PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The American Athletic Conference won all four men's basketball games over the past two days. USF and ECU took care of their home courts on Friday night in addition to rv/rv UCF and SMU starting the trend on Thursday night. Saturday is set for seven matchups.
RESULTS
USF 73, Colgate 63
David Collins scored 20 points, Alexis Yetna added 14 and South Florida beat Colgate 73-63 on Friday night in the first meeting of the teams.
Laquincy Rideau scored 12 points with three assists for the Bulls (6-2), who shot 47 percent to the Raiders' 39 percent and outscored them 30-18 in the paint. It was Collins' fourth 20-point game of the season.
Rapolas Ivanauskas' 3 put Colgate up 51-45 midway through the second half, but the Bulls tied it at 51 before Michael Durr's go-ahead dunk amid a 14-2 run and South Florida led 60-53 with 4:46 to go on Yetna's layup. Colgate closed to within seven points on Ivanauskas' free throws with 2:10 left, but got no closer.
South Florida's T.J. Lang tied it at 24 with a free throw, but Ivanauskas hit two from the line for a 36-34 Raiders' halftime lead.
Jordan Burns scored 17 points and Ivanauskas had 14 with seven rebounds for Colgate (5-3), which turned it over 20 times.
ECU 83, Appalachian State 81
Freshman Jayden Gardner scored 22 points and Seth LeDay added 18 off the bench, including the go-ahead put-back with 23.8 seconds left that lifted ECU over Appalachian State, 83-81, inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum Friday night.
The Pirates (5-4) trailed by 13, 61-48, with less than 12:30 minutes remaining and trailed by eight, 70-62, with six minutes left, but closed within one, 81-80, on Gardner's made free throw with 1:09 to play.
Gardner grabbed 11 rebounds, including six offensive, for his fourth double-double of the season and third in the last four games. The Pirates out-rebounded App State by six and scored 19 second chance points compared to only eight from the Mountaineers.
Gardner made an ECU freshman record 16 free throws on 19 attempts and the Pirates finished 24-of-33 (.727) at the charity stripe
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Shawn Williams scored 15 points and K.J. Davis added 10 for the Pirates, who held Appalachian State to a season-low four 3-pointers and 20.0 percent shooting outside the arc (4-of-20).
The Mountaineers were shooting 43.0 percent from beyond the arc and averaging 10.7 made 3s per game entering the contest.
App State made 7-of-9 field goal attempts and outscored ECU 15-6 in the first 6:37 of the second half to retake a double-digit lead after building a 10-point first half advantage.
The Mountaineers outscored the Pirates 10-2 over a 3:32 stretch late in the first half for a 37-27 lead. Williams then scored nine of ECU's final 13 points of the stanza to bring ECU with two, 42-40, at the break.
rv/rv UCF 70, Alabama 64
Behind a game-high 24 points from senior guard B.J. Taylor, the UCF men's basketball team earned its fifth straight win, defeating visiting Alabama by a score of 70-64 Thursday evening at CFE Arena.
Last season, the Knights went to Tuscaloosa and upset the then No. 24 Crimson Tide 65-62 to snap a three-game losing skid. This time around, UCF was favored. The Knights came in receiving votes in both national polls, but didn't allow Alabama to upset them on their home floor.
UCF (6-1) competed for 40 minutes and led for over 37 in the victory. In fact, the Knights led by as many as 12 points in the first half, before giving up an Alabama run that cut their halftime advantage to just four points, at 29-25.
The Crimson Tide (5-2) finally took the lead three minutes into the second half on a three-pointer by Alex Reese. They led again at 40-38, but after a bucket in the paint form Taylor and two free throws from Aubrey Dawkins, UCF had the lead for good.
Leading just 50-48 with 9:22 to play, Taylor hit one of two threes on back-to-back possessions to regain the advantage. His second, part of a 7-2 run by UCF, gave the Knights a 56-50 advantage they maintained to the final buzzer.
Taylor finished with a game-high 24 points, his third game with 20 or more points this season. The senior went 6-of-11 from the floor, 3-of-5 from three-point range and 9-of-11 from the free throw line.
Taylor, Dawkins and Tacko Fall all finished in double figures, the third straight time that all three members of the trio have scored in double figures in the same game. Dawkins had 16 on 10-of-10 from the line, while Fall finished with 10 points and four blocked shots in the victory.
SMU 91, McNeese 58
Jimmy Whitt Jr. had a triple-double as SMU overwhelmed McNeese 91-59 on Thursday night for its third straight win.
Whitt had 12 points and 10 rebounds to go with 10 assists to record SMU's first triple-double since 1999. He was 6 of 9 from the field with three steals.
Jahmal McMurray led the scoring for the Mustangs (5-3), knocking down five from distance to total 19 points. Isiaha Mike was 3 of 6 from long range for 18 points as SMU drilled 11 of 29 from beyond the arc.
Ethan Chargois contributed 11 points as all 10 Mustangs put points on the board. Feron Hunt posted seven points while grabbing eight rebounds as SMU won the rebound battle 38-23.
The Mustangs never trailed, taking a 40-24 lead into the half. Whitt hit a jumper to start the second half and SMU won that period 51-35.
James Harvey came off the bench to score 16 points for McNeese (2-4). Roydell Brown added 13.
UPCOMING GAMES