Associated Press
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CINCINNATI — Deonta Vaughn scored 16 points and became Cincinnati’s career leader in assists and made 3-point shots Wednesday night, leading the Bearcats to a 76-62 victory over Weber State.
The senior guard signed on to revive a program that fell on hard times after coach Bob Huggins was ousted. The Bearcats (19-15) hadn’t won more than 18 games in any of the last three seasons under coach Mick Cronin, who was brought in for the reconstruction.
“It’s progress,” Cronin said. “Getting in the NIT is progress. Playing in March is a habit. When you’re building a program, that’s important.”
Cincinnati, playing in the tournament for the first time since 2006, will host Dayton in the second round. A date hadn’t been set.
Vaughn has been through a lot of tough times, failing to reach the NCAA tournament in his four years. He was the team’s top player during that span, sometimes the only scoring threat in a subpar offense.
After he set the two school records in the second half, the 2,410 fans gave him a standing ovation during a timeout. At Cronin’s urging, Vaughn stood and acknowledged the crowd.
“I just wanted to sit down and get the game over and finish our first NIT game off right,” Vaughn said. “It felt good to be among one of the greatest at shooting 3s and dishing the ball out to teammates.”
Weber State (20-11) fell apart when Cincinnati went to a half-court trap midway through the first half. The Wildcats had seven turnovers during a decisive 17-0 run and finished with a season-high 23.
The run put the Bearcats up 37-19. Cincinnati had three steals and forced an errant pass, setting up four straight baskets in a 1-minute, 18-second span.
“It was tough,” said guard Damian Lillard, who had a game-high 26 points. “When we went over their press, they were right there. Sometimes they denied me the ball and forced everybody else to have to bring up the ball and make plays.”
Cincinnati hasn’t been very adept at the trap, but thought it might be useful. The Bearcats executed it as well as they have all season, surprising the Wildcats.
“Part of that was my fault,” coach Randy Rahe said. “We practiced it a little bit coming in. We haven’t seen it a lot. We talked to people in the Big East and asked about it, and people said it wasn’t a big factor (for Cincinnati). We worked on it in practice a little, but obviously not enough.”
Virginia Tech 81, Quinnipiac 61
BLACKSBURG, Va. — Malcolm Delaney scored 19 of his game-high 25 points in the first half to lead Virginia Tech past Quinnipiac in a first-round NIT game Wednesday night.
The Hokies (24-8), who advanced to play Connecticut at home in the second round on a date to be determined, shrugged off the disappointment of not making the NCAA tournament by holding the Bobcats to 38.1 percent shooting from the floor (24 for 63) and outrebounding one of the nation’s best teams on the boards, 42-30.
Quinnipiac came in ranked No. 1 nationally in rebounding margin (plus 9.2) and seventh in rebounds per game (40.7).
“I’m really proud of my team,” Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. “I’m proud of their resolve. They probably handled this situation (not making the NCAA tournament) better than I did, to be honest. ... But for them to come out and play as hard as they did and to be ready, that’s probably what hurt me so much. Because that’s who they are.”
Delaney, who was coming off a 3-for-15, seven-point performance in the Hokies’ 70-65 quarterfinal loss to Miami in the ACC tournament that may have cost them an at-large bid to the NCAAs, hit four 3-pointers and went 6 for 9 from the floor in the first half alone against Quinnipiac’s zone in helping Tech build a 12-point halftime margin.
Quinnipiac (23-10), regular-season champions in the Northeast Conference, trailed by just seven, 26-19, after a three-point play by Justin Rutty with 6:18 remaining. But Delaney canned 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions for the Hokies to break open the game.
Tech opened the second half with a 7-2 run culminating with Delaney’s two-handed slam with 17:48 left that built the lead to 17. Tech went on to lead by as many as 23.
“We were trying to slow the game down on offense and defense,” Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore said. “We usually don’t play that much zone. I thought it was a way to slow the pace, but Delaney blew a hole in that in the first half and they showed good patience in the second half, too. You’ve got to pick your poison. He’s just terrific.”
Delaney, the ACC’s leading scorer at 20.4 point per game, hit 9 of 15 from the floor and 4 of 8 from beyond the 3-point arc. He also grabbed six rebounds and dished out five assists.
“Not making the NCAA is disappointing, but at the same time, we’re still playing basketball,” Delaney said. “We can’t dwell on the past. We know where we should be playing right now and a lot of people know where we should be playing. But we’re still playing basketball, and we’re going to take this opportunity to get better and get some momentum going into next year.”
Dorenzo Hudson added 19 points for the Hokies.
Rutty led Quinnipiac with 22 points, hitting 10 of 13 shots from the floor. James Johnson added 17 for the Bobcats.
Dayton 63, Illinois State 42
DAYTON, Ohio — Chris Johnson scored 13 points and Dayton used a 19-1 second-half run to pull away and beat Illinois State in the opening round of the NIT on Wednesday night.
Chris Wright grabbed 11 rebounds to lead Dayton (21-12) to a 42-27 advantage on the boards. The Flyers will play at Cincinnati in the second round
Osiris Eldridge, the Missouri Valley Conference’s leading scorer, shot only 4 of 15 but led the Redbirds (22-11) with 12 points.
Dayton saw its 13-point lead cut to 42-37 with 10:27 to play, but Johnson started the Flyers’ huge run with a 3-pointer.
Four minutes later, Marcus Johnson hit a 3-pointer and a pull-up jumper on consecutive trips to put the Flyers up 54-38 with 6:07 left. Dayton scored the next seven points before Eldridge hit a 3-pointer to end a nearly eight-minute field-goal drought for the Illinois State.
Rhode Island 76, Northwestern 64
KINGSTON, R.I. (AP) — Akeem Richmond scored 14 of his 16 points during a big first-half run as Rhode Island defeated Northwestern.
The Rams (24-9) will host a second-round game against the winner of the game between Nevada and Wichita State later Wednesday.
Michael Thompson led the Wildcats (20-14) with 24 points, while Northwestern’s leading scorer, John Shurna, was held to 15 — 3.3 below his season average.
Northwestern led 22-20 when Richmond scored 14 consecutive points for Rhode Island in a span of 3:07 which helped give the Rams a 34-28 lead.
Richmond connected on all four of his 3-pointers during the run.
Rhode Island’s Orion Outerbridge converted a three-point play with 1:04 left in the half to give Rhode Island a 37-30 lead at intermission.
Kent St. 75, Tulsa 74
KENT, Ohio — Rodriguez Sherman’s driving layup with 20.8 seconds remaining led Kent State to a come-from-behind victory over Tulsa on Wednesday night in a first-round game of the National Invitational Tournament.
The Golden Hurricane (23-12) had a chance to take the lead in the final seconds, but a baseline jumper by Ben Uzoh bounced off the rim and time ran out as the players fought for the rebound.
Sherman was one of six players in double figures for Kent (24-9), as Chris Singletary led the way with 16. Sherman had 15, followed by Anthony Simpson with 13, Randal Holt 11 and Tyree Evans and Justin Greene with 10 each.
Jerome Jordan had 23 points and 12 rebounds, Justin Hurtt 22 points and 10 rebounds, and Uzoh 14 points for Tulsa, which led 35-28 halftime.
The Golden Flashes advanced to the second round to face the winner of the Illinois-Stony Brook game.
Mississippi 84, Troy 65
OXFORD, Miss. — Terrico White scored 27 points to lead Mississippi over Troy on Wednesday night in the first round of the NIT.
White and the second-seeded Rebels (22-10) made things look easy against the seventh-seeded Trojans (20-13), the Sun Belt regular-season champions. White and Chris Warren, who scored 16 points, helped spark a 20-5 first-half run that broke a 25-25 tie and propelled the Rebels to a 45-30 halftime lead.
Ole Miss continued to add to its lead early in the second half by scoring the first six points of the period.
The Rebels led by 22 at 57-35 when White hit 1 of 2 free throws at the 15-minute mark. Troy pulled within 12 of the Rebels with 10:51 left with the aid of an 11-0 run, but the Rebels responded by scoring eight straight points to push the lead back to 20 points.
Nevada 74, Wichita St. 70
WICHITA, Kan. — Luke Babbitt scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half to help Nevada hang on for a victory over host Wichita State in the first round of the NIT on Wednesday night.
Third-seeded Nevada (21-12) will play at Rhode Island in the second round.
Toure Murry scored 15 points to lead Wichita State (25-10), which suffered its first loss in 18 home games this season.
After being held in check during the first half, Babbitt — the Western Athletic Conference player of the year — scored seven points in the first 4:03 of the second half to give the Wolf Pack a 42-35 lead.
Babbitt also hit a key jumper and made two free throws in the final 35 seconds to seal the victory.
Wichita State made eight of nine shots during one stretch to take a 24-19 lead, but Nevada surged to tie it at 31 at halftime.
