Schraeder Leads UC Irvine Men

Guard Ross Schraeder scored a career-high 17 points, 12 in the second half, to lead UC Irvine to a 63-60 victory over Ohio on Monday and a fifth-place finish in the Black Coaches Assn. Classic at Cincinnati.

Schraeder also set a career high by making five three-point shots, including one that gave the Anteaters (2-1) the lead for good at 33-30 with 16:42 left in the game.

Jeff Halbert scored 15 points to lead Ohio (1-2), which shot 30% (18 of 60) from the field. Irvine sank 45.9% (17 of 37).

All but one of the nine players who got in the game for UC Irvine scored. Greg Ethington added 12 points for the Anteaters, including four free throws in the final 20 seconds.

Ohio missed 16 of its first 20 shots before putting together a 15-5 run to take a 28-24 halftime lead.

The eight-team tournament was played on Xavier’s home court. The Musketeers were the top team in the three-day tournament.

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No. 1 Connecticut 70, Yale 60 -- Emeka Okafor had 21 points and 13 rebounds in the Huskies’ season-opening victory in the Preseason NIT tournament game at Storrs, Conn.

The Huskies, who rallied from a three-point halftime deficit, will play host to Nevada on Wednesday.

“We’ve been through this before with great teams and with not so great teams,” Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun said. “We were not prepared to pay the price initially.”

Yale lost its season opener for the 12th consecutive season.

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No. 11 Texas 89, Brown 51 -- P.J. Tucker had 18 points and 13 rebounds in his Texas debut, leading the Longhorns to victory in a season opener for both teams at Austin, Texas.

Tucker’s totals made him only the third Texas freshman to record a double-double in his debut.

He also set the Texas freshman first-game record for rebounds and tied the points mark.

Jaime Kilburn led Brown with 16 points.

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X-rays taken on USC senior guard Desmon Farmer’s right hip on Monday were negative, though the Trojans’ leading scorer sat out practice as a precautionary measure.

Farmer, who was injured when he took an elbow to the hip late in the first half of the Trojans’ exhibition on Sunday night, is expected to practice today and play in USC’s season opener Friday at Western Michigan.

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WOMEN

No. 18 UC Santa Barbara 52, No. 19 Utah 44 -- The Gauchos used balance scoring to hold off the Utes in a second-round game of the Preseason WNIT tournament at Santa Barbara.

Kristen Mann and Lisa Willett each had 11 points and Mia Fisher added 10 points for Santa Barbara (2-0), which extended its home winning streak to 25 games. Free throws helped lift Santa Barbara, which made 12 of 16 from the line. Utah sank three of six.

The Gauchos advanced to Thursday’s semifinal game at Texas Tech.

Utah (1-1) was led by Shona Thorburn’s 14 points.