COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NATIONAL ROUNDUP : Houston Gives Tar Heels a Scare

North Carolina came close to a big loss Wednesday night in Houston.

Hubert Davis scored 14 of his 29 points in the final 10:17 as the sixth-ranked Tar Heels rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit and beat Houston, 68-65.

“We just stepped up well in the second half,” Davis said. “These kind of games make you wake up and grow up fast. We knew we could do it. I knew I had to keep setting up and spotting for the three.”

The Tar Heels (2-0) did not score in the first 6:15 and had one basket in the final 3:38 of the first half as the Cougars (1-1) took a 42-27 halftime lead behind Sam Mack’s 21 first-half points.

North Carolina outscored Houston, 11-2, to start the second half, and Davis’ three-point shot with 6:16 left gave North Carolina its first lead of the game at 59-58.

“We were two different teams in two different halves,” North Carolina Coach Dean Smith said. “They thoroughly dominated the first half. We didn’t dominate the second half. It was just that we were not as nervous.”

Mack, who scored 32 points, made two free throws and a basket to give the Cougars a 62-60 lead, but four consecutive free throws by Davis gave North Carolina the lead for good.

No. 9 Louisiana State 96, Middle Tennessee 65--Shaquille O’Neal watched a lot of the game from an unaccustomed spot on the bench, but it was by design.

O’Neal scored eight points in an 18-2 run in the first half as the Tigers routed the Blue Raiders at Baton Rouge, La.

LSU (2-0) led, 12-8, when the run started and 30-10 when it ended with 8:02 to go in the first half.

The Blue Raiders (2-1) closed to 31-19 with 6:13 to go in the opening half on consecutive baskets by Robert Taylor, but LSU took a 44-27 halftime lead.

It never got closer than that the rest of the way. With 10 minutes left, LSU led, 67-45, and the Tigers were ahead 91-54 when Coach Dale Brown cleared his bench with 2:33 remaining.

O’Neal finished with 22 points, 13 rebounds and blocked five shots. He sat out 3:27 of the first half and the final 10:39 of the game, shortly after he scored his 22nd point.

No. 11 Oklahoma State 74, No. 24 Pittsburgh 63--The Cowboys held the Panthers scoreless for 7 1/2 minutes in the second half in the semifinals of the preseason NIT at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Byron Houston led Oklahoma State with 34 points. Houston, a 6-foot-7, 250-pound power forward, made five of six three-point shots and also had 15 rebounds. He started a decisive 14-0 run midway through the second half with his final three-point basket of the game.

The Panthers (2-1) shot 37% and made only three of 14 three-point attempts.

In Friday night’s championship game, the Cowboys (4-0) will play No. 18 Georgia Tech, which beat Texas, 120-107, in the other semifinal.

No. 16 Alabama 105, Tennessee Tech 85--James Robinson scored the Crimson Tide’s first 10 points in the second half to lead a 10-4 run as they took command with a 14-point lead at Birmingham, Ala.

Robinson’s fast-break dunk with 4:08 left made it 95-69 and Alabama went ahead, 103-74, on Andre Perry’s basket with 1:56 remaining.

Robinson scored 21 of his game-high 27 points in the second half and Latrell Spencer had 26 for Alabama (2-0), playing its 800th home game. The Tide is 648-152 at home.

No. 18 Georgia Tech 120, Texas 107--The Yellow Jackets showed the Longhorns that they can survive quite nicely without All-American guard Kenny Anderson.

The three starters who returned to Georgia Tech after the departure of Anderson to the NBA before his junior season each had at least 25 points. They also were key contributors on the boards or in transition as the Yellow Jackets (3-0) sprinted by a team known for its up-tempo offense.

Malcolm Mackey had 28 points and eight rebounds, Matt Geiger had 25 points and 13 rebounds and Jon Barry had 25 points and eight assists to lead Georgia Tech.

Minnesota 69, No. 25 Arizona State 37--The Golden Gophers had no trouble with the Sun Devils in the fifth-place game of the Maui Tournament at Lahaina.

Arizona State (1-2), playing without starters Jamal Faulkner, Dwayne Fontana and Stevin Smith, who are serving suspensions for unauthorized use of school telephones, couldn’t handle Minnesota’s zone defense. The Gophers (2-1) took control with an 18-6 run midway in the first half.

Arizona State’s point total was the lowest in tournament history. Chaminade had held the record with its 88-44 loss to Memphis State in 1988.

Penn State used a 28-4 run in the first half at State College, Pa., to take command and went on to rout Buffalo, 89-61. The Nittany Lions (2-0), who won last year’s Atlantic 10 championship, won for the 28th time in their last 30 home games--and for the first time with a Big Ten Conference logo painted on their court. They are playing as an independent this season and will begin competing for the Big Ten title next season. . . New Mexico State blew a 20-point second-half lead, but the Aggies came back to beat Southern Utah, 87-80, at Las Cruces, N.M. Dana Achtzehn and Davor Marcelik each scored 22 points for Southern Utah. Marcelik scored all of his points in the second half.