BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Aiden Holloway scored 17 points, Amari Allen added 16 and No. 25 Alabama beat LSU 90-83 on Saturday for its sixth straight victory. The Crimson Tide (20-7l, 10-4 Southeastern Conference) also beat the Tigers (14-13, 2-12) for the sixth straight time. Alabama, ranked second nationally in 3-pointers at 12.7 per game, had seven players combine for 10 3s — the Tide’s eighth consecutive game with 10 or more. Latrell Whitesell Jr. scored 14 points for Alabama. Aiden Sherrell had 12 points and 10 rebounds. and London Jemison also scored 12 points. Marquel Sutton led LSU with 21 points.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Billy Richmond III scored 21 points and Darius Acuff Jr. added 20 to pace No. 20 Arkansas to a 94-86 win over Missouri. Arkansas improved to 7-0 in games following a loss this season while also staying in contention for the SEC regular-season title. The Hogs are in second place, two games behind conference-leading Florida with four games still to be played. Malique Ewin finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, Meleek Thomas added 14 points and eight rebounds, and Trevon Brazile contributed 12 points and six assists for the Hogs. Missouri was led by Mark Mitchell’s 26 points.
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — KeShawn Murphy totaled 25 points and 10 rebounds, and Elyjah Freeman tipped in a miss with 1.4 seconds left as Auburn ended a five-game losing streak by handing Kentucky a third straight loss, winning 75-74. Tahaad Pettiford made two free throws with 14 seconds left to pull Auburn (15-12, 6-8 Southeastern Conference) within a point. Kentucky (17-10, 8-6) turned it over, but Mouhamed Dioubate blocked an attempted layup by Kevin Overton at the other end. Murphy missed on the first tip, but Freeman came through on the second. The Wildcats mishandled the inbounds pass and didn’t get a shot off.
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma retired Buddy Hield’s No. 24 jersey Saturday night, honoring him as one of the program’s greats at halftime of a game against Texas A&M on Saturday night. He became just the sixth Sooner to get that recognition. He earned it after leading Oklahoma to the Final Four and being named a unanimous first-team AP All-American in 2016. The guard from Freeport, Bahamas, was Big 12 Player of the Year twice. He is a 10-year NBA veteran who now plays for the Atlanta Hawks. The Final Four team was honored before the game.
UNDATED (AP) — Michigan is the No. 1 overall seed in the preliminary rankings by the committee that will select the 68-team men's field for the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines were joined by Duke, Arizona and Iowa State as the 1-seeds in Saturday's reveal show on CBS. The Cyclones got the last No. 1 seed ahead of UConn and Houston. Saturday’s reveal is a snapshot of where things stand with less than a month left until Selection Sunday. Generally the teams listed above the cutline for a top-four regional seed stay there. Selection Sunday is March 15. The Final Four is in Indianapolis.
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — Alex Condon scored 24 points and No. 12 Florida tightened its grip atop the Southeastern Conference standings with a 94-75 win over Mississippi on Saturday. Florida (21-6, 12-2 SEC) entered as the conference leader with a two-game cushion in the loss column over Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee with four games remaining. The win was the seventh consecutive for the Gators and extended its SEC road game winning streak to six. Florida improved to 16-2 since mid-December and remained unbeaten in February. Malik Dia scored 24 points for Ole Miss (11-16, 3-11), the ninth consecutive loss for the Rebels.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ja’Kobi Gillespie scored 17 points as Tennessee outlasted No. 19 Vanderbilt 69-65 in a back-and-forth affair. A turnaround jumper by Nate Ament, who was double-teamed by Commodores Jalen Washington and Chandler Bing, gave the Volunteers a 66-65 lead with less than a minute to play. Ament finished with 13 points. Tennessee put the game away from the free throw lines from there. Tyler Tanner led the Commodores with 16 points.
