COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NATIONAL ROUNDUP : North Carolina Is in No. 1 Form, 83-65

North Carolina, ranked No. 1 in college basketball for the first time since the 1987-88 season, used a 19-1 first-half run to coast past No. 14 Wake Forest, 83-65, Wednesday night at Chapel Hill, N.C.

The Tar Heels (25-3 overall, 13-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference), beat the Demon Deacons for the 11th time in a row at home and avenged their worst loss of the season--88-62 to the Demon Deacons on Jan. 30.

North Carolina guaranteed its 14th first-place ACC regular-season finish with its eighth victory in a row. Wake Forest (18-7, 9-6), ranked No. 9 two weeks ago, has lost three of its last four.

North Carolina center Eric Montross made his first seven shots and finished with 17 points.

Wake Forest forward Rodney Rogers had 12 points--nine below his ACC-leading scoring average--and fouled out.

No. 5 Kentucky 98, Mississippi 66--Kentucky (21-4, 12-4) shot 57% and forced 14 turnovers in the first half of a Southeastern Conference game at Oxford, Miss.

No. 8 Kansas 94, Nebraska 83--Reserve Steve Woodberry scored 26 points--the most by any Kansas player in two seasons--as the Jayhawks (23-5, 10-3) clinched their third consecutive regular-season Big Eight title and 41st in their history.

Nebraska (19-9, 7-6) has lost 11 games in a row at Lawrence, Kan.

No. 10 Seton Hall 79, Boston College 61--The Pirates (23-6, 13-4) clinched at least a share of the regular-season Big East title at East Rutherford, N.J., with their seventh victory in a row. Boston College (15-10, 9-8) shot 35%.

No. 13 Arkansas 88, LSU 75--The Razorbacks (19-6, 10-5) won their final game in Barnhill Arena at Fayetteville, Ark., using an 18-1 first-half run to take command. Arkansas moves to the 18,000-seat Bud Walton Arena next season. The game at Barnhill drew a record 9,660.

No. 24 Purdue 61, Michigan State 58--Kris Weshinskey’s three-pointer with 18 seconds left allowed the Boilermakers (18-8, 7-8) to hang on at East Lansing, Mich.

OTHER GAMES

Minnesota (16-9, 8-8) kept its NCAA tournament hopes alive with a 67-65 Big Ten victory over Illinois (17-10, 10-5) at Minneapolis. The Illini’s leading scorer, Deon Thomas, had a season-low 10 points, while second-leading scorer Andy Kaufman had two points. . . . Wisconsin’s high-scoring Michael Finley had 11 points--12 below his average--in the Badgers’ 62-58 loss to Penn State at Madison, Wis. Wisconsin fell to 14-10 and 7-8. . . . Justus Thigpen’s three-point shot at the buzzer gave Iowa State (18-9, 7-6) a 67-66 Big Eight victory over Colorado at Boulder, Colo. Thigpen took an inbounds pass in the backcourt with 2.2 seconds left and dribbled to the Iowa State three-point line before taking the winning shot. The public address announcer said it was a two-point shot, but officials quickly ruled it a three-pointer.