No. 3 Kansas Is Too Much for Iowa State to Handle

Kansas and Iowa State showed their ages Wednesday night.

No. 3 Kansas is the veteran team and Coach Roy Williams felt that made a huge difference for the Jayhawks, who won, 83-62, at Ames, Iowa, to ensure themselves of a ninth consecutive season with at least 25 victories.

“We have more players,” Williams said. “I don’t mean that to be a cut against Iowa State, but we have veteran players and they have young players and when you have that in the game of basketball, a lot of times it ends up helping you.”

Paul Pierce scored 19 points to lead Kansas, 25-3 overall and 9-1 in the Big 12, and reserve Lester Earl had 18, including 13 in the first half, as the Jayhawks ran up their largest victory margin in Ames in 27 years.

Iowa State (10-12, 3-6), stung by 13 first-half turnovers, trailed by only nine points midway through the second half but couldn’t stay with the Jayhawks down the stretch.

No. 8 Kentucky 63, Louisiana State 61--A swarming defense was enough for the Wildcats at Baton Rouge, La.

Wayne Turner’s basket with 2:37 to play were the Wildcats’ final points as Kentucky held off LSU.

“I thought we had the game under control in the last minutes, but as it turned out, we were just able to hang on,” Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith said. “They really worked extremely hard and played with a lot of poise, a lot of patience on their offense, and did a good job defensively against us. Certainly, when you hold us to only 38% and 25% in threes, it tells you something.”

Turner’s field goal gave Kentucky (20-3, 9-1 in the Southeastern Conference) a 63-56 lead. Reggie Tucker made two free throws with 2:23 left to bring the Tigers (9-11, 2-8) within five points.

Kentucky, which reached the 20-victory plateau for the 43rd season, missed its final three shots from the field after Turner’s basket.

No. 9 Stanford 74, California 72--Arthur Lee had 17 points, including four three-point baskets in the second half, and the Cardinal rebounded from consecutive losses to beat the Golden Bears at Oakland.

Tim Young had 17 points and 15 rebounds for Stanford (19-2, 8-2 in the Pacific 10), which remained unbeaten in seven road games. Kris Weems added 16 points, including four free throws over the last 26 seconds as Stanford, which lost consecutive home games to No. 4 Arizona and Arizona State last week, survived a season-high 21 turnovers to complete a season sweep of Cal (8-10, 4-6).

No. 16 Michigan State 84, Ohio State 58--The best kept secret in the Big Ten is also the best team in the Big Ten.

Jason Klein scored a career-high 25 points in the game at Columbus, Ohio as the Spartans moved to their best start in the Big Ten.

“I guess you can add me to the growing list of coaches who have seen Michigan State play and have been impressed with them,” Ohio State Coach Jim O’Brien said.

The first-place Spartans (16-4) moved to 9-1 in the Big Ten, their best record through 10 games since joining the conference in 1950-51. It was their seventh straight victory and 12th in the last 13 games.

By contrast, the loss was the 11th in a row for Ohio State (7-14, 0-8), extending the longest losing streak in the school’s 99 years playing the sport.

OTHER GAMES

Kevin Turner scored 19 points and Illinois (16-7, 8-2) moved into sole possession of second place in the Big Ten by beating Minnesota, 68-56, at Champaign, Ill. For Minnesota (9-12, 2-8), it was the lowest point total of the season. . . . Luke Recker scored a career-high 29 points, including seven during a 23-2 first-half run that carried Indiana (16-6, 7-3) to a 95-76 Big Ten victory over Penn State (10-9, 3-6) at Bloomington, Ind. . . . Ron Artest and Felipe Lopez scored 26 points each to lead St. John’s (17-7, 9-4) to a 91-79 Big East victory over Boston College (12-11, 4-8) at Boston.