Men

No. 11 Marquette 69, No. 16 Xavier 68

Marquette moved a step closer to earning its first conference title in a decade by turning a weakness into a strength.

Rebounding.

Olivier-Maxence Prosper converted a putback with 1.6 seconds left and No. 11 Marquette edged No. 16 Xavier 69-68 on Wednesday night to extend its slim Big East lead.

After Kam Jones missed his driving layup attempt, Prosper used his right hand to tip in the offensive rebound and put the Golden Eagles back in front.

“I knew if he missed it, that was my rebound,” Prosper said. “I just went as hard as I could. It bounced right. I just went up there and just put it back in. That's just an effort play.”

Marquette (21-6, 13-3), picked to finish ninth by the league’s coaches in the preseason poll, moved 1 1/2 games ahead of Xavier (19-7, 11-4), No. 24 Providence and No. 18 Creighton.

The Golden Eagles haven't claimed a conference championship since earning a share of the Big East crown in 2013, also the last year they won an NCAA Tournament game.

Marquette surged into conference title contention despite entering Wednesday with a minus-3.4 rebound margin that ranked 311th out of all Division I teams. In an 80-76 loss at Xavier on Jan. 15, Marquette was outrebounded 45-32.

The Golden Eagles turned that around Wednesday.

“We knew that as long as we were the team that was going to put the most effort out there and just go after it, we were going to get the majority of them,” Prosper said. “It's about being quicker to the ball. Coach (Shaka Smart) preaches that all the time: Be quicker to the ball.”

Marquette outrebounded Xavier 36-32 and outscored the Musketeers 15-7 in second-chance points. The Golden Eagles had 15 offensive rebounds, including 11 in the second half.

No rebound was bigger than Prosper's putback in the final seconds. His basket produced the 15th and final lead change of the second half after Jack Nunge's layup put Xavier ahead 68-67 with 8.3 seconds remaining.

“I thought that last play was the storyline of the entire second half,” Xavier coach Sean Miller said. “We could not get a defensive rebound.”

Xavier’s Jerome Hunter threw a long inbounds pass to Nunge, whose deep 3-point try caromed off the backboard as the buzzer sounded.

Marquette got 17 points and a career-high six steals from Stevie Mitchell. Tyler Kolek scored 15 and Oso Ighodaro added 14. Prosper had seven points, all in the last five minutes.

Souley Boum fought through a sprained ankle to score 24 points for the Musketeers.

Xavier shot 70% in the second half but couldn't hang onto its 28-24 halftime lead because of its inability to take care of the ball and prevent Marquette's second-chance opportunities. In the second half, Xavier committed 11 turnovers and attempted 16 fewer shots than Marquette.

The Musketeers led 66-63 and had the ball in the final minute before Boum lost it and Mitchell got a steal, leading to Prosper's layup with 29.1 seconds remaining. Xavier committed a backcourt turnover on its ensuing possession, as Boum's pass went off Colby Jones’ body before going out of bounds.

“We just had some inexplicable things happen at the end to us, just turnovers that, as much as I’d like to give our opponent credit for forcing the turnover, I think they were about as surprised as we were,” Miller said. “We just kind of gave it to them a couple of times at the end.”

Ighodaro got fouled and hit two free throws with 22.4 seconds left to put Marquette ahead. Nunge's layup off a nice pass from Colby Jones put Xavier back in front before Prosper's clutch tip-in.

The Golden Eagles won despite shooting 5 of 22 from 3-point range and getting just five points from Kam Jones, who was averaging a team-high 15.2 points per game.

The Musketeers have lost two straight games by a combined three points. They showed plenty of fortitude by coming as close as they did at far less than full strength. Xavier was playing a fourth straight game without leading rebounder Zach Freemantle due to an injured left foot. Boum was dealing with his injured ankle. The Musketeers also were missing reserve guards Desmond Claude and Kam Craft, who could be out a few weeks with a knee injury.

No. 10 Tennessee 68, No. 1 Alabama 59

Rocky Top was too much for top-ranked Alabama.

Zakai Zeigler and Santiago Vescovi each scored 15 points and No. 10 Tennessee extended the jinx for No. 1 teams, jolting the Crimson Tide.

On Monday, Alabama climbed to the top spot in The Associated Press poll for the first time since the 2002-03 season. But playing for the first time since the new rankings came out, the Crimson Tide (22-4, 12-1 SEC) led just once in the early going and committed 19 turnovers.

Alabama’s loss was the eighth by an AP No. 1 team this season. That ties the most in a regular season with 1993-94 in a stat dating to 1948-49.

“We turned the ball over too much tonight,” Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said. “(Tennessee) got 26 points off the turnovers. Their physicality. ... They got into our guards and we couldn’t handle it.”

Tennessee bounced back from a pair of last-second defeats.

“After those tough losses, we stayed with it,” coach Rick Barnes said. “We didn't splinter.”

Vols big man Jonas Aidoo added 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Volunteers (20-6, 9-5).

“It takes confidence,” he said. “We go through the ups and downs. We just do what we do and play hard and we'll be fine.”

Unlike football, when Tennessee fans stormed their home field after beating No. 3 Alabama 52-49 in October, this sellout crowd stayed in the seats when it was over. “Rocky Top” loudly blared as the Volunteers ended a two-game skid.

Alabama became the last Power 5 men's team to lose a conference game this season. The Tide's only lead in this game came at 12-11.

Brandon Miller led Alabama with 15 points along with 10 rebounds, Jaden Bradley added 14 points and Nimari Burnett had 11.

“We shot 6 of 20 at the rim,” Oats said. “(Tennessee) was able to finish stuff at the rim.”

Uros Plavsic, who scored 10 points, connected on a three-point play to give Tennessee a 56-47 lead with just over five minutes left in the game.

Vescovi tossed a lob that Olivier Nkamhoua caught in mid-air and followed with a slam to put Tennessee ahead 19-15 with 7:42 to play in the first half. It was tied at 29 at the break.

“We were down on ourselves a little bit,” Zeigler said. “We were down 17 (in the second half Saturday against Missouri) and we came back. We have to bring that (second-half effort) every night.”

No. 7 Virginia 61, Louisville 58

Armaan Franklin and Kihei Clark each scored 14 points and No. 7 Virginia endured a stern challenge from struggling Louisville and its own poor free-throw shooting to win its third straight game.

The Cavaliers (20-4, 12-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) led 58-50 with 3:47 remaining but missed five free throws down the stretch to give the ACC-worst Cardinals (3-23, 1-14) a chance. JJ Traynor's jumper with 31 seconds left got Louisville within three, and Clark missed the front end of a 1-and-1.

But the Cardinals bled valuable time off the clock during their final possession while trying to get free for an open 3-pointer, and Kamari Lands' off-balance 3 barely hit the rim with 3 seconds left. Ben Vander Plas got the rebound and Virginia escaped with its sixth consecutive win over the Cardinals while moving into a first-place tie with Pittsburgh in the ACC.

El Ellis had 21 points for Louisville, which has lost four straight since its lone ACC victory. The Cardinals were coming off another close game against one of the league's best teams, a 93-85 loss at Miami.

Jayden Gardner and Vander Plas each scored 10 points for Virginia, which shot 57% after halftime and 44% overall.

Northwestern 64, No. 14 Indiana 62

Boo Buie scored the tiebreaking basket with two seconds remaining and Northwestern followed up its first win over a top-ranked team by beating Indiana.

After defeating Purdue on Sunday for the program’s first victory over an opponent ranked No. 1 in the AP poll, the Wildcats (19-7, 10-5 Big Ten) blew a 19-point halftime lead before topping the Hoosiers (18-8, 9-6).

Northwestern took sole possession of second place in the conference standings with its program-record fourth victory over a ranked opponent this season. Northwestern hadn’t beaten Top 25 teams in consecutive games since January 2009.

Buie had 21 points.

Trayce Jackson-Davis led Indiana with 23 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.

No. 19 Iowa State 70, No. 22 TCU 59

Aljaz Kunc had career highs of 22 points and five 3-pointers in his first start in nearly two months, and Iowa State never trailed.

The Cyclones won their nation-best seventh game against a Top 25 opponent.

Jaren Holmes added 16 points for the Cyclones (17-8, 8-5). Kunc, playing his fourth game since missing six weeks with a broken finger, made four of his 3s in the first half.

TCU (17-9, 6-7) lost its fourth straight while playing its fifth game without injured conference preseason player of the year and top scorer Mike Miles Jr.

No. 21 San Diego State 45, Fresno State 43

Matt Bradley scored 10 points and No. 21 San Diego State slipped past Fresno State.

San Diego State (21-5, 12-2 Mountain West Conference) has won four in a row and eight of nine overall, extending its win streak against the Bulldogs to eight games.

Nathan Mensah had eight points, eight rebounds and four blocks for SDSU, and Keshad Johnson added seven points and eight boards.

Women

No. 7 Iowa 91, Wisconsin 61

Caitlin Clark scored 24 points and Monika Czinano had 19 as Iowa beat Wisconsin for the 27th consecutive time.

McKenna Warnock added 16 points for the Hawkeyes (21-5, 13-2 Big Ten). Iowa won for the 10th time in 11 games and moved within one game of conference leader Indiana.

The Hawkeyes, who lead the nation in scoring at 88.5 points per game, shot 64.3% from the field.

Julie Pospisilova led Wisconsin (8-19, 3-12) with 16 points. Maty Wilke had 10.

No. 14 Villanova 73, St. John's 57

Maddy Siegrist scored 39 points, including 19 in the third quarter, and Villanova beat St. John's for its 14th win in 15 games.

Siegrist, the national scoring leader at 29.1 points per game who was coming off a 50-point performance in a win over Seton Hall last Saturday, made 15 of 26 shots, 3 of 7 3-pointers and 6 of 8 free throws. She also had 11 rebounds.

Lucy Olsen had 14 points and seven assists for Villanova (23-4, 14-2 Big East).

Mimi Reid led St. John’s (19-6, 10-6) with a career-high 23 points.

No. 15 Oklahoma 84, Texas Tech 57

Aubrey Joens had 23 points and 11 rebounds as Oklahoma beat Texas Tech.

Liz Scott scored 13 points and made all six shot attempts, Madi Williams scored 12 and Nevaeh Tot had 11 for Oklahoma (21-4, 11-3 Big 12), which never trailed.

Bailey Maupin scored 15 points off the bench for the Lady Raiders (16-10, 4-9). Bre’Amber Scott added 12 points and Bryn Gerlich had 10.