COLLEGE BASKETBALL NATIONAL ROUNDUP : Duke Gets Back to Basics and Wins, 84-68

When Mike Krzyzewski reminded top-ranked Duke to get back to the basics, he lit a fire that Wake Forest couldn’t put out.

“It was just like a surge of heat. It’s something all of us feel on the court,” said Christian Laettner, whose 25 points led the unbeaten Blue Devils to an 84-68 victory Saturday at Durham, N.C.

Duke, 14-0 overall and 6-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, has won 20 in a row, best in the nation, and its 14-0 start is the second best in school history.

Wake Forest rallied to 49-41 on a three-pointer by Derrick McQueen with 15:41 to play when Krzyzewski called a timeout.

Said Krzyzewski: “It wasn’t that we weren’t ready to play, but they were playing a sloughing defense, and our guys had already played 20 tough minutes of basketball. In that timeout, I told them to concentrate and work harder out there.”

After the timeout, the Blue Devils put the game away. Laettner scored six points in a row and Grant Hill added an alley-oop dunk for a 57-43 lead with 12:20 to play. Later, a 12-0 run made the score 71-47.

Rodney Rogers had 18 points to lead Wake Forest (10-5, 3-4).

No. 3 Oklahoma State 84, Oral Roberts 61--Byron Houston scored 18 of his 30 points during the first half as the Cowboys (18-0) used a 15-0 run to take a 45-21 halftime lead en route to victory at Tulsa, Okla.

Bryant Reeves, a 7-foot freshman, scored 21 points for the Cowboys. Ray Thompson scored 32 to lead Oral Roberts (6-15).

No. 5 Kansas 103, Nebraska 78--Adonis Jordan ended a shooting slump by scoring 20 points, making a personal-best six three-pointers, as the Jayhawks (14-3, 1-0) routed the Cornhuskers (13-3, 1-2) in a Big Eight game at Lawrence, Kan.

Jordan had been eight for 32 in his last three games.

In their last two home games, the Jayhawks’ 24-game home winning streak was ended by Louisville, and before that, Kansas struggled to an overtime victory over Pepperdine.

No. 7 Connecticut 83, Boston College 77--Chris Smith scored 14 points in the final 13:01 of regulation and six more in overtime as the Huskies overcame the Eagles’ sharp shooting for a Big East victory at Hartford, Conn.

The overtime victory was the second in a row for Connecticut (15-1, 6-1), and its eighth consecutive victory over Boston College (11-6, 3-5), which had won three in a row.

With Villanova losing to Providence, the Huskies took sole possession of first place in the Big East.

Smith, who finished with 23 points, made a 16-foot jumper 20 seconds into overtime and Connecticut led the rest of the way.

Scott Burrell also scored 23 points for Connecticut and capped the victory with a dunk with eight seconds to play.

Billy Curley, who fouled out with 1:19 to play in regulation, led Boston College with 22 points.

No. 10 North Carolina 77, Virginia 56--Hubert Davis came off the bench to score 19 points and the Tar Heels used their trapping defense to beat the Cavaliers at Chapel Hill, N.C.

The Tar Heels (14-3, 4-2) avoided their first 3-3 start in ACC play in 26 seasons, while Virginia (8-8, 2-4) lost its 11th in a row at Chapel Hill, where the Cavaliers have won only four times in 52 games.

Bryant Stith, Virginia’s leading scorer, picked up four fouls in the first eight minutes of the second half and North Carolina took advantage of his absence.

Hubert Davis was the Tar Heels’ offensive star again, scoring 19 points in his second reserve role in two weeks.

“He really did get frustrated,” Davis said of Stith, who picked up two of the fouls on offensive charges. “He was going a little bit one-on-one, forcing a few shots.”

North Carolina Coach Dean Smith agreed.

“The story of the game was our second-half defense,” said Smith, whose team forced 12 of Virginia’s 23 turnovers during the second half and held the Cavaliers to 28.6% shooting. “They didn’t get a good look at the basket.”

No. 12 Missouri 69, Colorado 52--Jevon Crudup scored 18 points and Anthony Peeler had 16 to lead the Tigers (14-2, 2-1) to a Big Eight victory over the Buffaloes (9-7, 2-1) at Columbia, Mo.

Randy Robinson scored 17 points for Colorado (9-7, 0-3), which played without starting forward James Hunter.

Peeler, who has been ill for about a week, got his 16 points in 24 minutes.

No. 13 Syracuse 58, No. 22 St. John’s 56--Junior guard Mike Hopkins stole the ball and then made one of two free throws with 37 seconds to play to help the Orangemen (14-2, 6-2) beat the Redmen (10-6, 4-4) in a Big East game at Syracuse, N.Y.

“He’s just the guy you don’t look at the stat sheet,” Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said after the 6-5 Hopkins turned in his typical low-profile, hard-played game: four points, six rebounds and a steal.

After Hopkins’ free throw made the score 57-56, Lawrence Moten, who led Syracuse with 20 points, gave the Orangemen a 58-56 lead by making a free throw with 11 seconds to play after Dave Johnson had stolen the ball from St. John’s Malik Sealy.

No. 15 Alabama 68, Georgia 65--The Crimson Tide ended a three-game losing streak with an SEC victory at Athens, Ga.

“We won the game at the free throw line,” Alabama Coach Wimp Sanderson said.

The Tide (15-4, 3-3) made four fewer field goals than the Bulldogs (9-7, 2-4) but outscored them, 18-4, from the free-throw line.

Alabama, which had made only 68% of its free throws this season, made 17 in a row during one stretch and finished 18 of 25.

James Robinson, who sat out Alabama’s previous game as punishment for walking out of a practice, led the Crimson Tide with 17 points and freshman Cedric Moore added 16.

Litterial Green scored 14 for Georgia.

No. 16 Michigan 98, Wisconsin 83--Chris Webber had 25 points, 17 rebounds and six assists to lead the Wolverines to a Big Ten victory over the Badgers at Ann Arbor, Mich.

Michigan (11-4, 3-3) had six players in double figures, including Jalen Rose, who was held to five points in an 89-74 loss at Indiana on Tuesday. Jimmy King had 15 points and Rose 13.

Tracy Webster had 24 points and six assists for Wisconsin (10-8, 1-4), and Michael Finley added 21 points.

No. 18 Georgia Tech 73, Louisville 65--Jon Barry scored 19 points and made five three-pointers to lead the Yellow Jackets (14-5) over the Cardinals (11-4) at Louisville.

Freshman forward James Forrest also had 19 points for Georgia Tech, which had lost two in a row.

Dwayne Morton scored 17 points for Louisville.

No. 21 Tulane 99, Temple 75--Anthony Reed scored 24 points and David Whitmore had 16 as the Green Wave (15-1) won at New Orleans.

Tulane forced 15 turnovers, nine of them steals, but it was far below the Green Wave’s average of coming up with 26 turnovers a game.

No. 25 Nevada Las Vegas 74, New Mexico State 67--J.R. Rider, who had 26 points, made seven three-pointers and teamed with Evric Gray for 19 consecutive second-half points as the 25th-ranked Rebels (17-2, 9-0) beat the Aggies (13-2, 5-1) in a Big West game at Las Cruces, N.M., to give Jerry Tarkanian his 500th victory as UNLV’s coach.

Tarkanian, whose 19-year stint at UNLV will end with his resignation at the end of the season, is 500-105 at the school and 616-122 overall. The victory kept the Rebels atop the Big West Conference.