College Basketball

Last Night in College Basketball: Well That Won't Help Gonzaga's Rankings

Published Dec. 31, 2025 11:58 a.m. ET

Men's college basketball, women's college basketball – there's no shortage of college ball, every night.

Don't worry, we're here to help you figure out what you missed but shouldn't have. Here are all the best moments from last night in college basketball.

Gonzaga nearly loses to San Diego

As noted in Tuesday’s weekly NET rankings check-in here at FOX Sports, Gonzaga made a push from fifth to second, leapfrogging some real good basketball teams in the process due to the quality of competition it’s faced and how well the Bulldogs have handled it. They did not wait an entire day to try to invalidate that observation. Thanks a lot, you guys.

Gonzaga defeated San Diego, 99-93, in West Coast Conference play. This is notable because Gonzaga came into the game ranked second in NET — the NCAA Evaluation Tool — No. 7 in the poll and fifth in FOX Sports college basketball analyst Casey Jacobsen’s latest rankings. Which is to say that, uniformly speaking, Gonzaga is considered one of the very best teams in the country. San Diego, conversely… is not. NET had them pegged as the 212th team in the rankings, out of 365. It was 6-7, with three of those losses coming in bottom-tier Quad 4 matchups. This was an opportunity for a blowout by Gonzaga that further cemented just how good they were.

Instead, San Diego outplayed Gonzaga in the second half, and nearly pulled off a massive upset because of it. The Bulldogs looked right in the first half, going up 48-37, and even with senior forward Graham Ike limited to 23 minutes due to foul trouble, Gonzaga was ahead 83-62 with 7:21 remaining. That’s when San Diego made their push, however.

San Diego freshman forward D’Arrae Goodwin hit a 3-pointer off the bench, then followed that up with a pair of free throws about 30 seconds later. He would then make another three with 4:44 left, and then a pair of layups in the following minute-and-a-half, to bring the score to 88-80. Goodwin played just 11 minutes, and he scored 15 points in that time, with 9 of those coming in about a four-minute stretch to put San Diego right back in this game.

Gonzaga would take the game back over after Goodwin subbed out, pushing the score to 98-82 with 1:10 left in regulation, but San Diego was not done yet. Senior guard Adrian McIntyre made a layup and assisted on a three by fellow senior guard Juanse Gorosito in the course of 17 seconds, then assisted on another three, this time by senior guard Dominique Ford, with 21 seconds to go to bring the score to 98-91.

The Bulldogs kept things together from this point forward, but what happened to their defense there in these final seven minutes? San Diego outscored Gonzaga 56-51 in the second half, and in a way that made it feel like if there had been more time then the end result would have been different.

There wasn’t more time, though, and Gonzaga did pick up the W. Still, NET already pushed them back to fifth after their brief run near the top, and we’ll see how Jacobsen and the poll voters feel about this performance by the defense come next week.

A 36-point night for Tuesday’s leader

Toledo’s freshman guard Leroy Blyden had scored 20 points in three different games this year, both setting and matching his career-high to this point. He has a new one that is going to be much more difficult to match now, following Tuesday’s victory against Western Michigan in MAC action. Blyden scored 36 points and picked up 5 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 steal in the Rockets’ 84-79 win to kick off conference play.

Now, Blyden was just 3-for-10 from 3-point range, but he did sink 9-of-11 free throws and was 9-of-13 from two. His team needed him to take those big swings even if the three wasn’t falling, as the bench provided very little — 3 points in 46 combined minutes — leaving all the scoring to the starters. Toledo’s starters were up to the task, though, as, outside of junior center Austin Parks and his 2 points, two of them scored 14 and another 15 to support Blyden’s career-best effort.

The Rockets were down by 16 points and wrapped the first half down 9, but erupted for 52 points in the second and scored 84 total despite an abysmal 4-for-25 overall from beyond the arc — Blyden might have been iffy from deep, but his 30% shooting there on Tuesday made him look like Steph Curry compared to the 1-for-15 the rest of the Rockets put up.

Just like they drew it up

A missed shot can be just as good as an intentional assist sometimes. Like for Boise State’s Spencer Ahrens.

The 6-foot-10 freshman forward scored a career-best 12 points against New Mexico on Tuesday, and those ones right there were the loudest of them.

East Carolina upsets UAB in overtime

Tuesday marked the start of conference play for East Carolina, and it was a memorable one. Down 43-33 at the half to UAB, the Pirates exploded for 32 points in the third quarter alone to go up 65-54 against the Blazers. That level of play wouldn’t last, however: UAB stormed back in the fourth to even the game up at 78 all, courtesy a layup with 32 seconds remaining from senior forward Molly Moffitt.

Overtime was a thrilling affair, with neither side fully taking control. UAB struck first with a pair of free throws from freshman guard Sofia Munoz, who would finish with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists on the day. Sophomore guard Eelecia Carter would add a pair of free throws, too — she scored all of her 9 points from the line, as she went 0-for-8 from the field — and East Carolina would find itself in an 84-78 hole.

Then, the threes started raining. Senior guard Savannah Brooks (13/4/5) nailed one to narrow the gap, then sophomore guard Taylor Barner (19/5/3 in 34 minutes off the bench) brought East Carolina within a point, 86-85. Finally, with just five seconds to go, senior forward Keeana Rembert hit the game-winner.

Rembert finished with a game-high 27 points and a team-high 11 rebounds — on the other side, Monae Duffy had 22 and 19 to keep UAB in it both in regulation and in OT. It wasn’t enough, though, and East Carolina would pull off the dub over a team that began the day 48 spots ahead of them in the NET rankings.

Now that’s how you rebound

Seton Hall’s Stephon Payne did not discriminate on Tuesday when it came to crashing the boards. To go with his 14 points and 3 blocks, the senior forward pulled down 22 rebounds, successfully grabbing 11 each on both the offensive and defensive sides. That was obviously a significant assist for the Pirates over Big East conference opponents Marquette, but it also helped Payne’s 14 points end up as the team-high, as did all that time underneath: Payne went to the line 12 times and sank 8 free throws.

The result was in question very late, with Marquette actually ahead 73-72 with under 1:30 remaining in the game. Junior guard Tajuan Simpkins intercepted a pass with 1:23 left, though, and then converted that into points and the lead: Seton Hall would not relinquish it again.

The Pirates would win, 79-73, which improved them to 2-1 in conference play. Marquette, meanwhile, is now 0-3 against Big East teams, as they were done in not just by Payne, but by a strong performance from the Seton Hall bench: in 68 combined minutes, the Pirates’ bench scored 33 points with 6 rebounds, 5 assists 2 steals and 3 blocks.

Dimes, dimes, dimes

Portland couldn’t defeat Santa Clara on Tuesday, falling to them in West Coast Conference play, 92-85. You can’t point a finger at Joel Foxwell for the loss, though, as he did just about everything you can do to make scoring happen for the Pilots. The freshman guard from Australia not only scored 20 points in his 38 minutes with a couple of rebounds and 3 steals, but he logged 15 assists. The final count? Seven buckets of his own — five of the three-point variety — plus a stack of 15 dimes from his teammates’ scores.

Those 15 assists were the most anyone managed across Division I ball on Tuesday, and tied both Foxwell’s career-best and program record as well — set just a couple of weeks back against Kent State — but even this performance still had Portland coming up short. It’s now 0-2 in WCC play, while the Broncos are 2-0, and 11-4 on the season overall.

Creighton overcomes Butler thanks to scoring duo

Junior forward Jasen Green and sophomore guard Austin Swartz made for a hell of a Creighton tag team against Butler on Tuesday. The pair combined for 55 of the Bluejays’ 89 points, pushing Creighton to a win over Butler. It wasn’t "just" the combined 55 points, either: Green had 6 rebounds, 5 assists and a steal and block each, while Swartz went 5/3/1/1 in the same categories, while sinking 5 threes on 50% shooting.

Green was huge in the second half, especially, where he scored 15 points to help Creighton avoid a loss despite Butler’s late 11-3 run that narrowed the final score to the point it ended up at. This pair also didn’t go it alone: junior forward Isaac Traudt contributed 16 points, senior guard Josh Dix had 9 points and 7 boards and senior guard Nik Graves was huge off the bench, with 11 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists in 29 minutes.

Creighton is now 3-0 in Big East play, and while they have lost five games this season, four of those came in Quad 1 matchups: the Bluejays have played a seriously tough schedule at this point, the 33rd-most difficult of all men’s college basketball teams to this point. This is a good basketball team even if it isn’t ranked, and Butler is, too.

Rice wins bubble matchup

South Florida has been hanging around bubble territory in the NET rankings for much of the season, owing to a difficult schedule that has seen it lose to the likes of Fairfield, Minnesota and ranked teams like UCLA, Vanderbilt, South Carolina and UConn — it all added up to the 19th-toughest schedule in women’s Division I basketball, per NET. On Tuesday, the Bulls took on Rice, another school that’s been hanging around the bubble, but hasn’t had nearly the hard road to get there that South Florida has. It was an opportunity to put into practice what had been learned from such a difficult slate of opponents, but instead, Rice is the one that ended up victorious.

South Florida didn’t go down without a fight, however. Rice won the first half, 34-28, and South Florida was on top in the second, 40-36. A stronger second wasn’t strong enough, though, as it still kept them two points shy of forcing overtime, never mind winning outright.

Rice actually did fall behind late: a jumper from senior guard Katie Davidson put South Florida up, 66-64, with a mere 2:09 to go in the game, and senior forward Carla Brito made it 68-67 with a layup with 31 seconds remaining. Rice had plenty of time left, however, and out of a timeout fed the ball underneath to senior center Shelby Hayes, who sank a layup for the final lead change of the game.

The assist on that play? That came out of the hands of sophomore guard Aniah Alexis, who led all scorers with 19 points and, just over a minute earlier, had made herself invisible enough for a wide-open three to put Rice up 67-66.

Rice is now 11-3, and 1-0 in American Conference play following the dub over South Florida. It’s also the kind of win that could be the difference between selection and staying home in March, given the proximity to the bubble for these two teams.

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