Duke Chooses Its Weapon, and It’s Battier

Maryland had to make some choices against No. 2 Duke. The Terrapins chose wrong Wednesday night.

The Blue Devils rocked No. 7 Maryland, 95-77, at Durham, N.C., to get off to the best start in school history.

“My job is to try to find the cracks in the defense and exploit them,” said Shane Battier, who scored a career-high 27 points for the Blue Devils. “I could tell they really didn’t respect my jump shot.”

Battier was 10 for 13 from the field and was a career-beat four for four from three-point range.

Maryland Coach Gary Williams, surprised by Battier’s showing, said, “We were really trying to take either [William] Avery or [Trajan] Langdon out of the game. If you look at their stats, they were the guys who really shot well from the three-point line.”

Duke’s victory came two days after previously unbeaten and No. 1 Connecticut lost at home, and a victory at Georgia Tech on Saturday should give Duke, 22-1 overall and 10-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, the No. 1 ranking for the first time since Nov. 22.

The Blue Devils also won their 17th consecutive game and 34th in a row at Cameron Indoor Stadium to take a three-game lead in the ACC standings over the Terrapins (19-4, 7-3).

No. 3 Cincinnati 82, Tulane 63--Ryan Fletcher made four consecutive baskets as the Bearcats (21-1, 8-1 Conference USA) shook free of the Green Wave (9-10, 3-7) to win their 30th consecutive home game. Cincinnati’s Pete Mickeal had 22 points and 12 rebounds and Melvin Levett 22 points.

No. 6 Auburn 76, South Carolina 48--Chris Porter, back from a three-game suspension, scored all nine of his points during a 28-10 first-half run as the Tigers (21-1, 9-1 Southeastern Conference) routed the Gamecocks (7-14, 2-7) at Columbia, S.C.

No. 18 Minnesota 75, Illinois 63--Quincy Lewis, the Big Ten scoring leader, had 28 points to lead the Gophers (14-5, 5-4) over the Illini (9-13, 1-9) at Minneapolis.

No. 21 Indiana 71, No. 11 Wisconsin 60--Rob Turner had a season-high 22 points and the Hoosiers (18-7, 5-5) held the Badgers (19-4, 7-3) scoreless in the final three minutes for a Big Ten victory at Bloomington, Ind. The loss ended Wisconsin’s longest Big Ten winning streak in 58 years at seven games.

No. 22 College of Charleston 75, Coastal Carolina 65--Sedric Webber scored 21 points, including seven in a row midway through the second half, and the Cougars (20-2) held off Costal (4-16) at Conway, S.C., for their 17th consecutive victory.

No. 24 Missouri 88, Texas Tech 63--Albert White scored all but six of his 24 points in the second half and dished out six assists as the Tigers (16-4, 7-2 Big 12) shot 76.9% in the second half to pull away from the Red Raiders (10-12, 2-7) at Columbia, Mo.

No. 25 Miami 73, No. 9 St. John’s 70--Johnny Hemsley scored 29 points and the Hurricanes (14-5, 8-3 Big East) had a 14-3 run at the end of the game to beat the Red Storm (17-6, 8-3) at New York. The victory completed a two-game series sweep for Miami.

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Donald Hand had 25 points and 11 rebounds and scored the first nine points of the second half to spark a 22-4 run as Virginia (13-10, 3-7) recorded a 64-54 ACC victory over Wake Forest (12-10, 3-7) at Charlottesville, Va. . . . Jamal Thomas had 27 points and eight rebounds to lead Providence (14-8, 7-5) to a 77-68 Big East victory over West Virginia 7(9-13, 3-9) at Morgantown, W.Va. . . . Gabe Muoneke had 19 points as Texas (13-9, 8-1) remained atop the Big 12 standings with a 71-59 victory over Texas A&M; (9-10, 2-7) at Austin. . . . Venson Hamilton scored 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as Nebraska (14-8, 6-3) notched a 57-52 Big 12 victory over Colorado (11-11, 2-7) at Boulder, Colo. Nebraska has won six of its last seven games. . . . Eric Martin scored 19 points, including the game-winning basket with 24 seconds remaining, as Oklahoma (15-7, 6-3) recorded a 59-58 Big 12 victory over Baylor (6-12, 0-9) at Waco, Texas. . . . D.A. Layne scored 22 points to help Georgia (13-9, 4-6) end a five-game losing streak with an 82-67 SEC victory over Vanderbilt (11-10, 2-7) at Nashville. . . . Jobey Thomas came off the bench to score all 14 of his points in the second half to help rally North Carolina Charlotte (14-7, 6-3) to a 66-61 victory over DePaul (11-9, 5-5) in a Conference USA game at Rosemont, Ill. . . . Nathan Fast scored 19 points to help Santa Clara (9-1, 5-4) notch a 59-56 victory over San Francisco (9-15, 1-8) in a West Coast Conference game at Santa Clara.

WOMEN

Freshman Asjha Jones had 20 points and 13 rebounds, matching career highs, and Svetlana Abrosimova had 21 points to lead No. 4 Connecticut (19-9, 11-1) to a 96-50 Big East victory over Syracuse (8-12, 4-8) at Storrs, Conn. . . . Ruth Riley, coming off a school-record 41-point performance, scored only three first-half points but finished with 18 to help No. 6 Notre Dame (18-2, 10-2) record a 74-59 Big East victory over No. 20 Boston College (17-4, 9-4) at South Bend, Ind. . . . Russian exchange student Elena Vishniakova scored 18 points, including the game-winning layup with 19.2 seconds left, to lift No. 8 Georgia (19-3, 7-3) to a 62-58 SEC victory over stubborn South Carolina (10-11, 0-10) at Columbia, S.C. The Lady Gamecocks led, 50-42, midway through the second half. . . . Tomora Young scored 17 points to lead No. 12 Rutgers (19-11, 11-1) to a 65-54 Big East victory at Pittsburgh (8-12, 3-9). . . . Juana Brown scored 21 points, including eight in the last five minutes, to lead No. 13 North Carolina 22-4, 9-3) to a 76-72 ACC victory over No. 17 Clemson (17-5, 7-5) at Clemson, S.C. . . . Stacy Frese had 18 points to lead No. 15 Iowa State (16-3, 8-1) to a 76-42 Big 12 victory over Oklahoma State (11-8, 3-6) at Ames, Iowa. . . . Nakia Sanford scored a career-high 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as No. 22 Kansas (17-6, 7-3) recorded a 65-57 Big 12 victory over Colorado (11-8, 4-5) at Lawrence, Kan.