Florida State’s Greer Delivers in Upset Over Arizona

On a night when LaMarr Greer’s shooting was near-perfect, his form on what proved to be the game-deciding shot was far from it.

Greer had a career-high 26 points, including an off-balance shot for a three-point basket with 50 seconds left that lifted No. 17 Florida State to an 84-79 victory over No. 5 Arizona on Tuesday night at Tallahassee, Fla.

Greer’s awkward-looking 25-footer as the shot clock was about to expire gave Florida State an 82-77 lead.

“I knew I had to shoot it and I just tried to get my elbow straight and hoped it would hit the rim,” Greer said. “When I threw it up, I said, ‘Man, it’s going straight.’ ”

Greer made 11 of 13 shots and all three of his three-point attempts for the Seminoles (9-2), whose only losses are to top-ranked North Carolina and No. 2 Kansas.

Florida State had 22 turnovers, but shot 56% and outrebounded Arizona, 46-30.

The Seminoles also shut down Wildcat guard Mike Bibby in the second half. Bibby scored 22 of his 26 points and made five of eight three-point shots to help Arizona (7-3) to a 46-41 halftime lead. Bibby missed five of six three-point shots in the second half and finished nine of 24 from the field.

“We didn’t play the type of defense we usually do in the first half and Coach [Steve Robinson] really got on us,” Greer said. “Bibby had a lot of open looks in the first half.”

No. 4 Kentucky 75, American 52--The Wildcats (10-1) forced five consecutive turnovers during a 14-0 first-half run at Lexington, Ky., that carried them to their eighth consecutive victory.

American (3-6) finished with 17 turnovers that Kentucky converted into 27 points. The Wildcats shot 57% and tied a season-low with 10 turnovers.

No. 10 South Carolina 90, South Carolina State 85--BJ McKie scored a career-high 32 points and outplayed high-school rival Roderick “Moo Moo” Blakney to lead the Gamecocks (7-1) at Columbia, S.C.

Blakney, who missed his first eight shots, scored 24 of his 26 points in the second half to help pull South Carolina State (1-4) within 83-79 with less than three minutes remaining. McKie, however, made two steals and four free throws in the final two minutes.

McKie and Blakney were South Carolina’s two best high school point guards in the early 1990s. When McKie’s Irmo team played Blakney at Hartsville, fans were turned away from the gym.

“It’s always been that way between us,” McKie said of competitiveness between the two. “But we’ve been good friends for a long time. He just gets pumped up to play us.”

No. 11 Connecticut 72, Massachusetts 55--Richard Hamilton scored 21 points at Hartford, Conn., to lead the Huskies (10-1) to their sixth consecutive victory.

It was the 100th game between the schools and Connecticut has won 62--including the last seven and 15 of the last 16. Massachusetts (6-4) shot 33% and had 17 turnovers.

No. 15 Iowa 81, St. Bonaventure 67--The Hawkeyes (10-1) finished with a 20-9 run in the championship game of the Christmas San Juan Shootout in Puerto Rico.

Ryan Bowen scored 16 points to lead four players in double figures for Iowa. Tim Winn had a career-high 28 points for St. Bonaventure (8-3).

OTHER GAMES

Georgia (8-3) made only two baskets in the final seven minutes but managed a 77-71 victory over Georgia Tech (7-3) at Athens, Ga. Georgia Tech’s leading scorer, Matt Harpring, had 29 points before being carried off the court in the final minute with a sprained right ankle that hampered him most of the game. Freshman guard Dion Glover was heckled by the crowd for being quoted as saying he went to Georgia Tech instead of Georgia because he wouldn’t have gotten enough playing time even though he felt he was better than Bulldog starting guards Ray Harrison and G.G. Smith. Glover scored 21 points, but had five turnovers and missed six of 12 free throws--including an air ball. Harrison and Smith had 21 and 14 points, respectively.

Chester Felts scored a career-high 20 points to lead Colgate (4-4) to an 82-77 victory over St. Mary’s, Calif. (5-5) in the consolation game of the Seton Hall / Meadowlands Tournament at East Rutherford, N.J. The victory was the first for Colgate since the death of Coach Jack Bruen on Friday. The Red Raiders attended Bruen’s funeral in Hamilton, N.Y. Monday morning, then took a four-hour bus ride to East Rutherford for a night game against Seton Hall that they lost, 69-64. . . . Duane Woodward made a 14-foot off-balance shot as time expired to lift Boston College (8-4) to a 64-63 victory over Northwestern (6-2) at Boston. Woodward, who had 23 points, grabbed teammate Javier Rodriguez’s missed three-point shot inside the foul line and made his shot as the horn sounded. Northwestern’s Evan Eschmeyer, who had 26 points and 18 rebounds, had scored with 10.2 seconds to give his team the lead. . . . Brett Robisch had 19 points and 11 rebounds at Stillwater, Okla., as Oklahoma State (9-0) was a 78-62 winner over Arkansas State (6-4). Oklahoma State ran its nonconference home winning streak to 78 games--longest in the nation--and avenged a 56-53 loss to Arkansas State last season. . . . Aaron Hutchins, injured in a game Sunday, came off the bench to score 15 points in leading Marquette (7-0) to an 85-58 victory over Central Florida (5-4) at Milwaukee.