College Basketball Roundup : Lewis’ Three-Point Shots Give Providence 82-79 Win Over Georgetown

Georgetown Coach John Thompson and Providence Coach Rick Pitino supplied some fireworks, but Ernie Lewis lowered the boom.

Lewis sank three three-point shots in the final 2:02, the last one with two seconds left, to give Providence an 82-79 Big East Conference upset of No. 11 Georgetown Wednesday night at Providence, R.I.

However, 17 minutes before Lewis’ heroics, tempers flared at the Providence Civic Center.

Providence’s Jacek Duda fouled Georgetown’s Mark Tillmon on a breakaway and that sparked a verbal exchange between the coaches. Both were called for technical fouls.

“We foul a lot because were aggressive,” Pitino said of his Friars (15-3 overall, 5-2 in the Big East), who were called for 30 fouls to 22 for the Hoyas. “Maybe he (Thompson) was trying to psych up his team.”

The coaches shook hands and embraced at midcourt after the game.

“If you were playing the way we were, you’ve got to do something,” Thompson said. “I’m a competitive person. I don’t have any hard feelings.

“I’m always disappointed in losing, but nobody’s in there crying. Everybody in the Big East has talent.”

Despite a tremendous performance by Reggie Williams, who scored 25 of his 33 points in the second half and grabbed 18 rebounds, Georgetown (14-3, 4-3) failed at the free-throw line, hitting just 52% compared to the Friars’ 84%.

Providence had a 62-50 lead with 13 minutes left, but Williams hit a 12-foot jumper with 6:22 remaining to give the Hoyas a 71-70 lead. A free throw by Perry McDonald with 1:25 left gave Georgetown the lead again, 77-76, but Lewis hit a three-pointer to give the Friars a 79-77 lead with 44 seconds left.

Georgetown tied the game, 79-79, on two free throws by Jonathan Edwards with 30 seconds left, and Lewis untied it.

Dave Kipfer scored 19 points for Providence, Delray Brooks added 17 and Lewis had 14.

McDonald had 15 points for the Hoyas.

North Carolina 108, Clemson 99--Kenny Smith scored a career-high 41 points and the top-ranked Tar Heels rallied from a 12-point halftime deficit to defeat No. 14 Clemson in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at Clemson, S.C.

The Tar Heels (18-1, 7-0) outscored Clemson, 22-5, over a six-minute span in the second half to erase a 78-73 deficit and go ahead, 95-83, lead with 2:49 left.

Smith, whose previous high was 23, had eight points during the run and scored 27 in the second half.

Clemson (18-2, 4-2) built a 50-38 halftime lead, but North Carolina got back in the game with a 14-4 run and then took a 63-60 lead with 12:57 left on two straight 3-pointers by Smith.

J.R. Reid had 22 points and 10 rebounds for North Carolina while Jeff Lebo had 20 points. Jerry Pryor scored 24 points for Clemson and Horace Grant had 19.

Indiana 69, Illinois 66--Dean Garrett scored 20 points, and blocked three shots in the final 40 seconds, leading the fourth-ranked Hoosiers past the 12th-ranked Illini in a Big Ten game at Bloomington, Ind.

Indiana (16-2, 7-1) took a one-half game lead over Purdue and Iowa in the Big Ten race.

Garrett hit a 10-foot jumper to give the Hoosiers a 66-64 lead with 1:34 left. With 40 seconds left, the 6-10 Garrett blocked a shot by Illinois scoring leader Ken Norman. That set up two free throws by Steve Alford with 30 seconds to play that increased the Hoosiers’ lead to 68-64.

Garrett deflected two inside shots by Illinois, but Glynn Blackwell’s two free throws with 12 seconds left cut the margin to 68-66. Garrett was fouled on the inbounds play and hit 1 of 2 free throws. Doug Altenberger and Norman missed three-point shots for Illinois (14-5, 5-3) in the final seconds.

Norman and Lowell Hamilton each scored 16 for Illinois. Ricky Calloway had 13 for Indiana.

LSU 75, Auburn 73--The Bayou Bengals blew a 17-point halftime lead, but rallied to beat the No. 18 Tigers in a Southeastern Conference game at Baton Rogue, La.

LSU (13-9, 4-6) had a 51-34 halftime lead, but went cold for the first five minutes of the second half. Auburn (11-5, 4-4) chipped away at the lead and took a 57-56 lead with just under 12 minutes left.

Anthony Wilson hit a basket to regain the lead for LSU and the Tigers never again trailed. Auburn’s Jeff Moore, who scored 21 points, had a chance to tie the score in the final seconds, but his shot missed and the rebound bounced away as time ran out.

Wilson made five three-point shots and scored 19 of his 25 points in the first half, when LSU led by as many as 22 points.

Pittsburgh 95, Seton Hall 81--Curtis Aiken scored 21 points and Demetreus Gore had 19 to lead the No. 17 Panthers to a Big East victory over the Pirates at Pittsburgh.

Aiken had 15 points in the first half as the Panthers (16-4, 5-2) led by as much as 18 points. Rod Brookin came off the bench to score 15 of his 17 points in the second half for the Panthers.

Tico Cooper had 15 points and 10 rebounds replacing Pittsburgh’s star center Charles Smith, who ran into foul problems.

James Major had 17 points for Seton Hall (11-7, 2-7).

Memphis State 64, Louisville 48--Vincent Askew scored 8 of his 19 points in a 10-0 second-half spurt that carried the Tigers to a Metro Conference victory over the Cardinals at Louisville.

The Tigers (17-5, 4-1) moved into a tie for the conference lead with South Carolina.

Louisville is 10-9 and 3-2.

TCU 64, Rice 38--Larry Richard and Carven Holcombe each scored 17 points at Fort Worth as the No. 16 Horned Frogs scored a school-record 13th consecutive victory.

TCU (17-3 and 8-0 in the Southwest Conference) also extended its home-court winning streak to 21 games. Rice is 7-12 and 1-7.

Kansas State 88, Oklahoma State 77--Norris Coleman scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half and the Wildcats scored a Big Eight victory over the Cowboys at Stillwater, Okla.

Kansas State is 14-4 overall and 4-1 in the Big Eight, while Oklahoma State is 5-13 and 1-4.