College Basketball Roundup

Published 12:00 am Monday, January 29, 2007

Assoicated Press

ATLANTA — Zabian Dowdell scored 23 points and A.D. Vassallo had 19 to help No. 24 Virginia Tech beat Georgia Tech 73-65 on Sunday.

The Hokies (16-5, 6-1 ACC) have won three straight, six of eight and 12 of 14. Georgia Tech (13-7, 2-5) has lost three straight to drop into 10th place in the ACC.

Virginia Tech’s biggest lead was only 10 points, coming on Coleman Collins’ dunk with 17:43 remaining, but the Hokies never allowed the Yellow Jackets to pull closer than three after Crittenton hit a 3-pointer 2:24 later.

Anthony Morrow had 18 points to lead the Yellow Jackets, who began the game with the ACC’s best field-goal percentage at 50.6 but finished with a season-worst 36.6.

Freshman forward Thaddeus Young finished with a season-low six points on 2-for-10 shooting.

Virginia 64, No. 19 Clemson 63

CLEMSON, S.C. — Jason Cain’s tip-in with 15.5 seconds left capped a 16-point comeback over the final nine minutes to lift Virginia over Clemson.

The Cavaliers (13-6, 5-2 ACC) trailed 61-45 after Cliff Hammonds’ 3-pointer with 8:47 to go. But Clemson was held to two foul shots the rest of the way.

It was the second straight improbable defeat for Clemson (18-4, 4-4), which lost at Duke 68-66 on David McClure’s layup with no time remaining this past Thursday night when officials incorrectly added time after the Tigers had tied things.

Wisconsin 57, Iowa 46

IOWA CITY, Iowa — Alando Tucker scored 27 points, Brian Butch added 13 points and 14 rebounds and No. 2 Wisconsin beat Iowa 57-46 on Sunday, eclipsing the best start in school history.

Tucker went 11-of-14 from the floor for the Badgers (21-1, 7-0 Big Ten), who topped the old mark of 20-1 set in 1915-16.

Wisconsin also extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 17 games.

Adam Haluska scored 16 points to lead Iowa (11-10, 3-4 Big Ten), which saw its 12-game home winning streak against Big Ten opponents snapped. The Hawkeyes fell for just the second time in 30 games at home.

No. 15 Marquette 70, South Florida 68

TAMPA, Fla. — Dominic James scored 16 points and Jerel McNeal stole a pass and drove nearly the length of the floor to make a layup at the buzzer to give Marquette (19-4, 6-2) a victory over South Florida.

James made a difficult layup in heavy traffic to tie the game with 15 seconds remaining, then McNeal provided his heroics after South Florida (11-11, 2-6) called a timeout to set up a potential game-winning play with nine seconds left.

Georgia 57, No. 21 LSU 54

ATHENS, Ga. — Levi Stukes’s 3-pointer with 0.6 seconds left gave Georgia (13-6, 5-2 SEC) a win over Louisiana State (13-7, 2-4).

AREA

CHARLOTTE — Massachusetts coach Travis Ford figured the best way to prevent Charlotte from beating his team with 3-pointers was simply to not let them shoot any.

So the Minutemen (15-5, 5-2 Atlantic 10) extended their defense and pressed hard out beyond the arc and limited the 49ers, who were averaging nearly 30 3-point attempts per game, to only 5-of-16 shooting on 3-pointers and a

66-61 win on Sunday.

Charlotte’s Leemire Goldwire, who had been 24-of-49 on 3-pointers in six Atlantic-10 games, didn’t get off a 3-pointer until the final minute of the game.

E.J. Drayton led Charlotte (8-11, 2-5) with 16 points and 13 rebounds, while DeAngelo Alexander added 13 points, 12 of those in the first half.It was Charlotte’s third-straight loss and the 49ers’ fifth defeat in their past seven games.

WOMEN

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Playing on the road against the defending national champions before an energized sellout crowd, No. 2 North Carolina didn’t flinch.

Ivory Latta scored a season-high 32 points, and the unbeaten Tar Heels extracted a measure of revenge against No. 3 Maryland with an 84-71 victory.

The crowd of 17,950 was the largest to watch a women’s basketball game in Atlantic Coast Conference history, surpassing the 17,243 that viewed the Terrapins’ loss to Duke in February 2005. Maryland has hosted the top five crowds in ACC history.

The Terps (21-2, 5-2) waited too long to match the intensity of their enthusiastic fans. Maryland fell behind with five minutes elapsed and never caught up, crumbling under a series of turnovers.