LA Lakers
fromwww.aljazeera.com
12 hours agoLeBron, Lakers shock Rockets with Game 1 win in NBA playoffs
LA Lakers defeat Houston 107-98 in playoff opener despite missing key players Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves.
For the first time ever, the St. John's Red Storm are back-to-back Big East champions after defeating UConn in a wire-to-wire 72-52 win in the conference title game on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden. When these teams last met, the Huskies handed the Johnnies a humbling 32-point loss, snapping the team's 13-game winning streak and leaving them eager for redemption.
For a few hours on Saturday, there was a legitimate debate. Florida was comfortably headed toward the final 1-seed entering Champ Week. The Gators won 11 straight games to end the regular season, while UConn lost at a sub-.500 Marquette in the regular-season finale and Houston lost three in a row late in February.
Oscar Cluff scored 21 points, Trey Kaufman-Renn had 20 and No. 18 Purdue topped No. 3 Michigan 80-72 on Sunday for the Big Ten tournament championship. Braden Smith had 14 points, 11 assists and three steals as Purdue (27-8) added to an impressive turnaround after closing the regular season with four losses in six games.
Louisiana Tech enters this game following a 72-43 win over Delaware. The Lady Techsters' leading scorer was Paris Bradley, who ended the game with 25 points. Liberty is coming into this game having beat Sam Houston 89-57 in their last outing. Ify Nwaobi led the team with 22 points and seven rebounds.
Bediako played two seasons at Alabama in 2021-22 and 2022-23 before leaving early for the NBA draft. He went undrafted and never played in an NBA game, spending the last three seasons playing for three different G League teams, suiting up as recently as last weekend for the Motor City Cruise. He sued the NCAA for immediate reinstatement after the organization denied Alabama's appeal for his return.
Texas A&M-CC averages 72.9 points per game (261st in college basketball) while allowing 68.2 per contest (42nd in college basketball). It has a +148 scoring differential overall and outscores opponents by 4.7 points per game.
Georgia State's -159 scoring differential (outscored by 5.3 points per game) is a result of scoring 69.3 points per game (121st in college basketball) while allowing 74.6 per outing (342nd in college basketball). The Panthers score 5.0 fewer points than the Ragin' Cajuns give up (74.3).