Unbeaten Stanford Keeps Its Balance

Fifth-ranked Stanford remained one of major college basketball’s two unbeaten teams with an 82-72 victory over Washington State in a Pacific 10 Conference game Thursday night at Pullman, Wash.

The Cardinal, 17-0 overall and 6-0 in the Pacific 10, had each of their starters score in double figures, led by Peter Sauer at 18 points. Sauer made two free throws with 1:50 left after the Cougars (8-9, 1-5) had cut an 18-point deficit to six at 73-67.

Stanford struggled with its usually reliable three-point shooting, making only five of 18 from behind the arc.

Carlos Daniel had 25 points and 16 rebounds for Washington State.

No. 4 Utah 57, Air Force 46--The Utes (16-0, 4-0) shot only 41% against the smaller Falcons (7-7, 0-4) in the Western Athletic Conference game at Air Force Academy, Colo., but tied a team record set in 1912-13 for most consecutive victories to start a season.

Utah’s 6-foot-11 Michael Doleac and 6-10 Hanno Mottola were held to nine points each by an Air Force defense led by 6-9 Mike Freeman and 6-6 Louis Stewart.

Alex Jensen made all nine of his free throws and scored a game-high 17 points for Utah.

No. 6 Arizona 87, Oregon 57--The Wildcats (16-3, 6-0) scored the first 15 points of the Pacific 10 game at Tucson in stretching their win streak to nine.

Arizona led by as many as 34 points before Coach Lute Olson pulled the starters with six minutes left. Miles Simon led the Wildcats with 20 points.

Oregon (7-9, 2-5) didn’t score in the first 5:28, committing seven turnovers and six fouls in that span.

No. 20 Florida State 83, Wake Forest 59--The Seminoles (14-5, 3-4) led most of the Atlantic Coast Conference game at Tallahassee, Fla., as the Demon Deacons shot 33% and made only four of 25 three-point shots.

Florida State shot 54.7%.

Marquette 66, No. 21 Cincinnati 63--Aaron Hutchins scored eight of his career-high 32 points in overtime as the Golden Eagles (12-4, 3-3) ended the Bearcats’ win streak at 10 in the Conference USA game in Milwaukee. Cincinnati is 14-3 and 6-1.

Marquette retained possession twice in the final 17 seconds of overtime with offensive rebounds.

Cincinnati’s Bobby Brannen made two free throws with 5.6 seconds to account for the final points of regulation. Brannen led the Panthers with 18 points.

No. 22 Rhode Island 73, Virginia Tech 66--The Rams (13-3, 5-1) made 15 steals and led by as many as 20 points in the Atlantic 10 game in South Kingstown, R.I.

Virginia Tech (6-9, 1-4) had 22 turnovers.

No. 24 Hawaii 65, Rice 63--Micah Kroeger blocked Bobby Crawford’s shot at the final buzzer as the Rainbows (13-3, 2-2) held on for the WAC victory over the Owls (5-12, 2-2) at Houston.

Crawford had made six of nine three-point shots and scored a game-high 27 points. Rice had a school-record 13 three-point baskets in 27 attempts.

OTHER GAMES

Donald Watts made 16 of 20 free throws and scored six of his career-high 28 points in overtime as Washington (12-3, 5-1) was an 86-84 winner over California (6-8, 2-4) in a Pacific 10 game at Seattle. Geno Carlisle had 20 points and made a three-point shot to tie the score, 76-76, with nine seconds left in regulation for California, which overcame a 14-point deficit in the second half. The Golden Bears’ Kenyon Jones lost the ball while driving to the basket as time expired in overtime. . . . Corey Benjamin made 15 of 23 shots and had a career-high 36 points as Oregon State (10-8, 1-6) ended a losing streak at six games with a 70-61 victory over Arizona State (12-7, 2-4) in a Pacific 10 game at Tempe, Ariz. The Sun Devils’ Jeremy Veal, the Pacific 10’s leading scorer at 20.1 points a game, had 18 before fouling out with three minutes left.

Brian Jones had 27 points and made seven of eight free throws in the final minutes as Santa Clara (14-3, 5-0) continued its best start since 1977-78 with a 63-57 West Coast Conference victory over San Francisco (11-6, 2-3) on the Dons’ home court. . . . Gonzaga (15-5, 4-1), the nation’s top three-point shooting team, missed 19 of 24 attempts from behind the arc in a 76-73 WCC loss to St. Mary’s (7-10, 2-3) at Moraga.

Collin Charles’ tiebreaking layup started a 7-0 run in the final 48 seconds of the second overtime as St. John’s (14-6, 6-3) was a 90-83 winner over Pittsburgh (7-6, 2-4) in a Big East game at Pittsburgh. Vonteego Cummings had a game-high 27 points for the Panthers (7-6, 2-4) but missed a three-point shot that could have won the game in regulation and had a shot in the lane blocked by Zendon Hamilton as time was running out in the first overtime. Hamilton had 26 points and 16 rebounds. . . . Penn State (9-6, 2-3) shot 68% in an 83-45 victory over Northwestern (7-8, 1-5) at State College, Pa., the Nittany Lions’ biggest margin of victory ever in the Big Ten. . . . DeMarco Johnson made 12 of 14 shots and had 27 points as North Carolina Charlotte (9-6, 5-0) defeated Louisville, 84-75, in a Conference USA game at Charlotte, N.C. The Cardinals (8-11, 2-4) are off to their worst start since their 1990-91 team opened 7-12 on the way to a 14-16 record.