College basketball scores, winners and losers: St. John’s, Auburn win conference titles as March gets underway
Madness synonymous with March began in earnest on the first day of the month Saturday as the sport delivered dramatic finishes, dazzling performances and good old-fashioned hardware to a handful of teams that captured conference championships.
In the SEC, Auburn clinched the outright league title after earning its first win at Rupp Arena since 1988 and a (gut-wrenching) Alabama loss to Tennessee. In the Big 12, Houston held serve at home vs. Cincinnati to clinch the outright Big 12 title for a second straight year. In the Big East, St. John’s secured its first outright conference crown since 1985 with a win over Seton Hall. Also, in the Summit League, Omaha’s dominant win over Oral Roberts earned it a first championship since transitioning to Division I in 2011.
Bucknell and American tied for the Patriot League regular-season title with the Bison winning the tiebreaker and earning the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.
That was but a taste of the goodness the day brought us. Elsewhere, Chucky Hepburn, Eric Dixon and Tarris Reed delivered incredible outings on the individual front contributing to big team wins. On the team front, Kentucky’s season took a hard left turn with a loss on the floor and a loss due to injury. And on the drama front, buzzer-beaters helped play spoiler to several finishes — and who doesn’t love a good buzzer-beater?
WATCH: Tennessee’s Jahmai Mashack hits buzzer-beater to complete wild comeback in victory vs. Alabama
Cameron Salerno
Our crew of experts have all the goods on the big day with a recap below.
Winner: Auburn clinches outright SEC title
Auburn snapped a 20-game road losing streak in its series with Kentucky and clinched an SEC title in the process as the No. 1 Tigers dismantled the No. 17 Wildcats 94-78 for their first win inside Rupp Arena since 1988. Miles Kelly led the charge with a season-high 30 points on an off-day for national player of the year candidate Johni Broome, who finished with just nine points on 3-of-9 shooting. The win further cemented Auburn’s place as the projected No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament and once again showcased the depth of a team that is now 27-2 (15-1 SEC). — David Cobb
Loser: Texas’ season is close to being over
The final nail in the coffin for Texas’ hopes of reaching the NCAA Tournament was the result at home against Georgia. Facing another bubble team in essentially a must-win game, Texas fell behind by 17 at halftime and lost 83-67 to the Bulldogs. Texas’ first season as a member of the SEC is tracking to end, with the program missing the tournament for the first time since 2019. The seat for Texas coach Rodney Terry might be starting to warm up even more. — Cameron Salerno
Winner: St. John’s clinches outright Big East crown
A 71-61 home win over Seton Hall clinched the outright Big East regular season championship for No. 7 St. John’s – its second-ever outright Big East crown and first since 1985.
Johnnies coach Rick Pitino, now the king of New York for the newly-crowned champs, donned an all-white suit in the winning effort, punctuating the penultimate game of the regular season for his program in just his second year leading the program.
“I think you build a will to win,” Pitino told CBS postgame. “You understand that when you lose, nobody goes to bed with a mind. It’s not fear — but inside, you hate losing. Next day you wake up and get better, but you don’t go to sleep saying, ‘It’s no big deal, it’s a loss.’ We don’t feel that way.”
They haven’t had to deal with that feeling much of late. St. John’s is 26-4 on the season and 17-2 in league play with one regular-season game — a road trip to Marquette next Saturday — standing between it and postseason play. — Kyle Boone
Winner: Iowa State picks up impressive victory over Arizona
Arizona made things interesting in the second half, but Iowa State cruised to a 84-67 victory over the No. 22 Wildcats at home behind a balanced offensive attack. Iowa State was coming off back-to-back losses to Houston and Oklahoma State, so this was a nice bounce-back performance against one of the best teams in the Big 12. With two games to go, the focus for Iowa State will be improving its seeding in the Big 12 and NCAA Tournament. — Salerno
Loser: Texas A&M’s slide continues
Since improving to 9-3 in SEC play with a win at home over Arkansas last month, Texas A&M has dropped its last four games – including a 89-70 loss to No. 3 Florida on the road. The bad news for the Aggies is the schedule doesn’t get much easier to close the season. Texas A&M will play No. 1 Auburn at home and then LSU on the road to close the regular season. The Aggies are in sixth place tie in the SEC heading into the final week of the regular season before the SEC Tournament begins. — Salerno
Loser: Alabama squanders lead, loses on buzzer-beater
No. 6 Alabama squandered a nine-point second-half lead culminating with a dagger at the horn to fall 79-76 to No. 5 Tennessee after failing to contest Jahmai Mashack’s game-winner. Mashack’s make came from the midcourt logo and was released — mostly unchallenged — with less than one second remaining on the game clock.
It punctuated a frenetic final minute in which Alabama, leading by four points with just over 30 seconds remaining, lost by three points in heartbreaking fashion.
“I was not good over the last 30 seconds today,” Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said. “I feel like I failed these guys.”
The result — along with No. 1 Auburn’s win earlier in the day — clinched the outright regular-season SEC title for the Tigers. — Boone
Loser: Kentucky’s fragility on display again
With second-leading scorer Jaxson Robinson now out for the season due to a lingering wrist issue, a hobbled Kentucky team committed a season-high 18 turnovers. Point guard Lamont Butler played with a massive shoulder brace for a second straight game and was ineffective as the hobbled Wildcats struggled to keep pace with the high-flying Tigers. At 19-10 (8-8 SEC), UK is at risk of being forced to play on the first day of the SEC Tournament if it doesn’t close with at least one victory in its final two games. — Cobb
With just over two weeks left until Selection Sunday, all Arkansas had to do from now until then was not suffer a catastrophic loss. Unfortunately for John Calipari’s team, the doomsday scenario came to fruition against South Carolina on the road. The Razorbacks, who are a No. 11 seed and on the bubble according to CBS Sports Bracketology Expert Jerry Palm, lost 72-53 to a South Carolina team that entered the weekend with one win against SEC competition. Arkansas was held to just 14 points at halftime and shot 15 of 52 from the floor as a team. At 17-12 overall and 6-10 in SEC play, the Razorbacks may be facing an uphill climb to hear their name called later this month. — Salerno
Winner: Chucky Hepburn has career day in Louisville win
Hepburn, Louisville’s senior guard, scored a career-high 37 points in a 79-68 win for the Cardinals over Pitt inside the KFC Yum! Center. Hepburn’s 37 points tie for the second-most in a single game by a Louisville player in school history behind Russ Smith’s 42 in the conference tournament in 2014 and tied with Jordan Nwora’s 37 in January 2020. He did his damage incredibly on just 11 field-goal attempts and finished 6 of 6 from 3-point range. — Boone
Winner: Villanova’s Eric Dixon has a big senior day
Say what you will about Villanova, because it hasn’t been a pretty season for the Wildcats, who are operating well off the NCAA Tournament bubble. But Dixon, a fifth-year forward, continues building on a special individual season. He entered the Wildcats’ 80-70 win over Butler leading the nation in scoring at 23.3 points per game and added to his whale of a season with 34 points on senior day. It was his fifth 30+ point outing of the campaign and another example of how he should be considered for All-American honors, despite his team’s underwhelming performance. Deservedly, he received a standing ovation from the ‘Nova faithful after rising to No. 3 on the program’s all-time scoring list. — Cobb
Loser: Kansas takes another L at home
The sideways season of the preseason No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks again took an unexpected turn Saturday as No. 10 Texas Tech won 78-73 for the second time in program history inside Allen Fieldhouse. The home loss for Kansas ties a single-season high under coach Bill Self and gives the program a third home loss in league play for the first time since 1988-89.
Texas Tech inflicted the damage by launching a program-record 43 3s in the winning effort. It converted on 15 of those attempts and won the battle from beyond the arc over KU by 33 points.
KU’s loss gives it double-digit losses on the season (10) for a second consecutive season. After opening last season as the preseason No. 1, it finished 2023-24 with a 23-11 record with its season ending in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. — Boone
Winner: Tarris Reed’s career day paces UConn
Reed followed up his 20-point, 10-rebound outing earlier this week in a win over Georgetown with a 24-point, 18-rebound, six-block performance in a 75-63 road win over Providence. All three were career-highs for the first-year Huskies transfer from Michigan.
“Coach always says I have to play ferociously,” Reed said after the game.
Ferocious he was. Reed’s career day earned him a spot in exclusive company as the second Big East player since 2010 to have at least 20 points, 15 boards and five blocks in a conference game, joining none other than UConn alum Adama Sanogo. — Boone
Loser: Oklahoma’s tourney hopes take another hit
Oklahoma entered the day as a No. 10 seed in Bracketology and could have used a win over Ole Miss to get back on the right side of the bubble. Ole Miss star Sean Pedulla drilled a go-ahead 3-pointer with 19 seconds left, and the Rebels held on for an 87-84 win over a desperate OU team. A turning point in the game came in the final seconds — after Pedulla made the go-ahead shot — when Oklahoma was called for a Flagrant 1 foul with 3.9 seconds left. After Ole Miss made both free throws, Oklahoma stole the ensuing inbounds pass but missed a half-court heave that would’ve sent the game to overtime. Unless OU goes on a deep run in the SEC Tournament, its hopes of reaching the tournament will be slim. — Salerno
Winner: American, Bucknell complete Patriot League changing of the guard
American clinched a share of the Patriot League for the first time since 2009 as it beat perennial power Colgate 67-59 on the road for a season sweep. The Eagles are sharing the conference title with Bucknell, which clinched its piece of the crown with a 94-81 win at Holy Cross. It marks the first time since 2018 that Colgate has not won at least a share of the conference title. That was also the last time Bucknell won the league. Colgate could still build on its streak of five straight NCAA Tournament appearances if it wins the Patriot League Tournament, but Saturday was a reminder that there are a couple of new top dogs in the conference entering the postseason. — Cobb
A wild rally by Nebraska in which it erased a 19-point second-half deficit and took the lead in the final 10 seconds was foiled by a stunning last-second rebuttal by Minnesota as Brennan Rigsby buried a triple to give the Golden Gophers a go-ahead basket with under five seconds remaining. The shot lifted them to a 67-65 win as Nebraska’s shot at a game-winner as time expired bounced off the glass. — Boone
Winner: Omaha makes it a solo crown
It wasn’t a good day for the Cornhuskers, but there were good vibes on the hardwood elsewhere in the state. An Omaha team best known for destroying trash cans can now also be known as the Summit League’s outright champion. The Mavericks had already won a share of their first conference crown as a Division I program. But on Saturday, they claimed it all for themselves with an 80-57 win over Oral Roberts. It’s a good thing they exercised some patience before obliterating this trash can. It turns out the university’s chancellor, Joanne Li, was inside. — Cobb
Winner: Xavier earns huge bubble win
Xavier made a statement with its 83-61 win over Creighton on Saturday as it continues fighting for its life. Sure the Musketeers had won four straight, but all four of those wins came against the bottom four teams in the Big East. Taking down Creighton (20-9, 13-5 Big East) and doing it convincingly hits a bit different for a team that entered as the last team in the projected NCAA Tournament field, according to Palm. Zach Freemantle led the way with 23 points, and Ryan Conwell added 20 for the Musketeers (19-10, 11-7). If Sean Miller’s club can take care of business against Butler and Providence next week, it should enter the Big East Tournament feeling good about its chances of reaching the Big Dance. — Cobb
Loser: Nation’s longest winning streak snapped
Ivy League champion Yale had its 13-game winning streak – longest in the country leading into Saturday – snapped with a 74-69 road loss to Harvard. The longest active winning streak now belongs to Central Connecticut in the NEC, which extended its streak to 12 games with a 55-48 win over Wagner. — Boone
