COLLEGE BASKETBALL NATIONAL ROUNDUP : Duke Holds Off Virginia, 68-62

Top-ranked Duke entered its Atlantic Coast Conference opener against Virginia having won its previous six games by an average of 27.6 points.

But as usual, Virginia gave the Blue Devils problems.

Duke needed seven points from Bobby Hurley in the final 27 seconds to hold off the Cavaliers, 68-62, Thursday night at Charlottesville, Va.

“It seems like they always get up for us . . .,” said Hurley, who scored 11 points as Duke made a season-low 43.6% of its shots. “This is a definite bummer, but at least we won, so we won’t have to go back and practice at two in the morning.”

Duke (7-0) had trouble getting good shots against the changing defenses of Virginia (4-5), which has lost three of its last four games.

Duke led, 57-50, with nine minutes left, but the Blue Devils missed 10 of their next 12 shots, allowing Virginia to pull to within 61-59 on a layup by Ted Jeffries at the 1:14 mark.

Hurley, who had missed his previous nine shots, made a three-point basket with 27 seconds left to make the score, 64-59.

Hurley then made two free throws to increase the lead to seven points.

After Cory Alexander made a three-point shot for Virginia with five seconds left, Hurley made two more free throws for the final margin.

Christian Laettner scored 17 points and had nine rebounds for Duke. Grant Hill added 16 points and Thomas Hill had 12 for the Blue Devils.

Bryant Stith scored 17 points for Virginia.

No. 3 Oklahoma State 85, Midwestern State 45--Byron Houston scored 27 points and had 11 rebounds as the Cowboys cruised at Stillwater, Okla.

Oklahoma State (12-0) overcame a 17-13 deficit six minutes into the game and had no problems thereafter.

Arthur Hurst scored 15 points for Midwestern State (10-3).

No. 5 Connecticut 85, Miami 62--Chris Smith scored 21 points for Connecticut as the Huskies welcomed the Hurricanes to the Big East Conference at Storrs, Conn.

Connecticut (9-0, 1-0) took leads of 10 points or more six times.

Jerome Scott scored 19 points for Miami (5-6, 0-1), which committed 27 turnovers.

No. 6 Arizona 82, New Orleans 64--Sean Rooks scored 24 points at Tucson to lead the Wildcats to their 69th consecutive home victory.

Arizona (8-1) took a 30-24 lead at halftime and increased it to 51-36 with 11:08 left .

“I felt it was a good win for our team,” said Rooks, who scored 18 points in the second half. “They were coming after us hard, but we picked it up in the second half.”

Louweegi Dyer scored 23 points for New Orleans (8-4). Ervin Johnson, the Privateers’ 6-11 standout, was held to two points.

Arizona Coach Lute Olson said their game Thursday night “was far and away their best effort combined.” He added that Ed Stokes (14 points, 11 rebounds) played his best game of the year.

No. 7 Ohio State 73, Penn State 63--The Buckeyes won at Columbus, Ohio, for the 25th consecutive time as Jim Jackson scored 23 points.

Alex Davis, Chris Jent and Jamaal Brown each scored 11 points for Ohio State (8-1).

DeRon Hayes scored 19 points for Penn State (8-3), which joins the Big Ten Conference next season.

No. 8 North Carolina 78, Purdue 50--Hubert Davis scored 20 points to lead the Tar Heels to victory at Chapel Hill, N.C.

Davis made seven of nine shots, including four three-point baskets for North Carolina (8-1), which forced 21 turnovers but also committed 21.

Matt Waddell scored 11 points for Purdue (7-4).

Pittsburgh 77, No. 10 Seton Hall 68--Freshman Jerry McCullough scored 21 points as the Panthers surged to a 14-point halftime lead, then held off the Pirates for the upset at Pittsburgh.

Pitt (8-4), the Big East’s worst free-throw shooting team at 56%, made 28 of 38 free throws.

Seton Hall (7-2) pulled to within 42-39 but never got any closer.

No. 15 Georgia Tech 82, Richmond 75--Georgia Tech held Richmond scoreless in two stretches totaling more than 11 minutes for the victory at Atlanta.

With 15:35 left, Georgia Tech (10-2) went on a 10-0 run, holding Richmond (7-4) scoreless for 5:55.

No. 16 Arkansas 123, Quincy 60--Todd Day, in his first game after a one-semester suspension, scored 26 points in 22 minutes to lead the Razorbacks (11-2) over Division II Quincy (8-4) at Pine Bluff, Ark.

Day, Arkansas’ leading scorer last year, sat out the first semester because of a sexual incident in the school’s athletic dorm and allegations of cheating on a test.

No. 17 Kentucky 91, Notre Dame 70--Richie Farmer scored 22 of his 28 points in the first half and Jamal Mashburn added 25 points to lead the Wildcats to victory at Lexington, Ky.

Notre Dame (1-5), playing for the first time in 21 days, took a 19-13 lead with 14:24 left in the first half before Kentucky (9-2) went on a 15-0 run.

Notre Dame was playing the third of nine consecutive road games. Daimon Sweet led the Irish with 23 points.

Jamal Mashburn scored 25 points and Sean Woods added 13 as Kentucky made 30 of 53 shots (57%).

No. 18 St. John’s 79, Villanova 69--Malik Sealy scored 26 points and Jason Buchanan scored 15 of his 16 points in the second half at Philadelphia as the Redmen held off a late rally for the victory in the Big East opener for both teams.

St. John’s (7-2) led, 37-34, with 14:40 left before scoring 18 consecutive points to take a 55-34 lead with 7:50 remaining.

Villanova (2-6) pulled to within 71-63 with 2:05 left, but Buchanan made two free throws to secure the victory for the Redmen.

No. 23 Syracuse 100, Boston College 90--Freshman Lawrence Moten made 10 of 12 shots and scored 26 points to lead the Orangemen (9-0) over the Eagles (8-2) in a Big East opener at Newton, Mass.

“I’d be a liar if I said I expected him to play like this,” Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said of Moten. “He’s probably the best freshman player I’ve ever seen. He’s the reason we’re 9-0. Without him, we’d probably be 6-3.”

Moten has scored in double figures in all nine games. He had 15 points in the first half Thursday when Syracuse raced to a 52-34 lead.

Dave Johnson added 26 points for Syracuse. Bill Curley scored 31 points for Boston College.

No. 24 Louisville 60, Houston 56--James Brewer made six free throws in the final 1:22 to help the Cardinals (7-1) secure the victory over the Cougars (9-2) at Louisville, Ky.

MIDWEST

Eric Piatkowski’s two free throws with 18 seconds left helped Nebraska (10-1) to a 57-52 victory over Toledo (3-5) at Toledo, Ohio. . . . Tony Bennett scored 29 points to lead Wisconsin Green Bay (7-1) to a 69-60 victory over Colorado (7-2) at Green Bay, Wis.

WEST

Adam Keefe scored 25 points and had a career-high 21 rebounds as Stanford (7-1) defeated Southern Utah, 89-71, at Stanford. Davor Marchelic scored 30 points for Southern Utah (8-4). . . . Chad Scott scored 23 points to lead Oregon State (8-4) to a 104-89 victory over Cal State Sacramento (1-13) at Corvallis, Ore.

Lucius Davis scored 20 points as UC Santa Barbara (7-2) beat Pacific (4-6), 60-53, in a Big West Conference opener at Santa Barbara. . . . Darryl Johnson scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half as San Francisco (7-5) pulled away in a 71-56 victory over DePaul (5-4) at San Francisco.

Ed Petersen scored 20 points as Yale (8-2) made 11 of 21 three-point attempts in a 69-62 victory over San Diego State (2-9) at San Diego.