The penultimate Saturday of college basketball's regular season was full of wild moments, as No. 1 Houston escaped an Oklahoma upset, No. 4 Tennessee inched past Alabama, Baylor knocked off No. 7 Kansas and South Carolina outlasted No. 24 Florida.
Here's everything you need to know about the biggest storylines from Saturday:
No. 1 Houston survives Saturday shakeup, escapes Oklahoma upset
A meaningful day for No. 1 Houston turned into something so much more as Jamal Shead's last-second game-winner saved the Cougars from losing their now-seven-game win streak, downing Oklahoma 87-85.
Houston held a 15-point lead over the Sooners with 12:04 remaining on the game clock. It took the Sooners approximately eleven minutes to chomp at the Cougar lead — using a slow but steady tactic to keep up with offensive efforts and counteract the call from Houston. Sooners' Javian McCollum scored a layup to tie the game at 85 with just 11 seconds to spare. Enter Jamal Shead, who rebounded his own layup attempt and scored with less than a second left to clinch the win for Houston.
The offensive efforts from Houston became the bread-and-butter to narrowly escape a loss with seconds left on the clock. Both teams performed fairly similarly — shooting over 50 percent from the field and averaging about 82 percent from the line. Oklahoma's Rivaldo Soares and Houston's Shead and LJ Cryer all accounted for 10 points in the first half, but it was Cryer who ultimately led the night in scoring as he finished with 23 points followed by J'Wan Roberts with 20.
No. 4 Tennessee holds on, gets past Alabama in SEC showdown
A battle between the two top-scoring teams in the SEC could only end with one victor. Ultimately, it was Tennessee that prevailed, earning the top spot in the SEC after coming back from seven to defeat Alabama, 81-74.
The first half gave fans a look at a well-poised Crimson Tide team. Tennessee held an eleven-point lead with 10:53 on the clock, and instead of buckling under pressure, Alabama took advantage at the Vols offensive efforts with a variety of threes free throws and layups to turn the game into a tied battle with 1:10 left. By the end of the first half, Alabama shot 45.2% from the field in comparison to the Vols' 37.5 percent. Alabama's Mark Sears, leading scorer of the night, finished the first with 12 points — making up half of his total 22 points.
Back from the half and Tennessee fought for the lead — Sears' layup at the start of the second pushed Alabama's lead to four. In the blink of an eye, Nick Pringle went up for a layup to push the Alabama lead to six with 10:17 on the clock. The Vols needed to find a way to boost the offensive morale and a dunk from Jonas Aidoo was the exact thing Tennessee needed to take hold of the game. For eight minutes, Tennessee was able to take a firm grasp at the lead — causing a few unforced errors on Alabama's end and closing things out with a Vol win. Tennessee was able to improve on all ends by the end of the night — scoring a total of 17 points off turnovers and accounting for seven steals.
Baylor bests No. 7 Kansas, spoils McCullar's return
A day that began with celebration for Jayhawk nation — do-it-all dynamo Kevin McCullar returned for just his second game in 26 days — quickly dissolved into disappointment, as a balanced Baylor scoring attack led the No. 15 Bears past No. 7 Kansas 82-74 in an offensive clinic.
Both teams managed to shoot better than 55 percent from the field Saturday, a natural output from Baylor and Kansas establishing the interior early on. Kansas center Hunter Dickinson and Baylor center Yves Missi combined for the game's first 10 points — the two finished among the game's leading scorers as well with 20 and 17 respectively — while neither team managed to gain much separation. The first half spent over 17 minutes decided by a single possession, and a jumper from RayJ Davis gave the Bears a narrow one-point advantage heading into the locker room.
McCullar immediately returned to his All-American best in Waco, joining Dickinson with 20 points to lead Kansas, but a collaborative Bears effort started to wear down the victors. Each Baylor starter finished the afternoon with at least nine points — Dennis (19 points) and Jayden Nunn (18 points) were particularly impressive for BU, shooting 14-16 from the field — and five different Bears contributed to a 16-5 run.Baylor's spurt yielded a 63-51 lead entering the final 10 minutes, and while DaJuan Harris slimmed the KU deficit to four late on, a near-perfect showing at the foul line iced a top-10 Baylor victory.
Creighton surges past No. 5 Marquette on senior night
On an unseasonably warm afternoon in eastern Nebraska, Omaha felt like Hollywood in the final seconds of No. 12 Creighton's dominant 89-75 victory over No. 5 Marquette. On a perfectly-scripted senior night for a hugely impactful crop of upperclassmen, Steven Ashworth, Ryan Kalkbrenner, Baylor Scheierman and Francisco Farabello stepped off the floor up 14 for (mostly) the final time to individual serenades from the joyous Blue Jay faithful.
A nervier energy overcame Creighton's sold-out CHI Health Center in the early going, however, as Kam Jones gave Marquette an early lead as the visiting Golden Eagles led through much of the opening 10 minutes. Trey Alexander, a reliable star among the Blue Jays' "big three," answered with back-to-back triples that gave Creighton a 28-21 lead, and the home squad would maintain a slim two-point lead into halftime.
Alexander ultimately finished with 18 points while Creighton's Ryan Kalkbrenner displayed his usual dominance around the rim, going 9-12 from the field with five blocks, but the afternoon belonged to Blue Jay sharpshooter Baylor Scheierman. The senior wing totaled 26 points, including six threes, and hauled in 18 rebounds, his most in a Creighton uniform. And after a sudden dry spell saw Creighton's 60-50 lead shrink to two, Sheierman contributed three triples to a late 14-2 Blue Jay response in the waning moments that iced the game for Creighton.
South Carolina rallies past No. 24 Florida, preserves SEC title hopes
Florida's famously potent offense flowed with just about no resistance through the first 30 minutes of the Gators' upset bid versus No. 18 South Carolina, with no turnovers since the game's opening moments and a commanding 56-46 lead. But a masterstroke from coach Lamont Paris saw the Gameco*cks employ a 1-3-1 zone, forcing eight takeaways that paired with clutch shot-making from Meechie Johnson to give Carolina a come-from-behind 82-76 win.
The Gators attack, ranked as the 15th-most efficient by KenPom — found more familiar footing after an early 14-6 hole, scoring on eight of 10 possessions as a 17-1 UF run put the visitors up eight after the under-8 media timeout. South Carolina briefly retook the lead off a Collin Murray-Boiles slam, but a pair of Walter Clayton Jr. threes ignited the UF talisman and gave the Gators a 37-31 halftime lead.
The SEC's eighth leading scorer continued his hot shooting out of the locker room, as Clayton connected on six total triples from every corner of the Palmetto State. Clayton led the Gators with 20 points, followed by Zion Pullin's 18, who connected on a pair of free throws to give UF its 10-point lead midway through the second half.
The 1-3-1 zone yielded immediate success with the Gameco*cks embarking on an 11-3 run, and a Johnson layup gave South Carolina its first lead of the second half at the five-minute mark. Johnson finished with a game-high 25 points, 21 of which came after halftime, and drilled a massive three with 47 seconds remaining that answered a Clayton equalizer and gave SCAR a 77-74 lead. The Gameco*cks iced the game at the line and, after being picked last in the SEC, improved to 12-4 in league play with a potential share of the conference title at stake this week against Tennessee.
