The Tribune

By RENALDO DOUREST

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

IT was a weekend of mixed results for Bahamian NCAA Division I basketball players as their respective programmes continued their progression into conference play.

DeAndre Ayton was the top performer among the group with a game high 24 points and seven rebounds in a 90-83 win for his No.17 Arizona Wildcats over the Oregon Ducks in the PAC-12. Ayton shot 7-11 from the field and 10-11 from the free throw line. It was his fourth 20-point performance in the last five games as the Wildcats improved to 4-1 in conference play.

Arizona’s defence helped them to build a lead as large as 12 points in the first half after holding the Ducks scoreless for five minutes and 15 seconds from the 16:48 mark to the 11:33 mark of the half.

By game’s end, Arizona and Oregon had exchanged the lead 11 times and tied the score six times. The freshman forward is currently averaging 20.2 points and 11.3 rebounds per game with 12 double doubles thus far on the season.

Tum Tum Nairn and the No.4 ranked Michigan State Spartans suffered yet another upset loss in the Big-10.

The Spartans lost 82-72 to the Michigan Wolverines and have lost two of three games with an overtime win over Rutgers in between the setbacks. The Spartans had previously won 14 straight games before the lost to Ohio State last week.

“This will hurt for a day or two,” Spartans head coach Tom Izzo said. “I’m going to address a couple guys on the grit that you have to have to play with in the Big Ten.”

Lashann Higgs helped the No.7 Texas Longhorns to recover from their first Big 12 loss of the season and score a 79-62 win over the Kansas Jayhawks.

Fresh off of her Big-12 Player of the Week honors, Higgs scored 17 points on 6-7 shooting from the field.

The Longhorns held an early 10-8 lead midway through the first quarter before the Jayhawks used an 8-0 spurt to grab their first lead of the contest at 18-15. In the second quarter, Higgs knocked down a late free throw as Texas headed to the half, trailing 31-29. Texas went on a 12-2 run to extend the advantage to double-digits (45-35) at the 5:41 mark in the third and held a 57-50 lead heading into the fourth.

Texas faces their toughest test of the season tonight when the face the No.1 ranked UConn Huskies tonight at 7pm local time and broadcast live on ESPN2.

It would take a really exceptional performance, there’s no question about it,” Longhorns head coach Karen Aston said when asked about the possibility of beating the perennial champions and top ranked team in the country, “They’re so good in so many ways -- they’re fast, their really good transition, they’re solid defensively, I mean they have five people on the court that can score at any moment. Six, I guess, if you talk about their sixth man. But I also think that this is as balanced of a team that we’ve had offensively and part of the task of even being able to play with them is to be able to score some.”

In the Sun Belt conference, Travis Munnings and the ULM Warhawks continue to struggle and dropped their fourth game in the last five outings. Munnings scored 12 points and added four rebounds in his team’s 82-48 loss to the Louisiana Rajun Cajuns. Munnings’ the Warhawks’ leading scorer, struggled to score, 5-17 from the field and 2-6 from three point range.

Projected to be a third team all-conference selection in the preseason, Munnings is averaging a career high 15.2 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.

Jaron Cornish continues to produce solid numbers in his first season with the Stony Brook Seawolves in the America East Conference. Cornish finished with nine points, five rebounds, and three assists in 22 foul plagued minutes of the Seawolves’ 73-62 loss to the Vermont Catamounts.

Since the Juco transfer has been thrust into the starting lineup, he has been a bright spot for the Stony Brook offense and has posted averages of 9.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game.

In the Northeastern Conference, Charles Bain and the Robert Morris Colonials scored another conference win with an 81-75 win over the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights.

Bain has appeared in each of the teams 19 games this season, and is averaging 4.5 points and 2.1 rebounds in just under 14 minutes per game.