Bowl roundup: Arizona wins Las Vegas Bowl

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Willie Tuitama threw for 322 yards and two touchdowns Saturday night and Arizona won its first bowl game in 10 years, 31-21 over No. 17 BYU in the Las Vegas Bowl.

The Wildcats stifled BYU quarterback Max Hall throughout the game, forcing him to scramble often, lose a fumble and throw an interception.

Arizona fans trickled onto the field as the last minute ticked off the game clock, then sprinted to midfield in celebration of the school’s first bowl win since 1998, when it finished 12-1 and beat Nebraska in the Holiday Bowl.

New Mexico Bowl Colorado State 40, Fresno State 35

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Gartrell Johnson rushed for a career-high 285 yards and scored two touchdowns.

Johnson sealed Colorado State’s first bowl victory since 2001 on a 77-yard touchdown with 1:46 remaining, igniting a celebration by fans who made the 7-hour drive from Fort Collins, Colo.

Johnson added 90 yards receiving for 375 total yards.

Johnson set a Football Bowl Subdivision record for the most combined yards rushing and receiving in a postseason game. His yards rushing were the second-most ever in a bowl, trailing only a 307-yard effort by P.J. Daniels of Georgia Tech at the 2004 Humanitarian Bowl. It was also the second-best rushing performance in school history.

St. Petersburg Bowl South Florida 41, Memphis 14

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Matt Grothe moved ahead of West Virginia’s Pat White as the Big East’s career total offense leader, throwing for 236 yards and three touchdowns.

Grothe and White, a senior who will finish his season in the Meineke Bowl on Dec. 27, are the only players in league history to amass more than 10,000 yards total offense. White has 10,142 in 49 games, and Grothe, who also rushed for 82 yards on 15 carries Saturday, finished the night with 10,214 in 39 games.

USF (8-5) scored on four of its first five possessions to build a 24-14 halftime lead, forcing Memphis (6-7) to play catch-up and essentially taking 1,000-yard rusher Curtis Steele out of the Tigers’ game plan.

EagleBank Bowl Wake Forest 29, Navy 19

WASHINGTON — Riley Skinner found a perfect way to obliterate the miserable memory of his painful performance against Navy earlier this season.

Skinner went 11-for-11 and threw the go-ahead touchdown pass to Ben Wooster with 7:52 left, leading Wake Forest to a comeback victory in the inaugural EagleBank Bowl to open the bowl season.

The previous school record for accuracy was a 12-for-14 effort by Mike McGlamry in 1975. Skinner added a completion on a conversion attempt.

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