Hepburn scores 19, Wisconsin tops Penn State 79-74 in OT Vandy stuns No. 6 Tennessee on Lawrence’s buzzer-beating 3 UConn women lose 2nd straight game for 1st time since 1993 Gardner, Beekman lift No. 8 Virginia past No. 22 N.C. State Michigan St. rallies to win after giving up lead to Maryland Arkansas pulls away from Kentucky in 2nd half, wins 88-73

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pennsylvania. Chucky Hepburn scored 19 and Connor Essegian added 18 for a total of nine of Wisconsin’s 11 3-pointers in a 79-74 overtime win over Penn State on Wednesday night.

After a Max Clesmith layup, Wisconsin took a 76–72 lead with 44 seconds left in overtime, Penn State’s Camren Winter missed a 3-pointer and the Badgers closed out the win at the free throw line.

Hepburn hit 5 of 9 3s and Essegian hit 4 of 7 for the Badgers, who were 11 of 24 from 3-point range. Tyler Wahl had 16 points, eight assists and six rebounds for Wisconsin (14-9, 6-7 Big Ten), while Stephen Crawl added 11 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Jalen Pickett, who was named one of the 10 finalists for the Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year award earlier this week, had 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for Pennsylvania (14-10, 5-8). Seth Lundy added 14 points, nine rebounds and three steals for 4 of 8 3-pointers. Camren Winter scored 15 points and Andrew Funk 10.

With 59 seconds left in regulation and a tie of 65, Essegian forced Winter to retire. Wisconsin called a timeout with 44 seconds left and Hepburn hit a three-pointer. Lundy hit a tied 3-pointer with 23 seconds left and Wisconsin played for the last shot but didn’t score.

After beating Penn State for the fifth consecutive time, Wisconsin won the season series and gave the Nittany Lions their second home loss in 13 games. Wisconsin has lost seven of the previous nine games.

Wisconsin plays in Nebraska on Saturday, the same day that Penn State plays in Maryland.

NASHVILLE, Tennessee. The Vanderbilt commodores and their coach Jerry Stackhouse finally got the thrill of a big upset in the Southeastern Conference’s oldest gym.

The Commodores had been struggling with crowd dwindling for so long that the old Memorial Gy magic seemed to be gone.

Not Wednesday night.

Tyreen Lawrence hit a three-pointer from the right corner at the buzzer signal as the Commodores recorded an 11-game drift against their in-state rival, upsetting sixth-place Tennessee 66–65 on Wednesday night.

Stackhouse called Lawrence’s biggest shot of his career and possibly his favorite, spanning both his NBA playing and coaching careers.

“We’ve finally experienced this, the Memorial Magic we’ve been looking for,” Stackhouse said. “Incredible game, incredible effort. Guys never give up. It didn’t look great for a minute, but we just kept fighting.”

Students rushed to the court and joined the Commodores, who easily celebrated the program’s biggest win in almost 11 years. The Commodores (12-12, 5-6) then celebrated by running across the court, clapping high-five.

Tennessee (19-5, 8-2) had every chance to complete the win after 15-foot jumper Olivier Ncamhua with 50 seconds left put the Vols ahead 65-63. Liam Robbins missed a round jumper in 27 seconds for Vanderbilt and Zakai Ziegler caught the rebound.

Vols freshman Julian Phillips had a chance to dunk in the final seconds but continued to dribble to provoke another Vanderbilt foul.

“I’m not sure what was going on in his head,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “I don’t think he will ever make that mistake again.”

Vanderbilt had to foul five times to finally send Santiago Vescovi to the line with 8 seconds left.

He missed on the first shot and Lawrence grabbed the rebound. Stackhouse took a timeout 4 seconds into the final game and Ezra Munjon drove up to the basket before passing out to Lawrence in the corner behind the winning bucket.

“It was great,” said Lawrence, who was benched by Stackhouse after an ugly loss to No. 4 Alabama last week. “This is what we dream about as kids, just counting 3, 2, 1 in the backyard. I’m glad I was able to win the game.”

Lawrence finished with a team-best 19 points. Robbins added 14 and nine rebounds, while Jordan Wright added 12.

Vescovy and Tyrek Key each had 14 points to lead Tennessee. Olivier Nkamhua and Julian Phillips added 10 points each.

Tennessee led 34-32 at halftime, providing a thrilling finish to a game that featured 15 tie-breaks and nine ties.

BIG PICTURE

Tennessee was shooting over 55% before facing the kind of scoring drought that usually follows the Vols in their losses. The Vols went 4:27 without a bucket and Vandi scored six in a row to stay close. The nation’s best three-point defense, which contained 21.9% of the opposition’s shots from outside the arc, also lost a season-high 10 three-pointers, with Lawrence winning the game last.

Vanderbilt has improved to 100-259 all-time against top 25 opponents and the Commodores have improved to 2-3 this season. They are now 4-16 against rated opponents under Stackhouse. … Lawrence’s game-winning shot was Wandy’s first shot after the 3:44 mark.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE SURVEY

The road is turning into a tough challenge for the Volunteers with a second consecutive loss away from home, and it won’t help them stay in the Top 10.

IS IT READ?

Stackhouse used the game Duane Casey used when Coach Wendy worked with him in the NBA in Toronto. Stackhouse added a few wrinkles as Manjon rode to the basket, where Vols collapsed on top of him before passing the backline pass to Lawrence.

While everyone was celebrating the throw, Stackhouse asked the secretary if it counted. They did not know.

“Then[official]Tony Green came up and said everything was fine. “We’re going to look at it, but it was good.” I can’t contain myself. I hugged Tony Green,” Stackhouse said with a big smile.

NEXT

Tennessee hosts Missouri on Saturday night.

Vanderbilt visits Florida.

Milwaukee. UC Connecticut coach Geno Oriemma sensed from the start that something was wrong with his team.

By the time the evening was over, the Huskies were already looking at their first losing streak in three decades, ending one of the most outstanding achievements in college basketball history.

Chloe Marotta scored 19 points and Jordan King added 18 when Marquette defeated UConn 59-52 on Wednesday. The Huskies, who played three nights after an 81–77 home loss to No. 1 South Carolina, lost consecutive games for the first time since March 1993.

“When people read these statistics and look back, they are fabulous statistics,” Auriemma said. “And all fairy tales – they do not always come true – but everything has an end. So it ended here in Marquette.

Marquette (16-8, 9-6 Big East) beat UConn (21-4, 13-1) for the first time in 17 meetings.

Last season, the Golden Eagles led Connecticut early in the fourth quarter at home before receding ground to lose 72–58.

This time, the Golden Eagles closed the deal, keeping the Huskies at their lowest level of the season.

“We had a fight and we had a media timeout in the fourth quarter and I thought, ‘We were here last year. I don’t watch a movie about how we lost in the last five minutes,” King said. “You have to put together 40 minutes of basketball. As for us, I felt like we did it.”

Marquette coach Megan Duffy, who played with Notre Dame from 2002 to 2006, became only the third person ever to beat Auriemma’s UC Connecticut team, both as a player and as a coach. The others are Don Staley from South Carolina and Denise Dillon from Villanova.

“In a way, I was speechless,” Duffy said. “The next emotion is I’m just incredibly proud of these women and what they did tonight – Marquette’s historic women’s basketball victory. We knew we were up against a buzz saw when Connecticut lost on Sunday.”

Dorka Juhas led UConn with 15 points. Aubrey Griffin and Lou Lopez Seneschal added 12 points each.

Missing eight of his first nine shots, Marquette made a 21-2 run in an eight-minute stretch, turning an 8-2 deficit into a 23-10 lead. The Golden Eagles never fell behind again, although UConn briefly equalized in the third quarter.

King began the shift in momentum, scoring 10 straight points, including a pair of 3-pointers.

“I think it just drained us completely and completely,” Auriemma said. “After the week we had – after 10 days, two weeks, whatever – we just, I think mentally, all of us… I think we just checked out. It was a big fight because they, their team, were so attached to what they wanted to do.”

UConn equalized at 31 on Alia Edwards’ basket with 6:10 left in the period. Marquette regained the lead 21 seconds after Marotta’s 3-pointer to go 39-38 into the final quarter.

Marquette gradually built up the lead in the last period and took the lead 51-44 thanks to Marotta’s jumper with 1:35 left. UConn made their final push, cutting the lead to 51-47 thanks to a three-pointer by Juhas with 1:20 left.

After Marquette initially struggled to receive the ball inbounds and was forced to call a timeout, the Golden Eagles beat the press and passed the ball to Emily La Chapelle for a layup with 1:15 left.

The series began with a score of 6:0, which made the game unattainable.

“I told them that in the locker room,” Auriemma said. “I don’t know if it was a leftover from Sunday, if it was something yesterday in training, something during the trip, but today there was something collective.”

BIG PICTURE

UConn: Even after the Huskies dug themselves such a deep hole in the first half, UConn had reason to believe he could end this game by dominating the fourth quarter like he did last season’s game at Marquette. That did not happen. Azzi Fudd, who scored 24 and caused a fourth-quarter surge in last season’s game at Marquette, has not played since hurting her right knee against Georgetown on January 15.

Marquette: The Golden Eagles are in the NCAA tournament bubble, so this game lived up to their postseason hopes. Marquette now has to make sure he doesn’t have any disappointments for the rest of the season.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE SURVEY

UConn moved up one spot in the poll after losing a close game…