Arizona Rallies and Wins, 84-78

The last time Arizona played St. Mary’s, two seasons ago, the Wildcats won by 60 points. This one was much, much closer.

Channing Frye scored 18 of his career-high 26 points in the second half and No. 7 Arizona escaped with an 84-78 victory over the stubborn Gaels on Wednesday night at Tucson.

Arizona (5-1) trailed, 76-69, after Daniel Kickert’s inside bank shot with 3:03 to play, but outscored the Gaels, 15-2, to win by eight.

Arizona never led in the second half until Salim Stoudamire passed to Frye for a layup to put the Wildcats ahead, 79-78, with 55 seconds remaining.

Early in the second half, Coach Lute Olson benched Frye, who responded by dominating offensively after that.

“I had to step up,” Frye said. “I think Coach was challenging me. He asked me if I even wanted to play out there because I was being soft. I am sick of people saying that.”

Stoudamire scored six of his 16 points in the late run, including a steal of an inbounds pass and layup that cut the lead to 78-77 with 1:36 to play.

“What won it?” Stoudamire said. “Grit. You have to have grit in these situations.”

Kickert and Paul Marigney each scored 19 points for the Gaels (6-4).

St. Mary’s guard Tyler Herr was in McKale Center two seasons ago when the Gaels were routed.

“Our mind-set was the biggest thing that has changed since our last game here,” he said. “We are starting to understand that we are good. We didn’t have that before. We are a good team now.”

No. 3 Duke 69, Princeton 51 -- Luol Deng shook off a rough first half to score 18 points at Durham, N.C., as the Blue Devils (7-1) extended the nation’s longest home winning streak to 32 games.

Princeton (4-3), playing its highest ranked team since 1997, trailed by eight points with 7 1/2 minutes left before Deng scored on a driving layup to give Duke a double-digit lead.

No. 5 Georgia Tech 74, Alabama A&M; 41 -- Reserve guard Will Bynum made consecutive three-point baskets in an early 24-2 run and the Yellow Jackets (9-0) forced 28 turnovers to defeat the Bulldogs (2-4) at Atlanta.

It is the third-best start for Georgia Tech, which opened 11-0 in 1962-63 and won its first 10 games in 1989-90, when it reached the Final Four.

No. 16 Cincinnati 79, Clemson 56 -- Jason Maxiell scored 20 points and the Bearcats (5-0) forced 25 turnovers to rout the Tigers (4-4) at Cincinnati.

Clemson was playing its third game in five days, while Cincinnati was coming off a 15-day layoff. Clemson has committed at least 21 turnovers in five of its games.

No. 18 Pittsburgh 79, Chicago State 51 -- Julius Page scored 14 points in only 18 minutes as the Panthers (9-0) extended their home winning streak to a school-record 29 games. Chicago State (1-8) has lost 39 consecutive road games and 27 in a row overall against Division I opponents.

No. 19 Syracuse 69, Manhattan 63 -- Billy Edelin scored 14 points in the second half at Syracuse, N.Y., to rally the Orangemen (4-1) to their fourth consecutive victory. The Jaspers are 3-2.

OTHER GAMES

Luke Jackson scored 23 points as Oregon (4-1) rolled to a 94-71 victory over Santa Clara (6-4) at Eugene, Ore., ending the Broncos’ six-game winning streak.... T.J. Parker scored 12 points and the winning basket as time expired and Vedran Vukusic scored a career-high 26 points as Northwestern (5-3) defeated Arizona State, 63-61, at Evanston, Ill. The Sun Devils are 5-3.