North Carolina Gets First Victory

Brian Morrison had six three-point baskets and a career-high 21 points as North Carolina avoided the worst start in its 92-year history with an 83-77 victory over Georgia Tech on Sunday night at Chapel Hill, N.C.

North Carolina (1-3), which started 0-3 for the first time since 1928, avoided losing five in a row at home for the first time.

Georgia Tech (3-4) went on a 10-3 run for a 75-69 lead in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams, but Jason Capel made a three-pointer and Melvin Scott banked in a three-pointer from the wing to tie the score, 75-75, with 3:20 left.

Free throws down the stretch by Kris Lang, Melvin Scott and Jackie Manuel helped seal the Tar Heel victory.

Tony Akins had 22 points for Georgia Tech.

No. 1 Duke 96, Clemson 80--The Blue Devils needed a half to warm up in their ACC opener. Then it was business as usual.

Duke (6-0) got 23 points from Carlos Boozer, 19 from Jason Williams and 15 from Mike Dunleavy at Durham, N.C.

The Blue Devils improved to 72-9 in their last 81 ACC games. They defeated Clemson for the 12th consecutive time.

Chris Hobbs had a season-high 25 points to lead the Tigers (5-2), who committed 22 turnovers.

Duke extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 16 games, the first 10 coming in last season’s national title run.

No. 5 Maryland 61, Princeton 53--Lonny Baxter had 19 points and 12 rebounds and the Terrapins rallied from a 12-point deficit in the first round of the BB&T; Classic at Washington.

Juan Dixon scored 14 points for the Terrapins (5-1). Andre Logan led Princeton (1-4) with 15 points and Konrad Wysocki had 13.

The Tigers took a 42-30 lead on a backdoor layup by Kyle Wente with 13:35 left.

But Maryland went on a 14-2 run, with two free throws by Byron Mouton tying the score, 46-46, with 6:54 left.

A foul shot by Logan and a basket by Wysocki put the Tigers ahead, 49-46, at the 5:42 mark.

But Baxter made a short jumper to cut the lead to one, then Drew Nicholas made a three-point basket to gave the Terrapins the lead for good with 4:43 remaining.

No. 6 Florida 81, Tulane 65--After spending most of the first half on the bench in foul trouble, Udonis Haslem scored all of his 13 points in the second to spark the Gators at Gainesville, Fla.

Freshman James White scored 12 points and Matt Bonner had 16 points and eight rebounds for Florida (4-1).

Marcus Kinzer scored 13 points for Tulane (4-1), which had been 4-0 for the first time since 1991.

No. 12 Syracuse 91, Albany 65--Preston Shumpert made eight three-pointers and scored a career-high 37 points for Syracuse at Albany, N.Y.

Kueth Duany scored 15 points for the Orangemen (8-0).

Syracuse went on an 18-0 run that lasted nearly seven minutes in the first half. Albany (0-5) got no closer than 20 points the rest of the way.

Albany’s E.J. Gallup, who was averaging 25.3 points, finished with 14 points on five-of-25 shooting.

Vanderbilt 80, No. 17 Western Kentucky 75--Brendan Plavich scored 13 points to lead five Commodore players in double figures at Nashville.

Vanderbilt (5-2) grabbed the lead for good at 12-10 and led by as many as 14 points in the first half and 11 in the second half.

Matt Freije and Brian Thornton each had 12 points for the Commodores. David Boyden led Western Kentucky (4-2) with 17 points.

SOUTHLAND

Keith Kincaid, who missed only two shots, scored 15 points to lead Loyola Marymount over Texas A&M;, 80-78, at College Station, Texas. Robert Davis scored 14 points and Greg Lakey had 12 for the Lions (3-3). Texas A&M; (4-1) was looking for its first 5-0 start in two decades. Lakey’s layup with 57 seconds to play put the Lions ahead, 78-77. Loyola forced 18 turnovers and had 11 steals.