COLLEGE BASKETBALL NATIONAL ROUNDUP : Kentucky Has Seen Enough of Shaquille

Kentucky’s Jamal Mashburn figures it’s time for Louisiana State’s Shaquille O’Neal to turn pro.

O’Neal scored 33 points, got 16 rebounds and blocked seven shots at Baton Rouge, La., Tuesday night as 19th-ranked Louisiana State defeated No. 10 Kentucky, 107-88, in a Southeastern Conference game.

“Our game plan was to get him in foul trouble, but he had a career night,” Mashburn said. “It’s time for him to go to the next level.”

Mashburn is a freshman, O’Neal a sophomore, and Mashburn’s concern for O’Neal could be based--at least in part--on not wanting to face him for two more years.

O’Neal did missed seven minutes because of foul trouble, but LSU (14-6 overall, 7-4 in the SEC) also got 35 points from its bench--19 of them from Harold Boudreaux.

And Mashburn was on the bench for 15 minutes because of foul trouble.

LSU moved one-half game behind co-leaders Alabama, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt in the SEC. Kentucky (17-4, 9-2) is on probation and unable to win the league title.

Kansas State 95, No. 23 Oklahoma 70--The Wildcats shot 63% in beating the Sooners at Manhattan, Kan. It was the most-lopsided Big Eight loss for Coach Billy Tubbs in a decade.

Kansas State (12-8, 2-5) outrebounded the injury-plagued Sooners, 39-33, and held them to 36.6% shooting. When losing here last year, Oklahoma (15-7, 4-4) shot a season-low 29%.

“There’s not much to say. We just got drilled, to say the least,” Tubbs said. In his first season with the Sooners in 1980-81, Tubbs suffered four Big Eight losses of 27 points or more. But the 25-point setback against the fired-up Wildcats was the worst conference loss since.

Tubbs wasn’t even in any mood to praise the 73% shooting of the Wildcats in the first half.

“Our defense was as bad as you can possibly play defense in the first half,” Tubbs said. “A good recreation team would have shot 63% against that defense--maybe not 73%.”

Villanova 61, No. 8 St. John’s 51--James Bryson matched his career-high with 21 points and the Wildcats (12-9, 5-5) used an 18-4 second-half run to win a Big East game at Madison Square Garden.

Villanova won the battle of the defenses with the deciding burst that turned a 39-33 deficit with 11:02 left into a 51-43 lead with 4:28 to play.

Malik Sealy scored 16 points in the first home loss of the season for St. John’s (16-4, 7-4). REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS EAST

Chris Smith scored 25 points, including a three-point basket that ignited a decisive 18-3 run, as Connecticut (14-7, 5-6) beat Boston College (10-11, 1-8), 76-59, in a Big East game at Storrs, Conn. . . . Earl Duncan, who played at St. Monica High, scored 23 points and Keith Hughes added 20 as Rutgers (14-7, 9-3) overcame an 11-point halftime deficit and beat Rhode Island (9-11, 5-7), 83-70, in an Atlantic 10 Conference game at South Kingstown, R.I. . . . Kit Mueller scored 17 of his 20 points in the second half as Princeton (5-12, 2-3) rolled to a 60-47 Ivy League victory over Pennsylvania (5-12, 2-3) at Philadelphia. It was the 180th meeting between the teams, with Penn leading the series, 98-92. MIDWEST

Junior Stephen Howard scored 18 points and sophomore Jeff Stern added 14 to lead DePaul (13-7) to an 81-74 victory over Detroit (6-13) at Rosemont, Ill. SOUTH

Chris Gatling scored a career-high 36 points as Old Dominion (9-14, 2-7) snapped North Carolina-Charlotte’s (12-8, 4-4) five-game winning streak with a 95-83 Sun Belt Conference victory at Charlotte, N.C. WEST

Maurice Alexander scored 17 of his 22 points in the second half to lead Wyoming (16-5, 6-3) to a 59-52 Western Athletic Conference victory over Air Force (7-13, 1-8) at the Air Force Academy.