Gonzaga went on a 10-2 run at the end of the first half and scored the first nine points in the third quarter to beat the University of Maine 62-43 in women’s basketball Monday night at Spokane, Washington.
The Bulldogs (6-1) had four players reach double figures. Kaylynne Truong had 15, Bryanna Maxwell 13 and Eliza Hollingsworth and Yvonne Ejim had 10.
Hollingsworth had two 3-pointers in the 10-2 run to close out the second quarter.
The Black Bears (3-4) trailed 15-14 after the first quarter, but were outscored 17-8 in the second quarter and 17-9 in the third.
Sarah Talon led UMaine with 13 points.
POLL: South Carolina remained the unanimous No. 1 choice in The Associated Press women’s basketball poll as the Gamecocks keep close watch on the foot injury of reigning Player of the Year Aliyah Boston.
The Gamecocks received all 29 first-place votes in the poll, a day after Boston left a game with her injury. Coach Dawn Staley said Boston was “questionable” going forward but added that the “team doctor wasn’t too, too concerned.”
South Carolina’s next game is Tuesday at home against No. 15 UCLA.
Stanford remained No. 2 after cruising through a tournament in Hawaii. It’s the 618th appearance for Cardinal Coach Tara VanDerveer, tying the late Pat Summitt for most all time.
UConn, Ohio State and Indiana rounded out the top five. Gorham’s Mackenzie Holmes plays for Indiana.
North Carolina moved up two spots to No. 6 after rallying to beat then-No. 5 Iowa State in the Phil Knight tournament. The Cyclones fell to eighth.
Notre Dame remained No. 7 and Virginia Tech and Iowa finished off the top 10. At No. 9, Virginia Tech has matched its best ranking ever and is in the top 10 for the first time since 1999.
FOOTBALL
NEBRASKA: Matt Rhule said he had plenty of options after he got fired by the Carolina Panthers. He could have taken a year off from football or worked in television.
Or he could jump back into college coaching. A number of schools reached out to him, he said, but only one appealed to him and his family.
Nebraska introduced Rhule as its coach on Monday, exactly seven weeks after the Panthers fired him five games into his third season. Awaiting him is the daunting task of taking over a team coming off a sixth straight losing season and a program that’s a shell of what once was one of the biggest brands in the college game.
“I am here because this is the right fit, it’s the right time,” Rhule said. “And if I have one message for you: We can absolutely do it. We can absolutely get University of Nebraska football exactly where it’s supposed to be. It will be hard. It may take time, but it will be done.”
Rhule signed an eight-year, $74 million contract that makes him the third highest-paid coach in the Big Ten behind Ohio State’s Ryan Day and Michigan State’s Mel Tucker and among the top 10 nationally.
Athletic Director Trev Alberts said the contract is 90% guaranteed and that some of the compensation is deferred. Rhule will have a pool of $7 million to spend on assistant coaches.
When the Panthers fired Rhule, he was still owed $34 million on his seven-year contract. Alberts said the Panthers were involved in Rhule’s negotiations with Nebraska.
UNLV: When UNLV began this season 4-1, Coach Marcus Arroyo’s job security wasn’t in question.
Then the Rebels lost six games in a row to seemingly fall out of bowl contention, and even a victory over their biggest rival Saturday wasn’t enough to save Arroyo’s job.
Just two days after UNLV defeated Nevada 27-22, Athletic Director Erick Harper announced his decision to move on from Arroyo, who went 7-23 over three seasons.
Arroyo had two years left on his $7.7 million contract. Harper said Arroyo would be paid a $2.3 million buyout over the remainder of that term. UNLV spokesman Andy Grossman said the money for the buyout would be privately raised.
Associate head coach and linebackers coach Kenwick Thompson will serve as the interim coach if UNLV, which is 5-7, is invited to a bowl. The Rebels could play in the postseason because there might not be enough six-win teams to fill all the bowl slots.
AUBURN: Auburn is hiring Liberty Coach Hugh Freeze to take over the football program, more than five years after his resignation from SEC West rival Mississippi amid both personal and NCAA scandals.
A person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press that Freeze has signed a memorandum of understanding with the school. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because final details of the contract were still being worked out.
He replaces Bryan Harsin, who was fired on Oct. 31 after going 9-12 in less than two seasons at a proud program that has fallen on hard times.
Freeze is 68-44 in 11 seasons as a head coach at Arkansas State, Mississippi and Liberty, but he comes with baggage that required extensive vetting by Auburn.
He led the Rebels to a 39-25 record and four bowl games and even beat Auburn’s big rival, Alabama, in back-to-back seasons. But he resigned in the summer of 2017 after school officials uncovered a “pattern of personal misconduct” starting with a call to a number used by an escort service from a university-issued cellphone.
That was after the NCAA had started an extensive investigation into rules violations committed by the football program under Freeze.
The NCAA found 21 violations of academic, booster and recruiting misconduct, most of which happened under Freeze’s watch. The rule-breaking landed Ole Miss on probation, including a two-year postseason ban and recruiting restrictions.
MICHIGAN-MICHIGAN STATE: The Big Ten has disciplined Michigan State and Michigan for their roles in stadium tunnel altercations that led to seven Spartans being charged with crimes.
The conference announced it is fining Michigan State $100,000 for its football players “hitting, kicking or using of their helmet” to hit Michigan players and suspending cornerback Khary Crump, who is facing a felony charge, for the first eight games of next season.
The Big Ten is also reprimanding Michigan for failing to “provide adequate protection for personnel of both home and visiting teams when entering and leaving playing arenas,” per conference policy.
The Big Ten said the suspensions that ended the season for seven other Michigan State players were sufficient. The conference also said the schools properly addressed a football staff member who violated the Big Ten’s sportsmanship policy in an incident unrelated to the tunnel altercations.
Last Wednesday, the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office charged seven Michigan State football players for their actions Oct. 29 following the game at Michigan Stadium.
The most serious charge is against Crump, who faces one count of felonious assault, and the other six players are charged with misdemeanors. Crump in one video appears to swing his helmet at a Michigan player. That could account for the more serious charge, which carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. State law describes felonious assault as an attack “using knife, iron bar, club, brass knuckles or other dangerous weapon without intending to commit murder or to inflict great bodily harm.”
Linebacker Itayvion “Tank” Brown, safety Angelo Grose, cornerback Justin White, defensive end Brandon Wright and defensive end Zion Young are each charged with one count of aggravated assault and linebacker Jacoby Windmon faces one count of assault and battery.
Those six players were reinstated to the football program, Athletic Director Alan Haller and Coach Mel Tucker announced.
Spartans cornerback Malcolm Jones, one of the suspended players, is not facing charges, nor are any players from Michigan.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
(9) KANSAS 87, TEXAS SOUTHERN 55: Jalen Wilson hit five 3-pointers and scored 22 points, MJ Rice added 19 and host Kansas (7-1) bounced back from its first loss of the season by routing Texas Southern (1-7).
Grady Dick had 15 points, Josef Yesufu 14 and KJ Adams 10 for the Jayhawks, who fell to No. 13 Tennessee in the title game of the Battle 4 Atlantis.
(11) ARKANSAS 74, TROY 61: Ricky Council scored a season-high 27 points and host Arkansas (6-1) used a 17-0 run late in the second half to hold off Troy (6-2).
POLL: Nearly four decades after Clyde Drexler and Akeem Olajuwon took Houston to No. 1, the latest bunch led by Marcus Sasser and star freshman Jarace Walker took over the top spot in the AP Top 25. The Cougars received 45 of 63 first-place votes from the national media panel, easily outdistancing second-place Texas and third-place Virginia.
North Carolina had been No. 1 all season, but the Tar Heels lost to Iowa State and in a four-overtime thriller to Alabama at the Phil Knight Invitational to cede the top spot to Houston, which beat Kent State in its only game last week.
Texas received eight first-place votes and Virginia received two. Arizona climbed from 14th to fourth after emerging from a stacked field to win the Maui Invitational. Purdue jumped from 24th to fifth and scooped up eight first-place votes after beating West Virginia, Gonzaga and Duke at the Phil Knight Legacy tourney.
Baylor was sixth, Creighton seventh and UConn climbed from 20th to eighth after beating Oregon, Alabama and Iowa State to win the Phil Knight Invitational. Kansas fell from third to ninth after losing to Tennessee in the championship game of the Battle 4 Atlantis, and Indiana rounded out the top 10.
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