Nov 12, 2018 4 min read

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Lamar Stevens and Rasir Bolton scored 25 points apiece and Penn State beat Jacksonville State 76-61 Monday night.

Stevens also grabbed nine rebounds and Josh Reaves chipped in 11 points for the Nittany Lions (2-0) who won their second straight inside the Bryce Jordan Center.

Jason Burnell scored 14 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Jacksonville State (0-2). Derrick Mostella added 17 and Christian Cunningham notched 10 for the Gamecocks.

A back-and-forth first half turned for good on Bolton’s second 3-pointer of the game. It gave the Nittany Lions the lead with 6:17 to play in the first half and Stevens helped them seize control with six points over the next 4:31.

After leading 37-32 at halftime, Penn State built 11-point leads twice before padding their total in the final minute. Stevens drew a foul en route to a layup then sank the free throw to put Penn State up 59-48 with 8:24 left. Reaves nailed a 3-pointer just over five minutes later to make it 66-55 with 3:18 to go.

No. 7 North Carolina 90, Stanford 72: Kenny Williams scored 12 points after starting the season by missing his first 10 shots, and No. 7 North Carolina dominated the first half to beat Stanford 90-72 in its home opener.

Cameron Johnson had 17 points to lead four players in double figures for the Tar Heels (3-0), who shot 60 percent in the first half to take a 52-26 lead on Luke Maye’s 3-pointer just before the buzzer.

Stanford (2-1) got no closer than 15 points after halftime.

It was a good sign for Williams, a senior starting guard whose 0-for-10 shooting start through two games included missing all eight of his 3-point tries. But he scored on a layup less than 90 seconds in Monday, then followed with 3 a few minutes later to finally break through.

KZ Okpala scored 16 points to lead the Cardinal.

Maryland 82, North carolina A&T 59: Bruno Fernando had 17 points and 12 rebounds to lead a balanced attack that carried Maryland past North Carolina A&T 82-59.

With Fernando dominating both ends of the court, Maryland (3-0) built a 49-25 halftime lead. The 6-foot-10 sophomore had 14 points, nine rebounds and two blocks in 15 minutes.

Duke new No. 1: Duke changed everything about who AP Top 25 voters considered to be the nation’s best team with a single dominating performance against a marquee opponent.

It also gave the Blue Devils yet another milestone under Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski: a record number of appearances at No. 1.

The Blue Devils jumped from fourth to first Monday in the first regular-season poll, leapfrogging Kansas at the top after a blowout win against then-No. 2 Kentucky last week. That allowed Duke to set a record with its 135th week at No. 1, breaking a tie with UCLA for the most top rankings in poll history.

The 34-point win against the Wildcats in the Champions Classic to open the season marked the program’s most lopsided win against a top-5 opponent. Duke was practically flawless behind star freshmen RJ Barrett, Zion Williamson and Cam Reddish, and that created a buzz about the team’s already lofty potential being somehow even higher than anyone anticipated.

Granted, it was one game. And Duke (2-0) didn’t look nearly so dazzling Sunday at home against Army . But that one performance caused a major voting shift, even with now-No. 2 Kansas earning a quality win of its own against then-No. 10 Michigan State in the first game of the Champions Classic.

Kansas was a solid preseason No. 1 by earning 37 of 65 first-place votes, followed by 19 for Kentucky and four for Duke. But Duke now has 48 first-place votes, claiming the top spot for all 19 voters who had Kentucky as preseason No. 1 while also causing 23 voters to switch from Kansas in the preseason Duke this week.

Duke also prompted switches from the lone voters who had Gonzaga and Villanova at No. 1 in the preseason.

The hype probably won’t slow anytime soon, either. The Blue Devils have everyone’s attention.

“Part of becoming good is keeping the noise out of your locker room,” Krzyzewski said after the Army win. “And when something good happens and you have the start of the season … there’s a lot of noise. And for us, it’s not always good noise, but in this case, it was exceptional noise. Exceptional noise.

“When you have four freshmen and we don’t have veterans, you have to be more mature about listening to that.”