Referees Get an Assist in Upset of Wake Forest

North Carolina State stunned No. 2 Wake Forest when Clint Harrison was given credit for a three-point basket at the buzzer in overtime--even though his foot was inside the arc--for a 60-59 victory Sunday at Winston-Salem, N.C.

Television replays showed that Harrison shot in time but that his right foot was inside the line.

“I haven’t seen a replay and I don’t want to,” a jubilant Harrison said. “It was a tough call for the referees to make, and I’m sure they used the best judgment they could.”

Officials Sam Croft, Raymie Styons and Mike Wood looked at each other, agreed that it was a three-point basket and ran off the floor, letting the Wolfpack players pile on each other in a wild celebration near the basket where Harrison banked in the winner from the left wing.

It marked the second Atlantic Coast Conference game in five days in which a controversial late-game call by officials helped decide the outcome. Duke defeated Virginia, 62-61, Tuesday night after the officials mismanaged the clock and an attempted substitution in the closing seconds. The ACC suspended the three officials involved in that incident for a game each.

N.C. State, 10-12 overall and 2-11 in the ACC, won for the first time in nine league road games.

Wake Forest (20-3, 9-3) fell one-half game behind league leader Duke (21-5, 10-3) despite getting 25 points and 18 rebounds from Tim Duncan.

Harrison finished with 21 points for the Wolfpack, which had lost nine games this season to ranked teams, including seven to those in the top 10.

No. 13 New Mexico 57, Tulsa 51--Guard Charles Smith, at his best in big games, scored 18 points and made two free throws with 12.5 seconds left that clinched the Western Athletic Conference victory for the Lobos at Albuquerque, N.M.

The victory gave New Mexico (20-4, 9-3) its eighth 20-victory season in the last nine seasons and moved the Lobos into a tie with Tulsa (19-7, 9-3) for second place in the Mountain Division behind Utah.

Indiana 84, No. 14 Michigan 81--In another overtime game, freshman A.J. Guyton scored 31 points as the Hoosiers stormed back from an 18-point halftime deficit for a Big Ten victory at Ann Arbor, Mich.

Guyton made a jump shot in the lane that gave Indiana (20-7, 7-6) an 83-81 lead with 26.1 seconds remaining in overtime. Andrae Patterson, who scored 14 points, finished off the Wolverines (17-7, 7-5) with a free throw with 5.4 seconds left.

Guyton made two three-point shots in the final minute of regulation to force overtime.

No. 18 Villanova 75, Notre Dame 70--Alvin Williams scored 25 points and Tim Thomas added 22 as the Wildcats (18-7, 9-5) held off the Irish (12-10, 6-8) in a Big East game at Philadelphia.

Williams also had seven assists as the Wildcats rebounded from losses to Kentucky and Pittsburgh.

Memphis 62, No. 23 Tulane 56--Sunday Adebayo, not expected to play because of a torn knee ligament, scored 22 points as Memphis (13-2, 7-4) defeated the Green Wave (16-9, 7-3) in a Conference USA game at New Orleans.

OTHER GAMES

Tyson Wheeler scored 25 points, including three three-point baskets that put his team up for good, as Rhode Island (15-8, 9-4) notched an 85-82 Atlantic 10 victory over Temple (14-8, 7-5) at South Kingstown, R.I. Rhode Island’s Ibn-Hashim Bakari had five three-point baskets and 22 points, and Temple’s Pepe Sanchez went seven-for-seven from three-point range. The Owls got a game-high 29 points from Marc Jackson, who went 13 for 14 from the foul line. . . . After leading scorer Danya Abrams was ejected for fighting, seldom-used forward Kostas Maglos scored a career-high 13 points to spark Boston College (16-7, 10-5) to a 74-57 Big East victory over Seton Hall (8-15, 3-11) at Boston.