 points and hit six three-pointers to lead the Colonels.

Eastern Kentucky (1-1) connected on nine shots from long range, including five in the second half, to pull away from the Rams (1-1), in their home opener.

The score was tied at 25 at halftime, but Eastern Kentucky held the Rams to 30.8 percent shooting and just 19 points in the second half.

State women

Transylvania 66, Maryville 54: The Scots scored the first basket of the game, then the Pioneers took the lead and held it the rest of the game.

Four Transylvania players were in double figures, led by Kelsey McCarty's 15 points. McCarty was 10-for-10 from the free-throw line.

Lindsey Wilson 111, Berea 90: Viktoria Krell and Ewa Bukowska scored 22 points apiece and Siera Rambert added 20 as the homestanding Blue Raiders raced past the Lady Mountaineers.

Candy Walls had 35 points for Berea.

WKU's Brown honored

Western Kentucky forward Arnika Brown was named the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week on Tuesday after averaging 23.5 points and 16.5 rebounds against Murray State and 12th-ranked Vanderbilt.