Notable Results From Wednesday, December 7

Florida 78, Arizona 72 (Overtime)
Score one for the "don't foul up three with just a few seconds left" crowd, esoteric as their views might be. Up three with five seconds left, Florida's Casey Prather tried to foul Solomon Hill on the inbounds pass. Hill threw his arms up in the air, the official bought that he was shooting, and Hill calmly drained all three freebies to send it to the extra frame. Fortunately for Prather and Billy Donovan, the Gators prevailed.

Vanderbilt 87, Davidson 83
Festus Ezeli made his season debut with 15 points, six boards, and two blocks in 21 minutes. Jeffery Taylor dropped 30 to key the win.

Dayton 74, Alabama 62
The Flyers jumped out on the Crimson Tide early, then withstood a second-half rally to pull off the upset. Coming off of consecutive blowout losses to Buffalo and Murray State, a win over a ranked opponent is certainly something of a surprise.

American 74, Hampton 72
My alma mater wins its eighth straight, which is the longest win streak I can remember them going on in some time. Vanderbilt transfer Charles Hinkle has won Patriot League player of the week honors twice already this season, and is gunning for a third award this week with 24 points (including 5-of-9 from deep) against Hampton. The next lamb: St. Francis of Pennsylvania, which is supposed to the the worse of the St. Francis'. Though it should be noted that St. Francis of New York lost by 40 on Saturday at Wagner.

Nebraska 51, Florida Gulf Coast 50
The Huskers needed a late jumper from Dylan Talley to dispatch the 3-6 Eagles. Could be a long first "Big Ten" campaign in Lincoln.

Lafayette 61, Penn State 57
Circle January 11 on your calendars. That's when the Nittany Lions travel to Lincoln to play the Cornhuskers. Both squads are likely to be looking for their first conference win, and it could be a while (say, February 11, the return date at State College) before either squad gets another.

Princeton 59, Rutgers 57
The Tigers won on a layup by Ian Hummer with three seconds left. Doesn't sound like it was a backdoor play, though.

Wichita State 77, Tulsa 67
The Shockers follow up a thrashing of UNLV with an impressive road win over the Golden Hurricane.

Xavier 73, Butler 61
It seems like every time I watch Xavier, they fall asleep during some part of the game. Usually it's the beginning. At Hinkle Fieldhouse, they jumped out big, then let Butler back into it in the second half.

Iona 80, Denver 78 (Overtime)
Randy Dezouvre, averaging just 4.6 ppg this year, hit the game-winning jumper for the Gaels on the road.

And a couple random mid-major scores that I think are worth noting but have nothing to say about:

Ohio 84, Oakland 82

IPFW 85, Valparaiso 76