College Basketball Roundup : Oklahoma Beats Iowa St. With Some Defense

When you think of Oklahoma basketball, defense isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.

However, the 10th-ranked Sooners put the clamps on No. 12 Iowa State Wednesday night and scored a 109-86 victory over the Cyclones in a Big Eight game at Norman, Okla.

“You hear all about how many points they score, but I haven’t heard anything about how good their defense is,” Iowa State Coach Johnny Orr said.

“Oklahoma is as good as anybody in the country. There is not really any weakness in their team. They’re unselfish and work their butts off on defense.”

Oklahoma forced the Cyclones (16-4 overall, 2-2 in the Big Eight) into 25 turnovers, and Iowa State shot just 40%.

The Sooners (17-2, 3-1) held Jeff Grayer, the Big Eight’s leading scorer who was slowed by a toe injury, to 6 points--19 under his average.

Harvey Grant had 30 points and 12 rebounds for the Sooners. He scored 20 in the first half, when Oklahoma used two big runs to open leads of up to 18 points.

Gant scored 6 of the Sooners’ first 8 points in the second half, and Iowa State didn’t come within 14 the rest of the way.

Stacey King added 19 points, 9 rebounds and 7 blocked shots for the Sooners.

Lafester Rhodes had 22 points and 13 rebounds for Iowa State.

Vanderbilt 83, Kentucky 66--Scott Draud made six three-point shots and scored 22 points as the Commodores knocked over the ninth-ranked Wildcats in a Southeastern Conference game at Nashville, Tenn.

Kentucky (13-3, 6-3) sliced Vanderbilt’s 44-38 halftime lead to 48-46 early in the second half, but Draud hit three three-pointers in a run that gave the Commodores a 68-58 lead with 7:15 left.

Vanderbilt (12-4, 5-3), which made 13 of 20 three-point shots, beat Kentucky for the first time in their last 14 meetings.

Will Perdue and Barry Goheen had 17 points each for Vanderbilt, while Rex Chapman scored 18 for Kentucky.

Syracuse 87, Seton Hall 76--Steven Thompson scored 26 points, and Sherman Douglas scored six points in a late surge that carried the No. 17 Orangemen past the Pirates at East Rutherford, N.J.

The victory was the 14th straight for Syracuse (14-5, 4-3) over Seton Hall (13-8, 2-5).

Seton Hall had a 63-62 lead with 4:59 left, but Syracuse took the lead for good on a 15-foot jumper by Matt Roe. Thompson made it 66-63 with a pair of free throws before Douglas took over.

He hit two foul shots and a driving layup, and after Mark Bryant scored for Seton Hall with 2:45 left, Douglas hit two more free throws and set up Derrick Coleman for two dunks. Coleman turned the second one into a three-point play to make it 77-65 with 1:34 left.

Douglas finished with 18 points and Coleman added 17. James Major scored 22 points for Seton Hall.

Indiana 75, Ohio State 71--Few coaches would bench two starters from a national championship team of the preceding season, but that’s what Bob Knight did at Columbus, Ohio. And the move paid dividends as Indiana defeated Ohio State in a Big Ten game.

“On Monday, we decided to go with who was playing best for us at both ends of the floor. I was pleased with what I saw,” Knight said.

Knight benched Keith Smart, who hit the game-winner in last year’s NCAA championship game, and three-year starter Rick Calloway. Smart didn’t play until the final 1:39 and didn’t score and Calloway never took off his warmup suit.

With Smart and Calloway out of the lineup, freshmen Lyndon Jones and Jay Edwards were in. Jones responded with 21 points, hitting 9 of 10 from the field, while Edwards had 11 points and a game-high 9 assists.

Dean Garrett added 22 points and 4 blocked shots for the Hoosiers (10-6, 2-4). Ohio State is 10-6 and 3-3.

Florida 61, LSU 50--Vernon Maxwell hit five three-point shots and finished with 20 points as the 14th-ranked Gators downed the Tigers in an SEC game at Gainesville, Fla.

Dwayne Schintzius added 16 points for the Gators (15-4, 6-1), off to their best conference start in history, gave Coach Norm Sloan his 598th career victory.

Florida, which led, 30-27, at halftime, broke the game open with a 15-3 run that made it 48-34 with 11 minutes left.

Jose Vargas and Wayne Sims scored 14 points apiece for LSU (9-7, 4-3).

St. John’s 60, Villanova 55--Boo Harvey grabbed a key rebound and hit two free throws with 13 seconds left as the Redmen dumped the No. 19 Wildcats at Villanova, Pa.

The Wildcats (14-5, 6-2) got within 56-55 with 27 seconds left on two free throws by Kenny Wilson. Gary Massey stole the inbounds pass but missed his shot and Harvey grabbed the rebound.

Harvey, who had 16 points and 5 assists, was fouled and made the two free throws, giving him four in the final minute to clinch the victory for St. John’s (13-3, 4-2).

Shelton Jones scored 19 points for St. John’s.

Georgetown 58, Boston College 36--Charles Smith and Bobby Winston scored 12 points apiece as the No. 15 Hoyas held the Eagles without a field goal for almost 12 minutes in one stretch of a Big East victory at Landover, Md.

The Hoyas held high-scoring Dana Barros scoreless for more than 26 minutes and limited him to eight points in the game.

Georgetown (13-4, 3-3) outscored the Eagles, 18-2, in the last 8:25 of the first half, scoring the final 11 points for a 34-20 lead.

Boston College (11-7, 3-5) made only 5 field goals and 16 points in the second half.