COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Murray Scores 36 to Lead No. 24 California

Lamond Murray scored a career-high 36 points in the best offensive performance by a California player in 12 years as the 24th-ranked Golden Bears beat Washington State, 70-54, Thursday night at Berkeley.

Jason Kidd added 13 points, eight assists and five steals as Cal, 8-2 overall and 1-0 in the Pacific 10 Conference, won its sixth in a row.

Washington State (10-3, 0-1) was held to a season low in scoring.

Tony Harris scored 14 points to lead Washington State.

Murray made 10 of 12 shots, four of four from three-point range. He made 12 of 14 free throws to match the 36-point performance of Mark McNamara against UCLA on Feb. 19, 1982.

No. 4 Kentucky 84, Notre Dame 59--Gimel Martinez scored eight points in a 16-5 run over the final 6:21 of the first half that carried the Wildcats at Lexington, Ky.

Kentucky (11-1) won its ninth consecutive game and tied a school mark with its 30th consecutive victory in Rupp Arena.

Kentucky’s defense forced the Irish (4-6) to turn the ball over a season-high 34 times and the Wildcats converted those into 29 points.

West Virginia 49, No. 7 Temple 47--Pervires Green’s rebound basket with two seconds to play in an Atlantic 10 game at Philadelphia lifted the Mountaineers to their eighth consecutive victory.

Temple’s Rick Brunson had tied the score, 47-47, with a three-point basket with 15 seconds to play. West Virginia’s Ricky Robinson rebounded an airball three-point attempt, but was too strong with the follow. Greene, who scored 13 points, then put in the game-winning basket.

West Virginia (8-1, 2-0), which used a 12-4 rally to pull even at halftime, 22-22, outscored Temple (6-2, 1-1) at the start of the second half, 14-5.

No. 11 Louisville 80, South Florida 56--Greg Minor scored 19 points and Louisville used balanced scoring to win at Louisville in the Metro Conference opener for both teams.

South Florida (7-4) tried to control the tempo. But, as the Cardinals (10-1) pulled away in the second half, the Bulls went through a five-minute scoring drought.

No. 15 Wisconsin 71, Penn State 56--Michael Finley scored 23 points in a Big Ten game at State College, Pa., to lead the Badgers, who are off to their best start in more than 75 years.

The Badgers (10-0, 1-0) bettered the start of the 1919-20 team, which won its first nine games. The school record is 15 victories to start the 1911-12 season.

The Badgers took an early 12-point lead and never trailed against Penn State (7-4, 0-1), which is beginning its second season in the conference.

No. 23 George Washington 89, Rutgers 69--Nimbo Hammons scored nine of his 17 points in the opening 4:52 to lead the Colonials in an Atlantic 10 game at Washington.

The Colonials (7-3, 1-1) ended a two-game losing streak. Rutgers (3-6, 0-2) has lost four in a row.

OTHER GAMES

Brevin Knight took an out-of-bounds pass and made a 16-foot jump shot with no time left to give Stanford (8-2) a 67-65 victory over Washington (2-8) in the Pac-10 opener for both teams at Palo Alto. . . . Cornel Parker shut down Atlantic Coast Conference scoring leader Bob Sura to lead Virginia (7-3, 1-0) to an 84-64 ACC victory over Florida State (7-2, 0-1) at Charlottesville, Va.

Deon Jackson scored 23 points and Bradley (7-2, 2-0) scored on 10 successive possessions down the stretch to pull off a 78-77 Missouri Valley Conference victory over Tulsa (6-4, 1-1) at Tulsa, Okla. . . . Jay Purcell scored 18 points, including three key three-point baskets in the second half, to lead Virginia Tech (9-1) to a 68-58 victory over Tulane (6-4) in the Metro Conference opener for both teams at Blacksburg, Va.