Minnesota Again Led by Rychart

Dusty Rychart, a walk-on player who was a shining star in one of the University of Minnesota’s basketball team’s darkest hours, is picking up where he left off last season for the Golden Gophers.

Rychart had 22 points and 11 rebounds Tuesday to lead Minnesota to a 66-57 victory over Marquette at Minneapolis.

Rychart, as a seldom-used freshman forward, was pressed into service as a starter in last season’s first-round NCAA tournament game against Gonzaga after four Minnesota players were suspended amid accusations of academic fraud. He had 23 points and 17 rebounds in the Golden Gophers’ 75-63 loss.

Rychart was given a scholarship in June, just before Coach Clem Haskins accepted a buyout from the university as an investigation into the academic fraud was being conducted. Haskins was replaced by Don Monson, the coach at Gonzaga last season.

Rychart had 22 points and 12 rebounds in Minnesota’s season-opening victory over Texas Arlington last Saturday. Against Marquette (1-1), he had 14 points and eight rebounds in the first half to help give the Golden Gophers (2-0) a 34-24 halftime lead.

*

In games involving teams ranked in the Top 25: Chris Carrawell scored 20 points and freshmen Carlos Boozer and Mike Dunleavy each had 16 at Durham, N.C., as No. 16 Duke (2-2) extended its home-court win streak to 38 in a 99-52 victory over Columbia (0-2). The Blue Devils’ win streak at Cameron Indoor Stadium tied an Atlantic Coast Conference record set by North Carolina State from 1971-74 at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, N.C. . . . Desmond Mason scored 26 points to lead No. 21 Oklahoma State (3-0) to a 93-63 victory over Arkansas Little Rock, which opened its season with a new coach--Sidney Moncrief--and in its new Alltel Arena. Moncrief, named Arkansas Little Rock coach when Wimp Sanderson retired after last season, was an star player at Arkansas in the late ‘70s under Eddie Sutton, Oklahoma State’s coach. Glendon Alexander, who transferred from Arkansas State to Oklahoma State, had only four points on two-of-10 shooting.

*

In other games: A.D. Smith made six consecutive free throws in the final 24 seconds as Oregon opened its season with a 65-58 victory at Illinois Chicago (1-1). . . . osh Steinthal scored 18 points to lead Oregon State to a 92-48 victory over Chico State in the season-opener for both teams at Corvallis, Ore.

WOMEN

Defending national champion and No. 20-ranked Purdue (3-0) didn’t have a player score in double figures but still extended its winning streak to 35 in a 63-42 victory over Valparaiso (1-2) at West Lafayette, Ind. The Boilermakers tied Connecticut’s win streak from 1994-96. Louisiana Tech won a record 54 in a row from 1980-82. . . . Andrea Garner had 16 points and 13 rebounds for No. 9 Penn State (2-0) in a 91-60 victory over Maryland (1-1) at College Park, Md. . . . LaQuanda Barksdale had 18 points and 10 rebounds to lead No. 10 North Carolina (1-1) to a 66-49 victory over East Carolina (0-2) at Chapel Hill, N.C. . . . No. 11 Auburn (2-0) was a 93-51 home-court winner over Middle Tennessee State (0-2) . . . Keitha Dickerson had 16 points, 15 rebounds and four steals to lead No. 17 Texas Tech (2-0) to a 69-52 victory over Rice (1-1) at Lubbock, Texas. . . . Reserve Ke-Ke Tardy had 19 points to lead six players in double figures for No. 22 Louisiana State (1-1) in a 91-36 victory over North Carolina Asheville (0-2) at Baton Rouge, La.