College Basketball Roundup : Duke Surprises Florida, 93-70, Will Play Arizona Tonight

Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said he was surprised by the margin his ninth-ranked Blue Devils’ beat No. 8 Florida Tuesday night in the opening round of the Fiesta Bowl tournament at Tucson.

Duke’s 93-70 victory improved its record to 6-0 and sent the Blue Devils into the championship game tonight against top-ranked Arizona, which disposed of Michigan State, 78-58, as Sean Elliott and Anthony Cook fueled a 15-point second-half scoring burst.

Elliott led all scorers with 24 points. Cook had 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Tom Tolbert added 13 points.

Baskets by Michigan State center George Papadakos and Valentine cut Arizona’s lead to 32-29 as the Spartans (5-4) managed to stay close in the first half.

With 14:04 remaining in the game, however, Arizona (11-0) led by 5 when it went on its scoring spree to take a 56-36 lead.

Duke’s tenacious man-to-man defense keyed its fast break, and the Blue Devils’ quickness more than offset Florida’s height advantage.

Kevin Strickland led five Duke in double figures with 21 points.

Duke took a 15-4 lead and expanded the advantage to as much as 27 points three times, the last with 1:30 remaining on a jumper by Danny Ferry. The Blue Devils led by 26 points six times in the second half.

Ferry, a 6-foot 10-inch junior, picked up his third foul with 11:27 remaining in the first half and Duke leading, 23-15. The closest Florida (7-2) could get in the first half was six points.

“We were ready to play, but you get into a game like that and you’re all shook up, and all of a sudden you’re 25 down,” Florida Coach Norm Sloan said. “We haven’t played against a team that quick on defense, and also we played a poor game.”

Florida’s 7-2 center, Dwayne Schnitzius, scored 21 points, and guard Vernon Maxwell added 17. Livingston Chatman was held to 10 points, nine below his average.

Brigham Young 95, LaSalle 82--Mike Smith, a sophomore from Los Altos High School, scored 39 points and pulled down 14 rebounds to lead the unbeaten Cougars at Provo, Utah.

BYU (8-0) used a 20-6 run midway through the second half to pull away from a 54-54 tie and hand the Explorers (8-4) their worst loss of the season. It was Smith’s second consecutive 39-point game.

The 6-10 Smith led the Cougars to a 64% shooting performance, as he hit on 17 of 24 attempts from the floor, including three three-point baskets.

Temple 84, Southern U. 47--Freshman Mark Macon scored 27 points as the sixth-ranked Owls shut down the high-scoring Jaguars in the championship game of the Sugar Bowl tournament at New Orleans.

Temple (7-0) led from the outset, held a 42-20 lead at halftime and a 64-30 advantage midway through the second half.

Southern (5-4) had scored 114 points Monday night in beating Mississippi to reach into the championship game.

Southern’s constant full-court press didn’t bother Temple, and the Owls wouldn’t let the Jaguars get into a running game. Mike Vreeswyk had 24 points for Temple.

It was the third straight year in which a Pennsylvania team won the Sugar Bowl. Villanova won last year, and Pittsburgh won in 1985.

Oklahoma 144, Oral Roberts 93--Harvey Grant scored 40 points and grabbed 19 rebounds to lead the 10th-ranked Sooners over the Titans in the first round of the All-College Tournament at Oklahoma City.

“I didn’t think we were alert and sharp tonight,” Oklahoma Coach Billy Tubbs said. “We left a lot of things to be desired tonight. We had way too many careless passes and stupid fouls. We lost a lot of our continuity when we substituted.”

Alluding to the Christmas break at Oklahoma, Tubbs said his players “think they should be on vacation. I think at times tonight they went on vacation.”

Oklahoma (11-0) will play Illinois State, which upset No. 14 Iowa, 89-88, on Matt Taphorn’s three-pointer with five seconds to play.

After Taphorn’s shot from the left side, Iowa inbounded to half-court and called timeout with two seconds left. The ensuing inbounds pass was intercepted by Illinois State’s Jarrod Coleman and time ran out.

Illinois State (5-4) trailed by 16 with 8:36 remaining, but the Redbirds used four three-pointers by Taphorn and two by Ricky Jackson to spark a 25-8 run to take an 84-83 lead with 1:32 left.

A three-point play by B.J. Armstrong gave Iowa an 88-86 lead with 36 seconds left. Taphorn missed a three-pointer 10 seconds later, but Iowa’s Michael Reaves was called for traveling with 18 seconds remaining.

That gave the ball back to the Redbirds and set up Taphorn’s game-winner.

Jeff Harris scored 30 and Taphorn had 25 for Illinois State. Iowa got 18 points from Armstrong, 17 from Roy Marble, and 16 from Al Lorenzen.

Seton Hall 104, Pacific 78--Ramon Ramos and Mark Bryant each scored 21 points to lead the Pirates past the Tigers in the first round of the Cable Car tournament at Santa Clara.

Seton Hall will play Santa Clara, a 74-54 winner over St. Joseph’s of Philadelphia, in tonight’s championship game. Mitch Burley connected on a school-record five three-point goals to pace Santa Clara (6-4).

James Major contributed 17 points for Seton Hall (11-2), which led from the start. The Pirates outrebounded the Tigers, 49-32, and shot 54% to just 37% for the losers. Pacific is 5-4.

North Carolina St. 80, Louisville 75--Chucky Brown scored 25 points to lead the Wolfpack over the 20th-ranked Cardinals in a semifinal game of the Rainbow tournament at Honolulu.

The Wolfpack (5-2) will meet the winner of Tuesday night’s late game between Mississippi State and Arizona State in tonight’s championship game.

North Carolina State scored the game’s opening basket but did not lead again until five minutes into the second half when it took a 50-48 lead. The game was tied five times after that before the Wolfpack ran off eight unanswered points to lead 70-62 with seven minutes remaining. Louisville is 4-3.

Indiana 83, Stanford 73--Rick Calloway scored a season-high 27 points, and Dean Garrett led a second-half spurt that put the game away as 13th-ranked Indiana won the sixth Hoosier tournament at Indianapolis.

Garrett had 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Keith Smart scored 18 points for Indiana, which has never lost this tournament.

Stanford’s Todd Lichti, who was averaging 22.7 points per game, was held scoreless for more than 13 minutes of the second half and finished with 15.

In the consolation game, Gary Gray scored 10 of his 16 points in the first half to lead UC Santa Barbara over Pennsylvania, 82-52.

Indiana (8-2) led, 41-31, at halftime, but Stanford (9-3) came within 59-53 with 11 minutes left on a basket by Scott Meinert. The Hoosiers, led by Garrett’s five points, then outscored Stanford, 10-3, in the next 3:29, taking a 69-56 lead on a dunk by Garrett. Stanford got no closer than seven after that.

Pittsburgh 87, Alabama 51--Demetreus Gore scored 24 points to lead the third-ranked Panthers to the championship of the Citrus Bowl tournament at Orlando, Fla.

The Panthers (8-0) never trailed and raced to a 35-17 halftime lead as they dominated the rebounding and held Alabama (7-4) to a 22-for-58 effort from the field.

Charles Smith, the tournament’s most valuable player, added 14 for Pittsburgh. Jerome Lane had 10.

Connecticut 49, Princeton 46--Cliff Robinson scored 30 points and Phil Gamble added 8 during a 14-point second-half run as the Huskies came back to win the Connecticut Mutual tournament at Hartford, Conn.

It was the first time the Huskies (6-2) had won their holiday tournament since 1983. San Francisco defeated Hartford, 74-73, in the consolation game.

Princeton (5-4) took an 11-point lead with 12:30 left before Gamble, who came off the bench to score 13 points, ignited Connecticut’s comeback with a field goal and two three-pointers during the next five minutes.

Michigan 92, South Florida 56--Gary Grant, capping a two-night performance that earned him most valuable players honors, scored 20 points, and Glen Rice had 18 to lead the 12th-ranked Wolverines in the championship game of the South Florida Invitational at Tampa.

In the consolation game, Clemson’s Elden Campbell scored 24 of his 26 points in the first half to match Florida International’s halftime total, and Jerry Pryor added 15 points as the Tigers prevailed, 98-47.

Michigan, winning its 10th consecutive game since losing to Arizona in the semifinals of the Great Alaska Shootout, improved to 11-1.

Cleveland St. 72, Marquette 70--Ken McFadden scored 21 points, including the go-ahead basket with 1:27 to play, as the Vikings fought off a Marquette rally to win the championship of the Milwaukee tournament.

Marquette trailed by 12 points with 6:23 to play but ran off 15 straight points behind the play of freshman center Joe Nethen to grab a 70-67 lead with 2:13 left.

But McFadden hit two free throws and then a jumper with 1:27 to go to pull the Vikings (7-2) back into the lead at 71-70.

Auburn 65, Villanova 64--Jeff Moore tipped in a rebound with one second remaining to send the Tigers into the championship game of the Cotton States tournament at Atlanta. Auburn will meet Georgia Tech, which beat William & Mary, 90-59, in the other semifinal.