North Carolina Is Surprised by California

North Carolina had all kinds of problems getting through California’s ball-hawking defense, and the Tar Heels had just as much trouble on the other end of the floor trying to slow Geno Carlisle.

Carlisle scored a season-high 29 points, including 12 in the final seven minutes, and Cal rallied to upset ninth-ranked North Carolina, 78-71, in the Pete Newell Challenge on Tuesday night at Oakland.

“We couldn’t stop Carlisle,” North Carolina Coach Bill Guthridge said of the senior guard, who made an array of fadeaway jumpers, driving layups and outside shots.

“We were all over him on several of those shots. It’s uncanny, the way he gets those shots off.”

Thomas Kilgore added 21 points and Sean Lampley had 14, helping Cal (9-1) to its seventh consecutive victory and its first over the Tar Heels (12-3) in five meetings.

“I was trying to tell myself this was just another game but when you look into it, you realize it’s North Carolina,” Carlisle said. “We couldn’t get into a groove early. When I started penetrating in the second half and hit some free throws, I got back into the groove.”

North Carolina, which has lost consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 8-11, 1997, was led by Brendan Haywood, who scored 24 points.

Cal forced the Tar Heels into 24 turnovers while committing only seven and the Golden Bears had 14 steals, with each starter recording at least one.

“The adjustments we made weren’t so tactical. Our players just responded. They were glued to the ball,” Cal Coach Ben Braun said. “In the second half, we forced the tempo a little bit and we forced turnovers. We secured the ball. We knew this was going to be a 40-minute game and we got rewarded.”

No. 5 Stanford 57, Temple 50--Arthur Lee, fighting the flu, scored 16 points and made four three-point shots as the Cardinal (10-2) held off the Owls (6-5) in the Pete Newell Challenge at Oakland.

Lee, wearing a T-shirt under his uniform and waving at times to the bench for a rest in the first half, hit three of his three-pointers while playing nearly the entire second half.

Kris Weems added 15 points for Stanford, which had eight three-pointers and only one other field goal in the second half--a dunk by Mark Madsen on an alley-oop pass from Lee.

Mark Karcher had 11 of his 14 points in the second half and Lamont Barnes added 13 points for Temple, which shut down Stanford’s inside game with its matchup zone but could not contain the Cardinal from the perimeter. Stanford center Tim Young was held scoreless for the first time in his college career.

No. 7 Kentucky 97, Tennessee State 47--Jamaal Magloire had 15 points and eight rebounds at Lexington, Ky., as the Wildcats ended a two-game losing streak.

Kentucky (11-3), coming off losses to Duke and Louisville, made 74% of its shots in the second half. The two-game losing streak was Kentucky’s first since the 1993-94 season.

Tennessee State is 4-5.

Illinois 67, No. 14 Clemson 50--Arias Davis, who had scored only 16 points all season, scored a career-high 20 and Illinois’ stiff defense throttled Clemson at Greenville, S.C.

The Tigers (11-2) had won eight in a row, but made only one of 12 shots to start the second half as Illinois (8-4) turned the game into a rout with a 15-3 run.

No. 15 New Mexico 84, Houston 69--Kenny Thomas and Lamont Long each scored 23 points as the Lobos won the Lobo Invitational at Albuquerque.

The Lobos (10-1), who have won 37 in a row at home against nonconference opponents, put the Cougars away with a 12-2 run that made the score 63-49 with 10:18 left.

Gee Gervin, son of former NBA star George Gervin, led Houston (5-6) with 29 points.

No. 16 Minnesota 98, Sacramento State 57--Quincy Lewis scored 22 points and Kevin Clark added 19 for the Golden Gophers at Minneapolis.

Minnesota (9-1) led at halftime, 49-30, and opened the second half with a 22-4 run.

Sacramento State is 0-10.

No. 17 Auburn 99, Bethune-Cookman 46--Mamadou N’diaye and Scott Pohlman scored 18 points apiece as Auburn used a pair of big runs and a dominant inside game to win easily at Auburn, Ala.

Auburn (12-0) had runs of 25-4 and 26-4 to take control of the game. The Tigers, who have outscored their opponents by an average of 29.3 points per game, are off to their best start in 40 years.

They forced Bethune-Cookman (3-7) into 33 turnovers and held the Wildcats to 29% shooting.

No. 22 Syracuse 75, Notre Dame 63--Jason Hart scored 18 points and Syracuse shut down Notre Dame star Troy Murphy at South Bend, Ind.

Murphy, who scored 30 points in his Big East debut against Providence on Dec. 8, missed all 11 of his shots and finished with five points, ending his streak of 12 consecutive games in double figures.

Despite Murphy’s off night, the Irish, 7-6 overall and 1-1 in the Big East, trailed by only one point midway through the second half. But the Orangeman (9-3, 1-2) went on a 12-4 run, sparked by Allen Griffin’s three-point basket, to go up, 58-49.

OTHER GAMES

Bobby Lazor scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as Arizona State (8-4) defeated Alaska Anchorage (7-4), 85-52, to win the ASU-Fiesta Bowl Holiday Classic at Tempe, Ariz., for the 24th time in 32 years. . . . Eduardo Najera’s two free throws with 1.6 seconds left in regulation forced overtime, and Oklahoma (8-3) outlasted Western Kentucky (3-8), 72-62, at Oklahoma City. . . . Chris Crosby and Brian Stewart scored 18 points each as Washington State (6-5) defeated Grambling (0-10), 114-68, in the consolation game of the Sun Classic tournament at El Paso. . . . Davidson (5-5) overcame a 15-point deficit at the start of the second half to turn back Massachusetts (3-6), 75-66, in overtime at Amherst, Mass. . . . Greg Harrington made six of nine shots and scored 15 points as Tulsa (12-2) christened its new arena with a 79-51 victory over Cleveland State (6-5) at Tulsa, Okla. . . . Keith Carter made a school-record eight three-point attempts and scored 28 points to lead Mississippi (10-3) to its 28th consecutive home victory, a 111-50 rout of Prairie View (1-9) at Oxford, Miss.