UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Virginia’s Casey Morsell picked a good game to find his shooting touch.
The Cavaliers highly touted freshman scored 19 points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:02 remaining, and No. 7 Virginia rallied past Arizona State 48-45 to win the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament.
Morsell, the first freshman to open the season as a starter for Virginia in seven years, made 7 of his 12 shots after having just five baskets on 36 attempts in the Cavaliers first five games.
“Casey really came of age,” coach Tony Bennett said. “He made some tough shots.
Mamadi Diakite added 15 points for the defending national champion Cavaliers (6-0), who shot 37% from the floor and trailed by nine points after a 19-0 run by the Sun Devils. That burst turned a 26-16 Virginia lead with 30 seconds left in the first half into a 35-26 second-half deficit.
Remy Martin had 21 points to lead Arizona State (3-2). He hit eight of his 16 shots, while the rest of the team went 9 for 26.
A steal by Khalid Thomas led to a 3-pointer by Martin that sent the teams into the locker room with Virginia up 26-21.
Virginia then missed its first eight shots of the second half, getting its first points after intermission on a goaltending call. The Cavaliers didn’t hit a shot until Diakite sank a contested a fall-away jumper that cut the deficit to 38-32. That was part of an 8-0 run that tied the game at 38.
Neither team led by more than two points after that, until Morsell’s game-deciding 3 from the top of the key.
Diakite blocked a shot at the other end, but Morsell missed a 3-pointer that would have iced the game with 14 seconds left.
Arizona State decided to hold for a final shot, but Rob Edwards (10 points) missed badly on a long 3-pointer just before the buzzer.
“I felt like the shot we ended up getting wasn’t the best shot in the world,” coach Bobby Hurley said. “We wanted to try and get Rob a look and they did a good job on stepping out on that last screen.”
The game was played at Virginia’s pace. ASU, which averages just over 83 points per game, had just 17 field goals, one more than the Cavaliers.
“We found a way,” Bennett said. “We’ve got to address the 19-0 run that we gave up and that’s a problem. But, the 19-0 run that we overcame, that’s a really good thing.”
Diakite, who had four points in Virginia’s first-round win over Massachusetts, hit two 3-pointers in the first five minutes to help the Cavaliers to an early 10-2 lead.
A baseline drive by Morsell gave Virginia its first double-digit lead at 20-10. The freshman, who came in averaging 2.4 points per game, was 5 of 7 from the field in the first half.
Morsell said he wasn’t thinking about his offense and that may have been the key.
“I knew that they were a good transition team, so I had to get back and I had my defense leading my offense,” he said.
No. 23 COLORADO 56, WYOMING 41
LAS VEGAS — Colorado's Tyler Bey has always enjoyed returning to his hometown to play during the Pac 12 Tournament.
On Sunday night, the junior forward finally had a chance to shine early in the regular season.
Bey had 11 points and 19 rebounds to lead No. 23 Colorado past Wyoming.
"It's an amazing feeling," said Bey, who attended Las Vegas High School. "It's great to play good in my city in front of my family and friends. It's great honestly, but we have one more game to take care of."
Bey, who has 22 career double-doubles and 12 in his last 19 games, accomplished the feat for the third time in four games this season. D'Shawn Schwartz scored 12 points, while Evan Battey added nine points and 13 rebounds for Colorado.
"That's what won us the game today, playing defense and finishing off with rebounds," Bey said. "I just love playing defense and love rebounding. I love rebounding even more than scoring, so I'm just gonna go do my thing and compete on defense as much as I can and rebound the ball."
Hunter Maldonado scored 14 points to lead Wyoming.
The Buffaloes (4-0) overcame a sluggish first half and used a 13-0 run over the first four minutes of the second half to open a 28-15 lead and seize momentum.
The run was sparked by Schwartz's monster block on Maldonado, his close friend from their hometown of Colorado Springs. Schwartz, whose time was limited in the first half after getting into foul trouble early, then ignited the run by scoring seven of the 13 points.
"I was tired of sitting, I just wanted to go out there and make an impact on the game," Schwartz said. "Nobody was really making shots, their energy was dead, so I just wanted to make sure I could turn the game up when I got in."
The Cowboys (3-4) got as close as four points, with 9:19 left in the game, but Colorado went on another run, outscoring Wyoming 13-1 over the next five minutes to put the game out of reach.
"Where I thought it hurt was obviously us taking care of the basketball, which allowed them to get out for some opportunities," Wyoming coach Allen Edwards said. "I did love the fight of our guys. We found some way to cut it back down. Their will was just a little bit stronger than ours."
Neither team started out with any sort of jump, as Colorado led just 4-2 at the 11:53 mark of the first half.
Early on, the Buffaloes struggled to get the ball movement they're used to and were limited with their touches in the paint. Colorado came into the game averaging 73.7 points per game on 42.3% shooting but hit just two of their first 11 shots.
Wyoming was worse. After six games, the Cowboys were averaging 57.8 points on 41.6% shooting, but made a bleak 10 percent of their first 10 shots.
The teams were tied at halftime, 15-15, as Colorado was 6-for-26 (23.1 percent) from the field in the first half, and the Cowboys hit 6 of 23 over the first 20 minutes.
"Halftime message was it's hard for us to play any worse offensively," Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. "I thought it was really a sign of maturity that our players did not let their frustrations on offense bleed over to the defensive end. And I think that's one positive you can take out of it.
"We did a much better job of moving the ball, and I think that's the big thing offensively, was ball movement and paint touches. And we did a much better job of that (in the second half)."
No. 25 WASHINGTON 88, SAN DIEGO 69
SEATTLE — Isaiah Stewart had 25 points and seven rebounds, Jaden McDaniels scored 20 and No. 25 Washington beat San Diego on Sunday night.
The touted freshmen combined to score 10 points to start a game-clinching run early in the second half as Washington (5-1) won its third straight.
Marion Humphrey scored 13 and Jared Rodriguez added 12 for the Toreros (2-5), who have lost three straight games including two to Pac-12 opponents.
Stewart and McDaniels started to exert pressure on the much smaller Toreros late in the first half when the Huskies put together a 12-2 run to take a 41-30 halftime lead. After San Diego cut it to 29-28 on Finn Sullivan’s 3-pointer, Stewart scored five straight points to start the run.
The 6-foot-9 center hit two free throws, then finished a fastbreak with a putback off his own missed dunk, drawing a foul. The three-point play made it 34-28, and he finished off the run with a tip in of a miss by Quade Green.
Stewart had 14 points and seven rebounds at the half with McDaniels adding 10 as he drove the lane with speed and power.
They continued to spur the Huskies in the second half, combining to start an 18-3 run with 10 straight points. Stewart started it with a three-point play off a lob pass and McDaniel added a driving finger-roll and a short jumper after getting the ball back from a teammate following his own missed dunk. He then hit a 3-pointer to make it 53-47 with 15:23 left.
Hameir Wright hit a 3 and Nahziah Carter finished the run with a 3 and a driving layup to make it 61-40 with 13:22 left. Wright finished with 16 points and Green had 10 assists.
The Huskies overpowered the Toreros in the paint, outscoring them 46-28 down low, and outrebounding them 33-27.
All those paint points led to a 57 percent shooting percentage (32 of 56) for the Huskies. McDaniels was especially efficient, hitting 7-of-10 shots and 4-of-5 free throws.
TULANE 65, UTAH 61
CONWAY, S.C. — Tulane won two games in Myrtle Beach this week — or, half as many as the Green Wave won all of last season.
Teshaun Hightower scored 16 points and hit the go-ahead layup with a minute left, and Tulane rallied past Utah on Sunday in the fifth-place game of the Myrtle Beach Invitational.
K.J. Lawson added 14 points and Jordan Walker finished with 12 to help the Green Wave (5-1), who trailed by eight points with 4½ minutes left and continued their turnaround under new coach Ron Hunter by closing on a 10-0 run while hitting nine of their final 11 shots to finish the tournament 2-1.
“How were we going to handle adversity? In the past it’s been a struggle at Tulane,” said Hunter, who came in from Georgia State. “Our kids could have folded then. They just kept grinding on the defensive end and I thought defensively we were unbelievable today.”
Timmy Allen and Branden Carlson each scored 14 points for Utah (4-2). Freshman Rylan Jones finished with 11 points and hit a 3-pointer to put the Utes up 61-55 with 4½ minutes left — but they didn’t score again.
Walker hit two jumpers during the decisive run, including one that tied it at 61 with just over two minutes left. He rimmed out a jumper on the next trip downcourt but Hightower cleaned it up with a left-handed layup that put the Green Wave ahead to stay.
The Utes had two chances to tie it in the final minute. Jones’ baseline jumper bounced off the rim with about 16 seconds left and his contested jumper from the left wing hit off the front of the rim and went to Hightower with 5.5 seconds left.
Christion Thompson iced it with two free throws with 2.0 seconds left.
