Associated Press
The top 25 roundup …
SEATTLE ó Justin Dentmon sat for the majority of the game because of fouls. Instead of sulking, he soared ó and lifted surprising Washington with him to the top of the Pac-10.
Dentmon returned from 23 minutes of idling to spark the decisive late run and freshman Isaiah Thomas scored 24 points to lead the resurgent Huskies to an 86-75 victory Saturday over 13th-ranked UCLA ó and give the conference a new leader.
Jon Brockman rebounded from having zero field goals on Thursday to score 18 points and add eight rebounds for Washington (15-4), which won for the 13th time in 14 games to claim sole possession of the Pac-10 lead for the first time since January 2005.
“It put us up on top of the conference for today and so yes, you can’t get a bigger win than that,” Washington coach Lorenzo Romar said.
These go-go Huskies, the conference’s highest-scoring team, now have slashing guards to complement the pounding Brockman after having missed the NCAA tournament the last two seasons. They scored more points than anyone had this season against the rugged Bruins to win for the fifth consecutive time over UCLA in Seattle.
“This is a very good team that beat us today,” said Ben Howland, the first UCLA coach since John Wooden to win three consecutive league titles.
Washington is 6-1 in the conference for the third time in 25 years.
Josh Shipp scored a career-high 25 points but went scoreless for more than nine minutes of the second half for the Bruins (15-4, 5-2 Pac-10), who lost for the second time in three games. He isn’t about to concede UCLA’s conference reign, either.
“We’ll see at the end of the Pac-10,” Shipp said when asked if Washington was now the equal of UCLA.
No. 6 Oklahoma 95, Baylor 76NORMAN, Okla. ó Blake Griffin had 20 points and 17 rebounds for his 16th double-double of the season, and the Sooners rolled to their seventh consecutive win.
Oklahoma (19-1, 5-0 Big 12) is 34-5 all-time against Baylor (15-4, 3-2) and extended its winning streak against the Bears to 29 games, going back to 1977.
No. 11 Marquette 79, DePaul 70MILWAUKEE ó Jerel McNeal scored 21 points, Wesley Matthews had 20 and Lazar Hayward added 16 points and 17 rebounds as Marquette remained undefeated in the Big East.
It is the best start ever for Marquette (17-2, 6-0) in conference play, topping a 5-0 mark 16 years ago when the Golden Eagles were known as the Warriors and played in the Great Midwest. That team also started 17-2.
Dar Tucker scored 18 points for DePaul (8-12, 0-7).
No. 14 Texas 67, Texas A&M 58AUSTIN, Texas ó Damion James scored 28 points, including 11 in a two-minute stretch of the second half to lead the Longhorns.
Texas (14-4, 3-1 Big 12) also got 15 points from Gary Johnson in winning its 19th straight at home. Donald Sloan scored 17 points for the Aggies (15-5, 1-4).
No. 15 Xavier 80, LSU 70BATON ROUGE, La. ó Derrick Brown scored 22 points to help the Musketeers hand LSU its first home loss of the season.
Marcus Thornton scored 30 for LSU, his 3-pointer giving the Tigers (15-4) a 40-36 lead early in the second half. Brown responded with a pair of 3s to tie it at 44, and Xavier (17-2) gradually built a lead as large as 11 before holding on.
B.J. Raymond added 21 points for Xavier, driving past Thornton for a layup inside the last two minutes to put the Musketeers up 70-63. Kenny Frease also had 12 points.
No. 16 Butler 78, Wisconsin-Milwaukee 48INDIANAPOLIS ó Reserve Shawn Vanzant scored a career-high 20 points and Butler won its 10th straight game.
The Bulldogs (18-1, 9-0 Horizon) have won 14 in a row at home and they can tie the conference record of 21 straight wins at home Friday against Valparaiso.
Tone Boyle scored 15 points for the Panthers (12-8, 7-3).
No. 20 Villanova 70, South Florida 61TAMPA, Fla. ó Dante Cunningham scored 14 points and Scottie Reynolds made four free throws over the final 1:07 for Villanova.
The Wildcats (15-4, 3-3 Big East) took control of the game with a 10-3 run during which USF (7-12, 2-5) missed the front end of two 1-and-1s and saw leading scorer Dominique Jones pick up his fourth and fifth fouls.
Augustus Gilchrist had 18 points and seven rebounds for South Florida, which shot 28 percent from the field in the second half and finished 16-for-29 from the free throw line.
No. 22 Memphis 54, Tennessee 52KNOXVILLE, Tenn. ó Tyreke Evans scored 17 points, including a free throw with one second remaining that helped the Tigers fend off Tennessee.
Evans, who scored Memphis’ final seven points, made a layup with 2:53 remaining to give the Tigers (16-3) a 53-50 lead. Wayne Chism made two free throws to cut Memphis’ lead to 53-52.
Both teams went the next 2 minutes without scoring.
Evans missed a jumper with 34 seconds left, and Bobby Maze grabbed the rebound for Tennessee (12-6). After a timeout, Tyler Smith missed an off-balance jumper with about 5 seconds left.
No. 23 Gonzaga 93, Loyola Marymount 60LOS ANGELES ó Matt Bouldin hit five 3-pointers and scored 18 points to lead the Zags.
The Bulldogs (14-4, 5-0 WCC) hit 12 3s in winning their sixth straight game. A big part of the rout was their balanced scoring, with four Gonzaga players in double figures.
Austin Daye had 14 points and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds for Gonzaga. Steven Gray added 14 points and made four 3s, and senior forward Josh Heytvelt finished with 15 points, six rebounds and four blocks. Micah Downs added 10 points and six rebounds off the bench.
Freshman Kevin Young had 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Lions (1-20, 0-5).
No. 25 Illinois 64, Wisconsin 57CHAMPAIGN, Ill. ó Demetri McCamey scored 25 points and the Illini (17-3, 5-2) used a big second-half run and lockdown defense to hand the Badgers (12-7, 3-4 Big Ten). Sophomore forward Mike Davis added 10 points for the Illini.