COLLEGE BASKETBALL : Tar Heels Too Much for Butler

Like many visitors to the Dean E. Smith Center at Chapel Hill, N.C., Butler Coach Barry Collier knew he was in trouble when he found himself in a building named for his counterpart.

“There’s not a bad seat in the house--unless you’re sitting on the visitors’ bench,” said Collier before the Bulldogs took to the court Monday against fourth-ranked North Carolina.

Smith’s Tar Heels quickly proved him right, taking a 22-8 lead en route to a 104-64 victory.

“It was an over-under situation,” Collier said. “We were underdogs and they overwhelmed us.”

Rarely shooting outside of eight feet, North Carolina (15-3) made 42 of 69 shots and limited Butler (8-9) to 26-of-68 shooting. When it did shoot outside, North Carolina made six of 12 three-point shots.

“They were everything you’d expect,” Collier said.

Center Eric Montross led the Tar Heels with 18 points.

No. 24 Missouri 89, Nebraska 73--Melvin Booker scored 22 points to help the Tigers (14-2, 5-0) celebrate their return to the top 25 with a Big Eight Conference victory over the Cornhuskers (12-4, 2-2) at Lincoln, Neb.

Nevada Las Vegas 87, UC Santa Barbara 85--The Runnin’ Rebels came back from an 84-80 deficit with 48 seconds remaining to pull out the victory at Las Vegas. Earlier, the Gauchos had rallied after trailing, 66-52.