No. 1 Memphis gets a scare from UTEP

Texas El Paso Coach Tony Barbee almost made his years coaching at Memphis pay off.

Luckily for the top-ranked Tigers, they had enough talent to overcome that inside knowledge as well as a poor shooting performance.

Chris Douglas-Roberts scored with 2:31 left to break a 60-60 tie, keeping the Tigers, 21-0 overall, 7-0 Conference USA, the country’s only undefeated Division I team with a 70-64 victory Saturday over the Miners at Memphis, Tenn.

“A lot of how we played is because of Tony’s preparation,” Memphis Coach John Calipari said of Barbee, who was his assistant between 2000 and 2006.

Barbee recruited some of the Tigers and knows them well. He also runs the same offense with the Miners (13-7, 4-3). But Douglas-Roberts said that Barbee didn’t put in a different game plan for the Tigers.

“Other teams don’t play like that and other teams don’t have Tony Barbee for a coach,” Douglas-Roberts said.

It was the Tigers’ worst shooting performance of the season, including one for 17 from three-point range.

Memphis continued its best start ever, topping the 20-win start by the 1985-86 team. The Tigers also extended the nation’s longest home-court winning streak to 44.

Penn State 85, No. 8 Michigan State 76 -- The Nittany Lions (11-10, 3-6 Big Ten) went 16 of 20 from the free-throw line in the closing minutes at State College, Pa., to upset the Spartans (19-3, 7-2) and end their five-game winning streak.

Connecticut 60, No. 18 Pittsburgh 53 -- The Huskies (16-5, 6-3 Big East) closed the game at Hartford, Conn., on a 9-2 run, giving them their fifth consecutive victory.

After Gilbert Brown made two free throws for the Panthers (17-5, 5-4) with 1:42 left, A.J. Price scored with 1:09 left and then made two free throws with 37 seconds left to give the Huskies a 58-53 lead.