Perfection Is the Pits for No. 3 Utah

Throughout Royce Olney’s career at New Mexico, he has thrived on toughness and his ability to cope with desperate situations.

None more desperate than the one the 14th-ranked Lobos faced Sunday in the Pit at Albuquerque, N.M.

After trailing by 13 points early in the second half, New Mexico, 16-3 overall and 6-1 in the Western Athletic Conference, rode the scoring of Olney and Clayton Shields to a 77-74 victory over No. 3 Utah, which came in with a school-record 18-game winning streak.

Olney’s two three-point baskets in the final 63 seconds and Shields’ nine points over the final five minutes turned the game around and set up Olney’s game-winning three-point basket with 4.6 seconds to play.

“What we did on the last play . . . we knew we couldn’t draw anything up,” said Lobo Coach Dave Bliss. “So we just spun David to one side and Royce to the other, and whichever guy got it could get a jump shot on his own.”

The loss ruined a personal-best 24 points by Utah (18-1, 6-1) guard Andre Miller.

No. 1 Duke 90, Georgia Tech 69--Roshown McLeod scored 23 points at Durham, N.C., to lead the Blue Devils to their 11th consecutive victory, setting up a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup with North Carolina.

Thursday’s game at Chapel Hill will be the first between the nation’s top-ranked teams since Kentucky defeated Massachusetts in the semifinals of the 1996 Final Four.

Duke (20-1, 9-0) is off to its best start in the Atlantic Coast Conference since being 10-0 in the 1963-64 season.

Dion Glover scored 20 points and Matt Harpring had 19 for Georgia Tech (13-8, 2-6).

No. 5 Kansas 82, Nebraska 71--Paul Pierce scored 27 points, Raef LaFrentz had 25 and Kansas held off a second-half three-point flurry at Lincoln, Neb., to win its eighth in a row over the Cornhuskers.

Billy Thomas had 10 points, including consecutive baskets near the two-minute mark to give the Jayhawks (24-3, 8-1 in the Big 12) a 72-65 lead.

Cookie Belcher scored on a drive for the Cornhuskers (13-8, 4-4) before Pierce made two free throws.

Nebraska’s Troy Piatkowski made his fifth three-point shot of the second half with 1:15 to play, trimming the margin to 74-70. But the Cornhuskers missed their last five shots.

Florida 86, No. 7 Kentucky 78--Jason Williams and Kenyan Weaks each scored 24 points for the Gators, who made 12 three-point shots at Lexington, Ky., the most ever by a Wildcat opponent in Rupp Arena.

Florida (11-7, 4-4 in the Southeastern Conference) ended a 10-game losing streak to Kentucky and won in Rupp for the first time since Feb. 12, 1989.

Cameron Mills made eight of 14 shots from beyond the three-point line in finishing with 31 points for Kentucky (19-3, 8-1).

No. 13 South Carolina 67, No. 18 Cincinnati 65--Antonio Grant made a desperation three-point shot as time expired, capping the Gamecocks’ comeback from a 23-point deficit at Columbia, S.C.

Grant picked up a loose ball with the clock ticking down and launched a 25-foot shot that swished through as the horn sounded, setting off a raucous celebration that spilled onto press row and brought dozens of fans streaming onto the court.

Melvin Watson had 21 points to lead South Carolina (16-3), which never led until the end.

Melvin Leavitt led Cincinnati (16-4) with 21 points.

No. 19 Michigan 80, No. 16 Iowa 66--Louis Bullock scored 21 points, 15 on five three-point baskets and the Wolverines handed Iowa its fourth consecutive defeat.

Jerod Ward scored 18 points, Robert Traylor 15 and Maceo Baston 13 for Michigan (16-6, 6-3 in the Big Ten), which ended a two-game losing streak and won at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City for the first time in four games.

Iowa (15-6, 4-4), which has lost five of its last seven, got 15 points from Ryan Bowen.

No. 20 Syracuse 84, Pittsburgh 73--Todd Burgan scored seven of his 27 points in a 16-0 run at the start of the second half to carry the Orangemen at Pittsburgh.

Syracuse (17-4, 7-3 in the Big East), which led, 29-28, at halftime, took advantage of Panther turnovers on four consecutive possessions in the run.

Vonteego Cummings led Pittsburgh (7-9, 2-7) with 23 points, but 14 of those came after the Panthers had fallen behind by 24.

No. 21 Rhode Island 75, Fordham 70--Joshua King scored 21 points and the Rams hung on for a victory at New York, extending Fordham’s losing streak to a school-record 11 games.

Rhode Island (14-5, 6-2 in the Atlantic 10), which had lost its last two games and three of four, didn’t take the lead for good until Tyson Wheeler’s three-point shot with 4:43 left gave it a 68-65 lead.

Maurice Curtis led Fordham (4-15, 0-9) with 26 points, and Bevon Robin had 13 and Harris 11.

No. 23 Maryland 77, Virginia 70--Rodney Elliott scored 17 points and the Terrapins pulled away in the second half of an Atlantic Coast Conference game at College Park, Md.

Obinna Ekezie had 15 points for Maryland (13-7, 6-4), which improved to 10-1 at home. The Terrapins have defeated the Cavaliers five games in a row at Cole Field House.

Curtis Staples made seven three-point shots for Virginia (10-12, 2-7) and moved into fourth place on the NCAA lifetime list with 376. Mark Alberts had 375 for Akron from 1988 to 1993.

OTHER GAMES

Lari Ketner fired a career-high 33 points to lead Massachusetts (16-5, 8-0) to an 85-69 Atlantic 10 Conference victory over Dayton (14-7, 6-3) at Amherst, Mass. . . . Mike Jones scored 34 points and freshman Ryan Carroll tipped in a deflected pass with one second left in overtime to lift Texas Christian (18-4, 8-0) to a 102-100 Western Athletic Conference victory over Tulsa (12-9, 4-3) at Fort Worth, Texas. . . . Cory Carr scored 31 points, 20 of them in the second half, as Texas Tech (10-8, 4-4) overcame an 11-point deficit to upset Baylor (10-9, 5-4), 80-71, in a Big 12 Conference game at Waco, Texas. . . . Duane Woodward scored 20 points as Boston College (12-10, 4-7) overcame a 16-point first-half deficit en route to a 74-63 Big East Conference victory over Georgetown (11-8, 4-7) at Boston.