College Basketball Roundup : No. 6 North Carolina Rolls Past DePaul, 87-67

At least, Joey Meyer had a good seat.

“I don’t see any weaknesses,” the DePaul coach said after Steve Bucknall hit all 4 of his 3-point attempts and scored 7 of his 21 points during a decisive first-half run as No. 6 North Carolina defeated DePaul, 87-67, Thursday night at Rosemont, Ill., for its 11th win in a row.

“They’re big, strong, smart and they shoot well from the outside,” said Meyer, whose Blue Demons lost to a ranked team for the fifth time this season. “I think our guys got a lesson tonight from one of the best teams in the country.”

Using a trapping defense that forced 12 turnovers in the first half, the Tar Heels (13-1) led 52-36 at intermission and never let DePaul (8-6) come closer than 14 points the rest of the way.

“With the shots we were getting, we should shoot well,” North Carolina Coach Dean Smith said after being informed his team shot 60% from the field, including 6 of 9 from 3-point range. “What I thought was even better, though, was our defense,” he said. “We were so active in the first half, we never let them get into their game.”

Iowa 93, Michigan St. 82--Roy Marble scored 24 points as the No. 9-ranked Hawkeyes held off a late surge by the Spartans in a Big Ten opener at East Lansing, Mich.

Iowa improved to 12-1 overall. Michigan State is 9-2.

Ken Redfield had 24 points for the Spartans, but their season’s leading scorer, Steve Smith, averaging 19.3 points per game, scored just 7, making just 3 of 12 shots.

Purdue 75, Northwestern 58--Steve Scheffler scored 22 points as the Boilermakers (8-6) opened defense of their Big Ten title with a victory over the Wildcats (7-4) at Evanston, Ill.

Walker Lambiotte led Northwestern with 26 points.

Duke 101, Davidson 53--The No. 1 Blue Devils (10-0), leading by only 15 at halftime, pulled away in the second half to beat the Wildcats (4-8) at Durham, N.C., despite taking an all-night plane trip from Seattle after beating Washington Tuesday night.

Duke’s Danny Ferry scored 18 points and grabbed 9 rebounds.

Texas El Paso 82, Utah 66--Former UCLA player Greg Foster scored 22 points to lead the Miners (12-1) to victory over the Utes (9-7) in a Western Athletic Conference opener at El Paso.

New Mexico 88, BYU 84--Charlie Thomas scored 24 points to lead the Lobos (6-4) over the Cougars (5-5) in a WAC opener at Albuquerque. Michael Smith led BYU with 31 points.

N.C. State 73, Clemson 65--Rodney Monroe scored 21 points, and the No. 16 Wolfpack (8-1) held the Tigers (7-3) scoreless over the final 5:24 to win an Atlantic Coast Conference opener at Clemson, S.C.

Western Kentucky 64, U. San Diego 59--Brett McNeal scored 23 points as the Hilltoppers (9-3) took advantage of poor free-throw shooting by the Toreros (5-7) to win at Bowling Green, Ky. USD made only 5 of 19 foul shots.

Kansas State 83, Texas Arlington 52--LaKeith Humphrey scored 16 points at Manhattan, Kan., to help the Wildcats (8-2) become the 30th school in NCAA history to record 1,100 wins.

Kansas State, with 1,100 victories and 842 losses in its 85th season of basketball, is the second Big Eight school to accomplish the feat. Kansas also has won more than 1,100 games.

West Virginia 69, St. Bonaventure 45--Chris Brooks scored 15 points, and Darryl Prue and Ray Foster each added 14 to lead the Moutaineers (8-2, 2-0) over the Bonnies (6-4, 1-1) in an Atlantic 10 game at Morgantown, W.Va.