Arizona Wins, 93-80; Unbeaten Stanford Next

Sixth-ranked Arizona, perhaps thinking too much about this week’s matchup with unbeaten No. 5 Stanford, was sluggish in a 93-80 Pacific 10 Conference victory over Oregon State on Sunday at Tucson.

It was the 10th consecutive victory for Arizona, 17-3 overall and 7-0 in the Pac-10, and 16th in a row over Oregon State (10-7, 1-7).

The Wildcats struggled early when unable to get their fastbreak going, trailing by as many as six points. They finally got going with 5:35 left in the half, with a 17-0 run putting them ahead, 41-30, at halftime. Miles Simon scored eight of his 23 points in that stretch, with three baskets coming on fastbreaks.

“I was trying to get everybody pumped up and to get them running,” Arizona point guard Mike Bibby said. “I think we’re an average team when we walk the ball up, but we’re a great team when we get it running.”

Oregon State, which got 24 points from Corey Benjamin, trailed by as many as 22 points in the second half.

Arizona and Olson can now devote all of their attention to Thursday’s game at Stanford. The Cardinal has the nation’s longest winning streak at 18 games and has won 20 in a row at Maples Pavilion.

“We are playing one of the best pressure teams in the country next . . . and our guys still think that the ball is going to come to them,” Olson said. “They have to work more to get open and come to the ball. Otherwise Stanford is going to create a lot of problems for us.”

Illinois 64, No. 16 Michigan 53--The Illini (13-7, 5-2) held the Wolverines (15-5, 5-2) to their lowest point total of the season--and 24 below their average--in a Big Ten game at Champaign, Ill.

Michigan scored only 22 points in the second half, but still cut the Illini lead from 13 points to seven, 51-44, with six minutes left. The Illini responded with a 7-0 run over the next 2:45 to take control.

Kevin Turner led Illinois with 17 points and Maceo Baston had 14 as one of Michigan’s four double-figure scorers. The Wolverines shot 33%.

No. 21 Cincinnati 88, No. 22 Rhode Island 82--Ruben Patterson scored 27 points, including two free throws with 17 seconds left, to lead the Bearcats (15-3) past the Rams (13-4) in a nonconference game at Cincinnati.

Patterson, the third-leading scorer for Cincinnati last season, was suspended for the first 14 games of the season because of NCAA rule violations and had scored only 29 points in his first three games back.

Rhode Island cut a 10-point deficit to 84-82 on Tyson Wheeler’s two free throws with 1:18 left and got the ball back after Bobby Brannen’s shot was blocked with 46 seconds left. But Wheeler missed a three-point shot, Patterson got the rebound and, after being fouled, made the decisive free throws.

OTHER GAMES

Freshman Ron Artest came off the bench to score 21 points and grab a season-high 15 rebounds to lead St. John’s (15-6, 7-3) to an 82-59 victory over Villanova (7-10, 4-5) in a Big East game at New York. The Red Storm has won six in a row. . . . Andrae Patterson scored 19 of his season-high 23 points in the second half to lead Indiana (14-5, 5-2) to a 69-59 victory over Wisconsin (10-9, 3-4) in a Big Ten game at Madison, Wis. The Hoosiers have won five in a row.