Wake Forest Simply Follows an ACC Trend to Victory at Clemson

If the games involving the Atlantic Coast Conference’s three top teams over the last nine days indicated anything, it was that the home court held no particular advantage.

Fourth-ranked Wake Forest, which had suffered its first loss of the season to No. 7 Maryland at home last Sunday, ended No. 2 Clemson’s winning streak at 12 games in a 65-62 victory Thursday at the Tigers’ Littlejohn Coliseum.

Clemson held off Maryland for a 67-63 victory on the Terrapins’ Cole Field House last week.

Wake Forest, 14-1 overall and an ACC-leading 6-1, dominated inside play with 6-foot-10 Tim Duncan and 7-1 Loren Woods, a freshman who was making his first start. The two made seven of eight shots and had 15 rebounds in helping the Demon Deacons lead by as many as 12 points in the first half.

Clemson, 16-2 and tied for second place with Maryland at 5-1, came back behind leading scorer Greg Buckner, who had 14 of his 20 points in the second half. The Tigers closed to 63-62 with 15.1 seconds left but on two on their last three possessions forward Andrius Jurkunas was called for charging and missed a 30-foot shot at the buzzer.

Wake Forest had lost to Maryland, 54-51, when Laron Profit made a three-point shot at the buzzer.

“We know what kind of a team we are,� said Duncan, who had 16 points, 15 rebounds and five blocked shots. “We showed we had the poise and the maturity and the skill to come out here and win on the road.�

Memphis 64, No. 6 Louisville 58--The Tigers (10-8, 4-2) never trailed in the Conference USA game at Louisville, Ky., effectively using a deliberate offense and trapping zone defense.

Louisville (15-2, 3-1) shot a season-low 34%, missing 21 of 26 three-point shots.

Guard Chris Garner was disruptive in Memphis’ defensive scheme, scoring off two midcourt steals. He also accounted for the game’s decisive points with two free throws with 15.4 seconds left. Forward Sunday Adebayo, a transfer from Arkansas who recently became eligible, had 16 points.

No. 8 Minnesota 66, Iowa 51--Forward Sam Jacobson made five of six three-point shots and had a career-high 29 points, and the Golden Gophers (17-2, 6-1) used a strong defensive effort to win the matchup of the Big Ten Conference co-leaders at Minneapolis.

Jacobson scored 15 points and made six of seven shots in the first half to offset 5-of-25 shooting by his teammates to give Minnesota a 25-21 lead. The Golden Gophers held the Hawkeyes (1-5, 5-2) to one basket in a span of 10:38.

Guards Eric Harris and Bobby Jackson teamed up to limit Iowa’s Andre Woolridge, the Big Ten’s leading scorer at 22 points a game, to 12 points on 3-of-14 shooting. The Golden Gophers forced 24 turnovers and made 14 steals in holding the Hawkeyes to season lows in shooting (38.5%) and points.

No. 16 Xavier 62, George Washington 61--The Musketeers (13-2, 4-1) were held 26 points below their nation-leading scoring average by the deliberate Colonials (8-7, 3-3) but made four key defensive plays in the final 1:30 of the Atlantic 10 Conference game at Washington.

Forward T.J. Johnson’s steal resulted in a breakaway basket that gave Xavier the game’s final points at 1:24. In George Washington’s final three possessions, guard Shawnta Rogers was called for charging with 55.4 seconds to play, guard J.J. Brade’s inside shot was blocked by forward Torraye Braggs with 1.5 seconds, and an inbounds pass to center Alexander Koul was tipped away by Johnson as time ran out.

Koul had a game-high 20 points. George Washington was trying to win successive games for the first time since early December.

OTHER GAMES

Charles Jones, the nation’s leading scorer at 29.7 points a game, had 25 as Long Island (10-6, 7-1) was an 82-73 winner over Monmouth (9-7, 5-3) in a Northeast Conference game in New York. . . . Freshman Donnie Carr, the nation’s second-leading scorer at 26.9 points a game, missed 21 of 30 shots in getting 22 points for La Salle (7-7), which was a 67-60 loser to cross-city rival Penn (6-7) in a nonconference game in Philadelphia. . . . Forward Matt Barnett scored on a layup, his first field goal of the game, with 12.4 seconds left to give Colorado State (13-4, 3-2) an 80-79 Western Athletic Conference victory over Fresno State (12-7, 4-1) at Fort Collins, Colo. Colorado State had only led for 26 seconds in the game and trailed by as many as 17 points.

College Basketball Notes

Connecticut center Kirk King will be suspended for the rest of his senior season for accepting improper gifts, pending an appeal of an NCAA ruling by the university, according to the Associated Press. King and sophomore point guard Ricky Moore had already missed two games while the NCAA investigated whether they should face further sanctions for accepting improper gifts, reportedly airline tickets. It was unclear how long Moore’s suspension would be extended. Connecticut is 11-6 and 4-4 in the Big East Conference. . . . Center Scot Pollard, the No. 3 scorer and No. 2 rebounder for top-ranked Kansas (19-0), is expected to be sidelined for a month because of a broken left foot. Pollard apparently injured the foot at Baylor on Jan. 11 but managed to play the next three games, scoring only 10 in the last two. X-rays on Thursday showed that Pollard has a stress fracture.