College basketball roundup: St. John’s beats Villanova; Purdue’s winning streak ends

St. John’s took down another of the nation’s elite, and stunned No. 1 Villanova 79-75 on Wednesday night for its second win over a top-five team this week — and first over the top-ranked team in 33 years.

Shamorie Ponds scored 26 points to spark the Red Storm (12-13, 1-11 Big East) to their first conference win of the season and easily their best week since Chris Mullin was in uniform, not the coach.

Mullin played for St. John’s when it beat No. 1 Georgetown 66-65 on Jan. 26, 1985. And he was on the sideline exhorting his players in the final minutes of this shocker.

St. John’s beat then-No. 4 Duke Blue Devils 81-77 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, snapping an 11-game losing streak. It was the first win for St. John’s since Dec. 20 against Saint Joseph’s.

The Wildcats (22-2, 9-2) ended a nine-game winning streak and will surely tumble from the top of the national rankings, where they’ve spent the last five weeks at No. 1.

No. 2 Virginia 59, at Florida State 55: Devon Hall scored 17 points, Ty Jerome added 15 and Virginia rallied in the second half to beat Florida State.

Kyle Guy scored 10 of his 13 points in the final 20 minutes as the Cavaliers fought back from a 32-22 halftime deficit to remain unbeaten in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Virginia was 5 of 10 on 3-pointers in the second half and committed just one turnover.

Virginia (23-1) is the third team since 2000-01 to win its first 12 ACC games, joining North Carolina (2000-01) and Miami (2012-13). It is the Cavaliers’ best conference start since they were 12-0 in 1980-81.

Florida State had two stretches over the final 26 minutes where it went over five minutes without making a field goal — including the final 9:01 of the game. The Seminoles shot 40 percent from the field (18 of 45) and made only two of their last 12.

MJ Walker paced the Seminoles (17-6, 6-6) with 10 points.

No. 14 Ohio State 64, No. 3 at Purdue 63: Keita Bates-Diop scored 18 points, including the decisive putback with 2.8 seconds left, to give Ohio State an upset at Purdue, ending the nation’s longest winning streak at 19 games Wednesday night.

The Buckeyes (21-2, 12-1 Big Ten) grabbed a share of the conference lead as Ohio State won for the 11th time in 12 games.

Carsen Edwards finished with a career-high 28 points to lead the Boilermakers (23-3, 12-1), who lost for the first time since Nov. 23. Isaac Haas had 18 points but missed an 8-foot jumper at the buzzer to win it.

Purdue’s school record 14-game winning streak in conference play and 21-game winning streak at home also ended with a surprising finish.

at No. 7 Texas Tech 76, Iowa State 58: Texas Tech freshman Zhaire Smith scored a career-high 21 points, including a steal that led to his alley-oop slam, and the Red Raiders beat Iowa State.

After Iowa State (12-11, 3-8 Big 12) had scored seven straight points in a 77-second span to get within one point after halftime, Smith had a steal. He passed the ball on the break to Jarrett Culver, who then lobbed up the pass that resulted in Smith’s two-handed slam.

Culver added 16 points for the Red Raiders (20-4, 8-3), whose last loss was 70-52 at Iowa State on Jan. 20.

Texas A&M 81, at No. 8 Auburn 80: Duane Wilson made one of two free throws with four seconds left and the Aggies (16-8, 5-6 Southeastern Conference) held on for their third victory in a row after squandering a 17-point lead in the second half. Guard T.J. Starks scored 23 points. The Tigers (21-3, 9-2) got 28 points from Mustapha Heron, whose three-point shot from a few feet across midcourt bounced off the rim at the buzzer.

UNLV 86, at No. 23 Nevada 78: Jovan Mooring scored a career-high 31 points with six 3-pointers, Shakur Juiston had 19 points and 12 rebounds and UNLV beat No. 23 Nevada 86-78 on Wednesday night in a Governor’s Series matchup to snap the Wolf Pack’s 16-game home winning streak.

Jordan Johnson added 11 points for UNLV (17-7, 6-5 Mountain West), which outrebounded Nevada 45-32.

Nevada, which entered the Top 25 this week, was without its leading scorer Caleb Martin, at 19.8 points per game, due to a foot injury.

Jordan Caroline had 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists for Nevada (20-5, 9-2). Lindsey Drew added 17 points and Cody Martin and Kendall Stephens each scored 16.

Stephens capped an 8-0 run with a 3-pointer to tie it at 78 with 2:08 to go, but Nevada missed its final five shots. Brandon McCoy and Mooring combined to score the final eight points with six straight free throws.

at No. 25 Miami 87, Wake Forest 81: Lonnie Walker IV scored 19 points to lead Miami to a victory over Wake Forest.

Walker’s 3-pointer with 5:01 remaining capped a 10-2 run and gave the Hurricanes a 66-56 lead.

Miami withstood a late Demon Deacons comeback attempt fueled by consecutive 3s from Bryant Crawford in the final minute. Crawford’s second long-range shot with 31 seconds left pulled Wake Forest to 82-79.

Sam Waardenburg’s two free throws with 25 seconds to go made it 84-79. Chaundee Brown cut the Demon Deacons’ deficit to three again, but Walker’s two free throws with eight seconds left sealed it for Miami (18-5, 7-4 Atlantic Coast Conference). Crawford scored 23 points and Brown finished with 20 for Wake Forest (9-15, 2-10).

SOUTHLAND

MEN

at UC Irvine 77, Cal State Northridge 56: Tommy Rutherford had 18 points and 10 rebounds to help the Anteaters (12-14, 7-3 Big West) defeated the Matadors (5-19, 2-8) for the eighth consecutive time. Evan Leonard had 15 points for UC Irvine. Tavrion Dawson had 18 points for Northridge.

UC Riverside 64, at Hawaii 60: Menno Dijkstra scored 17 points and his three-point basket with just over a minute to play propelled the Highlanders (6-17, 1-8 Big West) to their first conference victory.

MEN THURSDAY

UC Santa Barbara at UC Davis 7 p.m.

Cal Poly at Cal State Fullerton 7 p.m.

St. Mary’s at Loyola Marymount 7 p.m.

San Diego at Pepperdine 7:30 p.m.