New Mexico State suspends operations of men’s basketball team No. 18 UCLA women hand Oregon State 5th straight loss Sherrod helps No. 25 Colorado hold off Washington State 71-68 No. 7 Utah hits 16 3-pointers in 92-69 win over Washington Late goaltending call sends Butler past No. 13 Xavier 69-67 SEC fines Vanderbilt $250K for rushing court after upset of Tennessee

The state of New Mexico has indefinitely suspended its men’s basketball program in a virtually unheard of move that the university says is unrelated to a fatal shooting involving one of its players last year.

The school also placed freshman coach Greg Hayar and his staff on administrative leave for what it said was a violation of university policy and unrelated to the Nov. 19 shooting of a student from a rival New Mexico university. Aggie power forward Mike Peake was suspended in early December while an outside investigator investigates his involvement in the Albuquerque shooting.

Shutting down a Division I program mid-season for reasons other than a spate of injuries or more recently the COVID-19 outbreak is virtually unheard of. SMU’s football program canceled the 1988 season after being awarded the “death penalty” by the NCAA the year before, but the move was made before the season began.

New Mexico State’s game against California Baptist on Saturday was canceled and it’s unknown how many of the team’s remaining five games, all in the Western Athletic Conference, will also be wiped out.

The program has fluctuated since the night of the November 19 shooting. Shortly after the shooting, Hayar loaded the team onto a bus and left town, except for Peake and three players, who picked him up and took him to the hospital with leg injuries. Police stopped the bus on the way back to the school campus, three hours south of Las Cruces.

Peak was not charged with the shooting. The Albuquerque District Attorney is conducting a separate investigation.

The school said in a statement that Friday’s move was not related to the shooting and its aftermath. The board of trustees released a separate statement saying it supports “the actions taken by the university’s leadership and is confident that a full and thorough investigation will be carried out.”

Earlier, the Aggies canceled a game against the Lobos in Albuquerque that was scheduled the day after the shooting, as well as a rematch on December 3 in Las Cruces.

Since 2007, the Aggies have won seven WAC titles and performed in March Madness eight times. They are expected to move to Conference USA next year. But this year they’ve been battling for a 9-15 record, including 10 losses in their last 12 games, under Hayar, who took over from Chris Jens when he left for Mississippi. Jans went 122-32 for five seasons and took Aggie to three tournaments.

School leadership is also changing. The Board of Regents recently decided not to renew Chancellor Dan Arvizu’s contract, which expires in June. In the past 14 months, both the school president and the rector have resigned or been removed from their positions.

LOS ANGELES. Gabriela Jaques scored 14 points, Charisma Osbourne scored 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and UCLA’s No. 18 beat Oregon State 62-54 on Friday night, losing a fifth straight loss to the Beavers.

Oregon State led 51-46 with 7:13 left in the fourth quarter, but didn’t score a field goal the rest of the way.

UCLA capitalized on Oregon State’s two consecutive passes to lead Jaques’ two quick breaks during the 12-0 series to give the Bruins a 58-51 lead.

Emily Bessoir missed the second of two free throws with 33 seconds left, but Lina Sontag intercepted the offensive rebound before being fouled to go 1 of 2 to lead 60–54.

Kiki Rice and Sontag each had 11 points for UCLA (19-6, 8-5 Pac-12). The Bruins finished 3 of 27 from long range, with their first 3-pointer in 15 attempts, with 2:39 left in the third quarter to tie at 43–39.

UCLA had buzzers to finish the second and third quarters.

Bendu Yeni led Oregon State (11–13, 3–10) with 11 points. Thalia von Elhoffen, who averaged 14.5 points per game, scored four points on 1-of-9 shooting. Freshman Reagan Beers was helped off the floor with 1:50 left in the third quarter after a hard fall under the basket and finished with three points. in 17 minutes.

Oregon State started the second half at 12:2, opened and closed with 3s from Noel Mannen and Shalexsus Aaron to take a 41:33 lead.

BOULDER, Colorado. Jaylene Sherrod tied her career high with 27 points and Tyanna Jones hit a paint steal with two seconds left as Colorado’s No. 25 held off Washington State to finish the season 71-68.

Colorado lost their last two games to the Cougars at the CU Events Center, and Washington State entered the game with a program-record six-game road winning streak.

Buffalo were nine behind to start the fourth quarter, but Sherrod hit a basket, then knocked down 3 to start the series 14–3 and ended it with layups with 5:14 left to take a 57–55 lead. . Washington State responded with three-pointers from Asta Tukhina and Joanna Teder, and after Sherrod scored a layup goal, Jessica Clarke added a layup to take a 63–59 lead with 3:20 left. Two free throws from Quay Miller gave Colorado a 67–65 lead, but Teder hit again with a 3 to give the Cougars the lead with a minute left in the game. Sherrod ended the game with four straight free throws, including a pair after Miller stripped Clark of his paint.

Sherrod hit 10 of 12 from the field and was 6 of 7 from the line for Buffalo (19-5, 10-3 Pak-12). Frieda Foreman finished with 14 points, while Miller added 10 points, seven rebounds and three steals.

Charlise Leger-Walker scored 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Washington State (16-8, 6-7). Teder had 13 points and six assists, while Clarke finished with 12 points and six rebounds.

On Sunday, Colorado hosts Washington. Washington State will play No. 7 in Utah on Sunday.

SALT LAKE CITY — Gianna Nipkens hit five 3-pointers and scored 19 points to lead Utah’s No. 7 92-69 victory over Washington on Friday night.

Nipkens added six assists for the Utes team (21-2, 11-2 Pak-12), who shot 51% from the field and made 16 three-pointers overall. Alyssa Pealy finished with 17 points, while Lani White and Jenna Johnson added 11 points each.

El Ladin scored 18 points and was ahead of Washington. Haley Van Dyke and Darcy Reese both scored 10 points for the Huskies (13-10, 5-8), who made 44% of their field goals.

Utah stunned Washington with their long-range shooting in the first half. The Cliffs hit 10 of 14 from three-point range, interspersed with Issy Palmer’s buzzer from half court for the remainder of the half. Nipkens led the way, knocking down four outside baskets.

The Huskies struggled to match Yuta’s powerful attack. Washington tied it in 9-straight baskets from Van Dyke and Lauren Schwartz. Nipkens responded with 3 in a row to spur the Cliffs to an 8-0 win.

Utah opened the game after a 14-2 run in the second quarter. Knipkens and Kennedy McQueen finished with another 3-pointer. McQueen’s outside basket gave the Utes a 44–29 lead.

Utah took a 30-point lead at the end of the fourth quarter when Johnson made a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer to put the lead up 88-58.

BIG PICTURE

Washington: Getting stops turned out to be a chore for the Huskies. Washington fired the ball very early, but struggled to match Utah’s offensive efficiency.

Utah: Early game rebounds were the deciding factor for Utah. Utah beat Washington 32–25 and grabbed 14 offensive rebounds. Utes had six offensive shields in the first quarter alone, after the Huskies held four full rebounds.

NEXT

Washington: In Colorado on Sunday.

Utah: hosts Washington State on Sunday.

INDIANAPOLIS. Center butler Manny Bates set up the game-tying screen and then oversaw Eric Hunter Jr.’s game-winning shot on Friday night.

He figured the floor challenge would stand, and so would Bulldogs coach Tad Matta.

The night Jayden Taylor scored 20 and Bates added 19, it was Bates’ choice near midcourt, and the goaltender’s subsequent call-out after Hunter’s dunk attempt with 2.5 seconds to go ended Butler’s 69–67 win over No. Xavier for good. 13 and sent the disciples. flows onto the floor of Hinkle Fieldhouse.

“I had no doubt he would pull through,” Bates said, describing the anticipation of the replay review. “I just got the screen and wanted Eric to finish.”

Hometown fans have spent most of this season waiting for Butler to hit the knockout, and the players seemed to be feeding off the sold-out Hinkle Fieldhouse. The Bulldogs (13-13, 5-10 Big East) quickly pulled ahead in double figures, kept their balance lately and never fell behind, keeping the nation’s sixth-best-scoring team almost 17 points below average.

Colby Jones led Xavier with 17 points and eight rebounds, while Nange added 14 points and eight rebounds. But the Musketeers (19-6, 11-3) are now equal to Marquette at number 10 in the conference standings.

But it was the last stupid 30 seconds that caused everyone a storm of emotions.

Butler looked to seal his second straight two-point win this week when sixth-year senior Jack Nunge intercepted the ball with 23.4 seconds left to take a timeout that Xavier didn’t have. Taylor converted both free throws due to a technical foul, but the Bulldogs’ subsequent empty possession resulted in a three-pointer from Nange with 15 seconds left to make it 66–65.

Taylor responded by hitting 1 of 2 free throws and then mistakenly fouled Souley Boame near midcourt with 9.1 seconds left. Bome hit both free throws and tied the game at 67.

This forced Bates to release Hunter, who darted towards the open basket as Xavier’s two defenders converged and kicked the ball out of the basket. As the officials huddled together, Xavier’s trainer Sean Miller was puzzled.

“What I don’t understand is how, with 9.1 seconds left, we weren’t defensively ready,” Miller said. “All five of our defenders were at half court. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

When the officials finally called, Hinkle…