COLLEGE BASKETBALL NATIONAL ROUNDUP : Arizona Stays in Pac-10 Race by Beating Cal

Now that they know they control their own fate, the Arizona Wildcats have turned up the heat in their bid to win their fifth consecutive Pacific 10 Conference title.

The Wildcats got 16 points from Sean Rooks and 15 from Chris Mills and smothered California with a pressure defense in a 100-77 victory Thursday night at Tucson.

Arizona (23-4 overall, 12-3 in the Pac-10) will finish its regular season with games at UCLA and USC.

The Wildcats led Cal (8-17, 12-3) by as many as 26 points in the first half, during which they shot 61%. They were ahead, 57-33, at halftime.

Arizona held 29-point leads three times in the second half before going up briefly by 30 when Deron Johnson’s layup made it 98-68 with 1:52 remaining.

Arizona set the tone by making its first five shots, including three-pointers from Mills and Matt Othick, in taking a 13-5 lead.

Reeves and Todd Stoudamire finished with 14 points apiece, Othick 11 and Johnson 10.

No. 13 Michigan State 72, Northwestern 55--Freshman Shawn Respert scored 20 points and Mike Peplowski added 17 as the Spartans defeated the Wildcats in a Big Ten game at Evanston, Ill.

Michigan State played without injured Matt Steigenga, who is expected to return for Saturday’s game at Illinois.

The Spartans had a tough time until they put together a 19-4 run midway through the second half to pull away.

The victory was the fifth in the last seven games for Michigan State (19-6, 9-6). Northwestern (8-17, 1-14) lost its seventh in a row.

Kevin Rankin scored 18 points for Northwestern, and Cedric Neloms and Todd Leslie had 13 each.

PACIFIC 10 CONFERENCE

Dwayne Fontana had 19 points to lead Arizona State to a 76-71 victory over Stanford at Tempe, Ariz.

Fontana, in only his second start in 15 conference games, scored 13 points as the Sun Devils (17-11, 8-7) outscored the Cardinal, 39-18, in a 14-minute span from late in the first half to early in the second that ended with Stanford (16-9, 8-7) trailing, 55-41.

However, Arizona State missed eight consecutive free throws and the Cardinal got to within three points twice, the last time when Brent Williams made a three-pointer with 10.6 seconds left to cut the lead to 74-71.

Adam Keefe, the Pac-10’s second-leading scorer, had 23 points and eight rebounds for Stanford.

OTHER GAMES

Marvin Moore scored a personal-best 26 points to lead Rice to a 103-97 victory over Texas in a Southwest Conference game at Houston. . . . Tyson Maroney’s 17 points paced Colorado State to a 72-54 victory over Air Force in Western Athletic Conference game at Ft. Collins, Colo. . . . Walt Williams scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half to lead Maryland to a 77-68 victory over Wake Forest in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at Winston-Salem, N.C. . . . Rod Wade scored 24 points to lead Arkansas Little Rock to a 65-53 victory over Texas Pan American in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at Biloxi, Miss. In another first-round game, Ervin Johnson scored 18 points to lead New Orleans to a 66-47 victory over Central Florida. . . . David Adebanjo scored five of his 18 points in a 14-point second-half surge that led Long Island University to a 77-60 upset of Fairleigh Dickinson in the first round of the Northeast Conference Tournament at Teaneck, N.J. In another first-round game, Andy Lake scored 19 points and Marist upset Monmouth, 75-60, at West Long Branch, N.J. . . . Donald Fogle scored all of his 18 points in the second half as South Carolina State beat Coppin State, 98-91, and Milan Brown had 19 points to lead Howard to a 58-54 victory over Bethune-Cookman in the quarterfinals of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament at Norfolk, Va.