BYU Ends Irvine’s Season

Travis Hansen scored 20 of his 23 points in the second half to lead Brigham Young to a 78-55 win over UC Irvine on Thursday night in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament at Provo, Utah.

BYU (18-11) broke the game open in the second half, scoring eight of the first 10 points to go ahead, 46-30. UC Irvine (21-11) had no answer for Hansen, who scored 12 of the Cougars’ first 14 points in the second half.

BYU trailed by as many as eight points in the first half, but outscored Irvine, 25-7, over the final 8:54 to take a 10-point lead at halftime. UC Irvine got as close as eight points in the second half, but BYU made a 12-3 run to open its biggest lead, 58-41, with 10:03 to play.

Adam Parada and Jordan Harris led the Anteaters with 13 points each. Jerry Green, UC Irvine’s leading scorer with an average of 20.6, was held to 12 points.

Mark Bigelow added 15 points for BYU, which stretched its nation-leading home-court winning streak to 36 games. The Cougars also have won 27 consecutive games at home against nonconference opponents. BYU will play Memphis in the second round.

In other first-round games:

Yale 67, Rutgers 65--Edwin Draughan scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half and stole a last-second pass at Piscataway, N.J., to give Yale its first postseason victory.

Yale (21-10) will face the winner of tonight’s game between Tennessee Tech and Dayton.

With Yale leading, 67-63, Ricky Shields made two free throws for Rutgers with 4.4 seconds left.

Paul Vitelli missed two foul shots for Yale with 3.7 seconds left. Herve Lamizana grabbed the rebound and after one dribble, threw an outlet pass into the hands of Draughan, who ran out the clock.

Butler 81, Bowling Green 69--Rylan Hainje scored 28 points to help Butler rally from a 14-point first-half deficit at Indianapolis. Butler (26-5) advanced to play at Syracuse on Monday.

Len Matela scored a career-high 31 points for Bowling Green (24-9), which made 13 of its first 17 shots to take a 33-19 lead.

The Bulldogs settled down and closed the half on 10-0 run to tie the score at 38 when Mike Monserez made a three-point basket with 2.8 seconds to go.

Villanova 84, Manhattan 69--Gary Buchanan had 17 of his 22 points in the second half as the Wildcats shook off a slow start to win at Villanova, Pa. Villanova (18-12) did not score for the first 7:10 and turned the ball over 14 times in the first half to trail, 33-27, at halftime before rallying.

Villanova will play the winner of tonight’s game between Louisiana Tech and Vanderbilt.

Luis Flores matched a career-high with 33 points for Manhattan (20-9).

Memphis 82, North Carolina Greensboro 62--Scooter McFadgon scored 21 points to lead five Memphis players in double figures as the Tigers (23-9) won at Memphis, Tenn. Greensboro (20-11) shot only 32% from the field.