Hoyas Use Defense and Iverson to End Huskies’ 23-Game Streak

Georgetown did things no one had done to Connecticut since November.

The 11th-ranked Hoyas ended the third-ranked Huskies’ 23-game winning streak and chance at a perfect Big East Conference season with a devastating 77-65 victory Monday at Landover, Md.

“For the first time a team attacked us and we didn’t respond,” Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun said. “We expected the challenge from a very good team, thought we could meet it and obviously didn’t.”

Georgetown, 22-5 overall and 11-4 in the Big East, which was led by Allen Iverson’s 26 points and eight steals, did it the way it used to in the old days--with a suffocating defense so good even Ray Allen had one of his worst games of the season.

“Allen plays both ends of the court extremely hard,” Georgetown Coach John Thompson said of Iverson. “He did a good job.”

The Huskies (24-2, 14-1) last lost to Iowa in the semifinals of the season-opening Great Alaska Shootout. Their start matched the best in the Big East. St. John’s went 14-0 in 1984-85 and Georgetown ended that run as well.

Doron Sheffer led the Huskies with 23 points.

No. 5 Kansas 81, Nebraska 71--Raef LaFrentz had 17 points and the Jayhawks beat a troubled Cornhusker team in a Big Eight game at Lawrence, Kan.

LaFrentz made eight of 17 from the field--the most shots he has taken this season--to lead the balanced Jayhawk attack for Kansas (22-2, 10-1).

LaFrentz had 10 rebounds as the Jayhawks maintained a two-game lead over Iowa State for the conference title with three to play.

Paul Pierce had 15 points, Jacque Vaughn 13, Scot Pollard 12 and Jerod Haase 10 for Kansas.

Tyronn Lue led Nebraska with 21 points.

Nebraska suffered through a one-day defection of players and the citing of star player Jarod Boone for disturbing the peace after a bar disturbance on Friday.

No. 6 Cincinnati 69, St. Louis 64--Art Long scored all but two of his 14 points in the second half and Danny Fortson made six consecutive free throws in the last two minutes for the Bearcats in the Conference USA game at Cincinnati.

Cincinnati (20-2, 9-1) reached 20 victories for the fifth consecutive season. But the Bearcats had a lot more trouble with St. Louis (13-10, 3-8) than they did in the first game, an 81-49 rout Feb. 7.

“It’s human nature that you get comfortable,” Cincinnati Coach Bob Huggins said. “We beat them pretty good and we’ve won some games and guys get comfortable.”

No. 25 Wisconsin Green Bay 81, Wisconsin Milwaukee 66--Jeff Nordgaard scored 26 points as the Phoenix won the Midwest Collegiate Conference title outright.

Wisconsin-Green Bay (22-2, 14-0) earned its first spot in the Associated Press Top 25 since the program began play at the Division I level in 1981-82.

Roderick Johnson scored 21 points for Milwaukee (8-16, 4-9). Derek Durham had 15 and Mark Briggs 13.

OTHER GAME

Charles Smith scored 23 points and New Mexico (20-4, 10-4) used a pair of second-half scoring runs to win, 78-66, over Colorado State (15-9, 9-6) in a Western Athletic Conference game at Albuquerque for its eighth 20-victory season in the last nine years.

Notes

Massachusetts’ reign as the nation’s No. 1 team reached nine weeks as the Minutemen (25-0), the only unbeaten Division I team, received 60 first-place votes and 1,644 points. Kentucky (22-1) remained second. . . . Florida State Coach Pat Kennedy has been suspended for one game after getting two technical fouls and was ejected from Saturday’s game at Clemson. . . . The Western Athletic Conference accepted an indefinite suspension imposed by Wyoming officials on senior forward Sly Johnson. The conference also accepted a joint agreement between the WAC and Texas El Paso officials calling for additional two-game suspensions for UTEP junior guard Jeff Spillar and senior forward Kevin Beal after a fight during last Thursday’s game between the teams.