Decision Pays Off for Wake Forest’s Duncan

He could be bumping Shaq or guarding Hakeem or trying to score on Patrick. Instead, Tim Duncan is glad he stayed in school.

So is Wake Forest.

Duncan scored 19 points, grabbed 17 rebounds and blocked four shots Tuesday night to pace the second-ranked Demon Deacons to a 74-43 rout of Mississippi State in the Great Eight tournament at Chicago.

Wake Forest (5-0) ran off 19 consecutive first-half points, withstood a mild rally by the Bulldogs and then took control early in the second half.

Mississippi State (2-2) went nine minutes without a basket during the first-half Wake run.

Duncan reached double figures in scoring and rebounds for a 14th game in a row.

Jerry Braswell added 15 points for Wake Forest. Mississippi State got 12 points from Tyrone Washington.

No. 6 Kentucky 101, Purdue 87--Ron Mercer scored 30 points and the Wildcats forced 28 turnovers with a smothering full-court press in defeating the Boilermakers in the other Great Eight game at Chicago.

Jared Prickett added 17 points for Kentucky (4-1). The defending NCAA champions were coming off their three-game championship run in the Great Alaska Shootout.

Michael Robinson scored 20 points and Chad Austin 18 for the Boilermakers (2-2).

No. 13 Fresno State 127, Western State 92--Kendric Brooks scored 24 points and Chris Herren added 21 as the Bulldogs won at Fresno.

Fresno State matched the second-highest score in school history and fell only six points shy of their all-time record.

The Bulldogs are 5-0 for the first time since 1981-82.

OTHER GAMES

Ed Gray scored 30 points, including a game-winning shot with 3.3 seconds left in the second overtime, giving California (4-1) an 89-88 victory over Illinois (4-2) at Berkeley. . . . Jason Richey scored nine of his 25 points in overtime to lead San Diego State (3-1) to an 82-70 victory over Northwestern (2-2) at Chicago. . . . Reserve Terrell Myers scored 19 points to lead St. Joseph’s (1-1) to a 71-57 victory over Wyoming (1-2) at Philadelphia. . . . Michael Maddux made two three-point shots to ignite a 14-0 run by Georgia Tech (4-0) in the final five minutes of a 62-61 victory over Georgia (3-1) at Atlanta. . . . Kent McCausland returned after sitting out three games because of an irregular heartbeat to score 13 points and help ease the sting of Jess Settles’ absence with a heel injury as Iowa (3-2) cruised past Drake (0-3), 79-59, at Des Moines, Iowa.

Zendon Hamilton led a balanced scoring attack with 15 points as St. John’s (2-1) defeated Miami (2-2), 61-57, at Miami in the Big East Conference opener for both teams. . . . Jon Garavaglia scored 20 points and Michigan State (2-0) made 26 of 27 free throws in the second half to beat Cleveland State (1-3), 83-78, at East Lansing. . . . Jamie Booker scored eight points during a late Washington run that gave the Huskies (3-0) a 68-52 victory over Idaho (1-3) at Seattle. . . . Louisiana State (3-3) shot 30% in a 53-50 loss to Samford (4-0) at Baton Rouge, La.