Wild Finish Sees Kansas Improve Home Streak to 50

Consecutive home-court victory No. 50 was hard-earned for Kansas.

Unranked Massachusetts, not awed by the third-ranked Jayhawks or historic Allen Field House in Lawrence, Kan., led much of the game until Raef LaFrentz tipped in Paul Pierce’s missed shot with 20 seconds left on Wednesday night for the decisive basket in Kansas’ 73-71 victory.

“They were ready to come in here and break the streak,” LaFrentz said. “But our team did a good job of rising to the occasion. It was definitely a war in there. It wasn’t a game for the timid.”

The Minutemen, 17-point underdogs, kept pressuring the Jayhawks behind guard Charlton Clarke, who made five of six three-point shots and finished with 22 points.

Clarke made his fifth three-point basket with 43 seconds left to tie the score at 71 before LaFrentz muscled inside for the winning tip-in.

In the final frenzied seconds, Kansas stole the ball but gave it right back to Massachusetts (4-3) and Clarke quickly put up a long shot. Lari Ketner rebounded the miss and then misfired at the buzzer.

“I heard people saying shoot,” Clarke said. “But I was about five feet away from the three-point line. I just tried to put it up as quick as possible.”

Billy Thomas made several baskets down the stretch for the Jayhawks (10-1), who have the longest current home win streak in Division I.

“We played well enough to win,” Massachusetts Coach Bruiser Flint said. “I’m a little disappointed. I thought we should have won the game.”

No. 1 Duke 94, Villanova 66--Elton Brand scored 15 points, blocked four shots and had six rebounds and Blue Devils converted 19 turnovers into 21 points at Durham, N.C.

Chris Carrawell scored 13 points for Duke (9-0), while Roshown McLeod had 12 and Mike Chappell and Trajan Langdon had 11 each.

Malik Allen scored 17 points and Howard Brown had 14 for Villanova (2-3).

The Blue Devils, who came into the game forcing an average of 26 turnovers, used their trapping full-court defense to create 14 turnovers in the first half.

Duke converted those turnovers into 17 points, including three breakaway dunks, and took to an early double-figure lead that it never relinquished.

Duke has won its four nonconference home games by an average of 44 points. The Blue Devils have also won 18 nonconference games in a row and 111 of the last 113 played at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

No. 4 Kentucky 81, Canisius 54--Jeff Sheppard matched a career high with 21 points as the Wildcats (7-1) overwhelmed the Golden Griffins (4-2) with their full-court defense at Buffalo, N.Y.

Sheppard scored 10 points in the first six minutes of the second half as Kentucky rolled to its fifth consecutive victory.

Kentucky’s man-to-man defense was too much for Canisius, which plays in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The Golden Griffins had problems bringing the ball past half court and struggled to score when they did.

“Our players are taller and heavier,” Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith said. “We have a pretty physical team. I could see the way we were responding defensively. We’re starting to take pride in our defense.”

Allen Edwards scored 14 points for Kentucky, which went to its bench for most of the second half.

Mike McCarthy and Jamie Cammaert each had nine points for Canisius, which paid Kentucky $200,000 for the home-and-home series. Kentucky won by 23 points last season at Rupp Arena.

No. 9 Utah 71, Utah State 55--Michael Doleac scored a career-high 30 points and helped turn back three Aggie rallies in the second half for the Utes (8-0) at Salt Lake City.

Doleac, who had 18 points in the first half, scored all three times Utah State (5-3) cut Utah’s lead to a single digit.

The 6-foot-11 Doleac, who had eight rebounds and blocked four shots, made 11 of 18 shots and all eight of his free throws in 31 minutes in besting his previous career high of 26 points against Southern Methodist last season.

Andre Miller had 13 points and six assists for Utah.

No. 13 Connecticut 74, Virginia 63--Sophomore forward Richard Hamilton scored 21 of his career-high 33 points in the second half to lead the Huskies (8-1) past the Cavaliers (4-3) at Charlottesville, Va.

Hamilton was 11 of 18 from the field and eight of 11 on free throws.

When asked about Hamilton’s dominating performance, Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun criticized Hamilton’s defense and said he needs to get better at passing the ball to an open man when he gets double-teamed.

Virginia started poorly and never caught up. The Cavaliers had six turnovers and two air balls in the first five minutes.