UCF collected a key road, non-conference win, knocking off No. 24 Alabama on Sunday afternoon. Temple and Tulane suffered road setbacks on the day.
UCF 65, #No. 24/-- Alabama 62
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) -- A.J. Davis made the go-ahead free throw with 25 seconds remaining, then Terrell Allen stole the following Alabama possession and fired the ball to teammate Dayon Griffin for an easy layup that sealed UCF's 65-62 upset of the No. 24 Crimson Tide on Sunday.
Allen finished with 16 points and eight assists, Djordjije Mumin scored 11, and Griffin added 10 points and six rebounds. The Knights were extremely efficient from the outside on offense. They shot 60 percent from the field in the second half and finished 7 of 15 behind the arc.
UCF (5-3) made five 3-pointers on 10 attempts in the first half to keep it a six-point game heading into the final 20 minutes. The Knights never slowed down. They kept up the pace in the second half, scoring 35 points, while finding more success in the paint.
Mumin was the Knight's most efficient player from behind the arc, making three of four 3-point attempts, and Griffin added two more 3-pointers. UCF finished the game shooting 47 percent from behind the arc.
Alabama (6-2) was successful on the inside for most of the first 20 minutes but fell behind in rebounding during the second half. The Crimson Tide scored 34 points in the paint but lost the rebounding battle 37-28.
The Knights held Alabama star Collin Sexton, the Southeastern Conference's leading scorer, to just seven points, all of which came from the free-throw line. Sexton also turned the ball over three times and had three assists.
Donta Hall had 20 points and four blocks to lead the Crimson Tide.
George Washington 71, Temple 67
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Yuta Watanabe and Jair Bolden scored 17 points each, fellow starters Patrick Steeves and Arnaldo Toro combined for 20 more and George Washington fended off a late-charging Temple in a 70-67 upset Sunday.
The Colonials (4-4) shot 68 percent in the first half, making six of their first seven 3-point shots, to grab an unlikely 40-25 lead on the Owls by halftime. Temple (4-2), which had been off to its best start since the 2012-13 season, scratched away at the deficit after the break, including a late 10-0 run to pull within 57-56 and tied the game twice before George Washington edged away.
Bolden scored five of the Colonials last six points and Temple, despite two potential game-tying 3-pointers in the final 13 seconds, scored only three points in the last 4:10.
The Colonials' starting five combined for 22-for-40 shooting with eight of the team's nine treys.
Quinton Rose scored 20 points to be Temple's top scorer for the third-straight game, and Shizz Alston, Jr. added 18, going 4 for 5 on 3-pointers.
#13/11 North Carolina 97, Tulane 71
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) -- Two of No. 13 North Carolina's best shooting performances have come in a five-day span. For the Tar Heels, it all starts at the other end of the court.
Luke Maye had 22 points and 10 rebounds, and North Carolina routed Tulane 97-73 on Sunday.
Kenny Williams and Joel Berry II finished with 13 points apiece to help the Tar Heels (8-1) win their third straight.
The defending national champions shot a season-best 65.5 percent and hit nearly 68 percent during their best-shooting half of the season, helping them put this one away by halftime.
Coach Roy Williams called it "maybe our best defensive half of the year," but his team was pretty strong on offense, too, building a permanent double-figure lead before missing a shot from anywhere -- either the field or the free-throw line.
Tulane shot 37.7 percent -- a fraction of a percentage point better than Arkansas had in UNC's best defensive performance of the season, on Nov. 24 in Portland, Oregon, in the PK80 Invitational.
"That was the key that (Williams) put on the board: Let this be our best defensive game all year," forward Theo Pinson said. "We knew we had to be locked in defensively, and once we got after them, we had control."
Melvin Frazier scored 27 points and Cameron Reynolds finished with 18 for Tulane (6-2). The Green Wave, who hadn't allowed an opponent to shoot better than 50 percent before this, had no defensive answers in losing twice in three games after starting 5-0.
North Carolina dominated virtually every line on the final box score. The Tar Heels never trailed, built a 45-26 rebounding advantage, scored 62 points in the paint and blocked nine shots to Tulane's one.