Duke, North Carolina advance past Portland schools in PK80

PORTLAND, Ore. – Trevon Duval had 22 points and top-ranked Duke pulled away for a 99-81 victory over surprisingly tenacious Portland State on Thursday to open the Motion bracket of the Phil Knight Invitational.

Marvin Bagley III added 18 points, and Grayson Allen had 14 points and nine assists. The Blue Devils (6-0) will face Texas on Friday.

Duke trailed by as many as eight points but took control midway through the second half when Wendell Carter Jr.’s dunk put the Blue Devils in front 67-62. They would go on to lead by as many as 21 points.

“The first half we obviously weren’t playing like we were normally do. We weren’t doing the things that we do well. We weren’t going to our strengths. We kind of came out sluggish,” Bagley said. “But going into the second half it was just `You have to wake up.’ They (the coaches) mentioned to us that these are the type of games that are going to be like that if you don’t come out ready to play.

It was coach Mike Krzyzewski’s 200th victory as coach of a No. 1-ranked team. He’s 200-29 when the Blue Devils sit atop the poll.

Deontae North led the Vikings (4-1) with 24 points, including 20 in the first half, but fouled out with 8:39 left in the game.

Texas 61, Butler 48: Andrew Jones had 16 points and the Longhorns defeated the Bulldogs in the Motion bracket.

Mohamed Bamba had six points and 12 rebounds along with four blocked shots, as the Longhorns opened the season 4-0 in coach Shaka Smart’s third year.

Texas goes on to play top-ranked Duke on Friday.

Kamar Baldwin had 15 points to lead Butler (3-2), which trailed by as many as 10 points in the second half but rallied to come within three points. Kelan Martin added 12.

Baldwin’s layup got the Bulldogs within 47-44 with 4:12 to go, but he missed the free throw and Dylan Osetkowski scored on the other end for Texas. Osetkowski added a dunk, the second in a string of three straight baskets that put the Longhorns up 53-46, and Butler couldn’t catch up.

Florida 108, Stanford 87: Egor Koulechov had 26 points, including five 3-pointers, and the Gators routed the Cardinal in the Motion bracket.

Jalen Hudson added 17 points, including a career-high four 3s, for the Gators (4-0). Next up, Florida plays the winner between No. 17 Gonzaga and Ohio State.

Reid Travis had 23 points for Stanford (3-3), which lost its second straight to an opponent ranked in the top 10. The Cardinal trailed by as many as 38.

Koulechov, a graduate transfer, made all five of his 3-point attempts and Florida hit 15 from long range overall.

The Gators announced shortly before the opening tip that starting center Kevarrius Hayes had been suspended for the game for a violation of team rules. The school did not provide details. Hayes is averaging 6.3 points and 5.7 rebounds.

Victory bracket

(9) North Carolina 102, Portland 78: Luke Maye had 20 points and 10 rebounds, Joel Berry II added 18 points and the Tar Heels defeated the Pilots in the opening game of the Victory bracket.

The Tar Heels (4-0) continued their offensive outburst to open the season, topping the century mark for the first time this season against the overmatched Pilots from the West Coast Conference.

Kenny Williams added 17 points and Theo Pinson had 11 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for the Tar Heels, who have scored at least 90 points in the past three games. North Carolina pulled away thanks to 55 percent shooting in the second half.

Franklin Porter led the Pilots with 19 points and Marcus Shaver Jr. added 17, but the Pilots shot just 40 percent and lacked the offensive spark to keep up with the Tar Heels.

The Pilots (2-2) hung around through most of the first half before a late run by the Tar Heels gave them a 48-35 halftime lead. The Tar Heels have scored at least 45 points in the first half of every game this season. North Carolina quickly turned the game into the expected blowout in the opening moments of the second half, scoring the first 12 points of the half and hitting nine straight shots before finally missing.

Arkansas 92, Oklahoma 83: Daryl Macon scored a season-high 27 points, Jaylen Barford added 19 and the Razorbacks defeated the Sooners.

Daniel Gafford added 13 points for the Razorbacks (4-0), including a 17-footer with 1:01 remaining for a four-point lead. Oklahoma missed twice on its next possession and Gafford added two more free throws to clinch Arkansas’s second 4-0 start in the past 11 seasons.

The Razorbacks will face North Carolina on Friday.

Freshman Trae Young led the Sooners (2-1) with 28 points, but Oklahoma had just one field goal in a five-minute span late in the game. Oklahoma also went cold from behind the 3-point line hitting just 2 of 12 attempts in the second half. Christian James added 13 points and Khadeem Lattin had 10 for the Sooners.

Arkansas was able to slow down Oklahoma’s scoring onslaught to open the season. After scoring 108 points in each of their first two games, the Sooners shot 47 percent overall and just 42 percent in the second half. The Sooners were shooting 56 percent through their first two games.

Connecticut 71, Oregon 63: Terry Larrier scored 18 points, Alterique Gilbert and Jalen Adams both added 16 points each, and the Huskies defeat the Ducks.

The Huskies (4-0) overcame an awful night of shooting to knock off the Ducks playing essentially a home game a couple hours north of their campus in Eugene. Most of the lower bowl at Moda Center was clad in green and yellow but went home disappointed at Oregon’s first loss of the season.

The tight matchup saw 17 lead changes, the final one coming with 2:24 left when Antwoine Anderson cut baseline and dunked off a perfect pass from Gilbert to give the Huskies a 64-62 lead. UConn led 68-62 in the closing seconds and could finally celebrate the victory when Payton Pritchard missed a deep 3-pointer with 11 seconds left.

Pritchard led the Ducks (4-1) with 14 points, but Oregon missed all 10 of its 3-point attempts in the second half. Oregon was 5 of 24 overall on 3s. Oregon had 18 second-half points at the free-throw line and just 14 points on made baskets.

Paul White added 12 points for Oregon, but Elijah Brown, averaging 12 points per game, fouled out after scoring just five. White had a fantastic sequence with about 10 minutes to go, scoring a tough driving layup on one end to give Oregon a 51-48 lead then recovering on defense to swat the driving attempt of Gilbert. He added two free throws and Oregon led 53-48, its largest lead of the game.

But UConn outscored the Ducks 23-10 over the final eight minutes. A pair of free throws from Anderson put UConn up 60-58 with 4:10 remaining, but Mikyle McIntosh answered with a driving basket and added two free throws with 3:25 left to put the Ducks in front.

The lead didn’t last long. Christian Vital hit a pair of free throws and Anderson’s dunk gave UConn the lead for good. Anderson finished with 10 points.

(4) Michigan State 73, DePaul 51: Matt McQuaid hit six 3-pointers and scored a career-high 20 points, Jaren Jackson Jr. added 13 points and 10 rebounds, and the Spartans, playing without preseason All-American Miles Bridges, shook the Blue Demons in the second half of their Victory bracket game.

Bridges was out due to a sprained left ankle sustained last Sunday against Stony Brook, but McQuaid made up for the absence of the Spartans star. McQuaid’s previous career high was 17 points and he had scored 16 total points in Michigan State’s first three games this season in limited duty coming off the bench.

Without Bridges, the Spartans (3-1) struggled to shake the Blue Demons until early in the second half when DePaul went more than nine minutes without a field goal.

Eli Cain and Max Strus led DePaul (1-3) with 12 points apiece but the Blue Demons shot just 5 of 23 in the second half and were 0 of 4 on 3-point attempts.