Auburn Keeps On Rolling

Bryant Smith scored 15 points and No. 3 Auburn clinched at least a tie for the Southeastern Conference West title with a 95-66 victory over Mississippi Tuesday night at Auburn, Ala.

The Tigers (23-1, 11-1) set a school record for wins and tied another with their 13th home win.

The Tigers are setting their sights on the NCAA tournament, which they haven’t been to in 10 years--the longest drought of any SEC school. Not only is a bid guaranteed, but the Tigers are aiming for a No. 1 seed.

“We don’t like to overstep ourselves, but we know we are making a run toward the NCAA,” Smith said. “We feel we have a very good chance to go deep into it.”

Ole Miss (17-8, 7-5), which beat No. 23 Florida on Saturday, had its three-game winning streak snapped.

Auburn’s ranking is its highest since spending one week at No. 2 in 1959.

No. 11 St. John’s 80, West Virginia 68--Lavor Postell scored 17 points and the Red Storm shot 71% in the first half for the school’s first win at Morgantown, W.Va., since 1969.

Erick Barkley and Bootsy Thornton added 16 points apiece for St. John’s (19-6, 10-3 in the Big East).

West Virginia (9-15, 3-11) lost its fourth game in a row and tied a school record with its fifth consecutive home defeat. The Mountaineers had not lost five in a row at home since the 1924-25 season.

No. 13 Ohio State 74, Michigan 69--Michael Redd had an assist and a timely tip in the final minute as the Buckeyes won at Columbus, Ohio, and remained alone in second place in the Big Ten.

Redd led the Buckeyes (18-6, 8-3) with 22 points and Scoonie Penn added 21.

Josh Asselin had 17 points, Robbie Reid 16 and Brandon Smith and Louis Bullock each had 11 for the Wolverines (10-15, 4-8).

No. 21 Purdue 86, No. 17 Indiana 81--Jarann Cornell scored seven of his 14 points in overtime as the Boilermakers overcame a nine-point, second-half deficit at Bloomington, Ind.

Brian Cardinal led the Boilermakers (17-7, 5-5 in the Big Ten) with 21 points.

Indiana (18-8, 5-6) got 24 points from A.J. Guyton.

In other games, Gary Lumpkin and Lenny Brown started their 100th game together in Xavier’s backcourt and steadied the erratic Musketeers (17-7, 9-2 in the Atlantic 10) to a 72-54 victory over Duquesne (4-18, 0-11) at Cincinnati. . . . Mark Karcher scored 22 points and Quincy Wadley had 18 as Temple (16-7, 10-1 in the Atlantic 10) defeated St. Joseph’s, 85-78, at Philadelphia. St. Joseph’s is 9-14 and 3-8. . . . Princeton (16-4, 7-0) rallied from a 27-point, second-half deficit and defeated Pennsylvania, 50-49, and took over sole possession of first place in the Ivy League. Penn is 14-4 and 6-1.

WOMEN

Amanda Wilson scored 24 points and Tamicha Jackson sparked a key first-half run as No. 3 Louisiana Tech defeated Florida International, 80-65, at Miami. Louisiana Tech is 19-2 and 7-0 in the Sun Belt. Florida International is 18-4 and 6-2. . . . No. 4 Connecticut avenged a Jan. 23 loss to Boston College with a 107-77 victory at Hartford, Conn. Connecticut is 21-3 and 14-1 in the Big East. Boston College is 17-6 and 9-6.