North Carolina Makes Trip an Easy One

After beating Purdue and Stanford to win the Preseason NIT last week, third-ranked North Carolina got a breather Monday night against Middle Tennessee at Murfreesboro, Tenn.

The Tar Heels (7-0) jumped to a 9-0 lead on a steal and dunk by Jeff Capel and never trailed en route to a 75-54 victory over the Blue Raiders (1-4).

Ademola Okulaja led North Carolina with 17 points.

Lee Nosse scored 12 points for Middle Tennessee, coached by former North Carolina player and assistant coach Randy Wiel.

North Carolina had a 39-19 edge in rebounds.

No. 24 Clemson 70, Radford 37--The Tigers (6-1) scored the first 17 points and won easily at Clemson, S.C.

All 12 players on the Clemson roster scored, led by Harold Jamison with 13 points. Radford (3-2) shot only 23% from the field and made only four of 30 three-point shots. The 37 points was the school’s fewest ever.

It was the seventh game in a row Clemson has held its opponent to 60 points or fewer, the school’s longest such streak since the 1945-46 season.

No. 25 St. John’s 97, St. Francis 63--After two consecutive heartbreaking losses to Stanford and Purdue in the Preseason NIT, St. John’s (4-2) had no problems against St. Francis (1-2) at New York.

Lavor Postell scored 20 points, Ron Artest added 17 and Reggie Jessie had 16. Jessie, a 6-foot-7 sophomore who didn’t play against Purdue and later complained to Coach Mike Jarvis about his lack of playing time, was seven for nine from the field.

“I had a talk with him after the Purdue game,” Jarvis said. “I explained that the team comes first.”

WOMEN

No. 3 Tennessee 92, No. 2 Louisiana Tech 73--Semeka Randall scored 25 points and Chamique Holdsclaw added 24 as the Lady Volunteers won at Ruston, La., and ended Tech’s 52-game home winning streak.

It was a rematch of last season’s NCAA championship game, in which Tennessee beat Tech, 93-75.

Tennessee now holds a 16-15 edge in the series between the two schools.

Tennessee (4-1) outshot Tech (3-1) from the field, 60% to 35%. But Tech stayed in the game by making 10 of 22 shots from three-point range.

Randall was 10 for 12 from the field and Holdsclaw was 11 for 17. Randall also had 10 rebounds.

No. 1 Connecticut 107, Holy Cross 56--The Huskies made a school-record 13 three-point shots on 20 attempts in routing the Crusaders at Storrs, Conn.

The victory extended UConn’s home-court winning streak to 51 games--the longest in the nation since Louisiana Tech lost at home Monday night.

Holy Cross, fearful of the Huskies’ strong inside game, plugged the post and backed off the perimeter.

“We tried to pack it in,” Holy Cross Coach Bill Gibbons said. “When they started hitting threes, I got out the rosary.”

The Huskies (5-0) were led by Shea Ralph, who got all of her 16 points in the first half, making four of five three-point shots.

Virginia Tech 81, No. 15 Virginia 65--Tere Williams had 21 points and 10 rebounds as the Hokies (5-0) beat the Cavaliers (3-2) at Blacksburg, Va.

The Cavaliers, down by a point at halftime, went scoreless for the first five minutes after intermission while the Hokies mounted a 14-0 run.