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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Unbeaten Pittsburgh ranked No. 1 in polls

Associated Press

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Jamie Dixon

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Pittsburgh made it to the top of The Associated Press' college basketball poll for the first time and it wasn't even close.

The Panthers (14-0) took advantage of losses by season-long unanimous No. 1 North Carolina and No. 2 Connecticut to make the jump from third to first yesterday, receiving all but two of the first-place votes from the national media panel.

Pitt, led by former University of Hawai'i assistant Jamie Dixon, had been ranked second nine times since 1987-88 but had never reached No. 1 until this week.

"I think it means a lot to our fans and our city and it means a lot to our university, much more so than to me and our players," Jamie Dixon said yesterday. "But it is part of the reason why we play and work so hard so I am glad for them."

Duke (12-1) was ranked second, followed by North Carolina (13-1), Wake Forest (13-0) and Connecticut (12-1).

Pittsburgh also was ranked No. 1 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Top 25 poll.

NO. 13 NOTRE DAME 73, NO. 9 GEORGETOWN 67

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Luke Harangody didn't let being in foul trouble against an athletic Georgetown team bother him. Neither did Notre Dame coach Mike Brey.

Harangody thought he would spend about 10 minutes on the bench when he picked up his fourth foul with 15:17 left and the 13th-ranked Fighting Irish up by six points.

Instead, he sat less than 4 minutes, then scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds down the stretch to help Notre Dame beat the ninth-ranked Hoyas, 73-67, and end a five-game losing streak to Georgetown.

Brey said he didn't think for too long about putting Harangody, who finished with 31 points and 11 rebounds, back in.

"When you're an older player, a veteran player, my feeling is sometimes coaches sit guys with foul trouble too much. He's played a lot of basketball," Brey said. "I talked with him when I took him out. I told him, 'I need you to be smart.' "

Harangody, who had never scored more than 13 points in three previous games against Georgetown, scored Notre Dame's final 13 points of the first half to give the Irish an 11-point lead.

"He's the MVP of our league," Georgetown coach John Thompson III said of the reigning Big East player of the year. "He makes good decisions."

Notre Dame (11-3, 2-1) extended the nation's longest home winning streak to 44 games, including 19 in the conference, one shy of the Big East record set by Pittsburgh in 2004.

No. 6 Oklahoma 100, Maryland-Eastern Shore 64: Blake Griffin had 20 points and 16 rebounds for his 12th double-double this season as host Oklahoma (14-1) beat Maryland-Eastern Shore (1-9). The Sooners played without coach Jeff Capel, who was hospitalized earlier yesterday with stomach flu. Assistant coach Mark Cline took over in his absence. Tony Crocker and Willie Warren both added 15 points for the Sooners.

WAC MEN

New Mexico St. 75, San Jose St. 73: Freshman Hamidu Rahman sank a pair of free throws with 2.7 seconds remaining to lift host New Mexico State (8-7, 2-0) past San Jose State (6-6, 0-2). Rahman, who scored 13 points in a season-high 28 minutes, also added seven rebounds. Wendell McKines, a native of nearby Oakland, scored a career-high 21 points for the Aggies, who beat the Spartans for the eighth straight time.

Utah State 70, Idaho 61: Jared Quayle scored 18 points and Gary Wilkinson added 17 to lead host Utah State (13-1, 1-0) past Idaho (7-8, 1-1). Wilkinson also pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds for the Aggies, and Pooh Williams added 11. Kashif Watson led the Vandals in scoring with 15. Marvin Jefferson and Mac Hopson had 12.

TOP 25 WOMEN

Florida State 60, No. 3 Texas A&M 53: Tanae Davis-Cain scored 11 of her 13 points in the second half and host Florida State (12-4) rallied to upset Texas A&M (12-1).

Purdue 66, No. 8 Texas 55: Freshman guard Brittany Rayburn scored 19 points to lead host Purdue (9-5) to an upset over Texas (12-2).

No. 5 Duke 87, Temple 52: Chante Black scored 15 points and Shay Selby added a career-high 14 to lead the host Blue Devils (12-1) to its 10th straight victory in the win over the Owls (8-5).

No. 15 Virginia 82, St. Francis, Pa. 66: Monica Wright scored 22 points to help host Virginia (13-2) beat St. Francis, Pa. (3-10).

Oakland, Mich. 67, No. 23 South Dakota St. 51: Jessica Pike scored 17 points, and April Kidd and Melissa Jeltema had double-doubles to lead host Oakland (11-4, 3-1 Summit) over South Dakota State (14-2, 3-1).

WORKING OVERTIME

Abilene Christian (Texas) 147, Texas Woman's 143: Jamie Meyer scored 49 points to help host Abilene Christian overcome a 63-point effort by Renee Renz and beat Texas Woman's in quadruple overtime in a record-setting game.

The 290 combined points was an NCAA women's record for a single game. The 143 points by Texas Woman's broke the NCAA record for most points by the losing team.

The 112 points the two teams scored in the overtimes also was an NCAA record as was Abilene Christian's 58 in overtime.

Renz did all she could, setting a Lone Star Conference-record for points. She hit 22 of 36 from the field and 15 of 17 from the free-throw line. She also had 15 rebounds.