COLLEGE BASKETBALL : NATIONAL ROUNDUP : Hill Gets Right to Point as No. 1 Duke Defeats LSU, 77-67

The much-anticipated battle between Duke center Christian Laettner and Louisiana State center Shaquille O’Neal ended in a draw.

So top-ranked Duke used fill-in guard Grant Hill to defeat LSU, 77-67, Saturday in a nonconference game at Baton Rouge, La.

Laettner, 6-11, scored 22 points and had 10 rebounds. O’Neal, 7 feet 1, scored 25 points and had 12 rebounds.

The 6-8 Hill, substituting at point guard for injured Bobby Hurley, scored 16 points and had nine rebounds and six assists to help the Blue Devils rebound from their loss to North Carolina on Wednesday.

Hill, who usually starts at forward, switched positions after Hurley broke his foot in the North Carolina game. Hurley is expected to be out for three weeks.

“He (Hill) was under a lot of pressure, and he handled that and he scored well,” Laettner said.

Laettner made two three-point shots late in the game to give Duke (18-1) the lead for good, 62-60.

“It was a game in which I didn’t shoot well all day, but my coach and my teammates kept telling me to keep shooting,” Laettner said. “I just got the shots and put them down.”

Said Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski: “That’s what Christian has done this whole season--step up and take the shots that we need to win.”

Thomas Hill added 15 points for Duke.

LSU (14-5) took a 46-45 lead on O’Neal’s short jump shot over former Huntington Beach Marina standout Cherokee Parks. The Tigers widened the margin to 54-49 on a basket by Jamie Brandon off a feed from O’Neal with 9:32 left.

LSU made only three of 11 free throws in the final six minutes. O’Neal and Clarence Ceasar made the only field goals for the Tigers during that span.

“We had the chance to put them away, but we did not hit our free throws,” said O’Neal, who made only one of six in the final three minutes. “We really needed them, but just did not hit them. I have no excuses for it.”

Said LSU Coach Dale Brown: “In the last six minutes, we were terrible.”

When the teams met last year, Laettner won the individual battle and Duke won the game. Laettner had 24 points and 11 rebounds, O’Neal 15 points and 10 rebounds.

“I told all of you last year that I just had a bad game,” said O’Neal, who had 16 points by halftime Saturday. “Today, I stayed out of foul trouble and had a good start.

“The ball was feeling good coming out of my hand, and it was falling. I feel like if I can get the ball down low with only one man on me, there is nobody who can stop me. Period.”

No. 8 Ohio State 71, Purdue 59--Jim Jackson scored 23 points for the Buckeyes, who won their 30th consecutive home game at Columbus.

Jamaal Brown added 14 points for Ohio State (16-3, 8-1), which has the second-longest home winning streak in the nation behind Nevada Las Vegas, which has won 43 in a row. Brown also held Woody Austin, the Big Ten’s second-leading scorer with a 21-point average, to eight points.

“Before the game, we say to ourselves, ‘Outplay your man.’ I’m satisfied with my performance, that I outplayed my man--both on offense and defense,” Brown said.

Travis Trice scored a 21 points for Purdue (12-9, 4-5).

Jackson made nine of 15 shots and had eight rebounds and three assists.

No. 9 North Carolina 80, Wake Forest 78--Brian Reese rebounded his own miss and made a 16-foot jump shot with 1.3 seconds left as the Tar Heels came from 22 points behind in the Atlantic Coast Conference game at Chapel Hill, N.C.

Hubert Davis scored 30 points for North Carolina (17-3, 7-2), which defeated No. 1 Duke by two points Wednesday and has beaten Wake Forest 10 times in a row.

“We had to score almost every time down in the second half the way Wake Forest was playing,” North Carolina Coach Dean Smith said. “Hubert had one of those great days and our guys did a good job of getting him the ball.”

Wake Forest (12-7, 4-6) led by 15 points at halftime and increased the margin to 20 with 14:49 left before the Tar Heels rallied behind Davis.

Reese missed a shot in the lane with about six seconds left, but tracked the ball down, turned and took the winning shot over Anthony Tucker, who led Wake Forest with 20 points.

Two free throws by Pat Sullivan of North Carolina tied the score, 78-78, with 38.6 seconds left.

However, Chris King had the ball slapped away by Reese and the Tar Heels called a timeout to set up a final play.

Reese, averaging 10 points per game, said he was confident he could make the winning shot.

“They were keying on Hubert--they really didn’t want him to get the ball,” Reese said. “That’s why I got the ball so easy.”

Wake Forest led, 32-10, with 9:49 left in the opening half after holding the Tar Heels without a basket during an 8 1/2-minute span.

George Lynch scored 12 points for North Carolina before fouling out. Eric Montross added 11.

Seton Hall 81, No. 10 Connecticut 69--Terry Dehere scored 24 points and Jerry Walker added 22 at Storrs, Conn., as the Pirates handed the Huskies their third consecutive Big East Conference loss.

It was the third victory in four games for Seton Hall (13-6, 5-5).

Chris Smith scored 23 points and Rod Sellers scored 17 points and had 19 rebounds for Connecticut (16-4, 7-4), which lost at home for the first time since a 60-59 defeat to North Carolina State last Feb. 16.

“Any time you beat Connecticut, it’s a great win,” Seton Hall Coach P.J. Carlesimo said. “To beat them in Gampel is particularly big. . . . This is an enormous win for us.”

The Pirates led throughout the second half, twice by as many as 19 points.

“If there was anything automatic, all of us would have good practice sessions and just go out and beat the world,” Connecticut Coach Jim Calhoun said. “Then you’d have 300 undefeated Division I teams. Why do we play so well when we have bad practice sessions? I can’t tell you. Why did we not play so well when we had what I thought were three pretty good practices? I can’t tell you.”

No. 11 Michigan State 79, Wisconsin 64--Mike Peplowski scored 19 points and had 16 rebounds to lead the Spartans to the Big Ten victory at Madison, Wis.

Michigan State (15-4, 5-4) led by 19 points at halftime behind the play of Shawn Respert, who finished with 17 points.

Tracy Webster scored 24 points for Wisconsin (11-11, 2-7).

No. 14 Tulane 97, Virginia Commonwealth 80--Anthony Reed scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half at New Orleans to give the Green Wave the Metro Conference victory.

Reserve center Makeba Perry scored 17 points and had 10 rebounds for Tulane (18-2, 6-0).

“Our game plan was to pound the ball inside all game long,” Perry said. “We like to distribute the points all around so teams can’t focus on just one guy.”

Ron Ladd scored 17 points, making five three-point shots, for Virginia Commonwealth (10-9, 3-4).

No. 18 Alabama 85, Tennessee 68--Latrell Sprewell scored 24 points, including 15 in the second half, when the Crimson Tide pulled away for the Southeastern Conference victory at Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Alabama (19-4, 6-3) took a 48-39 lead with 16:51 left on two free throws by Robert Horry, but Tennessee (13-8, 5-4) pulled to within 48-46 with 15:58 left on a three-point play by Jay Price.

James Robinson scored 18 points for Alabama and Carlus Groves had 18 points for Tennessee.

No. 19 Kentucky 85, Auburn 67--Reserve Gimel Martinez scored 17 points, including five during a 16-2 run early in the second half, to carry the Wildcats to the SEC victory at Auburn, Ala.

Kentucky (16-5, 6-3), which had lost three of its last four games by an average of 20 points, led nearly the entire way against Auburn (10-10, 4-6), which has lost four of its last five.

Kentucky led, 34-28, when Richie Farmer began the decisive run with a three-point basket. Farmer, who scored 16 points, made another three-pointer and Martinez converted a three-point play as the Wildcats stretched the lead to 50-30 with 14:14 left.

The margin never was less than 14 points the rest of the way.

Jamal Mashburn led Kentucky with 19 points, including 13 in the first half, as the Wildcats built a 32-24 lead.

No. 20 North Carolina Charlotte 95, Davidson 85--Henry Williams scored 19 of his 26 points in the second half to lead the 49ers over their cross-county rival at Davidson, N.C.

Davidson (7-11) rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit to close to within 63-61, but UNCC (16-4) scored seven consecutive points, the final two coming on free throws by James Terrell for a 70-61 lead with 7:15 left. The Wildcats got no closer than five points when a free throw by Frank Harris closed the margin to 76-71 with 3:49 left.

No. 23 Florida State 102, Clemson 90--Doug Edwards scored 27 points and Byron Wells added 13 points and eight rebounds to lead the Seminoles to an ACC victory over the Tigers (12-7, 2-6) at Tallahassee, Fla.

Florida State (15-6, 7-4) led, 51-34, at halftime and built its largest lead at 79-58 on a jump shot by Wells with 7:18 left.

Edwards made 14 consecutive free throws for Florida State, which made 37 of 48 from the foul line.

No. 25 Texas El Paso 73, Air Force 44--Marlon Maxey scored 16 points to lead the Miners in a Western Athletic Conference victory at El Paso.

UTEP (18-3, 8-2) held Air Force (7-14, 1-9) to 16 points in the first half.