COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Jones Scores 28, Leads Surge as Sooners Beat No. 1 Missouri

Jackie Jones scored 28 points and led a second-half run as No. 10 Oklahoma defeated No. 1 Missouri, 107-90, Sunday for its 44th consecutive home victory.

A record crowd of 12,157 at Lloyd Noble Arena in Norman, Okla., saw the Sooners, 21-4 overall and 9-3 in Big Eight play, prevent Missouri’s clinching a tie for the conference title.

“Did you notice we beat the No. 1 team in the nation and our student body didn’t run out on the floor?” Oklahoma Coach Billy Tubbs said. “What does that tell you? It tells me we expect to win.”

Oklahoma figures to play host to the No. 1 team again on Tuesday night when Kansas--now No. 2--comes to town.

Missouri (25-3, 11-2) got 27 points and 11 rebounds from Doug Smith.

But the Tigers’ second-leading scorer, Anthony Peeler, had an off day. He scored only 10 points on three-of-16 shooting.

Oklahoma’s Jones also had 10 rebounds and seven blocks. Damon Patterson had 24 points, William Davis 20 points and 15 rebounds and Skeeter Henry 18 points.

Missouri outshot the Sooners from the field, 44% to 43%. But Oklahoma outrebounded the Tigers, 50-44, and outscored them, 36-18, on three-pointers.

Oklahoma, leading 49-45 at halftime, broke the game open early in the second half with an 15-2 run in the span of three minutes. Jones and Patterson scored five points apiece in the spurt.

A three-pointer by Jones with 7:50 left gave the Sooners their largest lead, 82-63, and Missouri got no closer than 11 after that. Smith fouled out with 6:24 to play.

No. 11 Syracuse 93, Providence 89--Billy Owens scored 33 points, with nine coming during a 22-4 spurt by the Orangemen late in the game, as Syracuse scored a Big East victory at Providence, R.I.

The Syracuse surge came after a 13-2 run had given Providence a 73-65 lead. Stephen Thompson started things for Syracuse with a three-point shot with 9:32 left, and Owens’ three-point play with 1:38 remaining gave the Orangemen an 87-77 lead.

A key factor in the turnaround was Coach Jim Boeheim’s decision to switch Thompson to cover guard Carlton Screen, who was hurting Syracuse by penetrating and passing off for easy baskets.

Syracuse (20-5, 10-4), which had lost two of its previous three games, tied fifth-ranked Georgetown for second place in the conference, one game behind sixth-ranked Connecticut.

Providence (15-10, 7-8), which ended a 15-year, 21-game losing streak against Syracuse with an 87-86 victory Jan. 20, is 2-23 against the Orangemen.

In the loss Jan. 20, Syracuse couldn’t make key free throws down the stretch. But the Orangemen made 17 of 22 in the last eight minutes Sunday.

Providence was led by Marty Conlon, who scored a season-high 26 points. Screen had 20 points and 11 assists.

Georgia 86, No. 12 LSU 85--Neville Austin made one of two free throws with five seconds left to give the Bulldogs, who came back from a 19-point second-half deficit, a Southeastern Conference victory at Athens, Ga.

It was the sixth victory in a row for Georgia (19-6, 12-4), which needs only one more victory to clinch the first SEC basketball title in school history. LSU is 21-6, 11-5.

Of his game-winning foul shot, Austin said: “I just tried to relax and calm myself down. I’d rather someone with a better percentage had been there.”

Austin, a role player who had missed four of five free throws earlier in the game, was shooting 64% from the line.

Alec Kessler scored 30 points to lead the Bulldogs and teamed with Rod Cole in a 21-4 run that erased most of 57-38 lead LSU had built behind the shooting of Chris Jackson, who finished with 31 points.

Kessler had nine points and Cole eight in the rally that enabled Georgia to get back in the game. The score was tied eight times in the final 9:08.

But Georgia wasn’t able to take the lead until Austin hit his free throw. When he missed the second, LSU rebounded and called time out with four seconds to play.

After a Georgia timeout, Randy Devall took the inbounds pass, dribbled past midcourt and shot a 40-footer that bounced off the rim at the buzzer.

No. 14 La Salle 74, St. Peter’s 66--St. Peter’s did everything right against the Explorers--except make the foul shot that could have won the game. La Salle survived to win in overtime at Jersey City, N.J.

The Explorers won their 17th consecutive game and are 25-1 overall and 15-0 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Lionel Simmons, the NCAA’s fourth all-time leading scorer with 3,042 points, paced LaSalle with 18 points, 14 rebounds and six assists.

But Simmons let Tony Walker of St. Peter’s loose for a game-tying layup with 26 seconds to go in regulation. After eluding Simmons, Walker took an inbounds pass and laid it in to tie the game at 61-61. Walker was fouled on the play, but missed the free throw, and neither team scored again in regulation.

La Salle scored the first nine points of the overtime as St. Peter’s dropped to 14-13, 7-9.

Simmons, with one regular season game remaining, moved to within 24 points of Harry Kelly, who is No. 3 on the NCAA scoring list with 3,066 points.

No. 15 Michigan St. 72, No. 25 Indiana 66--The good news for the Spartans was that they won their sixth game in a row, their longest Big Ten winning streak since 1979.

The bad news was that guard Kirk Manns, the Big Ten’s leading scorer with a 20.1 average, will miss at least two weeks because of a stress fracture in his right foot.

Manns was injured in practice last week, and the injury was aggravated in this game at East Lansing, Mich. He started and played 19 minutes.

Steve Smith scored 21 points to lead Michigan State (22-5, 11-3). The Spartans are only a half-game behind Big Ten-leading Purdue.

Freshman Calbert Cheaney scored 32 points for Indiana (16-8, 6-8).