Seton Hall Effort Has a Sweet Taste

Andre Sweet was seven for nine from the field and scored 18 points to lead Seton Hall to a 55-46 victory over No. 23 Providence on Sunday at Providence, R.I., ending the Friars’ winning streak at six games.

Ryan Gomes had 28 points and 13 rebounds for Providence, which dropped to 14-4 overall and 5-3 in the Big East Conference and fell out of a first-place tie with No. 7 Pittsburgh.

The win was the third in a row -- all in the conference -- for Seton Hall (14-4, 4-2).

The Pirates shot 54% in the second half and withstood Gomes’ one-man assault. He scored 20 points in the second half, including 16 straight for the Friars during one stretch.

J.R. Morris scored 13 points for Seton Hall, and Kelly Whitney had 10. Andre Barrett, the Pirates’ leading scorer with an 18.4 average, was held to six points and had four assists.

A basket by Gomes drew Providence to within 38-30 with about 9 1/2 minutes left, but Seton Hall scored 12 of the next 20 points to take its biggest lead.

No. 25 Oklahoma 52, Nebraska 50 -- Lawrence McKenzie scored 18 points, including a tiebreaking three-pointer with 2:24 left, and the Sooners (13-4, 3-3) defeated the Cornhuskers (11-6, 1-5) in a Big 12 Conference game at Lincoln, Neb., after leading by as many as 17 points.

McKenzie matched his career high with five three-pointers and had 10 rebounds for the Sooners, who scored only 16 points in the second half and went a stretch of 10:18 without scoring.

Brian Conklin gave Nebraska a 45-44 lead with 3:28 left when he capped a 15-0 run by the Cornhuskers.

McKenzie’s free throw with 3:08 left stopped Oklahoma’s drought. After Nebraska’s Andrew Drevo missed underneath, McKenzie made his final three to put the Sooners ahead for good.

Jabahri Brown had 15 points for Oklahoma.

OTHER GAMES

Julius Hodge scored 28 points, and North Carolina State (12-5, 5-2) pulled away in the second half to earn an 81-69 Atlantic Coast Conference victory over Maryland (11-7, 2-5), its first at College Park, Md., since 1989. The Wolfpack was 0-14 in College Park since Jan. 29, 1989, including 0-9 under Coach Herb Sendek.... Nate Funk scored 21 points, Kellen Miliner had 20 and Johnny Mathies made two free throws with eight seconds left to lift Creighton (16-2, 8-2) to a 74-70 victory over Evansville (3-15, 2-8) in a Missouri Valley Conference game at Evansville, Ind.