California Outmuscles UMass

After battling No. 2 Kansas the day before, California wasn’t intimidated by the sight of Massachusetts’ beefy front line.

The unranked Bears outmuscled the Minutemen inside Wednesday night for a surprising 59-55 victory to earn third place in the Maui Invitational at Lahaina, Hawaii.

“Our defense was excellent,” Cal Coach Ben Braun said. “We corrected a big deficiency in the rebound margin. It was a big turnaround from yesterday [a 85-67 loss to Kansas].”

Ed Gray scored 24 points to lead Cal, but it was the rebounding work of Sean Marks, Prentice McGruder, Kenyon Jones and Michael Stewart that made the difference against Massachusetts (1-2).

Cal (2-1) had the rebounding edge, 47-36, with 21 rebounds coming on the offensive boards.

In other Maui Invitational games:

No. 2 Kansas 80, Virginia 63--Paul Pierce scored 16 of his 27 points in the second half as the Jayhawks beat the Cavaliers (2-1) to win the tournament.

Scot Pollard added 17 points and 13 rebounds for the Jayhawks (4-0), who will take over the top spot in the polls if they can beat San Diego at home Sunday. Top-ranked Cincinnati lost Tuesday.

South Carolina 74, Louisiana State 68--B.J. McKie made eight free throws in the final minutes to preserve a Gamecock (2-1) victory over the Tigers (2-2) in the fifth-place game of the Maui Invitational.

Iowa 67, Chaminade 37--The Hawkeyes, playing without three injured starters, held Chaminade to eight points in the first half while J.R. Koch scored 19 of his 22 points during that span as the Hawkeyes (2-2) beat the Silverswords (0-3) in the seventh-place game.

No. 6 Duke 72, No. 22 Tulsa 67--Freshman Mike Chappell hit consecutive three-point baskets in an 11-0 second-half run against the Golden Hurricane (2-1) and the Blue Devils held on in the semifinals of the Preseason National Invitation Tournament at New York.

The Blue Devils (3-0) will meet Indiana for the title Friday night.

Also at the Preseason NIT:

No. 20 Indiana 74, Evansville 73--Andrae Patterson hit a baseline jumper at the buzzer to give the Hoosiers the victory.

The Hoosiers (4-0), who led, 72-64, with 2 1/2 minutes to play, scored after in-bounding the ball with 1.2 seconds left. Freshman A.J. Guyton in-bounded from in front of the Indiana bench and found Patterson on the left side. Patterson, who finished with 20 points, caught the ball and shot in one motion and the buzzer sounded as the ball was in the air.

Oral Roberts 86, No. 16 Arkansas 81--Tim Gill scored nine of his 29 points in the closing minutes, including four in the final 59 seconds, to spark the streaking Golden Eagles to the upset over the Razorbacks (1-1) at Tulsa.

Oral Roberts (3-0) extended its two-season winning streak to 13 games, the longest in Division I.

No. 18 Texas 86, Rhode Island 79--Reggie Freeman scored 27 points and Brandy Perryman had seven points in the final 47 seconds as the Longhorns (2-0) rallied past the Rams (1-1) at Austin.

No. 19 New Mexico 96, Centenary 64--Clayton Shields scored 21 of his 31 points in the first half and Dave Bliss became the winningest coach in New Mexico history with his 176th victory, at Albuquerque. The Lobos are 4-0, the Gents 0-3.

No. 21 Stanford 88, North Carolina Greensboro 52--Brevin Knight scored 18 points despite playing less than a half in the Cardinal’s (1-0) rout of the Spartans (0-2) in the first round of the Great Alaska Shootout.

College of Charleston 77, Arizona State 68--The Cougars (2-0) dug themselves out of a hole with a 24-6 scoring run in the second half against the Sun Devils (1-1) in the Great Alaska Shootout.

OTHER GAMES

Austin Croshere scored 18 of his game-high 29 points in the second half to lead Providence (3-1) to a 100-88 victory over Long Island (1-1) at Providence, R.I. . . . C.C. Harrison scored a career-high 17 points and North Carolina State’s defensive pressure continued to pay dividends as the Wolfpack (3-0) remained undefeated with a 67-52 victory over Lamar (2-1) at Raleigh, N.C. . . . Oklahoma (2-0) used a balanced scoring attack led by Corey Brewer’s 18 points to pull away for an 84-51 victory over Sam Houston (1-1) at Norman, Okla.

College Basketball Notes

USC lost another player on its front line Wednesday, only three days before the team’s opener Saturday against Long Beach State. Freshman Shannon Swillis broke a bone in his right foot at practice Tuesday night and will be out two months. Doctors say Swillis, a 6-foot-6 forward, should rest the foot at least four weeks, and USC is likely to redshirt him this season.

The only player suspended by the NCAA in Dean Smith’s 36 years at North Carolina has been reinstated, the school announced. Makhtar Ndiaye, a Michigan transfer who sat out last season, was declared eligible by the NCAA late Tuesday night after missing two exhibition games and regular-season games against Arizona and Richmond. After a monthlong investigation by the school and the NCAA, it was ruled that the 6-foot-9, 245-pound junior would have to pay back support provided by adidas executive Sonny Vacarro dating to 1993.

Arizona guard Miles Simon is ineligible for the rest of the fall semester and will miss the Wildcats’ next five games.

Syracuse forward Todd Burgan might have to sit out at least seven games for violating the school’s code of student conduct, according to a university statement. The university said Tuesday that a judicial board ruled Friday that Burgan breached the code with “physical harm and threat of physical harm toward another student.”

Administrators at Arkansas plan no personnel changes in response to NCAA allegations of poor institutional control over the men’s basketball program. Instead, university officials said that they will review the charges--dispute some of them--and make a few alterations.