East Roundup : Syracuse Advances With Some Big Foreign Aid

Although sophomore guard Dwayne (Pearl) Washington led Syracuse with 23 points Friday as the Orangemen defeated DePaul, 70-65, in the first round of the NCAA East Regional at Atlanta, both coaches agreed the difference was a 6-10 freshman center from Athens, Greece.

Rony Seikaly, who averaged only 7.7 points this season for the 22-8 Orangemen, scored 17 points and had nine rebounds despite sitting out eight minutes in the second half with four fouls.

“No question he was the difference,” said Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim, “especially in the first half when he had 12 points.”

“I thought Seikaly was the difference in the basketball game,” said DePaul Coach Joey Meyer, who was in his first NCAA tournament as head coach after taking over for his retired father, Ray. “He was one of the major reasons we lost.

“This game typified our season. We couldn’t make the big play when we needed it. That’s the way our season went, we either fumbled it or missed it.”

DePaul (19-10) was led by Tyrone Corbin with 17 points and Dallas Comegys with 15.

Syracuse (22-8) will meet Georgia Tech, a winner over Mercer Friday, in the second round Sunday. Georgia, which defeated Wichita State, will face Illinois, which beat Northeastern.

Georgia Tech 65, Mercer 58--The Yellow Jackets got 19 points from Yvon Joseph and survived a second-half scare to down the Bears.

The Atlantic Coast Conference champions surged to an 18-point lead in the first half and led by that many early in the second half before Mercer (22-9) closed to within six points with 95 seconds remaining.

Joseph, a 6-11, 245-pounder, intimidated Mercer in the first half when Tech (25-7) assumed control of the game. Joseph had six points in a 17-4 run that gave the Jackets a 27-11 lead 14 minutes into the game.

Georgia 67, Wichita St. 59--The Bulldogs won behind a strong second-half defensive effort that limited the Shockers’ All-American Xavier McDaniel to only four points after intermission.

McDaniel, who leads the nation in scoring and rebounding, had 22 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out with 2:05 remaining.

Meanwhile, freshman Cedric Henderson and junior Joe Ward scored six points each during a 16-2 second-half run that put Georgia (22-8) in control.

Henderson led Georgia with 20 points, Gerald Crosby added 13 points and Ward had 10.

Aubrey Sherrod had 17 points and Karl Papke 11 for Wichita State (18-13).

Illinois 76, Northeastern 57--Ken Norman scored 23 points and the Illini (25-8) never trailed in surging to a 12-point halftime lead and stretching the margin to 29 in the second half before the Huskies (22-9) rallied in the final two minutes.

Northeastern, winner of the ECAC North Atlantic tourney, had won 12 games in a row but it was never in the game, shooting only 45% against a tenacious Illinois defense.

It was the seventh victory in the last eight games for Illinois.

Reggie Lewis led Northeastern with 22 points, 8 of those in the final 3:30.