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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, January 7, 2007

No. 1 UCLA falls to No. 16 Oregon, 68-66

Associated Press

Oregon's Aaron Brooks shoots over UCLA's Arran Afflalo in a Pac-10 game. Brooks scored 25 points to help the Ducks to a 68-66 upset.

DON RYAN | Associated Press

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EUGENE, Ore. — In 1974, Ernie Kent played for an Oregon team that upset No. 1 UCLA.

Thirty-three years later, Kent sobbed when his Ducks again knocked off the top-ranked Bruins.

"This is a together basketball team," the Oregon coach said after the 16th-ranked Ducks handed UCLA its first loss of the season, 68-66, yesterday. "Their spirit is unbelievable."

Aaron Brooks scored 25 points, including the game-winning jumper with 13 seconds left for Oregon (14-1, 2-1 Pac-10). That was the Ducks' only field goal over the final 7 minutes.

"It just shows that we can play with anybody, regardless of who we played at the beginning of the year," Brooks said. "People talked about our schedule, but we got to put the system in, and the system's working, and it will work against anybody if we play hard."

Darren Collison hit a 3-pointer to bring the Bruins (14-1, 3-1) into a 66-66 tie. Brooks, who had 31 points on Thursday night in the 84-82 loss to Southern California, the Ducks' first this season, hit the baseline jumper to give Oregon the lead.

UCLA worked the ball around over the final seconds and instead of going toward the basket for a chance at tying it, Josh Shipp's 3-point attempt at the buzzer was short, setting off a celebration on McArthur Court.

UCLA coach Ben Howland said he was concerned because Collison, the point guard, had four fouls, and top-scorer Arron Afflalo had three, meaning the Bruins could have had issues if the game went to overtime.

"The last play of the game was really my fault. I wanted to go for the win," Howland said. "I thought we would be able to penetrate and kick out for a 3, and it wasn't there. We were really tentative and did not get a good shot at the end of the game."

Maarty Luenen was on Shipp for the final play.

"I actually turned my back on him because I thought Collison was going to shoot it, and it went back out to Shipp and I just had to play good defense," Luenen said. "I knew the clock was running down and he had to put something up pretty quick."

No. 3 Florida 67, Georgia 51: Corey Brewer had 19 points and 10 rebounds, and his coast-to-coast layup with about 5:30 left in the game gave the Gators (14-2) a 55-44 lead in their victory over the Bulldogs (8-5) at Gainesville, Fla., in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.

"The team was giving me the ball and I was able to finish," Brewer said. "We were getting out on the break, and I think that is where we strive the most."

It was Florida's seventh straight win, sixth in a row in an SEC opener and sixth consecutive over Georgia.

No. 4 Wisconsin 68, Minnesota 45: Alando Tucker scored 14 points and the Badgers (15-1, 1-0) recovered from a slow start to take a 37-20 halftime lead, then held the Golden Gophers (7-9, 1-1) scoreless for the first 6 1/2 minutes of the second half in rolling to victory at Madison, Wis.

Wisconsin, already carrying its highest national ranking in school history, faces a tough test in No. 6 Ohio State in Madison on Tuesday night.

Virginia Tech 69, No. 5 Duke 67: Jamon Gordon's basket with 31 seconds left in overtime gave the Hokies (11-4, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) the lead, and Deron Washington blocked Greg Paulus' 3-point shot as time expired in their upset of the Blue Devils (13-2, 0-1) at Durham, N.C.

David McClure missed an 18-footer on Duke's next possession, and the Blue Devils were forced to foul A.D. Vassallo with 7.5 seconds left. He made the first free throw, but missed the second.

No. 6 Ohio State 62, Illinois 44: Daequan Cook scored 13 points, Jamar Butler had 12 and Ron Lewis added 10 to lead the Buckeyes (13-2, 2-0 Big Ten) past the Illini (12-5, 0-2) at Champaign, Ill.

Greg Oden, a 7-foot freshman, finished with seven points — all in the second half — and 15 rebounds for Ohio State, which pulled away late in the first half to take a 36-22 lead and led by as many as 22 points over the final 20 minutes.

Washington State 77, No. 7 Arizona 73: Daven Harmeling scored a career-high 28 points, Kyle Weaver added 15 and Robbie Cowgill 13 as the Cougars (14-2, 3-1) upset the Wildcats (12-2, 3-1) in overtime at Pullman, Wash.

Arizona tied the score at 67 to force overtime, but was outscored 10-6 in the extra period to see its 12-game winning streak snapped.

Arkansas 88, No. 8 Alabama 61: Patrick Beverley, Gary Ervin and Sonny Weems scored 18 points each for the Razorbacks (12-3, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) who raced to a 44-20 halftime lead in cruising past the Crimson Tide (13-2, 0-1) at Fayetteville, Ark.

The Razorbacks scored the game's first 14 points. They finished with 10 blocked shots, including three by 7-footer Steven Hill in the early going that set the tone.

No. 11 Texas A&M 69, Kansas State 65: Acie Law scored 18 points, including two free throws with five seconds left, helping the Aggies (13-2) hold off the Wildcats (10-5) at College Station, Texas, in the Big 12 opener for both.

Texas A&M led 66-63 before Akeem Wright's layup made it 66-65 with 7 seconds left. Law was fouled on the inbounds pass and made both free throws. After K-State threw the ball away, Kirk Dominique was fouled and made one of two free throws.

No. 12 Oklahoma State 81, Baylor 77: Mario Boggan, playing the final six minutes with four fouls, had 26 points and 13 rebounds — his fourth double-double of the season — helping the Cowboys (15-1) open Big 12 Conference play with a victory over the Bears (10-4) at Stillwater, Okla.

The Bears, who trailed by double digits for most of the second half, hit six 3-pointers in the final 4:21 — five by Tweety Carter — and closer to 77-74 with 17 seconds left. But JamesOn Curry went 4 of 4 from the free-throw line after that to seal the win.

No. 13 Butler 73, Wright State 42: A.J. Graves scored 19 points, including five free throws to stretch his streak of consecutive free throws made to 52, in leading the host Bulldogs (14-1, 3-0 Horizon League) past the Raiders (9-7, 2-1) at Indianapolis.

Butler took control with a 16-point run in the first half, built the lead to 30 points with another run of 14 straight early in the second half and never led by fewer than 26 points after that.

No. 14 LSU 66, No. 18 Connecticut 49: Glen Davis and Tasmin Mitchell each scored 16 points, and Garrett Temple added 14, including a 3-pointer to trigger a 12-4 run for a 46-36 lead, as the Tigers (11-3) beat the Huskies (12-2) at Baton Rouge, La.

Following the run, Davis grabbed an offensive rebound then muscled his way into the lane for a layup and was fouled. His free throw put LSU ahead 49-38.

Georgetown 66, No. 17 Notre Dame 48: Roy Hibbert scored 18 points on 8-for-9 shooting, and the Hoyas (11-3, 1-0 Big East) took an 18-2 lead in the opening minutes to rout the Irish (13-2, 1-1) at Washington for its seventh straight victory.

The loss ended a 12-game winning streak by the Fighting Irish, who were playing their first road game of the season.

No. 20 Air Force 56, UNLV 50: Nick Welch, Matt McCraw and Dan Nwalele all scored 13 points to lead the Falcons (15-1, 2-0 Mountain West) to its 11th straight win, while ending a 10-game winning streak for the Runnin' Rebels (14-3, 1-1) at Air Force Academy, Colo.

The game went back and forth until Air Force finally took the lead for good at 45-43 on a jumper by Nwaelele with 6:33 to play.

No. 23 Clemson 75, Georgia Tech 74: James Mays scored 16 points, including the game-winning layup with 2.2 seconds to go, and the the Tigers (16-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) became Division I's only unbeaten team with a victory over the Yellow Jackets (11-4, 0-2) at Clemson, S.C.

Javaris Crittenton scored with 6.5 seconds left to put Georgia Tech ahead 74-73. But Mays took the inbounds pass at midcourt and dribbled down the left side of the lane and drained a soft banker.

No. 24 Washington 64, Arizona State 53: Ryan Appleby made six 3-pointers and finished with 20 points to lead the Huskies (11-4, 1-3 Pac-10) past the Sun Devils (6-9, 0-4) at Seattle.

Washington, a preseason contender for the Pac-10 title, was one of three teams without a win in the league entering the game. The Huskies lost their first three Pac-10 games to Southern California, UCLA and Arizona.

No. 25 West Virginia 73, St. John's 46: Darris Nichols scored a career-high 20 points and the Mountaineers (13-1) opened the Big East with a 3-0 record for the second time in history by beating the Red Storm (10-5, 1-1) at Morgantown, W.Va., for its eighth straight victory.

Frank Young added 12 points and Joe Alexander had 10 for the Mountaineers, who led 30-23 at halftime and used a 12-0 run to go up 49-30 with 12 minutes left.

WAC

No. 21 Nevada 81, Idaho 55: Marcelus Kemp scored 22 points and Nick Fazekas added 19 points and 11 rebounds to power the Wolf Pack (13-1, 1-0) past the Vandals (2-12, 0-2) at Reno, Nev.

Fazekas, a 6-foot-11 senior, moved past Josh Grant (Utah 1988-93) into eighth place on the WAC's all-time rebounding list with 1,072. It was his 11th double-double of the season and 52nd of his career.

New Mexico State 74, San Jose State 68: Fred Peete scored 19 of his 21 points in the second half, helping the Aggies (12-3, 2-0) rally past the Spartans (1-13, 0-2) at Las Cruces, N.M., for their 11th straight win.

New Mexico State trailed 41-32 with 13:52 left to play, then put together a 16-2 run to take a 53-47 lead with Peete scoring five points in that spurt

Fresno State 79, Utah State 70: Dominic McGuire had 19 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks, helping the Bulldogs (13-2, 2-0) hold off the Aggies (10-5, 0-2) at Fresno, Calif.

Utah State, which trailed by as many as 20 points in the second half, closed to 75-68 with 23 seconds remaining, but could not get any closer.