D4 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22 , 2021
FROM NEWS SERVICES
AND STAFF REPORTSPurdue’s biggest men came up
large i n a huge early-season game.
Zach Edey scored 21 points, a nd
No. 6 Purdue overcame an 11-point
second-half deficit to beat No. 5
Villanova, 80-74, on Sunday and
win t he Hall of Fame T ip-Off tour-
nament in Uncasville, Conn.
The 7-foot-4 center hit nine of
12 shots and grabbed six re-
bounds. The team’s other post,
6-10 Tr evion Williams, added n ine
points and four boards for the
Boilermakers (5-0), who dominat-
ed underneath, outscoring the
Wildcats 38 -18 in the paint and
outrebounding t hem 3 8-26.
Justin Moore had 19 points, C a-
leb Daniels added 17 and Collin
Gillespie had 14 for Villanova
(3-2), w hich h ad 34 a ttempts f rom
behind the a rc, making 1 3 of them.
l ARIZONA 80, MICHIGAN
62: Christian Koloko had
22 points, seven rebounds and
four blocked shots in leading the
Wildcats to a dominating win over
the N o. 4 Wolverines i n the R oman
Main Event in Las Vegas.
The Wildcats (5-0) had to grind
out a win over Wichita State on
Friday in their first true test o f the
season. On Sunday, they put to-
gether an even more impressive
all-around performance in an-
other measuring-stick game.
Michigan bounced back from a
two-point home loss to Seton Hall
with a 13-point win over UNLV on
Friday. The Wolverines (4-2)
couldn’t back it up Sunday, shoot-
ing 1 for 1 4 from three-point r ange.
l TENNESSEE 89, NORTH
CAROLINA 72: Freshman Zakai
Zeigler scored 18 points to lead t he
No. 17 Volunteers past the No. 18
Tar Heels in the consolation game
of the Hall of Fame Tip-Off.
Santiago Vescovi added
17 p oints and nine rebounds for the
Vols (3-1), who bounced back from
a loss to Villanova on Saturday.
Brady Manek hit six three-
pointers and scored 24 points for
the Tar Heels (3-2), who fell to
Purdue in Saturday’s opening
round. Armando Bacot had
16 points and 12 rebounds.
l SAINT BONAVENTURE 70,
MARQUETTE 54: Jaren Holmes
had 19 points and a career-high
13 rebounds as the No. 22 Bonnies
(5-0) defeated the Golden Eagles
(5-1) to win the Charleston (S.C.)
Classic.
l VIRGINIA TECH 72, MER-
RIMACK 43: In Blacksburg, Va.,
Storm Murphy scored 14 points,
and the Hokies (5-0) registered
the 1 ,500th victory in program
history. Virginia Tech is the 10th
ACC school and 90th in Division I
to achieve the milestone.
l HOWARD 82, WILLIAM &
MARY 76: Steve Settle scored
19 points for the Bison (3-2) in
High Point, N.C.
l NAVY 77, FURMAN 66:
John C arter Jr. had 2 1 points as the
Midshipmen (3-2) defeated the
Paladins ( 3-2) in Greenville, S.C.No. 1 vs. No. 2 set for Monday
After running past O regon, t op-
ranked South Carolina is r eady to
face No. 2 Connecticut.
Zia Cooke scored 20 points and
Laeticia A mihere added 18 to help
the Gamecocks rout the No. 9
Ducks, 80 -63, in the semifinals of
the inaugural Battle 4 Atlantis
women’s tournament in Paradise
Island, Bahamas.
Now the top two teams in the
nation will meet Monday for the
tournament title, prompting a
one-day d elay in the next A ssociat-
ed Press poll. It w ill n ow come out
Tuesday.
The two teams met last season
in another No. 1-No. 2 matchup,
which U -Conn. won in o vertime.
This was the first meeting be-
tween the Gamecocks (5-0) and
the D ucks ( 3-1) since 2002.
l CONNECTICUT 6 0,
SOUTH FLORIDA 53: Paige
Bueckers had 21 points and seven
assists to help the No. 2 Huskies
hold off the No. 23 Bulls in the
Battle 4 Atlantis.
Freshman Azzi Fudd (St. John’s
College High) added a season-
high 18 points on six three-point-
ers for the Huskies (3-0), who had
to fight to the final minutes to
maintain a perfect mark against
the B ulls (3-2).
l STANFORD 66, GONZAGA
62: Hannah Jump and Francesca
Belibi each s cored 14 p oints for t he
No. 7 Cardinal (3-1) in Spokane,
Wash. Melody Kempton scored
16 points f or the Bulldogs (3-1).
l UCLA 69, VIRGINIA 57: In
Los Angeles, Natalie Chou scored
20 points on 8-for-10 shooting as
the No. 20 Bruins (3-0) defeated
the C avaliers ( 0-4).
l HOWARD 62, SAINT PE-
TER’S 52: Anzhane’ Hutton
scored a team-high 17 points for
the B ison (1-3) in Jersey C ity.
l COLUMBIA 66, GEORGE-
TOWN 56 (2OT): Milan Bolden-
Morris led the Hoyas (2-2) with
14 points in the double-overtime
loss at McDonough Arena.
l JAMES MADISON 78,
HAMPTON 60: The Dukes (2-2)
hit a season-high 10 three-point-
ers i n the w in in H arrisonburg, Va.COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP
Big-time Boilermakers
rally past the Wildcats
PURDUE 80,
VILLANOVA 74there,” Sellers said. “It was a r eally
cool experience. I thank my team-
mates for just having trust in me
that I can step up in those big
moments.”Miller goes down
Guard Diamond Miller was in
her second game back from a sore
right knee when she w ent down i n
the t hird q uarter: She was d riving
to the basket a nd threw up a layup
while crashing to the floor. She
tried t o get up but s truggled to put
weight on her right leg and
couldn’t get back on defense. She
hobbled to the locker room after
the n ext whistle.
Miller returned to the bench
but not to the game. Frese said
Miller didn’t do any further dam-
age to her knee; she finished with
five points, f our rebounds and two
assists in 1 1 minutes.Everything lines up
Maryland was 17 f or 18 f rom the
free throw line a fter it aggressively
attacked the basket, with Owusu
and R eese working down l ow. The
Bears finished 4 for 5 at the line,
and C ollen said t hat was the d iffer-
ence.
[email protected]from S unday’s matchup:Dealing with illnesses
The Terps lost another player t o
illness when guard Katie Benzan
missed Sunday’s game. Benzan
started the first five games. Her
team already was without guard/
forward Faith Masonius, who has
missed the past three games.
Maryland has not said whether
the illnesses are related to the
coronavirus. The entire team is
vaccinated, and no teammates
have b een f orced to quarantine.Starting Sellers
Sellers got the first start of her
career with Benzan out — and she
wasn’t overmatched.
Sellers had a key three-pointer
late in the second quarter to ex-
tend Maryland’s l ead t o 40-33. She
then had a highlight in the fourth
with a behind-the-back dribble
drive a nd finished with a runner in
the p aint w hile getting fouled. The
three-point play extended Mary-
land’s lead to 71-61. (She did leave
the game late in the third quarter
after taking a shot to the head and
falling to the floor, but she came
back out to start the fourth.)
“I was just excited to be outdrives to the basket. A Reese tran-
sition layup extended the lead to
74 -63 before the Bears went on a
10 -2 run that set up Reese’s late
heroics. One last Lewis three-
pointer got Baylor within 79 -76
with 38 seconds left, but Baylor
couldn’t f ind t he tying basket.
Maryland shot just 40 percent
but f orced 1 5 turnovers a nd s cored
17 points off them. And the Terps’
defense smothered everyone but
Smith and L ewis.
“Anytime you take over a pro-
gram like B aylor with t he expecta-
tions what they are, you’re plant-
ing the seeds every day, and you
want to see growth,” said first-year
coach Nicki Collen, who replaced
Kim Mulkey after she left for LSU.
“A nd sometimes you don’t see
them immediately. It’s going to
take time.”
Maryland passed its first test
Sunday and has two more this
week. The Terps will fly to the Ba-
hamas on Tuesday to play in the
Baha Mar Hoops Pink Flamingo
Championship in Nassau. They
face No. 5 North Carolina State on
Thursday and No. 7 Stanford, the
defending national champion, on
Saturday.
Here’s what you need to knowr ebounds) and Collins (10 points,
eight r ebounds) played all 40 min-
utes. Freshman Shyanne Sellers
was o n the court for all but 22 sec-
onds, and Owusu played 39 min-
utes.
“Just playing my game,” Owusu
said. “Just not trying to overthink
it or do too much — just kind of
reading w hat the d efense g ives me
and then taking it from there....
[Reaching 1,000 points] means a
lot, especially to be able to do it in a
game like t his with so many fans.”
For the Bears (3-1), Smith had a
game-high 30 points and Jordan
Lewis a dded 2 9.
Baylor led 21-17 after the first
quarter, but the Terps used the
second period and the beginning
of the third to build a 13-point
lead. Bibby made a pair of three-
pointers that both gave Maryland
the lead, and the Terps grabbed a
42 -35 advantage at h alftime.
Smith took o ver l ate in the third
quarter, and s he and Lewis s cored
every Baylor point in the fourth.
But Maryland always had an an-
swer. Owusu hit tough pull-up
jumpers throughout and got to the
free throw line with physicalMARYLAND FROM D1Maryland prevails in first top-10 battleASSOCIATED PRESSBritish Open champion, Ryder
Cup winner and now the first
American to finish a season as the
European Tour’s N o. 1 player.
It has been quite the year for
Collin Morikawa.
The 24 -year-old Californian
demonstrated patience after a
slow start and then world-class
iron play down the stretch in mak-
ing five birdies in his last seven
holes to overhaul a fading Rory
McIlroy and win the Tour Champi-
onship with a final-round 6 -un-
der-par 6 6 on Sunday in Dubai.
With the three-shot victory,
Morikawa also captured the Race
to Dubai title as the l eading points
scorer on t he European Tour in the
202 1 season.
“It’s an honor to be the first
American to do that, to put my
name against many, many greats
and Hall of Famers,” Morikawa
said. “It’s special. I get touched up
just talking a bout t hat.
McIlroy, seeking back-to-back ti-
tles after a victory at the CJ Cup on
the PGA Tour last month, started
the final round with a one-stroke
lead — three clear of Morikawa —
and his game seemingly in its best
shape for some time.
He w as still in t he lead, despite a
stunning last-day charge from de-
fending champion Matt Fitzpat-
rick, when a chip onto the g reen at
the 15th hole hit the flagstick and
the ball rebounded back into a
bunker. That led to the first of
three b ogeys in his final f our holes
as McIlroy closed with a 74 and a
tie f or sixth p lace.
l LPGA TOUR: Facing high
stakes against her toughest oppo-
nent, Jin Young Ko delivered a
performance t hat was c lose to per-
fect to win the richest prize in
women’s golf and overtake Nelly
Korda f or LPGA player of the year.
Ko o pened w ith a 2 5-foot birdieputt and never looked back in the
Tour Championship in Naples,
Fla. She s hot a 3 0 on the front nine
and closed with the low round of
the t ournament at 9 -under 63 for a
one-shot victory over Nasa Hatao-
ka of Japan.
So flawless was Ko that she hit
the final 63 greens in r egulation at
Tiburon G olf Club.
“I don’t know what happened
out there,” said Ko, who has been
coping with a left wrist injury
since May. “This week was amaz-
ing.”
The 26-year-old South Korean
had to win the tournament to
claim the p oints-based LPGA p lay-
er of the year, the second time in
three years Ko h as w on the award.
l PGA TOUR: Talor Gooch was
playing too well to get fazed by
anything in the RSM Classic, and
it paid off with his first tour title
when he closed with a 6-under 64
for a three-shot victory at Sea Is-
land in S t. S imons Island, G a.
The victory moved him to the
top o f the FedEx Cup standings, to
No. 33 in the world ranking and t o
Augusta in April for the Masters.
Mackenzie Hughes of Canada,
who won the tournament in 20 16,
finished s econd at 1 9-under 26 3.Woods out and about
One s wing, two words and three
seconds of a video was all it took
from Tiger Woods to get everyone
talking a bout his f uture o n the golf
course.
Woods had not made a public
comment about his leg injuries
from his Feb. 23 car accident in
Los Angeles since May, and he
didn’t have a lot to offer o n Twitter.
“Making progress” was all he
said, accompanied by the video of
a smooth swing with a wedge.
Woods was wearing a black com-
pression sleeve on his right leg,
with a large bucket half-filled w ith
golf b alls on a practice range.GOLF ROUNDUPMorikawa finishes No. 1on the European TourKATHERINE FREY/THE WASHINGTON POST
Diamond Miller played her second game after dealing with a sore knee, but she left the game after crashing to the floor in the third quarter.BY JAKE LOURIMWhen it was safe and when local
regulations allowed, a dozen
St. John’s q uarterbacks and receiv-
ers began making a habit of pre-
paring for a moment that might
never have come. During the lost
year of 2020 and into 2021, without
organized football for the first fall
since they were little, the Cadets
met on the fields near RFK Sta-
dium and threw the ball around
with nobody watching.
They met three times a week.
They c ame from Northern Virginia
and the Maryland suburbs. Those
who had cars drove those who
didn’t. They hoped — and it was
just hope — it might mean some-
thing one day.
“You never knew what tomor-
row held,” quarterback Wyatt
Hagan said. “You never knew what
was going to happen. You take your
blessings, and you be grateful for
them.”
Finally, that tomorrow came
Sunday, when St. John’s finished a
blissful, mostly normal, undefeat-
ed season. The Cadets beat Good
Counsel, 30 -14, to win the Wash-
ington Catholic Athletic Confer-
ence final at P rince George’s Sports
& Learning Complex — their first
conference title since 20 17.
Celebrations such as the one
St. John’s enjoyed happen all the
time, and it appears, for a while,
they will be influenced by the pan-
demic that wiped out the 2020 fall
season. When they relished their
title, the Cadets (11-0) spoke not
just about the agony of that year
but also about how they responded
and embraced it.
“It wouldn’t be no fun if it wasn’t
a challenge,” said wide receiver DJ
Linkins, who caught four passes
for 113 yards and two touchdowns
Sunday. “ We l ove a challenge.”
That is why St. John’s is the new
WCAC champion. The Cadets
slung the ball around as if they
were back on those fields by RFK
Stadium; they passed f or 186 yards
and four touchdowns in their first
four possessions. In that span,
Hagan threw 13 passes to six receiv-
ers, the ones who joined him for
extra training over the past year.
They took a 30-14 halftime lead,
and their defense did the rest.
After each of those touchdowns,
the receiver who made the catch
and those who didn’t ran toward
each other, danced and shouted in
enjoyment.
“Wyatt Hagan was delivering
that ball, we were catching it, and
we were just having fun,” wideoutSean Williams said. “Playing like
we normally p lay.”
When it became a grind — wait-
ing out the pandemic until a sense
of normalcy returned — Linkins
recalled thinking, “Man, I’m tired
of doing this.” But then he kept
going — with the 6 a.m. wake-ups
and the morning runs and the
weight lifts, waiting for a day such
as Sunday.
“It’s like Rome,” Linkins said.
“Each [day], we always stack a
brick. Brick after brick. I think this
year we finally made that empire.”
St. John’s C oach Pat Ward talks a
lot about his team’s core values,
and one of those is competitive
maturity, the skill of competing at
the same level every day.Another is love. To Ward, those
offseason training sessions near
RFK Stadium showed his players
loved each other. And after the
game, Ward went around to the
Cadets and told them he loved
them, too.St. Mary’s Ryken stuns Carroll
Earlier Sunday, St. Mary’s
Ryken (6-6) led from s tart to finish
and stunned Archbishop Carroll
(11-1) in the WCAC Metro division
final, 24-12.
The Knights lost the teams’ reg-
ular season meeting two weeks
ago, 33 -26, but finished the year
just as t hey did in 2 018 and 2 019 —
as division champions.
[email protected]WCAC FOOTBALL FINAL
Extra practice makes a perfect season for Cadets
SCOTT TAETSCH FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Asa Gregg scores in the first half for the Cadets, who claimed their first conference title since 2017.ST. JOHN’S 30,
GOOD COUNSEL 14