COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Late Connecticut Rally Sends Syracuse to Loss

Jim Calhoun had to do something drastic. Second-ranked Connecticut trailed sixth-ranked Syracuse, 58-47, with 11:40 to play and a lot on the line Monday night.

Both teams came in with 14-game winning streaks and were 7-0 in the Big East. The Huskies were trying to remain the only unbeaten team in Division I and it didn’t look good that they would.

How could Calhoun change things in one timeout?

The Connecticut coach challenged his team to do what it does best--create havoc with pressure defense and attack offensively. When it did, the game turned into an 86-75 victory at Storrs, Conn.

“I told them at that timeout that we needed two good minutes of defense,” Calhoun said. “We never let a guard have a free hand. We made their big men handle it. I knew we would start scoring, but I told them to do it with singles. It didn’t have to be home runs. Our kids left their hearts and guts out on that floor.”

Ray Allen, who had a career-high 31 points, scored six points in a 13-2 run that brought the Huskies, who had struggled all game against Syracuse’s 2-3 zone, into a 60-60 tie with 8:10 to play.

Syracuse, 14-2 overall and 7-1 in the Big East, became the team that couldn’t do anything right as Michael Lloyd’s three-point basket was the Orangemen’s only field goal over a 5:41 span.

Connecticut (15-0, 8-0) took the lead for good at 67-64 on a three-point basket by Doron Sheffer with 6:36 to play, and the sellout crowd of 8,241 at Gampel Pavilion roared the rest of the way as the Huskies extended the lead.

Syracuse had gone from the team that looked like it had a chance to end Connecticut’s 24-game home winning streak to one that couldn’t handle the pressure of playing a big game on the road.

“We just broke down against their pressure and got too passive,” Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said. “You know it’s going to happen in a 40-minute game against good pressure and their pressure is very good. We held up well for a long, long time, but not long enough.”

No. 7 Kansas 84, Nebraska 67--Jerod Haase scored a career-high 25 points to lead the Jayhawks (14-2, 4-1) over the Cornhuskers (14-4, 1-2) in a Big Eight game at Lawrence, Kan.

OTHER GAMES

Tim Krug had 15 points and 12 rebounds to help Penn (10-3) to a 92-57 victory over Lafayette (2-15) at Easton, Pa., the Leopards’ 12th consecutive loss.

College Basketball Notes

Keith Kurowski, Notre Dame’s No. 2 scorer, will have surgery sometime this week to correct an ailment that occasionally causes heart palpitations, the university said. The condition is not life-threatening and Kurowski is expected to be playing again in about a week. . . . Seton Hall rescinded the application of Richie Parker, a recruit from New York who signed a letter of intent to attend the university but later pleaded guilty to a sexual-abuse charge. . . . Massachusetts and Connecticut remained 1-2 in the Associated Press poll for the third consecutive week. UCLA is fourth.