College Basketball Roundup : Smith’s Free Throws Give North Carolina Win Over Marquette

Marquette was trying to break North Carolina’s winning streak and the crowd was trying to break Kenny Smith’s concentration.

Smith, despite being hit in the head by a penny between shots, made two free throws with three seconds left Sunday to give the top-ranked Tar Heels a 66-64 victory over the Warriors at Milwaukee.

“You just have to go up there and concentrate,” Smith said. “It’s just you and the basket.”

A desperation shot by Marquette’s Michael Sims missed as time ran out.

The Tar Heels (19-0) trailed by nine points with a little over four minutes remaining before their pressure defense keyed a comeback in front of a sellout crowd at Milwaukee Arena.

Smith, a 6-foot 3-inch junior guard, scored North Carolina’s last five points.

“We put the game in Smith’s hands at the end, and he came through,” said North Carolina Coach Dean Smith, who also was hit with a penny from the crowd.

“He always seems to deliver, especially when the other teams call time out,” the coach said. “He seems to say, ‘I’ll show you for trying to ice me.’ ”

Marquette (11-5) called its last timeout before Smith went to the line.

North Carolina opened up a 47-37 lead near the midway point of the second half, but Marquette scored 14 straight points to take a 51-47 lead with 8:34 left on a basket by Kevin Johnson.

The Warriors increased the lead to 62-53 with 4:15 left on a bank shot by Sims.

That capped a 25-6 run during a nine-minute span. Sims scored 10 points during the stretch.

The Tar Heels’ pressure defense forced turnovers and gave North Carolina 11 quick points, the first four by Jeff Lebo. Smith’s basket and free throw gave North Carolina a 64-62 lead with 1:08 left.

Sims tied the score with a jumper with 36 seconds remaining. North Carolina took a timeout and ran the clock down until Johnson fouled Smith as he drove to the basket.

“We just didn’t take care of the ball at the end,” Marquette Coach Rick Majerus said. “Our guys played our guts out. We couldn’t play any harder.

“But you have to give them credit. They deserve to be the No. 1 team in the country.”

Brad Daugherty scored 20 points for North Carolina, and Sims had 12 of his 16 points in the second half.

Virginia 70, Maryland 49--Olden Polynice scored 18 points, and Andrew Kennedy and Tom Calloway each contributed 16 as the Cavaliers trounced the Terrapins in an Atlantic Coast Conference game at Charlottesville, Va.

The Cavaliers (12-4, 2-2) have won four straight games and seven of their last eight.

Len Bias scored 19 points for Maryland (10-6, 0-4). The last time the Terrapins dropped their first four league games was in 1968-69, Lefty Driesell’s first year as Maryland’s coach.

Virginia built a 31-24 lead and increased its advantage to 13 by scoring the first six points of the second half on two baskets by Tom Sheehey and a jumper by Calloway with 16:49 left.

Maryland got as close as eight points six times down the stretch, the last time at 54-46 on Jeff Baxter’s jumper with 4:58 left. The Terrapins didn’t get another field goal until Derrick Lewis scored with just 13 seconds remaining.

Purdue 100, Wisconsin 73--Sophomore forward Todd Mitchell scored 19 points and the No. 19 Boilermakers stayed even with Michigan in the Big Ten race by routing the Badgers at West Lafayette, Ind.

The Boilermakers (16-3, 5-1) beat Wisconsin (9-6, 1-4) for the 17th straight time.

Purdue ran off a 21-6 burst to take command early in the game and piled up a 44-29 halftime lead.

J. J. Weber and Shelton Smith scored 25 points each for Wisconsin. Smith, declared academically ineligible, was playing his last game of the season.

Freshman center Melvin McCants added 16 points for Purdue and Kip Jones scored 14. Doug Lee had 12 points, all in the first half, before leaving the game early in the second half with a knee injury.

Washington State 60, Oregon 59--Joe Wallace hit 10 straight points midway through the second half and the Cougars held on to beat the Ducks in a Pacific 10 Conference game at Eugene, Ore.

The victory allowed Washington State (9-10, 2-4) to climb over the Ducks (6-10, 1-5) and out of the Pac-10 cellar.

The Cougars seemed to have a safe lead, 59-48, with 6:30 left before Oregon rallied, slicing the margin to 60-59 on Dave Girley’s basket with 22 seconds left.

The Ducks had a chance to win, but Jerry Adams missed a layup with one second left.