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College basketball
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 11, 2003
AUSTIN, Texas -- No flimsy rope was holding this crowd back. Not when a losing streak to a bitter rival, three years in the making, finally had ended.
The crowd of 15,783 went to the Frank Erwin Center on Monday night eager to see No. 6 Texas end an eight-game losing streak to No. 5 Oklahoma, its bitter border rival.
And when the final seconds ticked off Texas' 67-61 win, hundreds of students rushed over and under the thin rope security personnel hoped would keep them off the floor.
Instead, security staffers struggled to stay on their feet as the fans mobbed the Longhorns and sang The Eyes of Texas with the pep band.
The skid was over.
"I said from the beginning of the year, this is 2003; it's a new start," said Royal Ivey, who scored 14 and hit the key 3-pointer that gave Texas a four-point lead with two minutes to play.
"This is a great win."
Texas hadn't beaten Oklahoma since Jan. 15, 2000. The streak included three defeats in the Big 12 tournament and an overtime loss in Austin last season.
Finally, Texas coach Rick Barnes could talk about what went right against the Sooners, instead of what went wrong.
"We talked about each guy going in and affecting the game in his way," Barnes said. "We got that tonight."
Brandon Mouton scored 14 and James Thomas got his 10th double double with 11 points and 16 rebounds. Jason Klotz scored eight, including a key basket in the final two minutes.
Even freshman Brad Buckman, playing against the Sooners for the first time, got into the act, scoring the game's first four.
NO. 23 UCONN 75, NO. 17 SYRACUSE 61: The Huskies needed a big-time win, and they got it by using balanced offense and solid defense.
"This won't make up for any tough losses, but we just beat a quality team and we needed a quality win badly," said sophomore center Emeka Okafor, who had 15 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks.
Host Connecticut won its second straight since losing two in a row by more than 20 points. It improved to 2-1 without coach Jim Calhoun, who was released from the hospital Sunday, three days after having surgery to remove a cancerous prostate. It also won its second game without starting point guard Taliek Brown, out four to six weeks with a broken finger.
FAMU 88, MORRIS BROWN 56: Jermaine Hill had 24 points and 13 rebounds to lead the host Rattlers past the Wolverines, who had had won six of seven after opening 1-8. Florida A&M had 11 steals and scored 30 off 21 turnovers.
B-CC 48, DELAWARE ST. 43: Richard Toussaint sank two free throws with 12.6 seconds left and O'Neal Carter one with 4.7 seconds left to seal it for the host Wildcats.
NO. 2 DUKE 75, UVA 48: Alana Beard scored 24, and the host Blue Devils used a 10-0 second-half run to pull away for their 34th straight ACC win.