NIT Capsules

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PITTSBURGH -- Kethan Savage scored 17 points and Patricio Garino had 14 to lead George Washington to a 60-54 win over Pittsburgh in the first round of the NIT Tuesday.

GW (22-12) advances to face the winner of Temple and Bucknell.

Cameron Wright had 11 points for Pittsburgh (19-15) and Jamel Artis added 10. The Panthers ended their season on a five-game losing streak.

GW extended its lead to nine points out of the half before Pitt tied the game at 36. The Colonials scored eight unanswered points to go back up 44-36.

Pitt got within 55-53 with 1:07 left, but Savage answered with a basket and Joe McDonald made two free throws for a 59-53 lead with 20 seconds left.

MiAMI 75, N.C. CENTRAL 71

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Manu Lecomte made 10 of 11 free throws and scored 18 points, Sheldon McClellan added 15 and Miami moved into the second round of the NIT by holding off North Carolina Central.

Tonye Jekiri scored 11 points and Deandre Burnett had 10 for Miami (22-12), who saw a 14-point lead with 6:43 left cut to two on three occasions in the final seconds.

Lecomte, McClellan and Davon Reed all made a pair of free throws in the last half-minute and Miami -- which felt it earned an NCAA Tournament berth after going 11-9 in Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season and tournament games -- finished 23 of 25 from the line.

Jordan Parks scored 23 of his 25 points in the second half for N.C. Central (25-8). Nimrod Hilliard scored 19 and Karamo Jawara finished with 10 for the Eagles.

LOUISIANA TECH 89, CENTRAL MICHIGAN 79

RUSTON, La. -- Raheem Appleby scored 22 points and Jacobi Boykins added 18 and Louisiana Tech beat Central Michigan.

Appleby led Louisiana Tech (26-8) to its third consecutive NIT opening round win. The senior trio of Appleby, Michale Kyser and Kenneth Smith won their 100th game, the most of any senior class in school history.

Central Michigan (23-9), which has never won a game in the NIT, made its first postseason appearance since 2003. The Chippewas made 6 of 23 3-pointers (43.8 percent) after averaging 10.2 per game.

Louisiana Tech won its 30th straight game at home in front of the school's eighth-largest all-time crowd of 6,904.

Central Michigan was led by Chris Fowler's 21 points while Braylon Rayson added 20 and Rayshawn Simmons had 18.

RHODE ISLAND 88, IONA 75

KINGSTON, R.I. -- E.C. Matthews and Jared Terrell each scored 18 points and Rhode Island beat Iona.

Biggie Minnis had 13 points for the Rams (23-9) while T.J. Buchanan and Jarvis Garrett each scored 10. Garrett had 10 assists, and Hassan Martin and Earl Watson grabbed 11 rebounds apiece.

A.J. English led Iona (26-9) with 28 points and David Laury added 26. The Gaels automatically qualified for the NIT after winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season title.

URI led by as many as 17 points in the first half and held a 51-39 advantage at the break.

The Rams will face the winner of UC Davis-Stanford.

The game was played under two experimental rules; a 30-second shot clock to create more offense and an expanded restricted area for the purpose of curbing collisions near the rim.

TULSA 70, WILLIAM & MARY 67

TULSA, Okla. -- Marquel Curtis scored a career-high 21 points and Tulsa held off William & Mary.

Tulsa squandered most of a 21-point second-half lead before holding on.

Curtis made a 3-pointer with 1:20 to play to give Tulsa a 69-63 lead. Terry Tarpey missed a potential game-tying 3-pointer at the buzzer.

The Hurricane (23-10) will play the winner of Murray State and UTEP.

James Woodard had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Rashad Smith added 13 points and eight rebounds for Tulsa, which scored the first 10 points of the second half and led 57-36 with 13:01 left.

Marcus Thornton, the Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year, led the William & Mary (20-13) comeback and finished with 23 points. Omar Prewitt had 15 points and 11 rebounds and Tarpey added 14 points for the Tribe.

MURRAY STATE 81, UTEP 66

MURRAY, Ky. -- Jarvis Williams had 25 points and 14 rebounds and Murray State beat Texas-El Paso.

Murray State (28-5), excluded from the 68-team NCAA Tournament field after losing in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament championship, made its eighth appearance in the NIT -- its first since 2011.

T.J. Sapp added 21 points for Murray State and Jonathan Fairell grabbed 10 rebounds. Cameron Payne neared a triple-double with 14 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds as the Racers won their 15th game in a row at home.

C.J. Cooper led UTEP with 16 points.

TEXAS A&M 81, MONTANA 64

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Jalen Jones scored 25 points and Texas A&M weathered a second-half push by Montana and ran away with a victory.

The Aggies (21-11) led by as many as 18 points in the first half, but went into the break up just 38-35. Jones and Jordan Green combined on a 14-5 A&M run midway through the second half that allowed the Aggies pull away.

Green added 15 points for A&M, Alex Robinson had 15 points with eight assists and Peyton Allen added 12 points. A&M shot 58 percent from the field and scored 44 of its points in the paint.

Jordan Gregory led Montana (20-13) with 20 points and seven rebounds.

A&M will host Louisiana Tech in the second round of the NIT.

ALABAMA 79, ILLINOIS 58

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Levi Randolph had 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists to help Alabama beat Illinois.

Alabama (19-14) played its first game without head coach Anthony Grant, who was fired Sunday afternoon and replaced by interim coach John Brannen.

Alabama shot 59.6 percent from the field overall, including 8 of 15 from 3-point range. Rodney Cooper added 19 points.

Malcolm Hill led Illinois (19-14) with 22 points and six assists. The Fighting Illini shot 32.3 percent from the field, including just 7 of 24 from beyond the arc.

Alabama trailed for only 13 seconds in the game, falling behind 4-3 early in the first half.

The Crimson Tide will face Miami in the second round.

Copyright 2015 by The Associated Press

This story is from ESPN.com's automated news wire. Wire index

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