Lee’s Three Decisive for Stanford

A major concern for Stanford Coach Mike Montgomery before the season was if departed guard Dion Cross, one of the Pacific 10 Conference’s best three-point shooters at 40%, could be replaced.

Sophomore guard Kris Weems had certainly done that in Stanford’s first 12 games, making 49% of his three-point shots.

Thursday night, it was another sophomore guard, Arthur Lee, who delivered a right Cross for the Cardinal.

Lee’s three-point basket with 2:12 left in overtime provided the decisive points for 15th-ranked Stanford in a 72-69 victory over No. 24 Oregon at Eugene, Ore.

Center Tim Young had 20 points and 21 rebounds for Stanford, 11-2 overall and a co-leading 4-1 in the Pacific 10 with UCLA, but Lee’s 12 points off the bench were important as starting guards Brevin Knight and Weems missed 20 of 30 shots.

Guard Jamal Lawrence, who led the Pacific 10 in three-point baskets (80) last season, made eight of 11 shots from beyond the arc and had a season-high 29 points for Oregon (10-3, 1-3). Lawrence, however, shot an air ball on a three-point attempt at the buzzer that could have forced a second overtime.

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In another Pacific 10 game Thursday night:

--California (11-5, 2-3) got career-high scoring from guards Ed Gray (33 points) and Randy Duck (22) in an 80-70 victory over Oregon State (4-9, 0-4) at Corvallis, Ore. Beaver freshman guard Corey Benjamin had 31 points.

OTHER TOP 25 GAMES

No. 9 Utah 74, Southern Methodist 57--The Utes (11-2, 3-0) were tied, 37-37, at halftime but went on an 18-6 run to start the second half of the Western Athletic Conference game at Dallas.

Center Michael Doleac had 26 points and forward Keith Van Horn had 23 for Utah, which got 13 from the two in the first nine minutes of the second half.

SMU (10-4, 2-2) played the second half without its second-leading scorer, freshman point guard Stephen Woods, who suffered a sprained ankle.

Tulsa 80, No. 12 New Mexico 57--The Golden Hurricane (13-4, 3-0) led by as many as 30 points in the Western Athletic Conference game at Tulsa, Okla.

New Mexico (13-3, 2-2) played without its third-leading scorer Kenny Thomas, who suffered a sprained ankle in practice Tuesday.

Guard Shea Seals scored 21 of his 23 points in a first half in which Tulsa took a 44-20 lead.

Tulane 87, No. 14 Xavier (Ohio) 85--Forward Jerald Honeycutt scored a season-high 38 points and became the Green Wave’s career scoring leader in the first game of the Atlantic 10-Conference USA doubleheader in Cincinnati.

Honeycutt made 16 of 22 shots, including five of seven from three-point range, to replace Anthony Reed as Tulane’s career scoring leader. Reed had 1,896 points from 1989-93. Honeycutt has scored at least 20 points in each of his last 11 games.

Tulane (11-5) won its sixth consecutive game but nearly blew a double-digit lead in the final seven minutes because of poor free-throw shooting (17 of 31).

Xavier (11-2) missed two shots close to the basket in the final 2.2 seconds that could have sent the game into overtime.

No. 18 Michigan 89, Purdue 65--Forward Jerod Ward, finally flashing the form that made him one of the top high school players in the country three years ago, had a career-high 19 points for the Wolverines (12-4, 3-2) in a Big Ten game at Ann Arbor, Mich.

Ward, a junior who has struggled because of injuries to both knees, made five of Michigan’s 10 three-point baskets. Two other Wolverine frontcourt players, Macio Baston and Robert Traylor, made their presence felt around the basket, combining for 29 points and 25 rebounds.

Purdue (7-7, 2-2) shot 39% and had 17 turnovers.

College Basketball Notes

Sophomore point guard Ricky Moore and senior center Kirk King, both starters for Connecticut, were declared ineligible amid allegations they accepted improper gifts. The university and the Big East Conference agreed that Moore and King would not play until all questions are answered regarding the allegations. The university and the Big East did not identify the gifts. Published reports Thursday said King and Moore had accepted airplane tickets in 1995. Connecticut athletic director Lew Perkins doesn’t expect any games to be forfeited. The Huskies, 11-3 overall and 4-2 in the Big East, play top-ranked Kansas Sunday.