College Basketball Roundup : Fed Up With Losing, Georgetown Takes It Out on Arkansas, 56-39

Some people say you can learn from losing. Georgetown Coach John Thompson learned he didn’t like it.

After consecutive losses to Big East Conference rivals St. John’s and Syracuse, Thompson’s Hoyas bounced back Sunday to wallop Arkansas, 56-39, at Landover, Md.

“I had mixed emotions about losing,” Thompson said. “A lot of my real close personal friends said it would be the best thing that could happen to us.

“I found it very difficult to see the good part about losing.”

On Sunday, second-ranked Georgetown (19-2) got a strong performance from Patrick Ewing, who scored 18 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

In addition, Ewing helped hold 6-11 Joe Kleine, his teammate on the U.S. Olympic team, to three points, although Kleine did manage nine rebounds.

“They really sagged in,” Kleine said. “It was pretty congested in there.”

The Hoyas, who also got 14 points from David Wingate and 10 from Bill Martin, broke the game open with a 16-4 surge late in the first half.

The victory, the 280th for Thompson in his 13 years with the Hoyas, increased Georgetown’s winning streak over non-Big East opponents to 24 games, dating to a loss to DePaul on Dec. 10, 1983.

“If you lose a few ball games, it’s easy to get down on yourselves,” Martin said. “(Beating Arkansas) is a good feeling because you don’t want to get in the habit of losing.”

Charles Balentine scored 22 points for Arkansas (15-8).

Georgetown was playing without starting guard Michael Jackson, who sprained an ankle in practice Saturday.

With the game tied, 14-14, midway through the half, a crowd of 14,391 watched the Hoyas pounce on the Razorbacks with their swarming defense.

Arkansas managed just two field goals during the next 8 1/2 minutes while Georgetown shooters built up a 30-14 lead, the final two in that run coming on Ewing’s dunk with 2:26 left in the half.

Georgetown extended its lead early in the second half with a 10-4 surge capped by a basket by Reggie Williams to make it 40-24 with 13:48 left.

But the Hoyas went scoreless for a six-minute stretch while Arkansas trimmed the lead to eight with 6:21 remaining.

Ewing hit two free throws and a jumper and Georgetown was never seriously threatened after that.

SMU 68, Rice 52--Jon Koncak scored 22 points, collected nine rebounds and blocked five shots as the fourth-ranked Mustangs downed the Owls in a Southwest Conference game at Houston.

SMU (18-2, 8-1), leading by only a point at halftime, outscored Rice, 18-2, to start the second half behind Koncak, the 7-foot Olympian, and Scott Johnson, who equaled his season high with 14 points.

Rice (8-11, 1-8) played a slowdown game in the first half, holding the Mustangs to a 21-20 lead.

Freshman Jeff Crawford, making his first start, scored six straight baskets and a season-high 12 points for Rice in the first half. Crawford was held scoreless in the second half. Greg Hines scored 14 points for the Owls, who lost their seventh straight game.

Illinois 77, Houston 76--Anthony Welch scored 26 points and reserve Scott Meents scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half as the fifth-ranked Illini held off the Cougars at Houston.

The Cougars (14-8) never led but threatened to overtake the Illini (18-5) in the final seconds. But Meents, averaging 4.5 points per game, kept Illinois in the lead with a three-point play with 1:49 to play and also hit two free throws with nine seconds left.

Houston pulled to 70-69, but Greg Anderson missed a free throw that would have tied the game with 3:10 left. Eric Dickens stole the ball with 1:21 left but stumbled and missed a layup that would have put the Cougars ahead. Illinois survived Houston’s final scoring attempt when Alvin Franklin, who scored 22 points, missed a layup with 18 seconds left.

Welch hit 13 of 16 shots from the field, including eight in a row in the first half when the Illini jumped on the Cougars for a 22-6 lead. Teammate Doug Altenberger also hit all six of his shots in the first half as Illinois took a 40-32 halftime lead.

Illinois hit 82% of its shots in the first half, scoring 12 straight points at one point.

Syracuse 71, Marquette 53--Rony Seikaly and Rafael Addison scored 19 points each and the Orangemen trounced the Warriors at Syracuse, N.Y.

The Orangemen (15-3) recovered from a 36-32 halftime deficit with a run of 15-4 that gave them a 47-40 lead with 15 minutes left.

Addison, who scored five points in the earlier run and had 13 points in the second half, added two baskets and two free throws in 63 seconds to put the Orange on top, 63-48.

Tom Copa scored 14 points and Benny Moore added 12 for Marquette (11-7).