COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Harrington Hot as Georgetown Upsets Syracuse

For one game, at least, the old Othella Harrington was back.

Harrington scored a season-high 27 points, including 12 in a key eight-minute span, as Georgetown registered its second upset in the past seven days--an 81-78 victory over slumping No. 17 Syracuse on Sunday at Syracuse.

“I don’t think they forgot about me,” said the 6-foot-9 junior, who has struggled most of the season and entered the game averaging 10.6 points.

“The other guys did a great job getting me the ball, and I was on top of my game today.”

Syracuse, 18-7 overall and 11-5 in the Big East, wasted a 14-point first-half lead but came back to take a 71-68 lead with 3:52 to play after falling behind by 11 in the second half.

But Allen Iverson scored on a layup and then came back down court to make a four-foot jumper that put Georgetown ahead, 72-71.

After Iverson’s scores, Georgetown (17-7, 10-6) pushed its lead to 78-73 on Jerome Williams’ underhand layup with one minute to play. Last Monday, the Hoyas routed No. 9 Villanova, 77-52.

No. 10 Wake Forest 66, No. 11 Virginia 63--Scooter Banks scored 14 of his 15 points in the last 20 minutes and made two clutch plays in the stretch in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at Winston-Salem, N.C.

The Demon Deacons (19-5, 10-4) drew to one game behind Maryland and North Carolina for first place in the ACC. Virginia (19-7, 11-4) fell out of a first-place tie with the Tar Heels and the Terrapins, trailing those teams by one-half game.

Banks’ binge helped stave off a Virginia comeback in which the Cavaliers took a brief lead at 42-41 on a Jason Williford basket at 14:04. Randolph Childress made a jumper and Tim Duncan, who had 20 points and 15 rebounds, scored on a driving dunk, and the Demon Deacons never trailed again.

No. 21 Purdue 66, Wisconsin 56--Wisconsin went more than eight minutes without a field goal in the second half in a Big Ten game at West Lafayette, Ind.

The Boilermakers overcame a career-high 29 points by Rashard Griffith, who had a game-high 16 rebounds, for Wisconsin (12-11, 6-8).

Purdue (20-6, 11-3) was led by freshman center Brad Miller and Matt Waddell with 13 points apiece as the defending conference champion kept its title hopes alive.

OTHER GAMES

Maurice Taylor scored nine of his 11 points in the second half to lead Michigan (15-11, 9-5) to a 63-51 Big Ten victory over Illinois (17-9, 8-6) at Ann Arbor, Mich. . . . Rick Brunson scored a career-high 36 points as Temple (17-8, 10-5) held on for a 76-60 Atlantic 10 victory over host George Washington (18-11, 10-5).

College Basketball Notes

Richard Mandeville of Indiana, a 20-year-old redshirt center from La Canada High, was arrested on an alcohol-related charge after a disturbance at his off-campus apartment in Bloomington, Ind., police said. . . . Seventh-seeded Pepperdine (8-18) will play second-seeded Portland (19-7) on Saturday at noon in the first game of the West Coast Conference tournament at Santa Clara, with eighth-seeded Loyola Marymount (12-14) playing top-seeded Santa Clara (21-5) about 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. Other first-round matchups: St. Mary’s (17-9) vs. San Francisco (10-18) and Gonzaga (18-8) vs. San Diego (10-15).