College Basketball Roundup : N.C. State Struggles but Beats Towson St.

North Carolina State was expected to extend its winning streak to 5 games Monday night. After all, the No. 16 Wolfpack was playing at home in Raleigh, N.C., and the opponent was lightly regarded Towson State.

Well, North Carolina State won, 83-77, but it wasn’t easy. The Wolfpack struggled for most of the game. In fact, they trailed, 32-25, with 6:08 left in the first half before going ahead at halftime, 46-38.

The Wolfpack built the lead to 75-63 with 7:30 left, and managed to maintain a double-figure advantage until the Tigers scored 6 straight points to cut the margin to 77-73 with 3:44 left.

North Carolina State (7-1) could not increase the lead to more than 6 points down the stretch, and 2 free throws by John Bays with 17 seconds left cut the Wolfpack lead to 81-77. Chris Corchianni’s 2 free throws with 6 seconds left accounted for the final margin.

Rodney Monroe and Chucky Brown each scored 23 points for the Wolfpack. Bays finished with 16 points to lead 6 players in double figures for Towson State (5-4).

Louisiana State 79, Maryland 77--Chris Jackson scored 15 of LSU’s final 17 points, including an 18-foot jumper with 8 seconds left, to give the Tigers the victory at College Park, Md.

Jackson, who finished with 30 points, had only 2 free throws in the first 12:24 of the second half, but he took control down the stretch to lead LSU (8-3) to its fourth straight victory.

Maryland (6-5) didn’t make a field goal in the final 6:33 of the first half.

California 70, Colorado 54--The Bears, 9-20 last season, won for the ninth time in their last 10 games and also improved their record at Berkeley to 7-0 by routing the Buffaloes.

Center Leonard Taylor scored 21 points to lead Cal (10-3), which took a 19-5 lead 9 minutes into the game and never trailed. Colorado, which got no closer than 8 points in the second half, is 5-8.

Utah 75, U. San Diego 57--Mitch Smith scored 14 of his 20 points in the second half to lead the Utes past the Toreros at Salt Lake City.

Smith also had 11 rebounds and 7 assists for Utah (9-6), which has won 8 of its last 9 games, is 9-6. San Diego is 5-6.

Wyoming 97, Drake 85--Reggie Fox scored 30 points, including 13 on free throws, to lead the Cowboys past the Bulldogs at Laramie, Wyo.

The win, which improved Wyoming’s record to 7-5, gave Coach Benny Dees his 100th career victory. Drake is 5-7.

Louisiana Tech 96, North Texas 57--Randy White had 18 points and 14 rebounds to lead Tech at Ruston, La., in a game in which 9 players were ejected after a bench-clearing brawl with 3:42 remaining to play.

White was one of the players ejected after officials used a television crew’s videotape, causing an 18-minute delay, to review a flagrant foul by Tech’s Vernon Norris and the pushing, shoving, punching and fighting that followed.

Tech is 7-4, North Texas 3-7.