College Basketball Roundup : Boston College Upsets Providence--and Its Coach

Ted Kelley, a walk-on senior, scored on a follow-up layup with four seconds remaining as Boston College upset No. 17 Providence, 67-66, in a Big East game at Boston that left Friar Coach Rick Pitino fuming.

“Those three guys (referees) are the most gutless group I’ve ever seen,” said Pitino, who had charged after the officials as they left the court when the buzzer sounded.

Pitino was upset when no foul was called on Kelley, who Pitino said shoved Providence forward Marty Conlon aside to get the rebound of a missed jumper by Jamie Benton that led to his winning shot.

“That play was an absolute disgrace to the game of basketball,” Pitino, whose team entered the Top 20 this week for the first time since 1978, said. “It was a very good college basketball game, but it’s a shame it had to be lost because the refs had no guts to make a basketball call.”

Providence’s Ernie (Pops) Lewis had made a three-point field goal from the corner to give the Friars a 66-65 lead with 49 seconds left.

“It went up and I just said, ‘Please, God, let it go in,’ ” Kelley said. “We’ve been close so many times, but we couldn’t get over the hump. Maybe this did it.”

Boston College improved to 9-11 overall and 2-8 in the conference. Providence fell to 16-4 and 6-3.

Syracuse 84, Seton Hall 80--Rony Seikaly scored 21 points and Greg Monroe 20 as the No. 11 Orangemen rallied from an 11-point second-half deficit to win a Big East game at East Rutherford, N.J.

The victory, which put Syracuse in sole possession of first place in the conference with a 7-2 record, was the 12th straight for the Orangemen over Seton Hall and raised their overall record to 18-3. It also avoided their first three-game losing streak since the 1981-82 season.

Syracuse turned the game around in a 5:18 span late in the second half, just after Mark Bryant hit a seven-foot jumper to give the Pirates a 60-49 lead, their biggest of the game.

Seikaly started a 26-7 run with a basket in the lane, and Monroe fueled it with three three-point field goals. Monroe had 11 points in the run, and Sherman Douglas, who finished with 16 points, added seven.

The loss dropped Seton Hall to 12-8, 3-8.

Georgia Tech 98, Georgia State 74--Tom Hammonds scored 22 points, including a spectacular slam dunk early in the second half, to lead the Yellow Jackets over the crosstown rival Panthers at Atlanta.

The score was tied at 29-29 with 8:50 to play in the first half when Hammonds put the Yellow Jackets ahead for good.

Georgia Tech (12-7) led, 42-38, when Duane Ferrell found Hammonds under the hoop with an inbounds pass, and Hammonds slammed it home. Ferrell then scored on a dunk of his own to make the score 46-38, and the Yellow Jackets slowly extended their margin after that.

Georgia State fell to 8-11.

West Virginia 79, Alabama Birmingham 64--Tyrone Shaw scored 27 points, including 17 from the free-throw line, and Darryl Prue added 23 to lead the Mountaineers in this first meeting between the schools at Morgantown, W. Va.

The Mountaineers (15-5) sought to exploit the smaller Blazers as West Virginia Coach Gale Catlett started four players taller than 6-7. The Blazers countered with only 6-8 Eddie Collins above that height.

The strategy worked. When Darrell Pinckney scored off an offensive rebound with 14 minutes left, West Virginia opened a 12-0 spurt that took the Mountaineers to an 18-8 advantage.

Army 68, Fordham 67--Kevin Houston, the nation’s leading scorer, had 34 points--26 in the second half and an overtime--as the Cadets held on to win a Metro Atlantic Conference game at New York.

Houston, who entered the game with a 31.1 average, gave the Cadets (8-10, 4-4) a 59-56 lead 48 seconds into overtime on a three-point goal. It was two free throws by Houston with 12 seconds to play that tied the game to force the overtime. Fordham fell to 9-11, 2-6.

Houston 75, SW Louisiana 51--Ricky Winslow scored 17 points and Greg Anderson added 16 and had 17 rebounds as the Cougars won a nonconference game at Houston.

The Cougars played an aggressive 2-3 zone defense throughout, holding the Ragin’ Cajuns to 32.3% shooting from the field.

Houston improved to 13-7, and the Cajuns dropped to 9-11 overall.