College Basketball Roundup : Indiana Ends No. 2-Ranked Purdue’s 16-Game Streak, 82-79

As soon as the Indiana Hoosiers stopped worrying about winning, they won their biggest game of the year.

Senior center Dean Garrett scored a career-high 31 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Hoosiers halted second-ranked Purdue’s 16-game winning streak with an 82-79 upset Saturday at Bloomington, Ind.

“It’s been a different basketball team this week,” said Indiana Coach Bob Knight, whose team lost four of its first five Big Ten Conference games before beating Ohio State and Purdue.

“We were just trying to win a game before, and I don’t like that,” Knight said. “Our whole system is based on getting better and not worrying about whether we win or not. So this obviously is a good game for us.”

Garrett’s short jumper with five seconds left proved to be the game-winning basket against the Boilermakers, who had rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit by hitting 18 of 21 shots in the second half.

After Garrett’s basket made it 80-79, the Boilermakers had one more chance to win. But Tony Jones was called for traveling with two left, and Indiana’s Lyndon Jones hit a layup at the buzzer.

Indiana was sparked by the play of freshmen Jones and Jay Edwards, who started for the second straight game in place of Keith Smart and Rick Calloway, standouts on last season’s NCAA championship team.

Edwards scored 22 points and handed out 5 assists, while Jones had 9 points and 7 assists. They were were teammates on the Marion High School team that won the Indiana state championship the past three years.

Indiana improved to 11-6 overall and 3-4 in the Big Ten. Purdue fell to 17-2 and 6-1.

The Hoosiers held Purdue’s leading scorer, Troy Lewis, scoreless in the first half as they built a 15-point lead. But forward Todd Mitchell, who finished with 24 points, led a furious second-half rally by the Boilermakers.

Lewis finished with 10 points, including a pair of three-point goals. He has at least one three-pointer in 20 straight games.

North Carolina 73, Georgia Tech 71--Jeff Lebo scored the last 15 points for the Tar Heels, connecting on five straight three-pointers in the Atlantic Coast Conference game at Chapel Hill, N.C.

The No. 3 Tar Heels improved to 15-3 and 4-2. Tech dropped to 14-5 and 2-3.

Tech had 45 seconds left on the clock after Lebo’s final three-pointer made it 73-71. But the Yellow Jackets failed to call a timeout until only five seconds remained and failed to get off a shot.

Lebo, who started the streak when the Tar Heels trailed, 64-58, finished with 20 points, 17 in the second half. J.R. Reid scored 19 points, 15 in the first half when the Tar Heels took a 42-36 lead.

Tech’s Tom Hammonds led all scorers with 24 points.

Pittsburgh 73, Boston College 67--Charles Smith scored 25 points for the No. 11 Panthers, who built a 17-point lead in the second half of the Big East game at Boston.

Pittsburgh is 15-2 and 5-1. Boston College is 11-8 and 3-6.

Dana Barros, leading scorer in the Big East, had 30 points for Boston College.

St. John’s 58, Seton Hall 55--The Redmen, trailing by nine points, held the Pirates to five points in the last eight minutes to pull out the win at East Rutherford, N.J.

It was the sixth win in a row for St. John’s (14-3 and 5-2). It also was the Redmen’s 15th straight win over Seton Hall (13-9 and 2-6).

Shelton Jones and Boo Harvey each scored 15 points for the Redmen.

Providence 82, Villanova 76--Eric Murdock’s three-point basket snapped a tie with 1:26 left in overtime, and the Friars (9-9 and 3-4) ended a five-game losing streak by turning back the No. 19 Wildcats (14-6 and 6-3) at Providence, R.I.

Daryl Wright led the Friars with 23 points, 17 in the second half.

Villanova’s Doug West scored 27 points but was held scoreless in the last 16 minutes. Tom Greis had 20 points and 13 rebounds for the Wildcats.

Georgetown 60, Connecticut 59--The Hoyas, who had been hitting only 52% of their free throws, made 21 of 29, including two by Anthony Allen with 12 seconds left at Landover, Md.

Georgetown is 14-4 and 4-3. Connecticut is 9-7 and 2-6.

Oklahoma 96, Iowa State 91--Stacey King scored a career-high 36 points and had 21 rebounds as the No. 10 Sooners overcame an 11-point deficit in the second half and ended a 12-game home winning streak by the No. 12 Cyclones in a Big Eight game.

Mookie Blaylock added 20 points for the Sooners (18-2 and 4-1).

Jeff Grayer led Iowa State with 30 points and became the school’s career scoring leader with 2,216 points. He passed Barry Stevens, who scored 2,190 points from 1981-85.

Lafester Rhodes added 29 points and for the Cyclones (16-5 and 2-3).

Kansas State 72, Kansas 61--Mitch Richmond scored a career-high 35 points, and the Wildcats ended a 55-game home court winning streak by the Jayhawks, the longest in the country.

Kansas (12-7 and 1-3) had not lost in Allen Field House since a 92-82 overtime defeat to Oklahoma Feb. 22, 1984. Kansas State (12-4 and 4-0) had lost 10 straight games to Kansas.

Danny Manning of Kansas scored 21 points.

Iowa 76, Minnesota 51--B.J. Armstrong scored 18 points, all on three-point shots, as the No. 16 Hawkeyes breezed past the Gophers in a Big Ten game at Iowa City, Iowa.

Iowa is 15-5 and 5-2. Minnesota is 7-10 and 1-6.

Brigham Young 95, Air Force 75--Mike Smith scored 23 points, and Jeff Chatman had 15 rebounds for the No. 7 Cougars, who remained unbeaten, in the Western Athletic Conference game at Provo, Utah.

The Cougars, outrebounding the Falcons, 46 to 24, boosted their record to 15-0 and 6-0.

New Mexico 70, Texas El Paso 69--Darrell McGee hit a 15-foot jumper with 12 seconds remaining as the Lobos (16-6 and 4-3) upset the No. 18 Miners (17-4 and 6-2) at El Paso, Tex.

UTEP’s Chris Blocker led all scorers with 21 points.

Vanderbilt 92, Florida 65--Will Perdue had 19 points and 15 rebounds, and the Commodores made all 23 free-throw attempts in routing the No. 14 Gators in a Southeastern Conference game at Nashville.

Vanderbilt, which also has upset Kentucky and North Carolina this season, is 13-4 and 6-3. Florida is 15-5 and 6-2.

Bradley 65, Tulsa 62--Hersey Hawkins, the nation’s leading scorer with a 37-point average, was held to 17 points on 7-of-20 shooting, but the Braves (13-2 and 4-1) managed to edge the Golden Hurricane (5-12 and 1-4) in the Missouri Valley Conference game at Tulsa, Okla.