COLLEGE BASKETBALL REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS : Irish Feel at Home in Dome

The Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y., is a difficult place for visiting teams to win, but Notre Dame might want to adopt it as a second home after beating Syracuse there for the third consecutive time.

LaPhonso Ellis scored 28 points Saturday as the Fighting Irish upset No. 10 Syracuse, 101-98, ending the Orangemen’s 20-game home winning streak.

It was only the second time in 55 games that Syracuse (16-5) lost in the Carrier Dome to a team from outside the Big East Conference. Notre Dame defeated the Orangemen, 66-65, in 1990 on a buzzer-beating three-point basket by Elmer Bennett.

Bennett scored 22 points Saturday.

“We were fortunate to come out of here with a win,” said Ellis, who also had 15 rebounds, “but it’s getting to be habit.”

Notre Dame (9-11), which nearly wasted a 16-point first half lead, made eight of 10 free throws in the final 75 seconds to pull out the victory and become the first team to score 100 points against Syracuse in Coach Jim Boeheim’s 504-game tenure.

Notre Dame’s Daimon Sweet scored 24 points, including six consecutive free throws down the stretch.

Dave Johnson scored 31 points for Syracuse.

EAST

Malik Sealy scored 29 points for St. John’s (14-7, 8-5) in an 84-74 Big East Conference victory over Pittsburgh (15-10, 7-5) at Pittsburgh. . . . Irwin Church scored 21 points to lead Georgetown (15-6, 8-4) to a 75-58 Big East victory over Miami (6-17, 1-11) at Miami.

Boston College (14-7, 6-6) held Villanova (8-13, 5-7) to one basket in the opening 17:30 of an 82-46 rout at Newton, Mass., Villanova’s worst loss ever in the Big East. . . . Princeton (18-3, 8-0) held Yale (14-6, 4-4) to 13 field goals and extended its winning streak to 13 games with a 46-35 Ivy League victory at New Haven, Conn.

MIDWEST

Acie Earl scored 16 points for Iowa (14-7, 6-5) in an 80-68 Big Ten Conference victory over Purdue (12-22, 4-7) at Iowa City. . . . Sophomore guard Rennie Clemons scored 22 points and Illinois (10-11, 4-7) made 37 of a school-record 51 free throws in a 74-58 Big Ten victory over Minnesota (15-10, 7-5) at Champaign, Ill.

SOUTH

Rodney Rogers of Wake Forest (14-7, 6-6) scored 22 points in the Demon Deacons’ 69-60 Atlantic Coast Conference victory over Virginia (11-10, 4-6) at Winston-Salem, N.C. . . . Elbert Rogers scored 20 points to lead Alabama Birmingham (18-5, 3-4) to a 64-60 Great Midwest Conference victory over Marquette (12-10, 2-4) at Birmingham, Ala.

WEST

Wyoming (13-10, 5-6) opened the second half with a 16-2 run en route to a 68-61 Western Athletic Conference victory over New Mexico (14-10, 8-4) at Laramie, Wyo. . . . Fabio Ribeiro scored 17 points for Hawaii (13-9, 6-5) in a 66-58 WAC victory over San Diego State (2-21, 0-11) at San Diego.

Ryan Yoder scored 19 points, including five free throws in the last two minutes to give Colorado State (12-12, 6-4) an 81-72 WAC victory over Utah (17-6, 7-4) at Ft. Collins, Colo. . . . Eric Traylor scored 20 points for New Mexico State (17-4, 9-3) in an 82-57 Big West Conference victory over San Jose State (2-18, 1-11) at Las Cruces, N.M.

Jay Goodman and Roderick Hay each scored 14 points to lead Utah State (13-9, 7-6) to a 70-54 Big West victory over UC Santa Barbara (15-6, 8-4) at Logan, Utah. . . . Jack Hurd of LaSalle (12-9) scored five points in the final 38 seconds of an 81-80 nonconference victory over Brigham Young at Provo, Utah.

Darryl Johnson scored 31 points and had 18 rebounds as San Francisco (10-14, 2-9) beat Portland (10-13, 3-7), 99-86, in a West Coast Conference game at San Francisco. . . . Eric Banburger scored 17 points to lead St. Mary’s (13-13, 4-7) to a 65-57 WCC victory over Gonzaga (17-6, 7-3) at Moraga.