Rivalry showdowns stole the show in college basketball on Saturday, as the first iteration of Duke vs. North Carolina delivered a thriller. The No. 14 Tar Heel took their first lead of the game with 0.4 seconds remaining when Seth Trimble hit a go-ahead 3-pointer to lift UNC to a 71-68 win over the visiting No. 4 Blue Devils.
The dramatic ending featured a premature court-storming inside the Dean Dome before officials put time back on the clock following Trimble’s make, which was set up by a beautiful drive and dish from freshman point guard Derek Dixon.
But it didn’t take an elated group of students long to find their way back onto the floor in celebration after Duke’s unsuccessful last-gasp effort. After losing three times to the Blue Devils last season, this was especially sweet for UNC.
While UNC-Duke stole the show, it wasn’t the only dramatic in-state rivalry game of the day. Alabama edged Auburn 96-92 in a back-and-forth thrill-ride that featured 110 points in the second half alone. The rowdy environments for both games showcased the best of college basketball and set the tone for a consequential day of action across the country.
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Cameron Salerno
Here is the breakdown of the winners and losers from Saturday’s action.
Winner: UNC’s Davis delivers a huge win vs. Duke
As CBS Sports’ Kyle Boone wrote earlier this week, this wasn’t a must-win for UNC coach Hubert Davis, but it was close. For better or worse, Davis has been under a microscope, it seems, because he is in charge of one of the premier programs in the sport. After it looked like Duke was going to cruise to a double-digit win over UNC, Davis’ team flipped the script with a 71-68 win over the No. 4-ranked Blue Devils after Seth Trimble knocked down a 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds remaining.
Notably, North Carolina didn’t lead in the game until Trimble’s shot went through the hoop. This game was needed for Davis. Not only is it a win over its biggest rival, but it is also a significant boost for the resume. North Carolina struggled against Quad 1 opponents last season. After picking up the win over Duke, UNC now has five wins against Quad 1 teams after having one (total!!) last season. — Cameron Salerno
Loser: Auburn loses serve vs. Alabama
Auburn lost a thriller at home to its in-state rival for the second straight season, as the Tigers squandered a 10-point lead and fell 96-92 to Alabama. The Crimson Tide scored 59 points in the second half and hit 18 of 20 free throws after the break to subdue a raucous crowd inside Neville Arena. Auburn will get a second crack at Alabama to close the regular season on March 7, but the Tigers (14-9, 5-5 SEC) needed this one. With three of their next four against Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Kentucky, first-year coach Steven Pearl has some choppy waters to navigate on The Plains. This 4-point play from former Auburn guard Aden Holloway was particularly important in helping Alabama build some separation late. — David Cobb
Winner: KU’s Bidunga puts on a block party vs. Utah
Kansas big man Flory Bidunga thrust himself into rarefied air by becoming the first major-conference player this season to produce at least 15 points, 10 boards and seven blocks in a game. In a 71-59 win over Utah, Bidunga tallied 17 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocks, which included four swatted shots in 17 second-half minutes as the No. 11 Jayhawks won their seventh consecutive game.
It’s the first time a Kansas player has blocked seven shots while playing in 30 or fewer minutes since Joel Embiid had seven blocks in 21 minutes in a 67-63 win vs. UTEP on Nov. 30, 2013, per Stathead data. It’s also tied for the third-most blocks in a single game by any player in any league in a conference game this season. — Kyle Boone
Loser: Beard’s team falls apart in return to Texas
Chris Beard’s first trip back to Austin since being canned from his post as the Longhorns coach was anything but a ceremonious homecoming. The Ole Miss coach was introduced to boos at the Moody Center, exacerbating an unwelcome return, his Rebels also fell apart at the seams down the stretch in a 79-68 loss. What at one point appeared to be a potentially momentous Ole Miss win crumbled in the final minutes as Texas ended the game on a 14-0 run — which culminated with a final 3:35 of game action in which Ole Miss did not score a single point. The loss is the fifth-straight for the Rebels as they fall to below .500 for the first time in Beard’s tenure. — Kyle Boone
Winner: Loyer comes up clutch for Boilermakers
Purdue guard Fletcher Loyer put his superhero cape on and saved the day in front of the home crowd at Mackey Arena, helping the No. 12 Boilermakers erase a deficit in the final minute for a 68-64 win over Oregon. Loyer buried a clutch 3-pointer with just under 51 seconds remaining in the second half to give Purdue the lead, which it would not relinquish from there.
The pull-up 3-pointer was just a sliver of Loyer’s late success as he also helped salt away the lead with three free throws thereafter. He finished with a team-high 18 points in the win with five of his 10 second-half points coming in the final 51 seconds. — Boone
Winner: Arizona sends a message vs. Oklahoma State
Favored by a whopping 20 points at home, No. 1 Arizona nearly doubled that spread with a 37-point blitzing of Oklahoma State 84-47. Five Wildcats scored in double figures while they were equally as effective defensively, forcing the Cowboys to shoot a season-low 24.6% from the field. The win comes ahead of a massive showdown in Lawrence on Monday vs. Kansas, which has won seven consecutive games leading into the matchup. — Boone
Loser: Oklahoma nearly blows big lead vs. Vandy
If you thought it impossible both teams in a head-to-head could emerge from a game as losers — then you didn’t watch Vandy-Oklahoma.
Oklahoma got the 92-91 win but the Sooners qualify as a loser here because they were victorious only after nearly choking away a 21-point lead with under five minutes remaining — which included, somehow, a 20-second run in the final minute in which it surrendered eight points in 20 seconds. A loss would’ve continued a theme of awful finishes for the Sooners who have made a routine of blowing second-half leads all season, and it almost seemed as if everyone — including the Sooners — expected they’d gag it away.
The loss is an inexplicable one even for a banged-up Vandy team given OU walked into Saturday with losses in nine-straight. After starting the season a perfect 6-0, the No. 15 Commodores are 3-4 in their last seven and dangerously close to falling out of contention in the wide-open SEC. — Boone
Winner: Miami (Ohio) remains perfect
The dream of a perfect season remained intact for another day as Miami (Ohio), a 2.5-point favorite at Marshall, led wire-to-wire in an impressive 90-74 victory vs. the Thundering Herd. The win lifts the Redhawks to 24-0 with just seven regular-season games remaining including Saturday’s game vs. Ohio. — Boone
Loser: Autry’s seat at Syracuse is warming up
Syracuse dropped to 4-7 in ACC competition with a 72-59 loss to Virginia and is 13-11 overall as it tracks, once again, toward missing the NCAA Tournament for a fifth consecutive year. Third-year coach Adrian Autry notably left star recruit Kiyan Anthony, the son of Carmelo Anthony, on the bench for a DNP in the loss, which came days after the elder Anthony made a comment on social media following a loss to North Carolina.
Things have turned from bad to worse in a hurry for Autry, whose seat is heating up after the loss marked the team’s sixth in its last seven outings. Losing on the court is one thing, but seemingly losing the confidence of program greats is another that may be even more difficult to recover from. — Salerno
Winner: Indiana is hitting its groove
Indiana squandered a 13-point lead in the second half at home against Wisconsin as the Badgers roared back to take a four-point lead with under a minute to go. But the Hoosiers got off the mat, rallied to force overtime and then squeaked out a critical 78-77 victory. IU (16-8, 7-6 Big Ten) entered the day as one of the First Four Out in CBS Sports Bracketology and has now won four of its past five. After struggling through a four-game losing streak during a brutal stretch of mid-January schedule, Indiana is trending up with a real chance to make the Big Dance under first-year coach Darian DeVries. — Cobb
Loser: Baylor’s furious rally comes up short
Baylor’s furious late rally for an upset bid at No. 7 Iowa State came up short as the Bears fell 72-69 and missed out on a potential season-altering upset. The Bears outscored the Cyclones 11-0 over the final two minutes, but the day belonged to an ISU team that opened up a close game with a strong second half surge. Baylor (13-10, 3-8 Big 12) desperately needed a high-end marquee win after entering the day as one of the “Next Four Out” in the CBS Sports Bracketology model. Plenty of big opportunities still await over the next month, but time is running short on a program that has reached six straight NCAA Tournaments and nine of the past 10. — Cobb
Winner: The Copeland Show rolls on for NC State
Winning the Darrion Williams Sweepstakes was the story of the offseason for NC State, but McNeese transfer Quadir Copeland has been a revelation after following Will Wade to Raleigh. He was phenomenal yet again in NC State’s 82-73 victory over Virginia Tech.
Check out Copeland’s stat line in his last six outings:
- Jan. 20 vs. Clemson: 16 points, four rebounds, six assists
- Jan. 24 vs. Pittsburgh: 20 points, nine assists
- Jan. 27 vs. Syracuse: 19 points, nine assists
- Jan. 31 vs. Wake Forest: Eight points, 10 assists
- Feb. 3 vs. SMU: Seven points, 10 rebounds, 16 assists, zero turnovers
- Saturday vs. Virginia Tech: 21 points, 10 assists, three rebounds, five steals
That’s SIXTY (!!) assists in the last six games combined. Copeland is playing like the ACC’s best point guard, and NC State is now 9-2 in ACC play. — Isaac Trotter
Winner: Saint Louis stays hot to keep A-10 lead
A George Mason loss and two Saint Louis wins this week — including an 82-58 beatdown of La Salle — gave Saint Louis a two-game lead in the Atlantic 10 and keeps it among the hottest teams in the sport. It has now won 17 consecutive games since its first and only loss of the season on Nov. 28. At 23-1, the Billikens are tracking to make their first NCAA Tournament since 2019 — and will be regarded as one of the most dangerous teams regardless of seed line if they get there. — Boone
Winner: Louisiana Tech’s board man gets paid
Louisiana Tech’s Kaden Cooper is a 6-foot-6 wing, and yet, he posted a line that would make any big man jealous. Cooper scored 16 points and ripped down 18 rebounds in Louisiana Tech’s 87-78 victory over Sam Houston State.
Oh, and this isn’t an anomaly. Cooper totaled a whopping 19 rebounds in La Tech’s 65-44 win over Louisiana on Dec. 13.
He is pound-for-pound one of the top rebounders in all of college basketball. — Trotter
Winner: OVC produces a Dunk of the Year candidate
Southeast Missouri guard Luke Almodovar threw down the dunk of the day or probrably the week or maybe even … the year during his team’s 90-65 win over Southern Indiana. Almodovar got a transition opportunity and rose up over a Southern Indiana defender for a poster that had even one of his teammates on the court hitting a full surrender cobra.
Look at this.
That’s the goods. He finished with 21 points in the win, but no two points were scored more emphatically than those two. — Boone
Winner: Liberty reaches 20 wins yet again
Liberty operates well under the national radar, but the Flames deserve their props for reaching 20 wins yet again after beating Missouri State 79-76. Senior forward Zach Cleveland led the charge with 19 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds while notching his first career triple-double. At 20-3 and 12-0 in Conference USA, Liberty has won 14 straight to open up a commanding league in the conference standings. This program has now been part of three conferences under 11th-year coach Ritchie McKay, and it just keeps winning. This marks nine times in the past 10 years that the Flames have reached 20 victories, and there is still plenty of basketball left to be played. — Cobb