COLLEGE BASKETBALL ROUNDUP : Indiana Back on Top in Big Ten

Indiana got what it wanted Tuesday night in Champaign, Ill.

The No. 6 Hoosiers, coming off a loss to Michigan State, regained sole possession of first place in the Big Ten Conference with a 76-65 victory over Illinois.

Calbert Cheaney scored 23 points for Indiana (16-3, 7-1 in the Big Ten), which moved a half-game ahead of Ohio State.

“We knew coming into the game we had to bounce back and get a win,” Indiana guard Greg Graham said. “We did that tonight, but we didn’t win the way we wanted to win.”

Indiana went on a 16-6 run midway through the first half for a 35-25 lead, and the Illini never got any closer.

Indiana made 49% of its shots and held the Illini to 41% shooting. The Hoosiers made 20 of 30 free throws, Illinois made 15 of 20.

“Foul trouble really killed us because we can’t go to our bench,” Illinois Coach Lou Henson said. “They’re too young and inexperienced.”

Tom Michael scored 21 points for Illinois (8-11, 2-7).

OTHER GAMES

Georgetown 71, Villanova 63--Alonzo Mourning scored 26 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked seven shots to lead the Hoyas to the Big East Conference victory over the Wildcats at Philadelphia.

Georgetown (13-5, 6-3) won despite not scoring from the field in the final 11:28. The Hoyas scored their last 23 points on free throws. Georgetown made 33 of 37 free throws in the game.

Villanova (8-9, 5-3) made 20 of 32 free throws.

Seton Hall 68, Providence 65--Terry Dehere scored 20 points and Jerry Walker added 11 points and 11 rebounds to help the Pirates (12-6, 4-5) overcome a six-point deficit in the second half for the Big East victory at Providence, R.I.

Michael Smith scored 14 points and had 12 rebounds for Providence (10-12, 2-8).

Pittsburgh 77, Miami 55--Ahmad Shareef scored 20 points and Sean Miller has eight assists for the Panthers (14-8, 6-3) in a Big East victory at Miami.

Miami (6-15, 1-9) has lost 11 of 12.

Marquette 66, North Carolina State 42--The Warriors (12-8) used runs of 13-0 and 9-0 to break a losing streak at four games in a nonconference game at Milwaukee.

North Carolina State (9-11) made only 29% of its shots and suffered its fifth loss in a row.

Detroit 72, Notre Dame 70--Ramsey Nichols scored 21 points and Detroit (9-11) held off a late rally for the nonconference victory over the Fighting Irish (7-10) at South Bend, Ind.

Elmer Bennett scored 38 points, including a three-point basket with six seconds left, for Notre Dame.

Vanderbilt 89, Auburn 83--Freshman guard Ronnie McMahan scored 23 points to lead the Commodores (9-9, 2-6) to the Southeastern Conference victory over the Tigers (10-7, 4-5) at Nashville, Tenn.

Princeton 42, Pennsylvania 40--Matt Eastwick scored 13 points and Princeton (14-3, 4-0) took advantage of 26.2% shooting by Penn (8-8, 1-3) for the Ivy League victory at Philadelphia.

Wyoming 69, Air Force 47--Reginald Slater scored 18 points and Maurice Alexander added 17 at Laramie, Wyo., to lead the Cowboys (11-9, 3-5) over the Falcons (7-13, 1-7) in a Western Athletic Conference game.

Memphis State 77, Southwestern Louisiana 76--Sophomore Anfernee Hardaway scored 31 points, including two free throws with 27 seconds left, to preserve the nonconference victory for the Tigers (12-6) at Lafayette, La.

Southwestern Louisiana (11-9) committed 20 turnovers.