COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Indiana Defeats Wisconsin, Ties for Big Ten Lead

Indiana had its worst shooting night of the season, but Coach Bob Knight found one bright spot.

“We didn’t have to have a miraculous finish to win the game,” he said.

The No. 4 Hoosiers, who made 35% of their shots, made 26 of 29 free throws in a 66-41 Big Ten Conference victory over Wisconsin Thursday night at Bloomington, Ind.

The victory tied Indiana (23-5) with Ohio State for first place in the Big Ten at 14-3. Ohio State ends the regular season at Minnesota on Saturday. Indiana plays Purdue on Sunday.

“Our shooting remains a tremendous puzzle for us,” Knight said. “(Calbert) Cheaney is four for 23 (in the last two games). We can’t beat anybody with that.”

It was good enough against Wisconsin (13-17, 4-13), which made only 15 of 51 shots in losing for the 25th consecutive time to Indiana. Badger Coach Steve Yoder was 0-20 against the Hoosiers in his 10-year career. He announced his resignation 2 1/2 weeks ago, effective at the end of the season.

“You have to play almost perfect to win here,” Yoder said. “We’re not a great catch-up team on the road. Most teams aren’t, especially without a lot of quickness, which we don’t have.”

Matt Nover led the Hoosiers with 16 points. Senior Eric Anderson scored 15 points in his final game at Assembly Hall.

Tracy Webster led the Badgers with 14 points and broke the sophomore scoring record of 511 points set by Cory Blackwell in 1983.

PACIFIC 10

Stanford 70, Oregon 47--Marcus Lollie scored 19 points and the Cardinal (17-10, 9-8) held the Ducks (6-20, 2-15) to 18 points in the second half at Stanford.

California 79, Oregon State 66--Four freshmen scored more than 10 points for Cal (9-18, 3-14) as the Bears offset a 24-point performance by Kareem Anderson of the Beavers (15-15, 7-10) at Berkeley.

TOURNAMENTS

ATLANTIC COAST

Maryland 81, Clemson 75--Walt Williams scored 38 points at Charlotte, N.C., as the Terrapins (14-14) beat the Tigers (14-14) in the first elimination game in the history of the tournament.

Maryland (14-14) moved into tonight’s quarterfinal game against top-ranked and top-seeded Duke. However, Maryland is still under NCAA sanction and a loss in the tournament will end its season.

ATLANTIC 10

No. 22 Massachusetts 97, West Virginia 91--Harper Williams scored 18 points at Amherst, Mass., to lead the Minutemen to the championship and their first NCAA bid in 30 years.

BIG EAST

Boston College 78, Providence 68--Gerrod Abram scored 22 points and the Eagles (16-12) made 21 of 26 free throws in the final six minutes at New York to beat the Friars (14-17) and advance to the quarterfinals.

Miami 83, Pittsburgh 71--Jerome Scott scored 30 points and Trevor Burton added 25 as the Hurricanes (8-23), who won only one of 16 conference games in their inaugural season in the Big East, upset the Panthers (17-15).

SOUTHEASTERN

Georgia 85, Mississippi 66--Reggie Tinch scored 15 points and four other Georgia players scored more than 10 points as the Bulldogs (15-13) routed the Rebels (11-17) in the first round at Birmingham, Ala.

Georgia advanced to play top-seeded and No. 6 Arkansas tonight in the quarterfinals.

Vanderbilt 77, Mississippi State 55--The Commodores (15-13) scored 17 points in the final eight minutes, 13 from the free-throw line, en route to the victory over the Bulldogs (15-13).

Vanderbilt will play No. 9 Kentucky tonight in a second-round game.

Tennessee 70, South Carolina 63--Carlus Groves scored nine of his 18 points during a 23-6 run that carried the Volunteers (18-13) past the Gamecocks (11-17), who finished their first SEC season by losing 13 of their final 14 games.

WESTERN ATHLETIC

Brigham Young 72, Air Force 51--The top-seeded Cougars (23-6) used a balanced attack led by center Gary Trost to defeat the Falcons (9-20) in the first round at Ft. Collins, Colo.

Texas El Paso, Colorado State 65--Guard Prince Stewart scored off a drive with 45 seconds to salvage the victory for the Miners (24-5).

New Mexico 89, Wyoming 83--Willie Banks scored six of his 24 points in the last five minutes to lead the Lobos (18-11) over the Cowboys.

OTHERS

Andre Whitney scored 23 points and Deon Watson added 21 as Idaho (18-13) pulled away to a 75-56 victory over Boise State (16-13) in the opening round of the Big Sky Conference tournament at Missoula, Mont. Idaho will meet defending conference champion Montana, a 92-74 winner Thursday over Idaho State. Nevada plays Weber State in the other semifinal.

Anfernee Hardaway scored eight points during a 14-6 run that helped Memphis State (19-9) to a 79-67 victory over Alabama Birmingham (20-8) in the Great Midwest Conference tournament at Chicago. Memphis State plays No. 19 DePaul in the semifinals. . . . Freshman William Gates returned to his hometown and scored 23 points, leading Marquette (16-12) to a 74-63 victory over St. Louis (5-23) in the GMWC tournament. Marquette plays No. 12 Cincinnati tonight in the semifinals of the new league’s first tournament.

Mike Williams made one of two free throws with 7.2 seconds left to give top-seeded Miami (21-7) a 67-66 victory over eighth-seeded Eastern Michigan (9-22) in a Mid-American Conference tournament quarterfinal at Detroit. . . . Leon McGee scored 21 points to lead third-seeded Western Michigan (21-7) to a 61-57 victory over sixth-seeded Kent (9-19).

Keith Stalling scored 21 points and second-seeded Ball State (23-7) defeated seventh-seeded Central Michigan (12-18), 79-65.

Darin Archbold scored 26 points as Butler (20-8) got its first Midwestern Collegiate Conference tournament victory in 13 years with an 87-70 win over Detroit Mercy (12-17) at Cincinnati. . . . Keir Rogers scored 22 points, eight in the final two minutes as Loyola of Chicago (13-15) held off Dayton (15-15) for an 83-73 MWCC tournament victory.