Thursday's college basketball: Brown, Hillmon lead No. 24 Michigan women past Notre Dame
South Bend, Ind. — Hailey Brown scored 18 points, Naz Hillmon had a double-double and No. 24 Michigan used two short runs in the fourth quarter to hold off Notre Dame, 76-66, on Thursday night.
Leading 54-51 entering the fourth, the Wolverines (3-0) had an early 7-0 surge to put the lead at eight and scored six straight, capped by a Akienreh Johnson 3-pointer, to lead by 11 with four minutes to play.
Notre Dame (1-2) made just two of its last 12 shots.
Hillmon, coming off a career-high 35 points, scored 20 points but was just 4-of-10 shooting after going 27 of 37 in the first two games. She was 12-of-13 from the foul line with 11 rebounds and three blocks. Leigha Brown added 14 points and Johnson had 12.
Maddy Westbeld led the Irish with 18 points. Anaya Peoples added 13 and Dara Mabrey 12.
Michigan avenged a 76-72 home loss last season when the Wolverines were ranked 21st and the Irish were unranked.
Big Ten
(At) Iowa 99, Western Illinois 58: Luka Garza scored 35 points, 30 in the first half, and grabbed 10 rebounds as No. 3 Iowa stayed unbeaten.
Nunge, playing his first game this season following the death of his father, matched his career high with 18 points for Iowa (3-0). Joe Wieskamp added 11 points and Patrick McCaffery scored 10 for the Hawkeyes.
Garza reached 30 points in the first half for the second consecutive game. He had 36 by halftime of last Friday’s 103-76 victory over Southern.
It was the 19th straight game of 20 points or more for Garza, the lone unanimous selection on the Associated Press preseason All-America team.
Top 25
(At) No. 7 Kansas 89, Washburn 54: David McCormack scored 17 points, Ochai Agbaji added 16 and Jalen Wilson had 12, helping seventh-ranked Kansas cruise past Washburn in the Jayhawks’ long-delayed home opener.
Kansas (3-1) had opened with a pair of games in Florida and beat Kentucky in Indianapolis before returning to the friendly confines of Allen Fieldhouse. Players sat apart from each other, much like they have at other venues, and the recent surge in positive coronavirus cases forced school officials to limit attendance to a couple of hundred staff and family members.
Washburn (3-1), coached by former Jayhawks guard and Bill Self assistant Brett Ballard, wasn’t rattled in the opening minutes. Levi Braun hit a trio of early 3s, Jonny Clausing bulled his way to a couple easy baskets, and the Ichabods managed to hang within 27-22 at the under-8 timeout of the first half.
McCormack and Wilson began to be too much, though.
Braun and Tyler Geiman led the Ichabods with nine points apiece. Clausing finished with eight.
(At) No. 16 Virginia Tech 64, 64, VMI 57: Keve Aluma had 17 points and 12 rebounds and Virginia Tech won its 34th consecutive nonconference game at home.
Tyrece Radford added 13 points and Justyn Mutts had 10 points and nine rebounds for the Hokies (4-0). They led 30-23 at halftime and used a 9-0 run in the second half to take control. Radford had five points in the burst, including a three-point play to finish it.
Myles Lewis had 13 points and 12 rebounds to lead VMI (2-2). Greg Parham added 12 points.
No. 25 Arizona State 70, (at) California 62: Remy Martin produced another impressive performance on California’s home floor, finishing with 22 points, five assists and four rebounds as Arizona State beat the Golden Bears in the Pac-12 opener for both schools.
Prized freshman Josh Christopher added 14 points for the Sun Devils (3-1), and Holland Woods knocked down a key 3-pointer with 2:24 remaining.
Freshman forward Marcus Bagley had to be helped off with a lower left leg injury after he went down near midcourt with 1:42 to play. He was scheduled for an MRI and X-rays on Friday.
Matt Bradley had 20 points and eight rebounds for Cal (2-2) but was 1 for 9 on 3-pointers.