New Mexico Is Flattened by Rolling Arizona

Fifteenth-ranked New Mexico found out Sunday in Tucson, Ariz., what Pacific 10 teams like UCLA already knew--Arizona is again in NCAA championship form.

The Lobos crumbled under the defensive pressure of the defending national champion Wildcats and even a barrage of three-point baskets in the second half couldn’t prevent an 89-70 loss that wasn’t as close as the final score indicates.

It was the eighth consecutive victory for No. 5 Arizona (15-3), which also avenged an 84-77 loss to New Mexico (13-3) last season in Albuquerque.

The Lobos had allowed an average of 62.9 points, but the Wildcats surpassed that total five minutes into the second half. New Mexico trailed, 52-27, at halftime as it committed 15 of 25 turnovers and was outmuscled by Arizona, which got 10 of its 17 offensive rebounds and reduced the Lobos’ inside force, Kenny Thomas, to a non-factor.

“They played their national championship defense on us,” New Mexico forward Clayton Shields said. “We couldn’t get open, we couldn’t run the offense we wanted to run, so we were forced to do something out of the ordinary.”

New Mexico did that for the first five minutes of the second half, making five of its 11 three-point baskets, but wasn’t able to get closer than 12 points of Arizona, which is averaging 101.8 points during its win streak. The Wildcats matched the Lobos’ 47% accuracy on three-point shots, making nine of 19 from beyond the arc.

Point guard Mike Bibby led Arizona with 23 points and had six assists and five steals. Sixth-man Jason Terry scored 21 points.

Shields led New Mexico with 17 points. Thomas, one of the nation’s best inside scorers, missed eight of 11 shots and had only 10 points.

Indiana 94, No. 9 Purdue 88--Luke Recker had 27 points and 12 rebounds as the Hoosiers (13-5, 4-2) ended a losing streak at four games against the Boilermakers (15-4, 3-2) in the Big Ten game at Bloomington, Ind.

William Gladness and A.J. Guyton each had 21 points for Indiana, which had a 16-point second-half lead cut to four with less than a minute remaining. A dunk by Gladness after a Purdue turnover and two free throws by Recker sealed the victory.

Jaraan Cornell led Purdue with 27 points. Chad Austin, the Boilermakers’ leading scorer, had 11.

No. 13 Iowa 82, Minnesota 69--The Hawkeyes (15-2, 4-1) made 25 of 36 shots after missing eight of their first nine in defeating the Golden Gophers (7-9, 0-5) in the Big Ten game at Minneapolis.

Ryan Bowen had 19 points for Iowa, off to its best start since opening at 18-0 in 1986-87, Tom Davis’ first season as Hawkeye coach.

Sam Jacobson, sidelined three games because of a back injury, led Minnesota with 24 points.

No. 14 South Carolina 68, Georgia 60--The Gamecocks (11-3, 3-2) stayed comfortably ahead in the second half of the Southeastern Conference game at Athens, Ga., as the Bulldogs (8-8, 0-4) had only two field goals in the final 9:59.

B.J. McKie made 11 of 13 free throws and had 24 points for South Carolina, which suffered its only regular-season SEC loss to Georgia last season. The Bulldogs also defeated the Gamecocks in the SEC tournament.

No. 15 Syracuse, 85, Miami 67--Todd Burgan had a season-high 26 points for the Orangemen (15-2, 5-1), who used a 19-2 first-half run to pull away from the Hurricanes (12-4, 5-3) in the Big East game at Syracuse, N.Y.

No. 17 Florida State 70, Georgia Tech 67--The Seminoles (13-5, 2-4) bounced back from a 21-point loss at Clemson on Tuesday to end an Atlantic Coast Conference losing streak at three with the victory at Atlanta.

Georgia Tech (12-5, 2-3) had a chance to tie the score with 3.3 seconds left but Matt Harpring missed a three-point shot. Harpring, the ACC’s leading scorer, had 24 points but missed 15 of 22 shots.

No. 21 West Virginia 79, Villanova 65--Damian Owens scored six of his 21 points in overtime as the Mountaineers (15-3, 5-3) defeated the Wildcats (7-8, 4-3) in the Big East game at Philadelphia.

No. 24 Hawaii 77, Southern Methodist 68--Alika Smith had 25 points and Anthony Carter had 22 as the Rainbows (12-2, 1-1) held off the Mustangs (12-2, 2-2) in a Western Athletic Conference game late Saturday night at Honolulu.