LSU suspends

punter Brad Wing

BATON ROUGE — LSU coach Les Miles says punter Brad Wing has been suspended for ninth-ranked LSU’s game against No. 14 Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Bowl for an unspecified violation of team rules.

The announcement of Wing’s suspension on Thursday means sophomore punter from Australia will be replaced in the lineup by freshman Jamie Keehn, who is also Australian.

Wing has averaged 44.8 yards on 59 punts for the Tigers this season.

Wing has been a Ray Guy Award semifinalist but is perhaps best known for scoring a long touchdown out of punt formation during the 2011 season, only to have the score nullified by his premature celebration before he’d crossed the goal line.

UAB overcomes

La-Monroe 76-69

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Rod Rucker had 22 points and nine rebounds to lead Alabama-Birmingham over Louisiana-Monroe 76-69 Thursday night.

Robert Williams and Preston Purifoy each scored 12 points, while Terence Jones and Jordan Swing added 11 apiece for UAB (6-6).

UAB outrebounded Louisiana-Monroe 38-34, grabbing 13 boards on the offensive end that led to 14 second-chance points. The Blazers dished out 18 assists, committing 12 turnovers, and made 16 of 20 free throws.

UAB led 37-31 at halftime and pushed its lead to as much as 15, at 64-49, in the second half on Purifoy’s layup.

Trent Mackey led Louisiana-Monroe (1-7) with 17 points and Kyle Koszuta came off the bench to score 15, but the Warhawks never got any closer than six in the second half after leading for the opening 10 minutes of the first half.

Nicholls State falls

to Utah State 79-72

LOGAN, Utah — Kyisean Reed and Jared Shaw each put up a double-double, Utah State shot nearly 56 percent from the field and barely managed to withstand a furious second-half run by Nicholls State to win 79-72 in the World Vision Challenge on Thursday night.

Reed scored 20 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked four shots. Shaw scored 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting and pulled 11 rebounds.

Utah State (7-1) led 54-33 after a dunk by Reed with 14:06 to play but that’s when the Colonels mounted a comeback, going on a 35-17 tear capped off by a Dantrell Thomas’ dunk to make it 71-68 with 2:21 remaining.

Thomas had 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Nicholls State (1-6) scored 17 points off 13 Aggie turnovers and shot an even 50 percent from the field in the second half, going 18 for 36.

T.J. Carpenter had 23 points to lead the Colonels and Fred Hunter had 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Tulane wins over Pepperdine 69-54

NEW ORLEANS — Jordan Callahan and Josh Davis combined for 49 points as Tulane rolled over Pepperdine 69-54 Thursday night in a nonconference contest.

Callahan scored 20 and Davis 19, with Davis connecting on 13 of 15 from the foul line and also pulling down seven rebounds. Ricky Tarrant added 13 points and six assists for the Green Wave (9-3).

From The Associated Press.