Die Macht » were not out of it by any means,

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Josh Hart scored a career-high 30 points with six 3-pointers and No. 3 Villanova powered past Wake Forest 96-77 on Friday to reach the finals of the Charleston Classic.Hart, a preseason All-American, made five of his teams first six baskets to open a 16-8 lead and the Wildcats (4-0) kept going. Theyll face UCF or College of Charleston for the tournament title on Sunday night.Villanova used a combination of accurate shooting and solid defense to slow down Wake Forest (3-1), which had scored 103 points Thursday in defeating UTEP. While the Demon Deacons shot 50 percent, they rarely got their transition game in motion against the Wildcats.It was not all good for Hart, who was whistled for a technical foul late in the second half with his team ahead double digits when he got tied up and jawed with Wake Forests Bryant Crawford down low.Hart surpassed his previous top total of 27 points against Akron last season.No. 5 NORTH CAROLINA 83, HAWAII 68HONOLULU -- Isaiah Hicks scored 16 points and North Carolina pulled away from Hawaii.The Tar Heels (4-0) never trailed and had five players score in double figures.Hicks scored 10 points after halftime and finished 7 of 8 from the field. Kennedy Meeks and Nate Britt had 13 points apiece. Justin Jackson scored 11 and Tony Bradley 10.North Carolina led by as many as 18 in the closing minutes. The Tar Heels shot 63.3 percent (19 of 30) in the second half.Noah Allen, a UCLA transfer, led the Rainbow Warriors (2-2) with 22 points.No. 7 KANSAS 86, SIENA 65LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Frank Mason III scored 18 points to lead a late-game charge, Carlton Bragg added a career-high 15 points and 11 rebounds and Kansas beat pesky Siena.Devonte Graham added 13 points and nine assists, and Lagerald Vick scored 12 points off the bench, as the Jayhawks (2-1) extended their winning streak to 42 straight at Allen Fieldhouse.The Saints (1-2) never made it easy.Marquis Wright hit three straight 3-pointers midway through the second half, and the gritty senior guards three-point play got coach Jimmy Patsos team within 63-58 with about 7 1/2 minutes left.Vick answered with back-to-back baskets for the Jayhawks, kicking off the game-defining 16-2 run that would put the game away. Mason added a 3-pointer and a couple foul shots, Graham got into the act, and the Jayhawks -- so accustomed to dominating inside -- leaned on their guard play to seal the win.No. 10 ARIZONA 95, SACRED HEART 65TUCSON, Ariz. -- Lauri Markkanen scored 22 points to lead six Arizona players in double figures and the Wildcats routed overmatched Sacred Heart.Fellow freshman Rawle Alkins added 18 points for the Wildcats (3-0). They led by as many as 25 points in the first half and 39 in the second.Arizonas Dusan Ristic had 13 points and a career-high 15 rebounds.Quincy McKnight had 22 points and Joseph Lopez 15 for the Pioneers (1-2).The game was part of the Las Vegas Invitational, as is Monday nights game against Northern Colorado. The Wildcats move on to Las Vegas to play Santa Clara next Thursday.No. 11 XAVIER 83, CLEMSON 77LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- J.P. Macura scored a career-high 28 points and Trevon Bluiett contributed 21 as Xavier defeated Clemson in the second round of the Tire Pros Invitational.Macura hit six 3-pointers and Bluiett sealed the win with two free throws in the final moments.The Musketeers (3-0) held a comfortable lead for most of the second half before Clemson (3-1) surged within 63-62. Xavier, led by Malcolm Bernard, answered with six straight points to regain control.Donte Grantham led five Clemson players in double figures with 21 points.No. 13 MICHIGAN STATE 100, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE 53EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Miles Bridges scored 21 of his 24 points in the first half, grabbed 11 rebounds and had six assists in his home debut for Michigan State in a win over Mississippi Valley State.The Spartans (1-2) got a confidence-boosting win after getting routed by No. 2 Kentucky and losing to No. 10 Arizona by two points.Ronald Strother had 12 points and Amos Given scored 10 for the Delta Devils (0-4).Bridges, a 6-foot-7 freshman, put on quite a show that the fans loved at the Breslin Center, including former Michigan State great and Hall of Famer Magic Johnson. Johnson came out of his seat and spread his arms wide and had an ear-to-ear smile when the left-handed Bridges followed up a miss free throw by driving through the lane and leaping to make a backboard-shaking, right-handed dunk.No. 14 GONZAGA 109, BRYANT 70SPOKANE, Wash. -- Przemek Karnowski scored 22 points and Johnathan Williams added 20 to help Gonzaga beat Bryant.Zach Collins added 18 points for Gonzaga (3-0), which is seeking a 19th consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament.Nisre Zouzoua scored 22 points and Adam Grant had 17 for undersized Bryant (1-2), which lost to Gonzaga the only previous time the teams met, in 2013.Both teams are known as the Bulldogs.Gonzaga was coming off a 69-48 win over San Diego State on Monday that was the Aztecs largest margin of defeat in nine seasons, a span of 260 games.The Zags built an early lead and slowly extended it for most of the game. Bryant was undone by 23 turnovers.No. 18 SYRACUSE 71, MONMOUTH 50SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Andrew White scored 18 points, Taurean Thompson added 12 and Syracuse routed overmatched Monmouth.The Orange (3-0) led 37-29 at the half. The Hawks (1-2) shot 21 percent from the field were 1 of 18 from 3-point range in the second half. For the game, the Hawks shot 31 percent and were 4 of 29 from on 3-pointers.Syracuse outscored Monmouth 34-21 in the second half.Tyus Battle added nine points, and Frank Howard had eight points and six assists for Syracuse. Tyler Lydon had four blocks.Justin Robinson led the Hawks with 11 points, and Collin Stewart had eight.No. 15 PURDUE 64, GEORGIA STATE 56WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Caleb Swanigan scored 18 points and Purdue scored the final 20 points of the game to rally and beat Georgia State in the Cancun Challenge opener.Trailing 56-44 with 7:08 to play, the Boilermakers (2-1) took over. Dakota Mathias hit two 3-pointers and P.J. Thompson one during the game-closing run.Center Isaas Haas added 11 points for Purdue, and Jeremy Hollowell had 15 to lead Georgia State (1-2), which also got 13 points from DMarcus Simonds.Georgia State led 56-44 on a Malik Benlevi basket with 7:08 remaining, but Purdue pulled even at 56 on two Haas free throws with 3:57 remaining.No. 22 CREIGHTON 103, WASHINGTON STATE 77ST. THOMAS, U.S. Virgin Islands -- Cole Huff scored 19 points, and Creighton put Washington State away early en route to a victory in the opening round of the Paradise Jam tournament.Marcus Foster added 16 points and Justin Patton 10 for the Bluejays (3-0), who went up by double digits less than seven minutes into the first half, and led 60-36 at the break.Conor Clifford scored 29 points, Ike Iroegbu and Charles Callison had 11 each, and Josh Hawkinson added 10 for the Cougars (2-1), who trailed by as many as 34 points in the second half.Creighton took its biggest lead midway through the second half, going up 80-46 on Tyler Clements layup with 13:30 remaining.The Cougars would then break the 100-point mark for the first time this season with 1:50 left on Ronnie Harrell Jr.s jumper. Cheap Grizzlies Jerseys .J. -- Josh Cribbs was in the Pro Bowl in February and out of a job six months later. Fake Grizzlies Jerseys . - Blake Griffin had 30 points and 12 rebounds, J. https://www.cheapgrizzlies.com/634p-allen-iverson-jersey-grizzlies.html . "No difference at all," chirped U.S. roommate and linemate James van Riemsdyk. "Its still the same cranky Phil. Stromile Swift Jersey . Any real chance at payback wont come until the playoff. Still, Pittsburgh knows its taut 3-2 win over the Bruins on Wednesday night is a pretty good place to start laying the groundwork. "They are a very good defensive team," Penguins forward Brandon Sutter said. JaMychal Green Jersey . Scott won the Australian PGA last week in his first event in Australia since winning the U.S. Masters in April. American Matt Kuchar, ahead by two strokes with four to play and even with Scott with one to go, double-bogeyed the 18th after taking two shots to get out of a bunker. KANSAS CITY -- Maybe weve had it wrong all this time, thinking the restrictor-plate lottery at Talladega Superspeedway is the wild card in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.Charlotte Motor Speedway certainly staked its claim for that honor last weekend. Five of the twelve remaining Chase-eligible drivers finished 30th or worse Sunday, with wrecks or mechanical issues putting their NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship hopes very much in jeopardy.That makes this Sundays Hollywood Casino 400 at Kansas Speedway ultracritical, especially for those drivers who find themselves in a deep hole in terms of advancing in the Chase. For Kevin Harvick, Austin Dillon, Joey Logano and Chase Elliott, who are all on the outside looking in, and even Denny Hamlin on the bubble, winning is pretty much the only option if they want to make the cut when the Chase field is narrowed from 12 drivers to eight after next weeks race at Talladega.Its exactly the kind of drama NASCAR hoped for when it created the 16-driver elimination format for the Chase in 2014, and it makes a race like Kansas that might have faded into obscurity become vitally important.It drastically changes the dynamic, said Team Penskes Brad Keselowski, who came out of the opening race of the round of 12 in good shape, sitting fourth in the standings with a 25-point cushion over ninth.When I look at this format that we have, theres really two ways you can get in, and thats through consistency and winning. And when you look at the simple math, there are four cars that are going to be eliminated and there are five cars that are in really rough shape that arent going to have the opportunity to be consistent and make their way in.Keselowski didnt have the best of days at Charlotte, but his seventh-place finish was enough to keep him in the top half of the eight drivers who will advance. Barring a disaster at Kansas, he should be able to move on in the Chase through consistency.Easily, he remarked. If we could run top-10 the next two races, I would say its an easy transfer. If youre a car that has any kind of gap right now, youre just going to go and lay up at Kansas.Certainly there are some situations you cant avoid -- you blow a tire or things like what happened to Joey [Logano, at Charlotte], he added. Those arent avoidable situations. You can break down, but the reality is, if you have a pretty good gap, you probably are going to take a log off the fire.The DNF at Charlotte was a major turnaround from a year ago for Logano, who won all three races in the 12-to-eight cutoff round in 2015. Logano was then famously knocked out of the Chase a couple of weeks later when Matt Kenseth intentionally wrecked him at Martinsville in retaliation for the move Logano had made on Kenseth to win the Fall Kansas race.Like the other drivers who are in the danger zone, Logano remains bullish about his chances of advancing. A two-time Kansas winner, the Penske Ford driver knows he cant dwell on the tire problems that ruined his race at Charlotte.Its part of racing, but were not out, Logano said.dddddddddddd Were not gonna die. This team is resilient. Weve proved it before, and well just have to go out and prove it again. We just have to have two flawless races. Its something we can make up.Although a multicar wreck at Charlotte affected several Chase contenders, mechanical issues also played a big role. Martin Truex Jr.?and Carl Edwards were lucky to finish 12th and 13th after respectively battling engine and clutch problems in their Toyotas.They lie sixth and seventh on the Chase grid, about 20 points to the good.Im not going to think about having a cushion, Edwards commented. I know what this competition is about, and all these guys can go win the next two races.With half of the 10 Chase races run on 1.5-mile intermediate speedways, perhaps it is appropriate that Charlotte might end up playing such a pivotal role in this years championship. The same potential for drama exists this weekend at Kansas.Among the drivers currently not in the top eight, Harvick probably has the best chance of recovering from a bad weekend at Charlotte. Engine and electrical problems relegated the 2014 Cup champion to a 38th-place finish.Harvick has a previous win at Kansas, though, and nobody has come through in the clutch more frequently since the elimination-style Chase debuted in his championship season. Over the past three years, Harvick has won races three times when facing elimination: Phoenix 2014, Dover 2015 and New Hampshire earlier this year.Logano is a two-time winner at Kansas, a venue where Hamlin has also visited Victory Lane. Hamlin looked in good shape at Charlotte until his engine blew late in the race.Unlucky, but in this format you can still win and advance, and some other guys had some tough days, Hamlin related. I think each race youre going to have a handful of guys that are going to have issues; Kansas I dont think will be any different, and Talladega we know will be crazy.Thats why were not out of it by any means, he added. We just have a little hole we have to dig out of.While several drivers are in a relatively comfortable position in terms of advancing in the Chase, only one man doesnt have anything to worry about: Charlotte winner Jimmie Johnson.But that doesnt mean JJ and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team are going to relax.Im so glad Im not one of the teams that had trouble at Charlotte because its just so tough, Johnson said. A victory is a huge boost, theres no way around it. Were definitely building momentum at the right time, though it happened maybe a little later than we would have liked.Were clearly in that round of eight, but ideally I want to keep the pressure on our team and have more exposure to race-winning pressure situations, he added. It would be smart not to change anything because you have to be at ten-tenths for these last few races.I want more trophies this year. ' ' '