Sports

College basketball

Big East: Giant-killer Marquette tops again

Associated Press
Published February 19, 2006

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MILWAUKEE - Steve Novak scored 27 and hit five 3-pointers to lead Marquette to its second straight victory over a Top 25 team, an 84-82 upset of No.9 Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Dominic James scored 16 and Wesley Matthews 13 to give the Golden Eagles, who beat No.17 Georgetown 57-51 on Thursday, another win over a quality opponent.

Pitt nearly overcame a 10-point deficit in the final minutes behind Carl Krauser (18 points), who scored five straight to cut it to 78-77 with three minutes to go.

Novak and Ronald Ramon exchanged 3-pointers. The Golden Eagles missed two shots on their next possession, and the Panthers' Aaron Gray was fouled with 24.7 seconds left.

The 64 percent free-throw shooter missed both attempts, and Pitt was forced to foul Novak, a 98.5 percent free-throw shooter. He made both to make it 83-80 with 11.2 left.

Ramon missed a 3-pointer, and Gray's rebound and putback cut it to 83-82 with .2 left.

Marquette's Joe Chapman hit one free throw and missed the second to end it.

No1 UConn rebounds

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Josh Boone scored 18 and No.1 Connecticut bounced back from a loss Monday at Villanova with an 81-75 victory over No.11 West Virginia.

UConn took sole possession of second place in the conference standings from the Mountaineers, who have lost three of four.

"Any time your team comes off a loss, your game needs to step up another notch," said Hilton Armstrong, who had five of the Huskies' nine dunks and finished with 15 points.

UConn held the conference's worst rebounding team under 30 in consecutive years. The Mountaineers' 19 rebounds were a season low.

UConn plays three of its final four regular-season games at home, including a rematch with Villanova on Feb. 26.

N.D. 102, SETON HALL 91: Chris Quinn scored 34 and made 12 straight free throws in the closing minutes to lead the visiting Irish. Colin Falls added a career-high 32 points, going 8-of-14 from 3-point range, and Russell Carter had 17 for Notre Dame, which held double-digit leads for most of the game and posted its first conference road win of the season. Donald Copeland had a career-best 28 points for the Pirates. The two teams traded the lead early before the Irish took control midway through the first half with an 8-0 run. They remained firmly in command until Seton Hall rallied with a late 10-2 run to cut it to 44-36 at the break. Notre Dame took control again with an 8-0 run to start the second half, and the Pirates never got closer than eight.

SYRACUSE 79, LOUISVILLE 66: Gerry McNamara scored 30 for the host Orange. Taquan Dean made three 3-pointers to tie DeJuan Wheat's school record of 323 and scored 21 but was just 4-for-15 from the field. Down 36-35 at halftime, Syracuse opened the second half with a 20-4 run. Eric Devendorf scored nine and McNamara converted a three-point play during the first 3:28. Devendorf's layup off a McNamara steal made it 47-38, and two McNamara 3-pointers made it 55-40 5:33 in.

DePAUL 52, ST. JOHN'S 48: Draelon Burns scored 16, including the clinching free throws with 12 seconds left, for the visiting Blue Demons. Burns' 3-pointer with 2:38 left put DePaul up 43-40. The Red Storm got within 49-48 on a layup by Eugene Lawrence with 19 seconds left. Burns, an 84 percent free-throw shooter, made his free throws a few seconds later. Ricky Torres missed a 3-pointer with four seconds left for the Red Storm, and Sammy Mejia added a free throw.

Also, St. John's had its hearing with the NCAA's infractions committee and expects the results in 6-8 weeks. The school imposed two years of penalties in November 2004 because a former player was given cash by an athletic department employee.

[Last modified February 19, 2006, 01:10:11]

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