The Morning Dish – January 20th
Pitt Gets Hurt-ford: Well, Pittsburgh is still unbeaten at home, so they’ve got that going for them. But when the Panthers took a road trip to Hartford, they were handed their first loss of the season. UConn outlasted Jamie Dixon’s club, 68-65, and bounced back from a weekend loss to North Carolina. The turning points came in the last 34 seconds when Pitt’s Karl Krauser sank two of his 24 from the line to cut the Husky lead to one. But it was UConn’s Denham Brown who iced both ends of a 1-and-1 to give his club the lead for good with 25 ticks left. But it wasn’t over yet. Krauser’s shot with 13 seconds left was sent packing by Emeka Okafor and when Connecticut retained possession, Taliek Brown was sent to the line in a 1-and-1 situation but missed the front end. Krauser fired a downcourt pass to Antonio Graves with eight seconds left for the tie, but Graves’s trey clanged in unison with the buzzer. Denham Brown led the Huskies with 20 points, 5 rebounds.
Silver Lining: At half-time of the UConn-Pitt game The Big East announced its Silver Anniversary Team. The top players in the conference’s first 25 years are: Patrick Ewing, Georgetown; Derrick Coleman, Syracuse; Ray Allen, Connecticut; DeWayne Pearl Washington, Syracuse and Chris Mullin, St. John’s.
Still Perfect: And then there were three. Unbeatens that is. With Pitt falling to Connecticut in Hartford last night, only Stanford (14-0), St. Joseph’s (15-0) and Cincinnati (13-0) still have zeros in their loss columns.
T-Tech Too Much: Yes, the Red Raiders definitely belong in the Hoopville Top 25 and last night they proved it. Texas Tech dismantled Oklahoma, 67-47, as Bobby Knight’s squad held the Sooners to 33% shooting. OU was amiss from behind the arc, sinking only three of its 19 attempts. T-Tech’s Andre Emmett led all scorers with 21 points which included 9-of-14 from the free throw line. Both Jarrius Jackson and Devonne Giles supported Emmett with 12 each. Jason Detrick had 11 for Oklahoma, which managed only 19 first-half points. The Sooners have now dropped four straight, but those failures came against Connecticut, Oklahoma State, Missouri and, of course, the Red Raiders.
Scoring Leaders In Action: NCAA Division I scoring leaders Kevin Martin of Western Carolina (28.1 ppg) and Keydren Clark of St. Peter’s (26.4 ppg) were both active on MLK Day and both led their teams to wins. Martin torched the twine for 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting as the Catamounts nudged NC Greensboro, 78-73. Meanwhile in Albany, Clark played the full 40 minutes and made good use of his time. His game-high 27 points propelled the Peacocks passed Marist, 70-64. Clark also hit for three 3-pointers and shot 10-of-12 from the free throw line.
Agg-ravating: There aren’t many winless teams left out there, but NC A&T is one of them. The Aggies dropped their 15th straight, to Morgan State, 76-72. Freshman guard Sean Booker was the only Aggie to score in double digits, with 18. Morgan State was led by Christopher Grant’s 14.
Tonight’s Menu:
• Wake Forest may have just lost to Duke, but their perfect home record is still intact. That feather-in-the-cap gets tested when Georgia Tech comes to visit.
• Syracuse, which hasn’t lost a game since Thanksgiving weekend, travels to Seton Hall to play a Pirate team that started out hot but lost a few close ones in early Big East play.
• Can Missouri, which just knocked off Oklahoma on Saturday, make it two straight against ranked teams? Quin Snyder and company get another big challenge from Texas in Columbia.
• Kentucky looks to rebound from its 65-57 loss to Georgia tonight when the Wildcats travel to Tennessee.
• 11-4 Marquette wants to avoid a letdown against C-USA rival Charlotte. The 49’ers are 10-3 and undefeated in the conference.
• Boston College, at 11-4, continues its campaign for Hoopville Top 25 recognition. Tonight, the Eagles go out of conference – but remain in Chestnut Hill – as they entertain NC State.
• Mountain Momma! In a tussle between West Virginia schools, the Mountaineers face Marshall. Call in the militia!
• 11-3 Rice is one of the top teams in the WAC. The Owls face the Golden Hurricane in Tulsa.
