VILLANOVA—DePaul coach Jerry Wainwright compared No. 6 Villanova to a vicious Mike Tyson in his prime.If the Wildcats were Tyson, then DePaul was flattened like Michael Spinks. This one was never in doubt.Scottie Reynolds scored 21 points, Maalik Wayns had 18 and the Wildcats cruised to another big home victory, 99-72 on Wednesday night.The Wildcats (13-1, 2-0 Big East) won their 34th consecutive game at their campus home, the Pavilion. Villanova’s last loss there was against DePaul three years ago to the day.The Blue Demons (7-8, 0-3) never put up a fight in their second successive loss to a top-15 conference opponent. They trailed 15-3 only 4½ minutes into the game and dropped their 22nd consecutive regular-season Big East game.Villanova would have KO’d any team with its first-half shooting. Reggie Redding hit back-to-back 3s during a 15-0 run and the Wildcats made 14 of their first 19 shots. The Wildcats went 6 for 8 on 3-pointers during the stretch that all but put this victory away.The Wildcats show no sign of tailing off a season after playing in their first Final Four in 24 years. The Big East favorites eked out a victory in the conference opener against Marquette and lost to city rival Temple last month, but have otherwise looked in prime position to make another deep NCAA tournament run.Reynolds wonders if a deep and talented Big East might be better than last season, when it landed three No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament.Wright said the Wildcats are not far off from where they were a year ago.
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Xavier Silas scored a game-high 24 points and Northern Illinois held off a late rally by Chicago State to win 99-93 Wednesday night.Von Steuben Alum Mike DiNunno added a season-high 20 points and Darion “Jake” Anderson posted 14 points and six rebounds for Northern Illinois (4-8), which notched its first road victory of the season.Chicago State (5-11), which lost its fourth in a row, was led by Christian Wall’s 23 points on 8-of-16 shooting.The Huskies led 50-30 at halftime, but the Cougars outscored Northern 63-49 in the second half. NIU held a 43-33 rebounding advantage and had 21 assists but committed a season-high 25 turnovers.Both teams shot well. The Huskies hit 57.4 percent and the Cougars 47.2 percent.The Huskies are 21-0 all time against Chicago State.Northern Illinois will open Mid-American Conference play at Ball State on Saturday.
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EVANSVILLE—Jackie Carmichael scored 20 points to lead four Illinois State players in double figures as the Redbirds defeated Evansville 82-63 Wednesday night.Carmichael scored 13 of his points in an early stretch that saw Illinois State (12-3, 3-1 Missouri Valley) take a 30-12 lead. The Redbirds led 42-25 at halftime.Osiris Eldridge had 18 points and eight rebounds for Illinois State. Lloyd Phillips had 11 points and nine assists and Tony Lewis scored 10 points. The Redbirds shot 50 percent from the field in the game while Evansville shot 31 percent. Denver Holmes scored a game-high 23 points for Evansville (6-8, 0-4). Colt Ryan had 12 points and James Haarsma had nine points and 11 rebounds for the Aces.
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PEORIA—Andrew Warren scored a career-high 26 points and Sam Maniscalco added 21 to lead Bradley past Indiana State 91-85 in overtime Wednesday night.Warren has scored at least 24 points in three of the first four Missouri Valley Conference games.Taylor Brown had a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds for the Braves (7-7, 2-2). Will Egolf added 10 points.Rashad Reed led Indiana State (10-5, 2-2) with 17 points. Harry Marshall added 16 points and Jordan Printy 15. Carl Richard had a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Sycamores.Indiana State had 16 3-pointers, the most ever against Bradley, but was 0 of 3 from behind the arc in overtime. Bradley made 13 3-pointers, the most since beating East Tennessee State Nov. 29, 2008.Maniscalco’s 3-pointer with 2:36 left in the overtime gave Bradley the lead for good.
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CARBONDALE—Jordan Eglseder had 17 points and 14 rebounds Wednesday night to help Northern Iowa to a 61-49 victory over Southern Illinois.Adam Koch and Johnny Moran each added 11 points for the Panthers (13-1, 4-0 Missouri Valley), who never trailed and led by as many as 25 points midway through the second half.Tony Freeman, with 13 points, was the only player in double figures for the Salukis (9-4, 2-2).Northern Iowa scored the game’s first nine points, made 50 percent of its shots in the first half in building a 36-20 halftime lead. The Panthers slumped to 26 percent in the second half to finish at 39 percent, and made just six field goals after halftime, but went 10-for-14 from the free-throw line after the break.SIU shot 35 percent for the game, and trailed by double digits for all but the game’s first five minutes.
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As homecomings go, Jon Scheyer’s was about as good as it gets.The Duke star saw the familiar faces in the stands and heard the voices of those who had been part of his life — friends, teachers and family. About 500 of them cheering his every move. And they had plenty to get excited about Wednesday night.Scheyer scored 31 points on a variety of shots and led the fifth-ranked Blue Devils to an 86-65 victory against Iowa State.He called it an experience that was both emotional and a little weird.Scheyer, who scored more than 3,000 points for Glenbrook North High, shot 10 for 19 with four 3-pointers. And he did it on the court at the United Center. The Blue Devils (13-1) won their seventh consecutive game behind a balanced attack, a defense that forced 18 turnovers and aggressive rebounding.Nolan Smith added 20 points and Kyle Singler 15 for Duke.Marquis Gilstrap paced Iowa State (10-4) with 16 points. Leading scorer Craig Brackins, who came in averaging 17, had 12.Scheyer’s 3-pointer with the shot clock running down extended the Blue Devils’ lead to 50-35 early in second half. His three-point play about seven minutes in put the Blue Devils up 19 as they opened the second half with a 17-6 run.The Cyclones whittled it to 12 but Smith and Scheyer hit 3-pointers to put Duke back up by 17.With Chicago native Mike Krzyzewski as their coach, the Blue Devils are 7-0 at the United Center.It was Iowa State’s third game this season in Chicago. The Cyclones were 1-1 in the Chicago Invitational Challenge at UIC in late November, losing in the final to Northwestern.