Winners and losers from the Big 12/SEC Challenge. ‘We’ve got a really tough team.’
Six of the 10 games in Saturday’s Big 12/SEC Challenge were decided by single digits and one went to overtime.
In the end, the two college basketball conferences settled for a 5-5 tie in the seventh annual midseason collision of the two Power Five leagues.
Top-ranked Baylor saved the day for the Big 12, traveling to Gainesville, Florida, and beating the Gators, 72-61, to clinch the tie in the final game of the night
The SEC picked up victories Saturday from Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn and LSU. Winners from the Big 12 were Baylor, Kansas, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.
The Big 12 has won four of the seven Challenges, the SEC one, and there have been two ties.
The Big 12 won the first three challenges 7-3, 6-4 and 7-3 before the leagues split 5-5 in 2016-17. In 2017-18, the SEC won the challenge for the first time, with a 6-4 advantage. Last season, the Big 12 won 6-4.
The overall record now stands at 40 wins for the Big 12 vs. 30 for the SEC.
Kentucky improved to 4-3 in the Challenge after its 76-74 overtime victory at No. 15 Texas Tech.
Across the seven years, UK has lost to Baylor, beat Texas, lost to Kansas, lost to Kansas, beat West Virginia, beat Kansas and beat Texas Tech.
Since there are 14 SEC teams and only 10 Big 12 schools, four from the SEC have to sit out each season. Missing out on this year’s Challenge were Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.
The SEC/Big 12 Challenge, which started in 2013-14, was renewed for six more years last year.
Here is how Saturday’s action played out:
SEC wins
No. 15 Kentucky 76, No. 18 Texas Tech 74 (OT): For the 12th time in 19 games this season, Kentucky faced a possession-by-possession test of wills that featured a margin of four of fewer points inside the final eight minutes.
And for the eighth time in such games, Kentucky won.
Nick Richards made two free throws with 10.3 seconds left in overtime to give UK the victory at Lubbock, Texas. That capped a 25-point game, which equaled his career high (against Fort Wayne on Nov. 22, 2017).
Richards also grabbed a season-high 14 rebounds in posting his eighth double-double of the season.
Immanuel Quickley, who scored 21 points, explained how Kentucky pulled out the win in front of a raucous crowd down the stretch in Lubbock.
“This is a really tough place to play. You have 16,000 people rooting against you, booing you, calling you all kinds of stuff,” the UK sophomore said. “Sometimes that can be a little bit distracting. But it’s a credit to these guys. We’ve got a really tough team. Really mentally strong. I can’t wait to play the next game with these guys.”
No. 16 Auburn 80, Iowa State 76: Isaac Okoro scored 19 points, Samir Doughty had 18 and Auburn held off visiting Iowa State in Saturday’s opening game.
Okoro had 10 straight points to help the Tigers (17-2) take a 76-62 lead with under six minutes to play. The Cyclones (9-10) responded with 10 points in a row.
Okoro, a true freshman, hit two foul shots with nine seconds left to seal it.
Rasir Bolton led the Cyclones with 23 points and Tyrese Haliburton, the team’s leading scorer going into the game, added 12.
Auburn made nine three-pointers in the first half, with Danjel Purifoy hitting shortly before the buzzer, in taking a 42-31 lead. The Tigers finished 10 of 28 from behind the arc.
LSU 69, Texas 67: Trendon Watford scored 22 points and visiting LSU survived a furious second-half rally by Texas, the eighth win in a row for the surging Tigers (15-4).
Watford’s tough layup put the Tigers up 62-60 before Skylar Mays made two free throws with 49 seconds left. Watford made two more with 16 seconds to play to all but seal the victory.
Texas (12-7), which had lost by 38 at West Virginia on Monday night, trailed by 16 early in the second half, then mounted a desperate comeback to take the lead 60-58 on a basket by Jericho Sims with just over four minutes left. The Longhorns changed the game when they switched to a high-pressure, full-court defense that forced a rash of turnovers and smothered LSU shooters.
Andrew Jones, who returned full time this season after missing most of the last two seasons after being diagnosed with leukemia, scored 20 points for the Longhorns.
Arkansas 78, TCU 67: Mason Jones scored 20 points and Desi Sills added 18 to lead Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark.
The Razorbacks (15-4) led for the final 35 minutes of the game, though TCU didn’t trail by double digits until late in the second half. Sills’ 11 points in the first half helped open the lead and Jones, the team’s leading scorer on the season, had all but one of his 20 in the second half to help keep it.
TCU (13-6) committed 13 turnovers in the first half, leading to nine Arkansas points and a 33-29 lead for the Razorbacks at halftime. Arkansas also stifled the Horned Frogs’ leading scorer Desmond Bane, who averaged 17.2 points entering Saturday, by limiting him to just eight points.
Alabama 77, Kansas State 74: Kira Lewis Jr. scored 26 points and Alabama pulled out the win at home.
A 14-0 Alabama run in the second half extended the lead to 16 for the Crimson Tide, but the Wildcats responded with a 15-2 run to eventually cut the deficit to one.
Lewis made back-to-back baskets on the next two Alabama possessions, and the Crimson Tide (12-7) never relinquished the lead.
Kansas State (8-11) controlled the boards throughout the game and finished with 22 offensive rebounds compared to three for the Crimson Tide.
All five starters for Alabama finished in double figures including Alex Reese, Jaden Shackelford and John Petty Jr. scoring 11 points and Herbert Jones 10.
Junior guard Cartier Diarra led the Wildcats with 17 points.
Big 12 wins
No. 1 Baylor 72, Florida 61: MaCio Teague and Devonte Bandoo scored 16 points each and Baylor extended its winning streak to 16 with a victory at Gainesville, Fla.
The Bears improved to 6-1 in the annual inter-conference series — the best record of any team in either conference — and most likely earned themselves another week atop The Associated Press poll.
The Bears (17-1) overcame an eight-point deficit early and led by 19 points in the second half before Florida mounted a minor rally. The Gators (12-7) had a chance to make it a single-digit game with a little more than seven minutes to play, but they missed the front end of three consecutive one-and-ones. Kerry Blackshear Jr. misfired twice on back-to-back possessions and then Noah Locke did the same seconds later.
What could have been an eight-point game was still a comfortable lead for the Bears.
Davion Mitchell finished with 11 points and six assists for Baylor, which was a slight underdog entering the game.
The Gators fell to 2-17 against the No. 1 team, including 10 consecutive losses.
Keyontae Johnson led Florida with 20 points.
No. 3 Kansas 74, Tennessee 68: Devon Dotson scored 22 points, Udoka Azubuike added 18 and Kansas won at home
Azubuike was the lone big man for the Jayhawks (16-3) after Silvio De Sousa was suspended 12 games and David McCormack banned five for their roles in a brawl Tuesday against Kansas State.
After Azubuike went to the bench with two fouls early, Yves Pons hit consecutive three-pointers to put the Volunteers (12-7) on a 14-2 run for a 20-13 lead. Kansas answered when Azubuike checked back in, stringing together a 12-0 run en route to a 37-30 lead at halftime.
Azubuike finished with 11 rebounds and four blocks.
Pons led the Volunteers with 24 points.
No. 14 West Virginia 74, Missouri 51: Jermaine Haley had 15 points and nine rebounds, Miles McBride scored 15 points and host West Virginia broke open a close game with a huge run early in the second half to beat cold-shooting Missouri.
West Virginia’s Bob Huggins earned his 876th win to tie Kentucky’s Adolph Rupp for seventh place on the NCAA Division I coaching list.
Oscar Tshiebwe added 14 pounds and eight rebounds, Gabe Osabuohien grabbed 12 rebounds and Derek Culver had 11 rebounds for the Mountaineers (16-3).
Torrence Watson scored 19 points to lead Missouri (9-10).
With Missouri’s Jeremiah Tillman missing his sixth straight game because of a stress fracture in his left foot, the Tigers had no answer for the Mountaineers’ inside game and were outrebounded 50-30.
Oklahoma 63, Mississippi State 62: Brady Manek scored 18 points, and Oklahoma defeated Mississippi State at Oklahoma City.
Alondes Williams added a career-high 13 points for the Sooners (13-6).
Robert Woodard II scored 15 points and Tyson Carter added 14 for Mississippi State (12-7). Season scoring leader Reggie Perry scored just seven points and played just 21 minutes because of foul trouble.
Mississippi State had a chance to win at the end. With the Bulldogs trailing by a point, Woodard missed a jumper from near the free-throw line and the Bulldogs couldn’t get another shot off.
Oklahoma State 73, Texas A&M 62: Isaac Likekele scored 13 points and Oklahoma State won at Texas A&M.
The Cowboys snapped a six-game losing streak, with those setbacks all coming to Big 12 opponents.
The Cowboys (10-9) led 34-26 at halftime, in boosting their lead over the Aggies (9-9) right before the break thanks to a dunk and jump shot, both by Likekele, over the final 46 seconds.
Three players scored 11 points each to lead the Aggies: Emanuel Miller, Josh Nebo and Quenton Jackson. Thomas Dziagwa and Jonathan Laurent (12 points each) and Lindy Waters III and Yor Anei (11 points each) also scored in double digits for the Cowboys in a well-rounded offensive effort.
Saturday’s Challenge scores
No. 16 Auburn 80, Iowa State 76
No. 14 West Virginia 74, Missouri 51
Oklahoma 63, Mississippi State 62
Oklahoma State 73, Texas A&M, 62
No. 15 Kentucky 76, No. 18 Texas Tech 74, OT
Herald-Leader staff writer Jerry Tipton and The Associated Press contributed to this article.
This story was originally published January 25, 2020 at 9:37 PM.