Villanova’s Williams Steps Up to Lead Role

Alvin Williams doesn’t mind playing in the backcourt shadow of All-American Kerry Kittles at Villanova.

That’s because he eventually gets his due from Villanova Coach Steve Lappas.

Williams made eight of 11 shots for a career-high 22 points to lead No. 8 Villanova to a 76-57 Big East victory over visiting Notre Dame Tuesday night.

Williams, a junior, made four of six three-point shots and combined with Kittles to make only four turnovers. Notre Dame had 15.

“I feel like he [Lappas] has a lot of confidence in me,” said Williams. “The things he says, the confidence he feels--all of that makes me want to go and play harder.”

Williams was particularly hard to stop in the first half as he made five of six shots and had 13 points to give Villanova (11-1, 3-0) a 38-24 lead. Notre Dame (5-5, 0-3) trailed by as many as 25 points in the second half.

Kittles had 17 points and seven assists.

No. 4 Kansas 100, Cornell 46--The Jayhawks (8-1) finished the first half with a 17-5 run and then outscored the Big Red, 29-6, in the the first eight minutes of the second half at Lawrence, Kan.

Kansas had lost its No. 1 ranking after an overtime loss to Temple on Dec. 22, then traveled to France, where it was beaten three times by professional teams in a tournament.

Cornell (2-5) trailed, 33-32, with 5:30 left in the first half when Kansas went on the first of its two extended scoring runs.

No. 12 Wake Forest 81, Furman 49--The Demon Deacons (7-1), playing their first game in 12 days, overcame poor shooting in the first half for a lopsided victory at Winston-Salem, N.C.

Wake Forest shot 44% from the field in struggling to a 27-22 lead at halftime. In the second half, the Deacon Demons shot 58%, making seven consecutive three-point shots in one stretch to increase their lead to 75-37.

Center Tim Duncan made 11 of 14 shots for a career-high 27 points and became the 38th Wake Forest player to score more than 1,000 points. He also had 12 rebounds.

Furman (2-8) made 19 of 51 shots from the field (37.3%), becoming the eighth Wake Forest opponent to be held to less than 40%.

No. 15 Utah 83, Brigham Young 77--Forward Keith Van Horn scored 29 points at Salt Lake City as the Utes (9-2) extended their home-court victory streak to 27 in the Western Athletic Conference opener for both teams.

Forward Bryon Ruffner led BYU (6-4) with 26 points.

Fresno State 76, No. 25 New Mexico 75--Dominick Young made two free throws with three seconds left for the decisive points in the WAC opener for both teams at Fresno.

New Mexico (10-1) had cracked the Top 25 this week and was one of seven unbeaten major college teams.

The Lobos had taken a 75-74 lead with 55 seconds left on David Gibson’s four consecutive points, but Gibson missed on the front end of a one-and-one free-throw situation with 27 seconds left to set the stage for Young.

Kendric Brooks led Fresno State (7-4) with a career-high 32 points.

PACIFIC 10

Washington 76, Colorado 68--Mark Sanford scored 17 of his game-high 23 points in the second half at Seattle as the Huskies (7-2) won their fourth game in a row.

Washington is off to its best start since the 1990-91 season, when it opened at 9-1 but finished 14-14 and last in the Pacific 10.

Jason Hamilton made six free throws in the final 33 seconds to hold off Colorado (5-5).

OTHER GAMES

Center Todd Fuller scored 11 unanswered points during a span of 2:11 in the second half to allow North Carolina State (8-2) to pull away for a 102-71 victory over Western Carolina (1-7) at Raleigh, N.C. Fuller made 10 of 12 shots from the field and nine of 10 free throws for a game-high 30 points. . . . Guard Danny Hurley and Adrian Griffin scored all but two of Seton Hall’s last 27 points to lead the visiting Pirates (6-4, 2-1) to an 82-77 Big East victory over Providence (6-4). . . . Oklahoma State (8-2) committed eight turnovers in its first 16 possessions and Tulsa (6-1) never trailed in a 57-53 home-court victory. . . . San Diego State (5-3) won its first WAC opener in six seasons with an 87-67 home-court victory over Colorado State (6-4). . . . Visiting Texas El Paso improved its record to 9-1 with a 54-48 victory over Air Force (4-6) in the WAC opener for both teams. . . . Tyson Wheeler scored 30 points to lead Rhode Island (8-3 after going 7-20 last season) to an 81-74 victory over St. Mary’s (5-4) at Moraga, Ca.

College Basketball Notes

Point guard Jeff McInnis is expected to sit out North Carolina’s Atlantic Coast Conference opener Thursday against North Carolina State because of leg injuries. McInnis is North Carolina’s leader in scoring (16.5 points a game) and assists (5.4). . . . Chester Surles, a sophomore forward at Nebraska, was suspended from the team after being arrested for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend.