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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, March 9, 2008

No. 1 N. Carolina wins ACC, 76-68

Associated Press

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Duke's Brian Zoubek, left, and North Carolina's Danny Green battle for a loose ball during the first half of yesterday's game in Durham, N.C.

SARA D. DAVIS | Associated Press

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DURHAM, N.C. — Danny Green and North Carolina made themselves comfortable when it counted on Duke's famously hostile home court. Because they did, the top-ranked Tar Heels claimed another league title — and maybe the inside track to a close-to-home postseason path.

Green had 18 points to make up for a shaky outing last time against the Blue Devils, and North Carolina scored the final 10 points of its 76-68 victory over No. 6 Duke last night to claim the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season championship.

Tyler Hansbrough finished with 16 points and 15 rebounds while surpassing the 2,000-point mark for his career in his third straight victory at Cameron Indoor Stadium, and Wayne Ellington also scored 16 for the Tar Heels (29-2, 14-2).

North Carolina blew an early double-figure lead and briefly trailed before closing strong, holding the Blue Devils scoreless for the final 5 1/2 minutes to claim its eighth straight victory and the top seed in the ACC tournament in Charlotte — and quite possibly took a big step toward the No. 1 seed in the Charlotte-based East Regional.

"Our perimeter guys took it personally tonight," said Green, who was 1 for 10 in the last Duke game. "We wanted to come out and knock down shots, play smarter, play better and take the crowd out of the game. We kept our poise when they came back."

Greg Paulus scored 12 of his 15 points in the first half for the Blue Devils (26-4, 13-3), who rallied from a 14-point first-half hole but missed their final 11 shots in slipping to the No. 2 seed in the league tournament.

Duke had 15 shots blocked — seven by Green and five by Deon Thompson — and was held to a season-worst 32.9 shooting in having its four-game winning streak snapped and losing at home for the first time since last February's North Carolina game.

"We've been drilling (defense) since the first day," coach Roy Williams said. "It's a challenge to try to be a really good defensive team. Sometimes, you get lucky and they miss shots as well. The statistics show that we've gotten better defensively. It's something that you have to be good at if you want to reach those big-time dreams that we have."

Jon Scheyer added 14 points, and his stickback with just over 5 1/2 minutes remaining gave Duke its only lead of the second half at 68-66 — but that was the Blue Devils' last field goal of the game. Duke had good looks on three straight trips downcourt after that but came up empty on each, and that allowed North Carolina to take control down the stretch.

"I still thought we were doing really good things. We just couldn't get that thing in the hole there," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We were still making winning plays — plays that could win. Obviously, they didn't turn out to be winning plays."

NO. 2 MEMPHIS 94, UAB 56

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Senior Joey Dorsey had 16 points and 12 rebounds and the Tigers (30-1, 16-0) opened up a 36-point lead midway through the second half in routing the Blazers (22-9, 12-4) for their second straight perfect season in Conference USA.

It was the fourth straight win for the Tigers and their most dominant performance since dropping their only game of the season to Tennessee two weeks ago.

NO. 3 UCLA 81, CALIFORNIA 80

LOS ANGELES — Josh Shipp hit a rainbow jumper from behind the backboard with 1.5 seconds remaining to help the Bruins (28-3, 16-2) rally from an 11-point deficit to beat the Golden Bears (15-14, 6-12) for their school-record 28th regular-season victory.

UCLA trailed by four points with 31 seconds remaining, then freshman Kevin Love hit a 3-pointer to make it 80-79. Cal's Ryan Anderson was stripped of the ball in the corner. The Bruins eventually got it to Shipp, who was falling out of bounds when he put the ball up one-handed.

NO. 5 KANSAS 72, TEXAS A&M 55

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur both scored 16 points and the Jayhawks (28-3, 13-3) clinched at least a share of their fourth straight Big 12 regular-season title with a victory over the Aggies (22-9, 8-8).

It marks the sixth time in school history that Kansas has won four straight conference titles and the first since 1995-98. The Jayhawks have been league champions eight times in the short history of the Big 12 and this extends their NCAA record of conference titles to 51.

USC 77, NO. 7 STANFORD 64

LOS ANGELES — Freshman O.J. Mayo scored 25 points, Taj Gibson added 20 points and 11 rebounds, and the smaller Trojans (20-10, 11-7 Pac-10) dominated the backboards to hand the Cardinal (24-6, 13-5) their second straight loss.

Mayo and Keith Wilkinson had eight rebounds each and Davon Jefferson added six, leading USC to a 47-31 rebounding advantage over a Stanford team that came in averaging 7.2 rebounds more than its opponents to rank second in the Pac-10.

NO. 8 XAVIER 86, RICHMOND 61

CINCINNATI — While point guard Drew Lavender rested his sprained ankle yesterday to get ready for tournament time, the Musketeers (26-5, 14-4 Atlantic 10) finished one of the best regular seasons in their history with a rout of the Spiders (16-13, 9-7).

B.J. Raymond scored a career-high 22 points and Xavier, the Atlantic 10 regular-season champions, made a season-high 36 free throws.

NO. 10 WISCONSIN 65, NORTHWESTERN 52

EVANSTON, Ill. — Brian Butch scored 20 points and matched his career-high with 14 rebounds, and the Badgers (26-4, 16-2) used a 10-0 second-half run to pull away and beat the Wildcats (8-21, 1-17) to clinch the Big Ten regular-season title.

It was the second outright regular-season title in coach Bo Ryan's seven seasons at Wisconsin. The Badgers shared it one other time during his highly successful run.

NO. 11 GEORGETOWN 55, NO. 12 LOUISVILLE 52

WASHINGTON — DaJuan Summers hit a 3-pointer with 40 seconds to play as the Hoyas (25-4, 15-3) won consecutive Big East regular-season titles for the first time with a victory over the Cardinals (24-7, 14-4), who had 14 steals, but were undone by 4 for 18 shooting from 3-point range.

Freshman Austin Freeman had 15 points for the Hoyas, who have won five straight overall and 22 in a row at home.

CINCINNATI AT NO. 13 CONNECTICUT, PPD

STORRS, Conn. — A winter snow storm grounded the Bearcats in Ohio, forcing the game with the Huskies to be postponed until today at 1 p.m. (Hawai'i time)

NO. 14 BUTLER 66, ILLINOIS-CHICAGO 50

INDIANAPOLIS — Mike Green showed why he's the Horizon League's most valuable player, scoring 19 points and the Bulldogs (28-3) finished the first half with a 23-8 run for a 34-24 lead to beat the Flames (18-15) and advance to Tuesday's conference tournament final. Butler will play Cleveland State (21-11), which beat Valparaiso, 78-73.

ALABAMA 78, NO. 16 VANDERBILT 73

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Mykal Riley scored 26 points, including he team's first 13 of overtime as the Crimson Tide (16-15, 5-11 Southeastern Conference) closed a disappointing regular season with as upset of the Commodores (25-6, 10-6).

NO. 19 NOTRE DAME 67, SOUTH FLORIDA 60

TAMPA, Fla. — Luke Harangody scored 21 points and the Fighting Irish (24-6, 14-4 Big East) squandered most of a 19-point second-half lead before making four free throws in the closing seconds to hold off the Bulls (12-19, 3-15), who put together a 22-4 run over a 10-minute span to pull within one with 5:14 to go.

NO. 20 DRAKE 75, CREIGHTON 67

ST. LOUIS — Adam Emmenecker had 20 points and a career-high 11 assists to lead the Bulldogs (27-4) past the Bluejays (21-10) and into the Missouri Valley Conference tournament final for the first time. Drake will play Illinois State, which beat Northern Iowa, 56-42, in today's final.

SYRACUSE 87, NO. 21 MARQUETTE 72

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Donte Greene and Jonny Flynn each scored 21 points and the Orange (19-12, 9-9 Big East) beat the Golden Eagles (22-8, 11-7) for their second straight victory after blowing an 11-point lead in the final 3 1/2 minutes and losing to Pitt a week ago.

NO. 25 DAVIDSON 82, WOFFORD 49

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Stephen Curry scored 19 points and the Wildcats (24-6) extended the nation's longest winning streak to 20 games, routing the Terriers (16-16) to advance to the Southern Conference tournament semifinals against North Carolina Greensboro, which beat Appalachian State, 63-46.

NCAA TOURNEY-BOUND

Belmont 79, Jacksonville 61: Shane Dansby scored 16 points, Justin Hare and Matthew Dotson each added 14 and the Bruins (25-8) made 13 3-pointers to beat the Dolphins (18-13) at Nashville, Tenn., for the Atlantic Sun championship and their third straight trip to the NCAA tournament.

Austin Peay 82, Tennessee State 64: Todd Babington scored 24 points, and the Governors (24-10) earned their sixth NCAA tournament berth and first since 2003 by beating the Tigers (15-17) for the Ohio Valley Conference tournament championship at Nashville, Tenn.

Winthrop 66, UNC Asheville 48: Michael Jenkins tied a Big South championship game record with 33 points and the Eagles (22-11) overcame mammoth 7-foot-7 Kenny George's dominance inside to beat the Bulldogs (23-9) at Asheville, N.C., for their fourth straight league title.

Cornell 71, Princeton 64: Louis Dale scored 21 points to lead the Ivy League champion Big Red (22-5, 14-0) over the Tigers (6-22, 3-10) at Princeton, N.J. and into the NCAA tournament.

WAC

Nevada 76, Fresno State 63: Marcelus Kemp scored 25 points and JaVale McGee added 23 points and 14 rebounds as the Wolf Pack (20-10, 12-4) defeated the Bulldogs (13-18, 5-11) at Fresno, Calif., to clinch a share of the Western Athletic Conference title.

Utah State 78, Idaho 58: Jaycee Carroll scored 23 points and Gary Wilkinson added 17 to lead the Aggies (23-9, 12-4) past the Vandals (8-20, 5-11) at Moscow, Idaho, for a share of the Western Athletic conference title.

Louisiana Tech 87, San Jose State 83: Kyle Gibson scored a career-high 28 points to lead four teammates in double figures as the Bulldogs (6-23, 3-13) held off the Spartans (12-18, 4-12) at Ruston, La., for their second straight victory.