Young Arizona Guards Get a Lesson

Khalid El-Amin, Connecticut’s 5-foot-10 junior guard, scored 23 points Tuesday night to lead the sixth-ranked Huskies to a 78-69 victory over second-ranked Arizona and its freshmen backcourt in the Great Eight at Chicago.

“El-Amin knows how to run his team very well,” Arizona guard Gilbert Arenas said. “When things would get a little out of control, he would take his time just like he did last year when they won the national championship.”

El-Amin made only nine of 24 shots, but he was four for eight from three-point range--mostly against Arizona’s 2-3 zone--and seemed to come up with a big hoop every time Arizona got within striking distance.

“I like the way he ran his club,” Jason Gardner, Arizona’s other freshman guard, said of El-Amin. “He hit the shots down the stretch. We’d get close and he’d come up with a big basket. That’s why he’s an All-America. He’s a great point guard.”

The victory was the sixth in a row for the Huskies since they lost their opener to Iowa.

“I like my team. They’re tough down the stretch,” Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun said. “I thought we were very good down the stretch.”

Junior Albert Mouring, who has struggled this season as he tries to replace Big East Player of the Year Richard Hamilton as the shooting guard, finished with only nine points, but five came at the start of an 11-0 run that gave the Huskies a 73-61 lead with 1:11 to play.

No. 4 Michigan State 66, No. 5 Kansas 54--Charlie Bell and Morris Peterson helped the Spartans withstand a 19-2 second-half Kansas run in the Great Eight at Chicago.

“We knew they would make a run. And we’ve just got to weather that situation,” Bell said.

Bell, doing most of the ball handling in Mateen Cleaves’ absence, scored 21 points. He made only three of 14 shots but finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds. And A.J. Granger had 13 for Michigan State (7-1).

Kenny Gregory scored 14 points and Luke Axtell 12 for Kansas (6-1).

No. 7 North Carolina 91, Buffalo 67--Joseph Forte scored 19 points as the Tar Heels shook off a sluggish first half at Amherst, N.Y.

Buffalo (2-4) led by as many as 12 points in the first half and by five at halftime before North Carolina (6-1) finally woke up and pulled away down the stretch.

The Tar Heels, who play top-ranked Cincinnati tonight, missed their first six shots and 12 of their first 13 as Buffalo opened a 15-5 lead.

Wisconsin 61, No. 10 Texas 45--Jon Bryant scored 16 points and the Badgers’ aggressive defense stymied the Longhorns’ high-powered offense at Madison, Wis.

Wisconsin guard Mike Kelley set a Big Ten record with 10 steals, but he was only one of many Badgers with sterling defensive efforts. Texas’ 45 points were the school’s fewest since Jan. 26, 1985, when the Longhorns lost to Texas Christian, 53-45.

Texas (4-2) has lost two in a row since winning the Puerto Rico Shootout last month. Chris Mihm had 13 points and nine rebounds for the Longhorns, who turned in a lackluster effort marked by poor shooting and turnovers.

The Badgers (5-2) ran away with the victory thanks to the outside shooting of Bryant, who made three three-point shots, and the inside play of 6-foot-9 Mark Vershaw, who scored 11 points and outplayed the 7-foot Mihm.

No. 12 Syracuse 86, Albany 46--Damone Brown scored 20 points and Preston Shumpert had 18 as the Orangemen (7-0) breezed past the Great Danes (2-6) at Syracuse, N.Y.

It was the first meeting between the teams since Syracuse’s 44-21 victory during the 1935-36 season, when Albany was known as the New York State Teachers College.

No. 15 Indiana 73, Missouri 68--Reserve Kirk Haston scored all 17 of his points in the second half as the Hoosiers, once down 16 points, rallied at Columbia, Mo.

Haston played only four minutes in the first half and missed his only shot, but was on the floor for the final 20 minutes. He made a running hook that tied the score at 66-66 with 1:33 to play and then passed to Dane Fife for the go-ahead layup with 43 seconds left.

Indiana (5-0) won despite an off game from A.J. Guyton, who scored 16 points on four-of-11 shooting and had six turnovers.

Keyon Dooling bounced back from two mediocre games with 21 points for Missouri (5-2).

No. 21 Maryland 76, Winthrop 65--Terence Morris scored six of his 19 points in overtime as the Terrapins (6-3) survived a scare from the Eagles (4-2) at College Park, Md., for their 68th consecutive nonconference home victory.

Tyson Waterman scored 22 points and Greg Lewis 14 for Winthrop (4-2), the defending Big South champion. The Eagles are 0-22 against the Atlantic Coast Conference.

No. 23 Kentucky 86, North Carolina Asheville 41--Desmond Allison scored 15 points as the Wildcats (4-3) broke their longest losing streak in nearly a decade with the rout of the Bulldogs (0-8) at Lexington, Ky.

Kentucky had lost its previous three games to Arizona, Dayton and Indiana, their worst slide since they dropped five in a row in December and January of 1989-90.

No. 25 Purdue 86, Illinois State 75--Jaraan Cornell and Maynard Lewis scored 19 points apiece to lead the Boilermakers (4-2) over the Redbirds (2-4) at Normal, Ill.

OTHER GAMES

Washington State 59, Portland 56--Chris Crosby led all scorers with 20 points and Jan-Michael Thomas added 17 as the Cougars (4-2) overcame a six-point halftime deficit to edge the Pilots (3-3) at Pullman, Wash., for their 45th consecutive nonconference home victory.

Thomas started at point guard after Cougar Coach Paul Graham announced prior to the game that Blake Pengelly, the team’s regular starting point guard, had left the team for personal reasons.

California 67, San Jose State 52--Shantay Legans scored 19 points, including five 3-point baskets, as the Golden Bears (5-2) pulled away to beat the Spartans (3-3) at Berkeley in a game delayed 16 minutes by a fire scare.

Brigham Young 78, Arizona State 67--Michael Vranes had six of his eight points during a 17-3 second-half run that carried the Cougars (4-1) over the Sun Devils (4-3) at Provo, Utah.

Oklahoma 66, Arkansas 52--Eduardo Najera scored 18 points, often intimidated Arkansas’ smaller shooters and came up with a couple of big steals as the Sooners (7-0) beat the Razorbacks (4-2) at Fayetteville, Ark.