Men: Minnesota at Penn State

SATURDAY

Tipoff: 6:30 p.m., Jordan Center, University Park

Records: Minnesota (12-7, Big Ten 3-5); Penn State (9-10, Big Ten 3-5)

TV: Big Ten Network

Radio: WRKY-FM 104.9; WRAX-FM 106.5

Internet: SiriusXM Ch. 384 and 974

Notable: Penn State has not played since losing at Ohio State last Saturday. The Gophers started the year 12-3 but have since lost four in a row. … Penn State has beaten Minnesota three straight times. The Nittany Lions are 8-2 at home this year. … Dawson Garcia leads Minnesota in scoring at 17.3 ppg. Mike Mitchell, Jr., Joshua Ola-Joseph and Cam Christie all average a little over 10 points per-game. … Penn State leads the Big Ten in forcing turnovers at 15.84 per game. That ranks 15th nationally out of 350-plus Division I programs, too. The Nittany Lions are averaging 76.4 ppg. Minnesota owns Big Ten wins over Nebraska, Michigan and Maryland. … Kanye Clary and Ace Baldwin Jr. continue to lead the Lions in scoring.

Mirror prediction: Penn State 77-69.

Mirror prediction record: 13-6

— Scott Franco

Men: Pitt at Miami

SATURDAY

Tipoff: 2:15 p.m., Wetsco Center, Coral Gables, Fla.

Records: Pittsburgh (12-7, 3-5 ACC); Miami (13-6, 4-4 ACC)

TV: CW (Tom Werme and Mike Gminski)

Notable: Pitt has won three straight ACC road games – at Louisville, Duke and Georgia Tech. … Pitt and Miami are the top 3-point shooting teams in the ACC with each averaging 9.3 3-pointers per game. … Pitt’s Carlton Carrington is the only freshman in the nation averaging at least 13.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. … The Hurricanes are 9-2 at home, losing to Louisville and Florida State. … Jim Larranaga’s team is led by 6-foot-7 junior Norchad Omier (18.1 ppg., 9.7 rpg.), 6-7 junior Matthew Cleveland (14.8 ppg.), 6-5 junior Wooga Poplar (14.7 ppg.) and 6-0 junior Nigel Pack (14.1 ppg.) … Pitt won last year’s meeting in Pittsburgh, 71-68, but lost in Coral Gables, 78-76.

Mirror prediction: Miami, 76-73

Mirror prediction record: 14-5

— Buck Frank

Men: Merrimack at SFU

SATURDAY

Tipoff: 4 p.m. DeGol Arena, Loretto

Records: Saint Francis (7-13; 1-5 NEC); Merrimack (11-10, 5-2 NEC)

TV: ESPN-Plus (Paul Dottino, pxp; Joe DeSantis, color)

Live stats: Available at sidearmsports.com. Link on SFU’s schedule at sfuathletics.com

Notables: Merrimack comes into town winners of all three games played in Loretto and six of the seven in the series dating back to the 2019-20 season. … Local school-age students are invited to attend the game for free, and adults will receive a ticket at the $5 group rate. In addition, the team will be available to sign autographs after the game against Merrimack. … A SFU win would be the 100th-career Northeast Conference win for coach Rob Krimmel. … Freshman Carlos Lopez Jr. will celebrate his birthday Saturday. … The win versus Sacred Heart had two monumental moments. For the first time in program history Saint Francis started five freshman together. It is also believed to be the first time an NCAA Division I team started five freshmen together this year.

Mirror prediction: Merrimack 69, Saint Francis 66

Mirror prediction record: 13-7

— Dan Isenberg

Women: SFU at Merrimack

SATURDAY

Tipoff: 3 p.m., Hammel Court, North Andover, MA

Records: Saint Francis (3-17 overall, 2-5 Northeast Conference); Merrimack (6-14, 3-4)

TV: NEC Front Row

Internet: www.merrimackathletics.com

Notable: Merrimack leads the all-time series 5-3. … SFU’s Marina Artero pulled down 11 rebounds in the loss to Stonehill — the second Flash player to reach double figures. Merrimack is in a tie with the Skyhawks for fifth in the NEC, while the Red Flash are in the eighth spot. … Kaylee Thompson, who was unable to play in the non-conference portion of the schedule, is leading the Warriors with 15.9 points per game.

Mirror prediction: Merrimack 72, Saint Francis 57

Mirror prediction record: 16-4

— Nate Ritchey

Women: Maryland at PSU

SUNDAY

Tipoff: 1 p.m., Bryce Jordan Center, University Park

Records: Maryland (12-7, 4-4 in Big Ten); Penn State (14-5, 5-3 in Big Ten)

TV: Big Ten-plus

Radio: WRAX 106.5-FM

Notable: Makenna Marisa had 20 points against Northwestern, the most she has scored since returning from injury, and became the seventh Lady Lion to score 2,000 points in program history. … Ashley Owusu transferred from Virginia Tech but originally played for Maryland. … Penn State hasn’t beaten Maryland since 2003 and has lost 13 games in a row in the series since that year.

Mirror prediction: Penn State 72, Maryland 68

Mirror prediction record: 14-5

— Michael Boytim

Big night on offense for several stars

Luka Doncic and Devin Booker went on another NBA scoring spree on Friday night, making this a week like none other in league history.

Doncic broke his own Dallas franchise record by scoring 73 points — tying the fourth-most in NBA history — and Booker scored 62 for the Phoenix Suns in the second highest-scoring game of his career to add to a week of offensive explosions the likes of which the league has never seen.

Friday marked only the fifth time in NBA history — and amazingly, the second time this week — where two players scored at least 60 points, after Joel Embiid scored 70 for Philadelphia and Karl-Anthony Towns had 62 for Minnesota on Monday.

Before that, the most recent such occurrence of two 60-point games on the same day was on April 9, 1978, when David Thompson scored 73 and George Gervin scored 63. The NBA went nearly 46 years without another such day before Embiid and Towns pulled it off.

Doncic had a game topped by only Chamberlain and Kobe Bryant — Friday was the fourth anniversary of the Los Angeles Lakers great’s death — on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. Chamberlain scored 100 on March 2, 1962; Bryant scored 81 on Jan. 18, 2006; Chamberlain had 78 on Dec. 8, 1961.

And now, Doncic has joined their echelon, his 73 tying Thompson and Chamberlain (who did it twice) for fourth-most ever in an NBA game.

“It was beautiful,” Doncic said.

Doncic’s previous career best was 60 points. He made 25 of 33 shots in Dallas’ 148-143 win over Atlanta, plus went 15 of 16 from the foul line and 8 of 13 from 3-point range.

“Incredible performance,” Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said.

As if all that wasn’t enough, Doncic had 10 rebounds and seven assists. He became the fifth player in NBA history with at least 70 points and 10 rebounds in a game, joining Chamberlain (who did it six times), Elgin Baylor, David Robinson and Embiid — who did it Monday.

Add the assists in there, and nobody in NBA history had as many points, rebounds and assists in the same game as Doncic did on Friday.

“What he does on the court is different than anybody else,” Kidd said.

Booker, whose career high is 70 — also in a loss, coming at Boston in 2017 — made 22 of his 37 shots from the field, 12 of 13 from the line and 6 of 12 from 3-point range in the Suns’ 133-131 loss at Indiana. Booker missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer on Friday.

He has scored at least 59 points three times in his career and somehow, the Suns are 0-3 in those games.

The Associated Press

“He’s a spectacular player,” Suns coach Frank Vogel said. “I think he should have been voted to be an All-Star starter, personally. I think the whole world can see that. He’ll be in that game when the coaches vote (for the reserves). What a special performance.”

OTHER INSTANCES

Besides Monday (Embiid and Towns) and the April 1978 day (Thompson and Gervin, as they dueled on the final day for that season’s scoring title), there were just two other instances of two players scoring 60 or more on the same date.

One was Jan. 17, 1962, (Jerry West scored 63 for the Lakers, Chamberlain scored 62 for the Philadelphia Warriors) and the other was Dec. 8, 1961 (Chamberlain had 78 for the Warriors and Elgin Baylor had 63 for the Lakers in a triple-overtime game against each other).

SCORING SPREE

There have been five instances of a player scoring at least 62 points in the NBA this season: the four this week with Embiid, Towns, Doncic and Booker, plus a 64-point night from Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo on Dec. 13 against Indiana.

There haven’t been so many 62-point games in the same season since 1962-63, when there were six — all by Chamberlain. The only other season with more 62-point outings was 1961-62, when there were 12 (10 by Chamberlain, one by West, one by Baylor).

Leaguewide, NBA teams are averaging about 116 points per game this season — the highest rate in the league since the 1969-70 season.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA