COLLEGE BASKETBALL NATIONAL ROUNDUP : Quite an ACComplishment for North Carolina

North Carolina’s class of 1991 graduated from the Atlantic Coast Conference with honors Sunday.

At the head of the class was Rick Fox, who scored 25 points and received the most valuable player award as the seventh-ranked Tar Heels routed No. 6 Duke, 96-74, to win the ACC tournament at Charlotte, N.C.

Fox and two other North Carolina seniors, King Rice and Pete Chilcutt, helped the Tar Heels avenge two regular-season losses to the Blue Devils. Rice scored 12 points and Chilcutt had a team-high eight rebounds.

“We knew we had to take it to another level and we did today,” Fox said.

It was Duke’s fifth loss to North Carolina in the tournament championship game, and it was the most lopsided ACC championship victory since the Tar Heels (25-5) beat North Carolina State in 1968, 87-50.

OTHER TOURNAMENTS

SOUTHWEST

No. 5 Arkansas 120, No. 23 Texas 89--Todd Day and Lee Mayberry led a devastating 19-2 run at the start of the second half that gave the Razorbacks their third consecutive SWC title at Dallas.

It was the sixth and last tournament victory for Arkansas (31-3), which moves to the Southeastern Conference next year. Texas (22-8) has never won an SWC tournament title.

The Razorbacks were led by Oliver Miller’s 23 points. Mayberry scored 20 and Day had 14.

SOUTHEASTERN

No. 24 Alabama 88, Tennessee 69--Melvin Cheatum scored 23 points and Gary Waites 22 to lead the Crimson Tide (21-9) to its third consecutive SEC tournament title in Nashville, Tenn. Had Tennessee (13-21) won, it would have entered the NCAA tournament with the most losses in the event’s history. Bradley got in the 1955 NCAA event with a 7-19 mark.

BIG EAST

No. 21 Seton Hall 74, Georgetown 62--The Pirates, who won their first two games in the tournament on last-second shots by MVP Oliver Taylor, took control early in the second half and won their first Big East tournament title at Madison Square Garden .

Seton Hall is 22-8 and the Hoyas are 18-12.

Anthony Avent and Taylor each scored 15 points for Seton Hall. Alonzo Mourning led Georgetown with 22 points and 13 rebounds.

BIG EIGHT

Missouri 90, No. 13 Nebraska 82--The Tigers (20-10) cannot play in the NCAA tournament because of probation. But they knocked off two NCAA-bound teams during the weekend at Kansas City, No. 14 Oklahoma State in the semifinals and then Nebraska.

Doug Smith, playing his final game, scored 31 points and was named the tournament’s outstanding player.

Nebraska, making its first appearance in the championship game, dropped to 26-7.

OTHER GAMES

Iowa 80, No. 2 Ohio State 69--In its second major upset of the conference season, Iowa denied the Buckeyes an outright conference championship. It was the second consecutive loss for Ohio State (25-3), which ended up sharing the title with No. 3 Indiana at 15-3.

Iowa (20-10) stunned Indiana, 80-79, in Bloomington two weeks ago and earned a berth in the NCAA tournament. Rodell Davis led the Hawkeyes with 19 points and Kevin Smith, a 37% free-throw shooter, made three key foul shots down the stretch to help secure the victory.

No. 3 Indiana 70, Illinois 58--Indiana’s gaining a share of the Big Ten title was nearly overshadowed by a postgame exchange between coaches Lou Henson and Bob Knight.

Indiana’s victory gave it a 15-3 conference mark (27-4 overall).

“I thought that it would be, and it was, an incredibly difficult game,” Knight said sarcastically in his postgame statement. “I’d like to help Illinois, but I can’t give them much time, because I’ve got to go to the NCAA tournament.”

“What do you expect out of Knight?” said Henson, whose school is ineligible for the tournament. “He’s the classic bully, and the big bully won’t intimidate me.”