Advertisement

Archive for Sunday, March 4, 2001

Top 25 men

Stanford sinks Bruins

March 4, 2001

Advertisement

— Third consecutive Pac-10 title. Check. Guarantee of high seed in NCAA tournament. Check. Avenge only loss of season. Check.

Top-ranked Stanford came into Pauley Pavilion on Saturday and got everything it wanted in an 85-79 victory over No. 12 UCLA.

"We live for games like this," said Casey Jacobsen, one of four Cardinal starters with 16 points.

The Cardinal (27-1, 15-1), who lost at home to the Bruins a month ago, improved to 11-0 on the road. Stanford has won seven in a row since the defeat.

"We had a chip on our shoulder because they were the only team to beat us," said Ryan Mendez, who had 16 points and hit all 10 of his free throws over the final 2:54.

A second victory over a No. 1 team and a share of their first conference championship in four years was on the Bruins' minds. But that's gone now as UCLA (20-7, 13-3) dropped two games behind the Cardinal with two games remaining.

"Very disappointing," said Matt Barnes, who scored a career-high 32 points. "We had a chance to win the Pac-10."

Jason Collins had 16 points and Jarron Collins added 16 points and 10 rebounds as the Cardinal dominated the boards 40-27 in winning its fourth straight at Pauley Pavilion.

Earl Watson added 19 points in his final home game and his three steals made him UCLA's career leader with 226.

No. 3 Michigan St. 78, Michigan 57

East Lansing, Mich. Senior Andre Hutson had 19 points and nine rebounds as the winningest class in Big Ten history led the Spartans to at least a share of the Big Ten regular-season title for the fourth straight year.

Michigan State seniors Andre Hutson, Charlie Bell, Mike Chappell, David Thomas and Brandon Smith have won two conference tournament championships, been to two consecutive Final Fours and set a Big Ten record with 111 wins.

"This is a tremendous feeling," Thomas said. "We were just dancing in the locker room."

The Spartans (24-3, 13-3) hold a half-game lead over No. 5 Illinois, which plays at Minnesota today. If Illinois wins, the teams share the crown, but the Illini would go into next week's Big Ten tournament with the No. 1 seed based on a win in the teams' only meeting of the season, 77-66 on Feb. 6.

Bernard Robinson Jr. led Michigan (10-17, 4-12) with 19 points.

No. 16 Maryland 102, No. 7 Virginia 67

College Park, Md. Juan Dixon's 21 points led five players in double figures as the Terrapins ended the regular season with consecutive victories over Top Ten teams. The 35-point victory, matching Maryland's biggest ever over Virginia, clinched third place in the ACC for the Terrapins (20-9, 10-6). Roger Mason had 16 points for Virginia (20-7, 9-7).

No. 9 Arizona 104, Oregon 65

Tucson, Ariz. In his final home game, Loren Woods emerged from his season-long funk to score 17 points and Arizona avenged its worst loss of the season. The 7-foot-1 center, who two days earlier said he regretted not leaving for the NBA last year, was 8-for-10 from the field and had seven rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots. He even made a three-pointer in his last shot at McKale Center. All five starters were in double figures for the Wildcats (21-7, 13-3 Pac-10), who had lost two in a row to Oregon (13-14, 4-13).

No. 11 Boston College 96, West Virginia 65

Morgantown, W.Va. Boston College finished the regular season with four wins in eight days. Boston College, the first team in the 21-year history of the league to go from worst to first the next season, will have a first-round bye as the East Division's top seed.

Kenny Walls and Kenny Harley scored 15 points each as Boston College (23-4, 13-3) led the entire way. Xavier Singletary had 13 points for the Eagles.

Calvin Bowman led West Virginia with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Tim Lyles had 13 points and Chris Moss 12.

West Virginia (17-10, 8-8) saw its hopes for an NCAA tournament bid grow fainter. Now, the Mountaineers' only chance is to win at least three of four tournament games as the East's fourth seed.

No. 14 Mississippi 105, No. 20 Alabama 71

Oxford, Miss. Jason Holmes scored a career-high 26 points as Ole Miss (23-6, 11-5 SEC) completed a worst-to-first turnaround by setting a school record for victories in a season and clinching an outright SEC West title. Antoine Pettway had 19 points for the Crimson Tide (20-9, 8-8), who have lost four straight and finished the regular season 1-7 on the road.

La Salle 91, No. 18 St. Joseph's 90

Philadelphia The last game of the regular season turned out to be La Salle's biggest win of the year. Victor Thomas scored 26 points, including four free throws in the final two minutes, as La Salle withstood a late rally and snapped the Hawks' 10-game winning streak. La Salle had lost four straight. Julian Blanks, who finished with 20 points, made seven of 10 free throws in the final minute and his two with 7.2 seconds left put the Explorers (11-16, 5-11 Atlantic 10) up 91-87. Marvin O'Connor scored 37 points for St. Joseph's (14-5, 14-1).

No. 22 Wisconsin 59, Iowa 57

Iowa City, Iowa Kirk Penney scored 17 points, including two big free throws late in the game, as the Badgers (18-9, 9-7 Big Ten) broke a two-game losing streak. Dean Oliver, a four-year starter playing his last game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, scored 18 points for Iowa (18-11, 7-9).

No comments

Commenting is turned off for this story.