Syracuse Shocks Arizona At Home

Top 25

Arizona couldn’t handle Syracuse’s John Wallace or the idea that the Orangemen would stay in a zone defense the whole game.

“We were very active in our zone,” Wallace said Saturday after his 26-point, nine-rebound performance carried the No. 19 Orangemen to a 79-70 upset of cold-shooting No. 3 Arizona.

“They started off having trouble with it, and weren’t hitting their shots, and there was no way we were going to go away from it until they started,” said Wallace.

Coach Jim Boeheim declined to say whether his team should be ranked in the Top 5 despite its 9-0 record and domination of the Wildcats (8-1) at home. Syracuse is the only team outside the Pac-10 to beat Arizona in the McKale Center since Arkansas three years ago.

“They’ll move us up just because we won a game on their homecourt, but I told the players it’s too early to get excited,” Boeheim said. “There’s 20 more games before we’ll even be able to think about what this one means.”

Arizona’s Lute Olson said the loss may help his team later on.

“Maybe it will be a good wakeup call for us,” he said. “They played an outstanding game and knocked down their shots.”

Syracuse led 42-32 at halftime, and Arizona never got closer until the final minute.

Wallace scored 17 first-half points for the Orangemen, who beat the Wildcats by 10 points last season at the Carrier Dome.

Joseph Blair scored 18 points for Arizona, which shot only 37 percent from the field and 41 percent from the foul line. Miles Simon added 15 and Reggie Geary 13 for the Wildcats.

(4) Kentucky 89, (25) Louisville 66

At Lexington, Ky., Tony Delk scored a season-high 30 points, including 12 straight during a 14-1 run late in the half that sparked the Wildcats past the Cardinals.

Louisville (7-4) scored six straight points on Alvin Sims’ two dunks and Samaki Walker’s layup, closing an eight-point deficit to two with 3:34 left in the half before Delk went to work for Kentucky (7-1).

Sims led Louisville with 23 points, while Samaki Walker, cleared to play Saturday while the NCAA probes his eligibility, and DeJuan Wheat, each contributed 17.

Louisville came into the game shooting 53 percent, but hit 45 percent (24 of 53) in losing for the second time in its last three games.

(5) Memphis 96, NE Louisiana 76

At Memphis, Tenn., Cedric Henderson had 30 points, including 24 in the first half, and five assists to lead the Tigers to a win over the Indians.

Henderson hit 11 of 19 shots and was 4 of 5 from 3-point range, as the Tigers (7-0) finished with three players in double figures. Besides Henderson’s 30, center Lorenzen Wright had 20 points and 15 rebounds while guard Mingo Johnson contributed 17 points.

Paul Marshall led the Indians (1-6) with 19 points. Dennis Newton had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Alvin Edwards added 14 points.

Memphis finished with a 54 percent shooting night from the field, while Northeast Louisiana shot 43 percent.

The Tigers held a two-point advantage when Newton hit a 10-footer with 12:36 left in the game, capping a run of six straight points by the Indians.

(8) Connecticut 86, Fairfield 52

At Storrs, Conn., the Huskies outscored the Stags over the last 10 minutes of the first half and cruised the rest of the way to a win at Gampel Pavilion.

Ray Allen and Doron Sheffer combined for 33 points for the Huskies (8-1), who captured their seventh win in a row. Fairfield drops to 6-2 on the season.

Fairfield, which came into the game riding its best start in 11 years, was overmatched from the opening tap. The Stags were forced to call a timeout 3 seconds into the game when they couldn’t in-bound the ball after the center jump was hit out of bounds.

(10) Iowa 82, Morehead St. 57

At Iowa City, Iowa, Russ Millard scored 12 points and Jess Settles added 11 and a career-high 17 rebounds to lead the Hawkeyes to their eighth straight win.

Iowa (10-1) hammered the Eagles 26-10 on the boards in the first 20 minutes - 52-24 for the game - and led 45-33 at intermission. Mark Kinnaird almost single-handedly kept the Eagles (4-5) in the game, scoring 25 of his team’s first-half points. He had only two in the second half to finish with 27 points while Mark Majick scored 11.

Kenyon Murray, Ryan Bowen and Chris Kingsbury each scored 10 points for Iowa.

(13) Utah 84, USC 49

At Salt Lake City, Keith Van Horn had 25 points and nine rebounds and the Utes (6-2) rolled to a 29-point halftime lead to coast past the Trojans (6-2).

Van Horn played only 22 minutes for Utah, leaving with a bruised right arm midway through the second half.

Team officials said the injury didn’t appear serious, and the 6-foot-9 junior forward wasn’t expected to miss any games.

Brandon Jessie added 14 points and Ben Caton 10 as Utah, bouncing back from a 60-56 loss Thursday at No. 12 Wake Forest, opened with a 24-8 run Saturday night. With Utah leading 11-6, the Utes went on a 13-2 run with Van Horn getting seven of the points.

(14) Illinois 83, (14) California 69

At Chicago, Kiwane Garris scored a season-high 23 points as the Illini built a 20-point first-half lead, then withstood an early second-half rally by the Bears.

The Illini’s 9-0 record is their best since the 1989-90 season when they began 11-0.

The Bears (4-2), who had averaged 89 points per game, were stymied in the first half by turnovers and Illinois’ inside dominance.

Illinois didn’t get a field goal the first 6 minutes of the second half and California crept within three points.

California, which shot 37 percent and trailed 41-30 in the first half, looked like a different team after halftime, going on a 13-5 run and trimming the deficit to 46-43 on a basket by Shareef Abdur-Rahim at 13:49. But that was the closest California got.