COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Murdock Paces Providence Past Georgetown

Eric Murdock of Providence scored 30 points, including the Friars’ final 13 in the last 11 minutes, to spark a 72-69 Big East Conference victory over No. 15 Georgetown Tuesday night at Providence, R.I.

“Once he gets playing in that zone, he’s hard to stop,” Providence Coach Rick Barnes said. “We call it, ‘EMT--Eric Murdock Time.’ ”

Center Dikembe Mutombo had 19 points, 17 rebounds and seven blocked shots for Georgetown (9-3, 1-1), which pulled to within 63-62 with six minutes left.

But Murdock made two jump shots, a three-point basket and two free throws to seal the victory for Providence (10-4, 1-2).

No. 9 Connecticut 74, Villanova 71--Lyman DePreist of the Huskies (11-1, 3-0) blocked Lance Miller’s attempted layup with five seconds left to help preserve a Big East victory over the Wildcats (7-6, 1-3) at Villanova, Pa.

No. 12 Oklahoma 88, Kansas 82--The Sooners (12-2) beat the Jayhawks (8-3) in a Big Eight Conference opener at Norman, Okla., despite shooting only 36% from the field compared to 61% for Kansas.

No. 13 Virginia 82, Clemson 78--Bryant Stith scored five of his 21 points in the final 2:06 to help the Cavaliers (10-2, 2-0) hold off the Tigers (8-5, 0-3) in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at Clemson, S.C.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

EAST

Iona ended La Salle’s 30-game Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference winning streak by defeating the Explorers, 77-74, at New Rochelle, N.Y. The loss was the first in the conference for the Explorers (7-3, 1-1) since Jan. 25, 1989. Iona is 5-7 and 1-1. . . . John Chaney got his 200th victory at Temple as the Owls defeated Rutgers, 83-62, in an Atlantic 10 game at Philadelphia. Mark Macon scored 28 points for Temple (8-3, 3-0). Rutgers is 7-4 and 3-2.

SOUTH

Charles Mayes scored a career-high 25 points as Vanderbilt (9-5, 3-1) beat Tennessee (6-8, 0-3), 108-68, in a Southeastern Conference game at Nashville, Tenn.

WEST

Wyoming (11-2, 2-0) held Colorado State (7-6, 0-3) scoreless for the first five minutes and took off from there.

The Cowboys never looked back en route to a 75-63 victory in a Western Athletic Conference game at Ft. Collins, Colo.