COLLEGE BASKETBALL NATIONAL ROUNDUP : Kentucky Learns How Good It Really Is in Loss

Pittsburgh center Darren Morningstar scored a career-high 27 points Friday night at Lexington, Ky., in leading the Panthers to an 85-67 upset of No. 4 Kentucky in the second round of the preseason National Invitation Tournament.

The game showed Kentucky Coach Rick Pitino something.

“Pittsburgh played a great game and we played a very poor game,” Pitino said. “I think we learned a lot of valuable things from this game. And I think our fans learned a lot from this game.

“We can stop talking about going to the Final Four, and we can stop all the talk about being a top five team. We are not.”

Morningstar controlled the inside, hitting 12 of 16 shots, and the Pitt (2-0) defense held Kentucky to 27% shooting (21 of 77), including seven of 36 from three-point range.

Pitt stopped Kentucky’s 22-game home winning streak.

No. 6 Louisiana State 77, Northeast Louisiana 76--With five seconds to play, freshman Clarence Ceasar made his second free throw and the Tigers escaped being upset at home.

LSU trailed, 76-68, with 1:59 to play. Shaquille O’Neal had 15 points and 15 rebounds and blocked five shots for LSU.

No. 9 Seton Hall 99, St. Francis 78--Point guard Bryan Caver came off the bench early to spark an 18-5 run and the Pirates shot 67% at South Orange, N.J.

Caver and fellow guard Terry Dehere each finished with 20 points as Seton Hall won an opener for the 19th consecutive time.

No. 15 Connecticut 76, Hartford 46--Rod Sellers scored 12 points during a 13-0 run to end the first half and the Huskies pulled away at Hartford, Conn.

Scott Burrell hit a three-pointer to open the second half. Burrell led Connecticut with 23 points.

No. 23 Georgia Tech 84, Colorado State 67--Jon Barry scored 29 points and made two three-pointers during a decisive burst in the second half at Atlanta in the second round of the preseason NIT.

In beating Colorado State (1-1), Georgia Tech gave Coach Bobby Cremins two milestone victories--his 200th since coming to Tech and his 300th overall in 16-plus seasons.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

SOUTH

Junior forward Anthony Reed scored 22 points and Tulane’s defense forced 39 turnovers in a 75-48 victory over Samford at New Orleans. . . . Dexter Cambridge scored 18 points and Texas (2-0) showed off its own brand of defense in beating Princeton (1-1), the nation’s defense leader for three consecutive seasons, 57-46, in the second round of the preseason NIT at Austin, Tex. . . . Keith Nelson scored 23 points, including 16 in the first half, to lead Tennessee-Chattanooga to an 85-73 victory over Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss.

MIDWEST

Led by Pat Baldwin’s 16 points, Northwestern won its first game since last December, overwhelming Illinois Wesleyan, 80-59, at Evanston, Ill., despite 41% shooting. . . . Damon Key had 21 points and Jim McIlvaine 15 as Marquette routed Prairie View A&M;, 98-55, at Milwaukee.

WEST

Adam Keefe scored 29 points in only 23 minutes to lead host Stanford to a 98-56 season-opening victory over Loyola College (Md.) in the first round of the Apple Invitational Tournament. Chase Maag scored 19 points to lead Rice to an 88-79 victory over Pacific in the second game. . . . Steve Logan, last year’s national junior college scoring leader at Compton, scored 30 points for New Mexico in a 112-98 victory over Idaho State in the first round of the Lobo Classic at Albuquerque. Duquesne beat Alabama Birmingham, 87-77, in the second game. . . . Nate Atchison led a balanced Montana (2-0) scoring attack with 13 points as the Grizzlies defeated Oregon, 78-39, at Missoula, Mont. . . . Reserve Bill Elleby scored 21 points and freshman forward Lamond Murray added 20 as California recovered from a sluggish start to beat Nevada, 91-73, at Berkeley. . . . Tod Bernard and Wil Hooker each scored 23 points to lead Fresno State to a 79-68 victory over Santa Clara at Fresno. . . . Lucius Davis scored 22 points to lead UC Santa Barbara over Richmond, 67-60, at Santa Barbara. . . . Kelvin Woods scored 17 of his 24 points in the second half as the University of San Diego topped San Diego State, 60-57. . . . Orlando Lightfoot scored 29 points as Idaho used a second-half rally to defeat Cal State Sacramento, 116-101, at Moscow, Idaho. . . . Kevin Weatherby scored 18 points and Eric Bamberger scored 17 to lead St. Mary’s of California to a 74-71 victory over Weber State at Logan, Utah.