Auburn a Cut Above Once Again

A new look meant a new attitude for struggling No. 7-ranked Auburn.

After two consecutive losses--including a 29-point loss Tuesday at No. 11 Tennessee--Auburn Coach Cliff Ellis told his players to clean up their acts--and appearances.

Chris Porter, the All-American forward who had not played up to last season’s spectacular standards, followed Ellis’ directive by trimming his trademark Afro Friday, then scoring 20 points Saturday to lead Auburn to a 73-57 home-court victory over Mississippi State.

“I just want our guys to look the way their mommas and daddies want them to,” Ellis said. “Didn’t hear any complaints about it, but I wasn’t the guy to cross this week.”

The loss to Tennessee was the worst in three years for Auburn, which had rarely resembled the dominant team that went 29-4 and got a No. 1 regional seeding in the NCAA tournament last season. Ellis gave his team the day off Wednesday, then told the players to clean up after Thursday’s practice.

“He wanted us to tighten up the ship, told us to shave, clean up and no more braids,” reserve David Hamilton said. “He wanted us to look more marketable, show people we can still play.”

It worked as Auburn, 17-3 overall and 5-2 in the Southeastern Conference, had its second-largest margin of victory over a Division I opponent this season. The Tigers also increased their win streak at home to 27 and defeated Mississippi State (11-8, 2-4) for the eighth consecutive time.

“I thought we looked good today and we played the way we are capable of playing,” Ellis said.

Porter, with an more aggressive attitude to go along with his new look, not only reached his top point total in conference play but kept Mississippi State’s best frontcourt player, Robert Jackson, in check. Jackson, who had 15 points and 18 rebounds in Mississippi State’s 51-45 loss to Auburn two weeks ago, was held to 11 points and three rebounds.

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No. 1 Cincinnati 89, South Florida 72--The Bearcats (20-1, 8-0 in Conference USA) had five players score in double figures at Cincinnati in stretching their home-court win streak to 41 and reaching 20 victories for a school-record ninth consecutive season.

Kenyon Martin and Steve Logan each had 19 points for Cincinnati, which trailed South Florida (12-8, 3-4) by two points early in the second half before taking command with a 16-3 run.

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No. 3 Duke 93, Clemson 59--The Blue Devils (16-2, 7-0 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) took a 42-point lead at halftime at Durham, N.C., to increase their home-court win streak to 45. Duke also has win streaks of 16 overall this season and 29 in regular-season ACC games.

Clemson (7-13, 1-6) had beaten No. 21 North Carolina State by 17 points Thursday, but had turnovers in 10 of its first 16 possessions and finished with a season-high 30. It took the Tigers five hours to drive to Durham Friday because of the area’s record 20 inches of snowfall.

Duke, the nation’s second-highest scoring team at 89.1 points a game, got 20 points from Chris Carrawell and 17 from Shane Battier.

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No. 4 Syracuse 73, Boston College 65--Etan Thomas had 22 points at Boston as the Orangemen (17-0, 7-0 in the Big East) set a school record for consecutive victories to start a season and remained the only unbeaten Division I team. Syracuse had a 16-0 start in 1917-18.

Boston College (9-10, 1-6) has lost six in a row.

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No. 8 Ohio State 68, Purdue 59--The Buckeyes (14-3, 5-1 in the Big Ten) used a late 13-2 run at Columbus, Ohio, to win their sixth in a row.

Ohio State’s Ken Johnson, the nation’s leading shot blocker, had seven to go with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Purdue (13-7, 4-3) got a season-high 19 points from Carson Cunningham.

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No. 10 Florida 89, No. 20 Vanderbilt 63--The Gators (15-4, 4-2 in the SEC)--losers by 10 points to the Commodores (13-4, 4-3) at Nashville, Tenn., on Jan. 5--shot 62.1% and had a 43-21 rebounding advantage in dominating the rematch at Gainesville, Fla.

Florida has defeated Vanderbilt in eight of the last nine games at Gainesville--winning the last three by a total of 83 points.

The Gators had five double-figure scorers, led by Mike Miller at 13 points. Dan Langhi, the SEC’s leading scorer at 22 points a game, had 26 for the Commodores.

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No. 11 Tennessee 73, South Carolina 66--Vincent Yarbrough had 25 points, including two baskets in the final two minutes that allowed the Volunteers (18-2, 6-1 in the SEC) to take five-point leads over the Gamecocks (9-11, 1-6) at Knoxville, Tenn.

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Iowa State 74, No. 12 Kansas 66--The Jayhawks (16-4, 5-2 in the Big 12) were outscored, 17-3, from the free throw-line in a second half at Ames, Iowa, in which they also went without a basket for two five-minute stretches.

Iowa State (18-3, 6-1) overcame 31.8% shooting by making 25 of 31 free throws. Leading scorer Marcus Fizer, who sat out nearly nine minutes of the first half because of foul trouble, scored 15 of his 19 points in the second half.

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Fresno State 75, No. 13 Tulsa 73--Demetrius Porter made a 12-foot turnaround jumper with 5.6 seconds remaining at Fresno for the go-ahead basket as the Bulldogs (14-7, 4-1 in the Western Athletic Conference) overcame a 14-point deficit in the second half.

Greg Harrington’s long jump shot hit the rim and bounced away as time ran out, ending a win streak at 13 for Tulsa (20-2, 5-1).

Courtney Alexander scored 28 points and Larry Abney had 24 rebounds to go with 11 points to lead Fresno State to its eighth consecutive home victory.

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No. 16 Kentucky 60, Miami 57--Tayshaun Prince, who had missed 10 of 11 shots, made a running jumper with 30 seconds for the decisive basket for the Wildcats (15-5) at Miami.

Miami (12-8) had two possessions in which to tie the game, but a shot under the basket hit the bottom of the rim and three-point attempt didn’t draw iron.

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No. 17 Texas 75, Colorado 65--Junior center Chris Mihm scored 28 points and tied his career high with 17 rebounds to lead the Longhorns (14-5, 6-1 in the Big 12) past the Buffaloes (11-8, 2-5) at Austin, Texas.

Mihm, whose season rebounding average had dropped below 10, had 11 to go with 15 points in the first half when primarily playing against freshman Richard Fox.

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No. 18 Oklahoma 78, Texas Tech 61--Eduardo Najera was one of four double-figure scorers for the Sooners (16-3, 4-2 in Big 12) with 20 points at Lubbock, Texas.

After Oklahoma used an 8-0 run to take a 66-52 lead with 7:25 remaining, Texas Tech (9-8, 0-6) could get no closer than 10 points.

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No. 19 Utah 64, Air Force 63--Alex Jensen made a three-point basket and a three-point play in the final 38 seconds to lift the Utes (16-3, 5-0 in the Mountain West Conference) past the Falcons (6-11, 2-3) at Air Force Academy, Colo.

Air Force used a 15-4 run to take a 62-58 lead with 49 seconds left.

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No. 22 Maryland 82, Florida State 63--Lonny Baxter scored 22 of his 24 points in the first half, and the Terrapins (14-6, 3-4 in the ACC) pulled away in the second half at Tallahassee, Fla., after the Seminoles (8-10, 3-4) had closed within five points.

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No. 24 Temple 81, Duquesne 37--The Owls (14-4, 7-1 in the Atlantic 10) had a 55-24 rebounding advantage despite playing without injured center Kevin Lyde and held the Dukes (8-11, 3-5) to 24% shooting at Philadelphia.

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Notre Dame 73, No. 25 St. John’s 60--Troy Murphy had 30 points and 18 rebounds, and the Irish (13-8, 4-3 in the Big East) finished with a 17-2 run at South Bend, Ind. Murphy, a sophomore forward, went over 1,000 career points.

St. John’s (13-8, 4-3) tried 29 three-point shot--almost half of its attempts from the field--and made only seven.

OTHER GAMES

Freshman forward Kareem Rush tied a career-high with 16 points in his return from a nine-game suspension to lead Missouri (12-6, 5-1 in the Big 12) to a 93-62 victory over Texas A&M; (6-12, 2-5) at Columbia, Mo. Rush was declared ineligible on Dec. 14 for allegedly accepting improper gifts from a summer league coach. Rush’s brother JaRon, who admitted taking money from an agent, is practicing but not playing at UCLA. . . . Senior guard Damon Stringer, a transfer from Ohio State, made 16 of 26 shots and all eight of his free throws in scoring 47 points for Cleveland State (11-9, 6-1 in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference) in a 109-105 victory at Wisconsin Milwaukee (10-9, 3-4) . . . Schea Cotton made 15 of 21 free throws and scored a season-high 29 points for Alabama (10-8, 3-3) in a 96-67 victory over Mississippi (13-7, 1-6) at Tuscaloosa, Ala. Cotton is a former Southern California high school star who was recruited by UCLA and played one season at Long Beach City College before transferring to Alabama.