TOURNAMENTS : College Basketball Roundup : Pittsburgh Beats Syracuse, Wins Big East Title

Jerome Lane scored 18 first-half points and foul-plagued Pittsburgh survived a late Syracuse surge to claim the Big East regular-season title with an 85-84 victory Sunday at Syracuse, N.Y.

Lane finished with career-highs of 29 points and 15 rebounds as No. 7 Pitt held off the 12th-ranked Orangemen, who tied the Panthers during the final five minutes after trailing by as much as 14 points in the second half.

The Panthers took the lead for good on center Charles Smith’s 16-foot jumper with 2:01 to play.

Pittsburgh, 22-5 overall, finished Big East play with a 12-4 record. The Panthers will be the top-seeded team in next weekend’s Big East tournament.

Rony Seikaly had 20 points and 14 rebounds for Syracuse, which ended conference play 22-8 and 11-5. Sherman Douglas added 17.

Duke 96, North Carolina 81--Kevin Strickland scored 24 points to lead the ninth-ranked Blue Devils to an Atlantic Coast Conference victory over the No. 6 Tar Heels.

Quin Snyder scored 21 points, including 6 free throws in the final 2 minutes, and Danny Ferry added 20 for Duke (21-6, 9-5). Steve Bucknall led North Carolina (22-5, 11-3) with 22 points.

North Carolina St. 86, Wake Forest 82--Vinny Del Negro scored 24 points and Charles Shackelford scored 12 of his 16 in the final 10 minutes as the No. 13 Wolfpack (23-6, 10-4) won an ACC game at Raleigh, N.C.

Wake Forest (10-17, 3-11) was led by center Ralph Kitley, who had a season-high 22 points.

LSU 86, Florida 69--Ricky Blanton scored 27 points, and a tough defense shut down Florida’s inside game as Louisiana State beat the Gators at Baton Rogue, La.

It was the regular-season Southeastern Conference finale for both teams. Florida finishes 21-10 and 11-7, LSU 15-12 and 10-8.

Washington St. 70, Arizona St. 66--Brian Wright made a 3-point goal with 41 seconds remaining and the Cougars held on in the final seconds to beat the Sun Devils at Tempe, Ariz., in the battle for sixth place in the Pacific 10.

Wright finished with 16 points while David Sanders had 15. Trent Edwards had a career-high 16 for the Sun Devils (13-15, 6-12). Washington State (12-15, 7-11), will have a first-round bye in the Pac-10 tournament, which begins Thursday in Tucson.

Illinois 94, Iowa 81--Nick Anderson scored 23 points to lead the Illini (20-9, 10-6) over the No. 11-ranked Hawkeyes (21-8, 11-5) at Champaign, Ill.

Arkansas 75, Texas Tech 65--Tim Scott came off the bench to score 23 points as the Razorbacks (20-7, 11-5) won at Lubbock, Tex., to move into a second-place tie with Baylor in the Southwest Conference. The Red Raiders go into next weekend’s SWC tournament 9-18 and 4-12, their worst SWC record in a decade.

Xavier (Ohio) 71, Butler 70--Byron Larkin scored 20 of his 25 points in the second half, including two free throws to provide the winning margin, as the No. 20 Muskateers (24-3, 9-1) won a Midwestern Collegiate Conference game at Indianapolis.

Chad Tucker led Butler (14-13, 5-5) with 29 points.

ATLANTIC 10

Temple 77, Duquesne 57--Mark Macon scored 28 points to help the No. 1-ranked Owls win a quarterfinal game at Morgantown, W.Va. The Owls, 27-1 and the winners of 13 straight, advanced to a Tuesday semifinal against Penn State or St. Joseph’s, which meet in a quarterfinal tonight. Duquesne’s season ended at 11-21.

In the day’s other quarterfinal, West Virginia defeated St. Bonaventure, 57-40.

COLONIAL

Richmond 54, North Carolina Wilmington 53--Peter Woolfolk had 15 points and 18 rebounds as the Spiders (23-6) survived a last-minute rally and won at Hampton, Va., to advance to tonight’s Colonial Athletic Assn. title game against George Mason, a 95-76 winner over William & Mary. Kenny Sanders had 28 and 13 rebounds for the Patriots (20-9).

EAST COAST

Lehigh 67, Lafayette 65--Mike Polaha scored 35 points, including his team’s last 8, as Lehigh hung on to defeat Lafayette in the semifinals at Towson, Md. Lehigh (20-9) will meet Towson State in the title game Tuesday night. Towson (14-11) beat Rider, 59-56.

MISSOURI VALLEY

Bradley 101, Creighton 77--Hersey Hawkins scored 38 points and Donald Powell, a 6-8 senior forward, came off the bench and got a season-high 25 points and 14 rebounds as the Braves won a semifinal game at Peoria, Ill.

The Braves (25-4) face Illinois State (18-11) in the title game Tuesday night. Illinois State advanced with a 59-51 win over Wichita State.

SUN BELT

North Carolina Charlotte 71, South Alabama 67--The 49ers, the regular-season champions, needed two free throws from Byron Dinkins with 28 seconds to go and a key rebound by Dan Plondke to get past South Alabama in the semifinals at Richmond, Va.

Phil Stinnie scored 27 points for the Rams (21-8), who will face Virginia Commonwealth in the title game tonight. The Rams (21-10) held Old Dominion without a field goal for a 13-minute span while building a 23-point first half lead en route to a 91-69 victory.

In North Carolina Charlotte’s only NCAA appearance, in 1977, Cedric Maxwell led the 49ers into the title game, which they lost to Marquette.