No. 1 Duke Is Upset by N.C. State

The Atlantic Coast Conference race isn’t over quite yet.

Top-ranked Duke had its 18-game winning streak stopped by No. 21 North Carolina State, 78-74, Sunday night at Raleigh, N.C., as Julius Hodge made two clutch free throws with seven seconds left.

The victory moved the Wolfpack, which improved to 16-5 overall and 9-2 in the conference, to within one game of the Blue Devils (21-2, 10-1) with five conference games left and opened the door for Stanford or Saint Joseph’s to be No. 1 in today’s Associated Press poll.

Duke’s defense -- its staple all season -- failed the Blue Devils all night, allowing dribble penetration on numerous possessions as the Wolfpack shot 52% and got half of their points in the paint.

Hodge had 14 of his 18 points in the second half. Ilian Evtimov, who made his presence known in the lane, had 15.

The nation’s top free-throw shooting team also made 12 in a row over the last 1:10 to help clinch the program’s first win over a top-ranked team since beating North Carolina in February 1998.

The Wolfpack has won five consecutive ACC regular-season games for the first time in 30 years.

J.J. Redick had 28 points for Duke, which lost to Purdue on Nov. 29 in the championship game of the Great Alaska Shootout. The Blue Devils have been ranked No. 1 for the last four weeks.

Chris Duhon rallied the Blue Devils from a double-digit deficit to within two early in the second half with two long three-point baskets 37 seconds apart.

But they couldn’t pull closer than three until the final seven seconds, when the Wolfpack threw the ball away on an inbounds pass and Sean Dockery scored. Hodge then made the two free throws in the final seconds to hand Duke its first loss in 2 1/2 months.

No. 4 Pittsburgh 75, No. 5 Connecticut 68 -- The Panthers (23-2, 9-2, Big East) extended their winning streak at home to 40 games -- the longest in Division I. They are 18-0 this season and 34-0 since the Petersen Events Center opened last season.

Jared Brown scored four points during a pivotal 11-0 run that started just before Connecticut star Emeka Okafor drew his fourth foul with 9:19 left. Okafor, averaging 19.6 points, had only four of his 16 points in the second half. The 6-foot-10 Okafor sat out about four minutes -- a stretch that saw the Panthers take their biggest lead, 58-43.

Ben Gordon led the Huskies (19-5, 7-3) with 23 points.

Nebraska 74, No. 12 Kansas 55 -- The Cornhuskers (14-7, 4-6 Big 12) ended a 10-game losing streak to the Jayhawks, beating them for the first time since Feb. 10, 1999.

Kansas (15-6, 7-3) is 4-4 over its last eight games, including a 20-point loss at No. 10 Oklahoma State last Monday.

No. 20 Wake Forest 91, No. 13 Cincinnati 85 -- Freshman Chris Paul made 10 of 14 shots -- including all three three-point attempts -- and was seven of seven from the free-throw line to score 30 points at Winston-Salem, N.C., and help the Demon Deacons (15-6) beat the Bearcats (17-4) for the first time in six meetings.

No. 14 North Carolina 97, Maryland 86 -- The Tar Heels (15-7, 5-6 ACC) avenged last month’s road loss to the Terrapins (13-8, 4-6) by taking a 20-point halftime lead and holding off their late rally at Chapel Hill, N.C.

Rashad McCants scored 25 points to lead North Carolina.

OTHER GAMES

Boston University (19-4, 13-1) shot 54% and rolled to an 80-70 victory over Vermont (16-6, 12-1) in an America East Conference game at Burlington, Vt.... Marvin Black scored 30 points to help Marshall (9-12, 6-7) to an 82-76 overtime upset over Western Michigan (18-3, 11-2) in a Mid-American Conference game at Huntington, W.Va.... Haim Shimonovich blocked a potential game-tying three-point shot, and Hawaii held on for a 62-59 victory over Southern Methodist late Saturday night in a Western Athletic Conference game at Honolulu.

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Northwestern guard Evan Seacat was under observation at a hospital in Evanston, Ill., a day after sustaining a concussion when he ran into a screen set by Penn State center Jan Jagla and fell hard to the floor during the Wildcats’ 65-52 victory. He left the court on a stretcher.

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High Turnover

With No. 1-ranked Duke’s loss to North Carolina State on Sunday, there will be a different team atop the Associated Press top 25 poll today for the seventh time in 14 weeks. A look at the changes at No. 1 this season, and the current win-loss records and rankings of the teams that fell from No. 1:

*--* Team No. 1 From Weeks Loss That Crnt. W-L Last Rank Led to Fall From No.1 CONNECTICUT Nov. 13-30 2 Georgia 19-5 5 Tech, 77-61, on Nov. 26 KANSAS Dec. 1-7 1 Stanford, 15-6 12 64-58, on Dec. 6 FLORIDA Dec. 8-14 1 Maryland, 14-7 22 69-68, on Dec. 10 KENTUCKY Dec. 15-28 2 Louisville 17-4 8 , 65-56, on Dec. 27 CONNECTICUT Dec. 29-Jan. 18 3 North 19-5 5 Carolina, 86-83, on Jan. 17 DUKE Jan. 19-Feb. 15 4 North 21-2 1 Carolina State, 78-74, on Feb. 15

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