Villanova Humiliates La Salle

Kerry Kittles scored 25 points Monday night at Philadelphia and No. 4 Villanova routed city rival La Salle, 90-50, the worst loss ever sustained by the Explorers.

Jason Lawson and Eric Eberz each had 11 points for the Wildcats, winners of eight consecutive. Romaine Haywood had 14 for La Salle, which has lost eight of nine.

The worst previous loss by the Explorers was a 113-77 defeat against Notre Dame in 1977.

After neither team scored in the game’s first 2 1/2 minutes, the Wildcats (21-3) toyed with the Explorers (5-18), leading by 30 points at the half.

No. 16 Syracuse 63, Rutgers 54--John Wallace scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in the Orangemen’s uninspired victory at Piscataway, N.J.

Syracuse, 19-6 overall and 9-5 in the Big East, certainly didn’t look like the team that beat then-No. 8 Georgetown by 21 points two days earlier. Neither team shot well and both teams turned the ball over with little pressure.

Rutgers (6-15, 3-10) was somehow within 39-36 with 9:53 to play, but as it has so many times in its first season in the Big East, it allowed the big run to come, as Syracuse scored the game’s next 11 points to take a 50-36 lead with 5:03 left.

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College Basketball Notes

Massachusetts was back on top of the Associated Press poll for the eighth consecutive and Kentucky remained No. 2. Despite a loss during the week, Connecticut moved up one spot to third, while Villanova jumped two places to fourth. Kansas, which had been third, was fifth and Cincinnati dropped one place to sixth. UCLA dropped to 18th. . . . California basketball Coach Todd Bozeman has issued a written apology to Howard Garcia, athletic event manager at Cal State Northridge, for an altercation the two had at a game last season and for subsequent remarks Bozeman made on ESPN. Bozeman shoved Garcia during Cal’s game at Northridge on Jan. 22, 1995. Later, in an ESPN interview, Bozeman implied that Garcia had made racial comments to spark the incident. Bozeman’s apology was requested by Garcia for his forgoing litigation against the coach.