Virginia Tech Upset by George Washington

After having a nine-game winning streak and the first Top 10 ranking in school history, No. 8 Virginia Tech hit the skids Thursday night.

Kwame Evans paced a balanced scoring attack with 13 points and George Washington held the Hokies to 37% shooting from the field in a 64-47 upset victory in Washington.

“You don’t have to know it, because it happens to the best teams all the time,” Hokie Coach Bill Foster said. “I’m not taking anything away from them, because they played well and they played hard, but I’m not so sure it was as much their defense as it was our inability to run our offense.”

Though the Hokies, 12-2 overall, 5-1 Atlantic 10, hung close throughout, George Washington (10-4, 4-1) led from start to finish, jumping ahead, 18-8, with 9:21 left in the first half, then stretching that lead to 12 points three times over the next 5 1/2 minutes.

George Washington Coach Mike Jarvis pointed to defensive intensity as a key for the Colonials.

“We played for 40 minutes, and that was the big difference in this game,” he said. “If you don’t play the full 40, then there’s no way you can stay in most games.”

Alexander Koul contributed 12 points and eight rebounds for the Colonials.

No. 4 Connecticut 69, Pittsburgh 63--Rudy Johnson scored 16 points and the Huskies tied a school record with their 17th consecutive victory in a Big East conference game at Pittsburgh.

The Huskies (18-1, 8-0), who haven’t lost since Nov. 24 against Iowa, tied a school record set by the 1952-53 and 1953-54 teams. They will try to set a new mark Sunday against Virginia.

Ray Allen had 14 points and Kirk King had 11 rebounds for Connecticut, which outrebounded the Panthers, 42-32. Garrick Thomas had 16 points for Pitt (8-7, 3-4), which lost its fourth game in a row.

No. 5 Cincinnati 71, DePaul 61--Danny Fortson, slowed most of the game by DePaul’s sagging defense, led a decisive spurt in the closing minutes as the Bearcats pulled away at Cincinnati.

Cincinnati (13-1, 4-1 in Conference USA) had to rely almost exclusively on its three-point shooting against the Blue Demons’ tight zone defense until Fortson, its leading scorer, took over.

Fortson had a three-point play, another free throw and two putbacks in a 16-6 run that put Cincinnati in command, 66-57, with 3:19 left. He finished with 17 points, 10 of them in the final 7:25.

DePaul (7-10, 0-6) lost its seventh consecutive game overall and its 10th in a row to Cincinnati.

No. 10 Utah 68, Texas El Paso 54--In the Miners’ first game since Coach Don Haskins suffered a heart attack, Brandon Jessie scored 18 points to lead the Utes to a Western Athletic Conference win at El Paso.

Haskins, who has coached at UTEP for 35 years, had a heart attack Saturday and underwent triple-bypass surgery. He is not expected to return to the bench this season.

Utah (15-3, 7-1 Western Athletic Conference) won its sixth consecutive game and sent UTEP (10-7, 2-6) to its fifth loss in a row.

North Carolina Charlotte 79, No. 24 Marquette 69--The 49ers held the Golden Eagles to 18 points in the first half and made 16 of 18 free throws down the stretch to win a Conference USA game at Charlotte.

DeMarco Johnson scored 22 points and Shanderic Downs 18 for the 49ers (10-6, 4-1), who led by as many as 24 points. Aaron Hutchins led Marquette (12-4, 3-2) with 23 points, all in the second half.

OTHER GAMES

Derrick Battie had 13 of his 15 points in the second half and Marc Jackson hit two free throws with 5.2 seconds to play as Temple defeated Duke, 59-58, at Philadelphia. Temple (10-7) rallied from a 10-point deficit with 8:17 to play. The Blue Devils (11-7) led, 51-41, after consecutive three-point baskets by Ricky Price, Chris Collins and Carmen Wallace. . . . Charles Smith scored 20 points and New Mexico’s foot speed sliced apart Brigham Young’s defense in the Lobos’ 83-77 victory at Albuquerque. New Mexico (16-2, 6-2 WAC) never trailed, but needed some clutch baskets and six free throws in the final two minutes to hold off the Cougars (10-7, 4-4).

College Basketball Notes

Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner Dan Beebe gave one-game suspensions to Eastern Kentucky Coach Mike Calhoun and sophomore forward Aaron Cecil for their roles in an altercation after the Austin Peay-Eastern Kentucky game last Saturday. . . . St. Joseph’s University officials said they plan to send a bill to the University of Arizona for lost revenue from the Wildcats’ cancellation of their Jan. 13 game. St. Joseph’s Athletic Director Don DiJulia said the school preferred “to take the high road” rather than seek legal action.