No. 19 Syracuse Survives Scare From Rutgers

The Syracuse basketball team spent Christmas in Puerto Rico and had eight days off before resuming its schedule Sunday against Rutgers.

Once the game started, the No. 19 Orangemen looked like they were still on vacation.

Etan Thomas made a layup with 17.7 seconds to play and Syracuse survived Geoff Billet’s last-second three-point attempt to defeat Rutgers, 71-68, at Syracuse, N.Y.

“We had a really good chance to put them away and we didn’t do it,” said Marius Janulis, whose baskets late in the game helped Syracuse stave off Rutgers’ rally from a 17-point deficit.

Janulis made five of seven three-point shots and scored 11 of his 19 points in the second half for Syracuse, 12-1 overall and 3-0 in the Big East Conference.

Rutgers (6-5, 0-3) had its win streak end at five games.

No. 22 Rhode Island 74, Temple 64--Cuttino Mobley, a Philadelphia native, tied a school record with eight three-pointbaskets to lead Rhode Island in the Atlantic 10 Conference opener for both teams at Philadelphia.

Mobley, who took 13 three-point shots, scored 29 points as Rhode Island (8-2, 1-0) held off a late Temple charge after taking a 10-point halftime lead.

Lamont Barnes scored 17 points for Temple (6-4, 0-1).

No. 23 Arkansas 62, LSU 59--Landis Williams made a short jump shot with less than a minute to play, then deflected a pass at midcourt, chased it down and made a layup to lead the Razorbacks in a Southeastern Conference opener at Fayetteville, Ark.

Williams’ two baskets made the score 60-57 with 35 seconds left. Rogers Washington of Louisiana State missed two free throws with 4.4 seconds left and the Tigers trailing, 60-59.

LSU (7-4, 0-1) had an opportunity to go ahead because Pat Bradley, a 95% free-throw shooter for Arkansas (11-2, 1-0), missed the front end of a one-and-one with 16 seconds to play.

OTHER GAMES

Keon Clark, playing for the first time this season, scored a game-high 20 points to lead Nevada Las Vegas (7-5) to a 77-61 victory over Tulane (5-7)--the Green Wave’s worst homecourt defeat in eight years. Clark missed UNLV’s first 11 games because of an NCAA-imposed suspension for taking a Florida trip financed by an agent. . . . Anthony Carter had 21 points and 12 assists as Hawaii (11-1) was a home-court 86-65 winner over Norfolk State (3-10) in its first game since upsetting No. 2 Kansas in the Rainbow Classic last Tuesday. . . . George Washington (12-2), with a home-court 78-69 victory over LaSalle (4-6) in the Atlantic 10 opener for both teams, increased its win streak to seven and is off to the best start since its 1953-54 team opened at 11-0.