GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Rueben Chinyelu scored a career-high 21 points, Alex Condon flirted with a triple-double and No. 1 Florida overwhelmed Jacksonville 88-57 to win their 36th consecutive home opener Thursday night.
Condon finished with 12 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists for the Gators (2-0), who had five players score in double figures.
Thomas Haugh chipped in 14 points, and Denzel Aberdeen and Urban Klavzar added 12 apiece for the home team.
Florida dominated on the boards, outrebounding the Dolphins (1-1) by 27. Chinyelu had eight rebounds, and Haugh added seven.
NO. 2 DUKE113, COASTAL CAROLINA 52
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Patrick Ngongba II had a career-high 28 points to go with nine rebounds, and Duke scored the game’s first 16 points on the way to beating Coastal Carolina.
The 6-foot-11, 250-pound junior already had a new scoring high with 18 points while flirting with a double-double by halftime for the Blue Devils (2-0), who shot 61.3% on the night and made 11 of 22 3-pointers.
Duke led by 36 at halftime.
Ngongba’s previous career high was 17 points, reached twice last year. He beat that by throwing down a dunk off a drive-and-dish from Caleb Foster in the final seconds before the break.
Then he blew well past that mark early in the second half of this romp, first by burying a straightaway 3-pointer as the trailer on the break, then hitting another from the same spot on the next possession to push Duke’s lead to 66-20 and force a timeout by Coastal Carolina.
Ngongba finished 10 for 13 from the field with a plus-53 rating.
Foster and John Blackwell each added 15
NO. 3 ILLINOIS 112, PENN 70
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Andrej Stojavovic scored 25 points and Quentin Coleman had 19, including 15 in the second half, to lead Illinois to a victory over Penn.
Zavier Zens had 18 points, Ethan Brown had 13 points and 10 rebounds, Lincoln Williams had 12 points and nine rebounds in his collegiate debut and Stefan Vaaks tossed in 11 points for the Illini (2-0), who shot 59% from the field (43 of 73) and outrebounded Penn 62-33.
Illinois also scored in triple figures in its opener, beating Fairleigh Dickinson 120-45 on Monday.
Michael Zanoni scored 16 points for Penn (0-1) and Lucas Lueth had 14 points and three blocked shots.
Illinois led 53-30 at halftime. Stojakovic scored 21 points in the first half and Illinois outscored Penn 30-8 over the last 10:22 to break open a tight game.
The Illini played without returning starters David Mirkovic, an AP preseason All-American, and Jake Davis. Each is out indefinitely.
NO. 6 MICHIGAN ST. 91, TOLEDO 61
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — points for Duke, which finished with a 53-27 edge on the glass and scored 52 points in the paint. The Blue Devils cracked the 100-point mark on a corner 3 from freshman forward Cameron Williams with 5:48 left.
NO. 7 TEXAS 98, GARDNER-WEBB 50
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Matas Vokietaitis scored 16 points, and Texas rolled to a rout of Gardner-Webb.
Vokietaitis, a junior celebrating his 22nd birthday, shot 6 for 8 from the field and had seven rebounds in 20 minutes. The 7-foot Vokietaitis has converted 15 of 17 shots in two games.
Texas (2-0) outscored Gardner-Webb 54-10 in the paint.
Gardner-Webb (0-2) went 12 minutes spanning the first and second half without a field goal. Texas outscored the Runnin’ Bulldogs 33-2 during that stretch.
Isaiah Johnson, a sophomore who transferred to Texas from Colorado, scored 15 points. Freshmen Marcus Spears Jr. and Joe Sterling each had 13.
Another freshman, Austin Goosby, scored 11 points and accounted for five of the Longhorns’ 13 steals. Sterling had three 3-pointers after making four in the season-opener against Chicago State on Monday.
NO. 24 VANDERBILT 74, WAKE FOREST 51
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tyler Tanner had 17 points and 10 rebounds and Vanderbilt beat Wake Forest 74-51 to extend the nation’s longest active nonconference winning streak to 21 games.
Ace Glass III added 16 points for Vanderbilt (2-0). Anthony Brown Jr. scored 14 points and Chandler Bing had 13.
Kevair Kennedy led Wake Forest (1-1) with 20 points.
Tanner made a driving layup to push the lead at 65-47 with 3:43 left.
The game was the second in a home-and-home series, with Vanderbilt winning the first one 98-27 at Wake Forest.
