SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Juwan Staten had 23 points and West Virginia held off several second-half runs to beat No. 17 Connecticut 78-68 in the championship game of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.
Jonathan Holton and Daxter Miles, Jr. added 10 points each.
The Mountaineers (5-0) never trailed in the game, and forced Connecticut into 19 turnovers in the victory over their former Big East Conference rivals.
Staten was named the tournament Most Valuable Player. Teammate Devin Williams also joined him on the all-tournament team.
Ryan Boatright led the Huskies (3-1) with 17 points. Daniel Hamilton added 15 points and 11 rebounds. But Hamilton also led the team with eight turnovers.
Boatright and Hamilton also made the all-tournament team, along with Dayton's Jordan Siebert and George Mason's Shevon Thompson.
The Mountaineers led by 15 in the first half and managed to counter several mini-runs by the Huskies in the second half.
Connecticut got it down to 50-44 on a basket by Daniel Hamilton. But a steal and layup by Gary Browne silenced the Huskies fans and set up a period that saw Connecticut score just one field go over about a 5 minute span.
After The Huskies cut the lead to 64-54 with 6:15 to play, Browne again came up big with a three-pointer.
The Huskies make the Mountaineers pay for extending their defensive pressure full court, getting easy dunks on the other end. More often, though, it was Connecticut that seemed to come unglued on the offensive end after expending energy to attack West Virginia's pressure.
West Virginia went to its pressure early, forcing 10 first-half turnovers, and turning them in 14 points on the other end on the way to a 47-32 halftime lead.
The Mountaineers got easy looks at the basket in the period, scoring 20 points in the paint, while holding the Huskies to 2 for 11 from the 3-point line.
NO. 1 KENTUCKY 86,
MONTANA STATE 28
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Devin Booker scored a career-best 18 points, Aaron Harrison added 14 and No. 1 Kentucky held Montana State scoreless for several stretches Sunday night to race to an easy victory.
A game in which the Wildcats (5-0) finished just 29 of 67 from the field (43 percent) was offset by a defensive effort that forced the overmatched Bobcats (0-4) into 21 turnovers and held them to 20 percent shooting. Then again, opportunities were hard all night for Montana State, which went scoreless for nearly five minutes in the first half and scored its first second-half points with 9:36 remaining to make it 65-13.
Joey Frenchwood's seven points led the Bobcats.
NO. 11 WICHITA STATE 105,
NEWMAN 57
WICHITA, Kan. -- Ron Baker scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half, leading No. 11 Wichita State past Division II Newman.
Darius Carter scored 15 and Fred VanVleet added 12 for the Shockers (3-0), who led 67-33 at halftime against Newman (2-1).
Reggie Baker led Newman with 14 points, while Cortrael Colbert added 12.
The Shockers used the game to find their shooting touch, going 10 of 17 from the three-point line in the first half.
NO. 19 OKLAHOMA 90,
NORTHWESTERN (La.) STATE 68
NORMAN, Okla. -- Isaiah Cousins scored 20 points to help No. 19 Oklahoma rebound from its first loss of the season by beating Northwestern (La.) State.
Oklahoma (2-1) came out flat against Northwestern State (2-2) before seizing control of the game during the final 10 minutes of the first half, extending a one-point lead to a 50-30 advantage by halftime.
Four other players scored 10 or more points for the Sooners, who will head to the Bahamas later this week to play in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. Oklahoma lost by two to Creighton on Wednesday, 65-63.
Cousins had 15 points, including 3 three-pointers in the first half against the Demons, and matched his career high for made three-pointers by hitting 4 of 5.
Zeek Woodley led Northwestern State with 26 points.
NO. 20 OHIO STATE 106,
SACRED HEART 48
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- D'Angelo Russell scored 32 points and Shannon Scott set a school record with 16 assists to lead 20th-ranked Ohio State by an overmatched Sacred Heart on Sunday night.
Russell's total tied the second most for a freshman at Ohio State, trailing only Jared Sullinger's 40 points (along with 13 rebounds) against IUPUI in 2010.
Scott had 11 points to go with his assist total, which broke Aaron Craft's mark, while Jae'Sean Tate and Sam Thompson each had 12 points, Keita Bates-Diop 11 and Marc Loving 10. The Buckeyes (3-0) shot 57 percent from the field. Trey McDonald chipped in with 14 rebounds.
Filip Nowicki had 10 points and nine rebounds for the Pioneers (1-2), who had lost to UMass-Lowell 57-54 -- a team Ohio State pounded 92-55.
Sports on 11/24/2014