COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : North Carolina Holds Off Duke

Even Dean Smith, in his 34th year as North Carolina’s coach, was amazed.

“I’ve never seen anything like that--two teams just so competitive going after it,” Smith said Thursday night after the second-ranked Tar Heels’ 102-100 double-overtime victory over Duke at Durham, N.C.

Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace each scored 25 points as North Carolina, 17-1 overall and 7-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, kept Duke (10-10, 0-8) winless in the ACC.

“It was the greatest basketball game I’ve ever been in,” Stackhouse said.

It was a seesaw game in which the Tar Heels squandered a 17-point first-half lead and fell behind by 12 points midway through the second half. Duke forced the second overtime on Jeff Capel’s 30-foot buzzer-beater, but Donald Williams sparked North Carolina in the closing minutes.

“We’ve had our ups and downs in the last two games because we just didn’t execute at times,” said Cherokee Parks, who led the Blue Devils with 25 points. “Tonight we didn’t give up.”

Duke, which has lost its coach and tumbled out of the rankings for the first time since 1984, nearly pulled off a big victory against its biggest rival.

But North Carolina kept its composure after Duke’s Trajan Langdon made a three-point shot to tie the score at 98-98 in the second overtime.

No. 9 Michigan State 82, Penn State 62--Quinton Brooks scored a season-high 24 points and Shawn Respert added 23 to lead the Spartans (15-2, 7-1) over the Nittany Lions (12-5, 4-4) in a Big Ten game at East Lansing, Mich.

The Spartans remained atop the Big Ten standings with their sixth consecutive victory.

Brooks made 12 of 16 shots and finished one point short of his career high.

John Amaechi led Penn State with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

PAC-10

No. 12 Arizona 84, Washington State 76--Joe McLean scored five points in the last 53 seconds to help the Wildcats (16-4, 6-2) withstand a furious finish by the Cougars (10-6, 5-3) at Tucson.

Ray Owes scored 19 points to lead Arizona, which led by 11 points with 6:29 to play before Washington State cut the deficit to 74-72 on Mark Hendrickson’s layup with 1:30 left.

McLean made a three-point shot with 53.6 seconds remaining, and 16 seconds later Ben Davis made one of two free throws.

No. 16 Arizona State 78, Washington 73--Isaac Burton scored four points in the final 1:17 of overtime to lift the Sun Devils (15-5, 4-4) over the Huskies (5-11, 1-7) at Tempe, Ariz.

Bryant Boston, who scored 25 points for Washington, sent the game into overtime when he made a three-point shot as time expired.

Washington took its first lead when Mark Sanford was intentionally fouled while making a layup. Sanford added a free throw and Boston hit a layup on the next possession for a 60-59 lead with 2:18 to play in regulation.

No. 17 Stanford 92, No. 22 Oregon 87--Dion Cross scored a career-high 29 points, Brevin Knight added 28 and the Cardinal (14-3, 5-3) held the Ducks (12-5, 4-4) without a basket in the final 9:45 at Palo Alto.

Knight scored 19 points in the second half for Stanford, which trailed by 11 points with 11:15 remaining.

Orlando Williams scored 16 points for Oregon.

Oregon State 76, California 67--Mustapha Hoff scored 24 points and Brent Barry had 19 as the Beavers (6-11, 3-5) withstood a late rally by the Golden Bears (11-6, 3-5) at Berkeley, ending a string of 17 consecutive losses away from home.

Vladimir Heredia added 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Beavers, who won outside of Gill Coliseum for the first time since beating Oregon, 79-75, in the Far West Classic at Portland’s Memorial Coliseum on Dec. 28, 1993.

Cal trailed from the outset, missing 16 of its first 19 shots, but the Bears rallied and move in front, 56-55, on Jelani Gardner’s three-point basket with 4:44 to play. That would be the only lead of the game for Cal, which has lost five in a row at home for first time since 1988.