COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Thurman Makes Shot (Again) That Wins

Scotty Thurman made a three-point basket last April that gave Arkansas its first national championship. He made a 15-footer Sunday that gave the Razorbacks a regular-season victory they badly needed.

Thurman’s jump shot with 11 seconds to play in Fayetteville gave No. 9 Arkansas a 94-92 victory over No. 5 Kentucky, the Wildcats’ first loss in the Southeastern Conference. It was also the Razorbacks’ first game since their first loss in Walton Arena, last Tuesday night to Alabama.

Coach Nolan Richardson defended his team.

“When there’s doubt you don’t function as well. I had said there were some holes and said hold on and let us fix them,” Richardson said. “I didn’t doubt we could fix them.”

Thurman helped with his game-winner, the fifth he has made for the Razorbacks (16-4, 5-3).

“I felt that it was good when I let it go. I felt pretty good shooting all day,” said Thurman, who finished with 22 points, 12 on four three-point baskets.

Kentucky (13-3, 7-1) had taken a 92-91 lead with 23 seconds to play on a rebound basket by Walter McCarty, who finished with 16 points.

The Wildcats’ last chance ended when Jeff Sheppard was stripped of the ball on the baseline by Clint McDaniel, who was fouled and made one of two free throws with 0.6 seconds left.

Corliss Williamson had a season-high 28 points--19 in the second half--to lead the Razorbacks, and Corey Beck had eight points, eight assists and six rebounds.

“Corliss came with an attitude,” Beck said. “He just came in the locker room and said it before the game and I’m glad he did. You could look at his eyes and tell he was ready to play.”

“Corey’s right,” Williamson said. “Last night, I sat around and thought about the game a lot. My parents came up early this week. We went out to eat and they talked about the way I was playing, and they told me to just go out and play ball the way I was capable of doing and not worry about what other people were saying.

“That’s the attitude I took. I thought I could have done better in the first half. Coach pointed out that to me, that it looked like I was playing sort of sluggish.”

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No. 16 Wake Forest 63, Vanderbilt 51--Tim Duncan scored 22 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and, for a bit, put aside his disappointment in his play in a one-point loss to North Carolina the day before in leading the Demon Deacons (12-4) in a victory at Winston-Salem, N.C.

Duncan had failed to inbound the ball in five seconds, the turnover leading to North Carolina’s last-ditch shot that had beaten Wake Forest on Saturday.

On Sunday, the Demon Deacons had only two field goals in the last 15 minutes but hit 15 of 19 free throws. Vanderbilt (9-7) failed to take advantage of the drought, scoring only one basket over a 10-minute span.

Wake Forest’s drought was a repeat of its play against North Carolina, when the Deacons made only one basket in the last eight minutes.

*

No. 21 Georgia Tech 81, Florida State 68--Travis Best scored 27 points, and the Yellow Jackets overcame a sloppily played first half of an Atlantic Coast Conference game at Tallahassee, Fla.

Georgia Tech (13-6, 4-3) shot 50.8% and had five players in double figures, including Michael Maddox, who scored 14 points in place of James Forrest, the Yellow Jackets’ inside leader. Forrest broke his hand in an auto accident.

“That’s probably our best game of the year,” Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Cremins said. “That’s as good as we can play.”

Bob Sura led Florida State (9-7, 3-5) with 20 points.

James Collins had 11 and Corey Louis added 10 for the Seminoles, who shot 42.6%.

OTHER GAMES

James Scott celebrated his first start of the season by scoring 28 points to lead St. John’s (9-7) to an 82-77 victory over Michigan (11-8) at Ann Arbor. The Red Storm ended a six-game losing streak. . . . Tony Maroney scored 24 points to lead Hawaii (10-7, 4-5) to a 91-62 Western Athletic Conference victory over San Diego State (7-10, 2-7) late Saturday night in Honolulu.