PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Damian Lillard had 31 points and 11 assists, leading the Portland Trail Blazers past the Houston Rockets 117-107 Thursday night. Jusuf Nurkic had a team-high 11 rebounds to go along with 19 points for the Trail Blazers, who have a season-high five-game winning streak and a 1 ½-game lead over the Denver Nuggets for the eighth seed in the Western Conference.
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Mark Few, who led Gonzaga to a 36-1 record, is The Associated Press’ Coach of the Year. Few has taken the Zags to the NCAA Tournament in all 18 of his seasons there. He was a runaway winner Thursday receiving 31 votes from the same 65-member media panel that selects the weekly Top 25.
DALLAS (AP) — Kelsey Plum of Washington is The Associated Press’ women’s college basketball Player of the Year. The 5-foot-7 star received 30 votes Thursday from a 33-member national media panel that selects the weekly Top 25. Balloting was done before the NCAA Tournament.
POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) — Idaho State University says football coach Mike Kramer has retired and a former assistant will take over head coaching duties. The school on Thursday said Kramer’s retirement goes into effect immediately and that Rob Phenicie is the new head coach. The Bengals went 18-50 under Kramer with the team’s best year in 2014 when it went 8-4 and nearly made the FCS playoffs. Kramer previously coached at Eastern Washington and Montana State.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.
