Braden Smith leads Purdue basketball to a win over Oakland with 20 points

By Canadian Press on November 7, 2025.

WEST LAFAYETTE, IND. (AP) — Braden Smith scored 20 points and led six Purdue scorers in doubles figures as the No. 1 Boilermakers topped Oakland 87-77 on Friday night.

Smith, a preseason All-American selection, added nine assists and seven rebounds.

Fletcher Loyer scored 15 points and Oscar Cluff and C.J. Cox added 14 points apiece for Purdue (2-0). Jack Benter and Liam Murphy each scored 11 points for the Boilermakers.

Ziare Wells led the Golden Grizzlies (0-2) with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Nassim Mashhour added 15.

NO. 4 UCONN, UMASS LOWELL 47

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Tarris Reed Jr. had 20 points and 12 rebounds and Silas Demary Jr. added 16 points and seven assists to lead UConn to a win over UMass Lowell.

Seven Huskies scored in double figures as UConn scored its most points in a game since a 2022 win against Long Island University. Malachi Smith and Solo Ball added 14 each for UConn, (2-0) which won its 19th consecutive game in Hartford.

Jared Frey led UMass Lowell (1-1) with 12 points and Xavier Spencer had 11 points.

NO. 9 KENTUCKY 107, VALPARISO 77

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Malachi Moreno scored 18 points and had 10 rebounds to lead Kentucky to a win over Valparaiso.

The freshman forward led six Wildcats in double figures as Otega Oweh had 15 and Mouhamed Dioubate and Collin Chandler had 14 points each.

The Wildcats (2-0) hit the century mark for the first time this season after scoring 100 or more points six times last year, including the first two games of the Mark Pope era.

Brandon Garrison and Denzel Aberdeen scored 12 points each for Kentucky.

Rakim Chaney led the Beacons (1-1) with 15 points.

NO. 10 TEXAS TECH 98, SAM HOUSTON 77

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Preseason AP All-America forward JT Toppin scored 31 points and had 14 rebounds in his season debut to lead five players in double figures for Texas Tech as the Red Raiders beat Sam Houston.

It was Toppin’s 20th double-double in 34 games for the Red Raiders since transferring from New Mexico after his freshman season. The 6-foot-9 junior, who missed the season-opening win over Lindenwood three nights earlier because of a lower-body injury, had double-doubles in all four NCAA Tournament games last March when they made it to the Elite Eight.

Donovan Atwell had 19 points with six 3-pointers for the Red Raiders (2-0), who won their 40th consecutive nonconference home game since an overtime loss to Kentucky in January 2020. They are 18-0 under third-year coach Grant McCasland.

Christian Anderson added 18 points and seven assists while Tyeree Bryan had 12 points. LeJuan Watts had 11 points and six rebounds in his Tech debut. Watts, a Washington State transfer who was tabbed the preseason Big 12 newcomer of the year, also was listed with a lower-body injury when he missed Tuesday night’s opener.

Justin Begg had 17 points for Sam Houston (1-1), and Kashie Natt had 16 points with 11 rebounds. Veljko Ilic had 13 points.

NO. 17 ILLINOIS 113, FLORIDA GULF COAST 70

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Kylan Boswell scored a career-high 31 points and had 10 rebounds as Illinois beat Florida Gulf Coast for its second blowout win to start the season.

Zvonomir Ivisic had 16 points, nine rebounds and seven blocked shots for the Illini (2-0), who beat Jackson State by 63 points in their opener, also scoring 113 points.

Keaton Wagler had 22 points and seven rebounds and David Mirkovic had 17 points and 11 rebounds for Illinois.

J.R. Konieczny led Florida Gulf Coast with 26 points. The Eagles (1-1) shot 33% from the floor — they missed their first 12 shots — and were outrebounded 51-30.

NO. 25 NORTH CAROLINA 87, NO. 19 KANSAS 74

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Freshman Caleb Wilson had 24 points, big man Henri Veesaar added 20 and North Carolina dominated the second half to pull away from Kansas 87-74 in a battle of college basketball bluebloods.

Senior Seth Trimble added 13 of his 17 after halftime, proving to be a catalyst for the Tar Heels (2-0) in taking control of the second-half tempo as UNC roared out of the break.

But North Carolina made 18 of its first 23 second-half shots — including back-to-back push-the-tempo scores by Trimble that had Kansas coach Bill Self first waving his hands in frustration and then burning a quick timeout barely two minutes in.

Kyan Evans added 12 points after a scoreless first half for the Tar Heels, who went from shooting 33% before the break to making 24 of 36 shots (66.7%) after halftime to lead by as many as 16 on the way to scoring 58 second-half points.

Kansas star freshman Darryn Peterson had 22 points to lead the Jayhawks (1-1), who led by 10 in the first half and 37-29 at the break.

NO. 24 WISCONSIN 97, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 72

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Nick Boyd scored 20 of his career-high 25 points in the first half as Wisconsin beat Northern Illinois.

Boyd surpassed his previous best of 24 points, set last season with San Diego State. Boyd, who also played on Florida Atlantic’s 2023 Final Four team, shot 8 for 16 from the field, including 3 for 8 from long distance.

Returning starters John Blackwell added 15 points and Nolan Winter 12 for Wisconsin (2-0), which built an early 20-5 lead.

JJ Taylor had 17 points and Jao Ituka 13 for Northern Illinois (1-1).

The Associated Press