Top 25 men: Virginia upsets No. 3 Duke
BY Associated Press
Friday, March 01, 2013
3/01/13 at 5:23 AM
Joe Harris scored a career-high 36 points and Virginia celebrated the 11-year anniversary of its last victory over a top 5 team by doing it again, beating No. 3 Duke 73-68 on Thursday night in Charlottesville, Va.
Akil Mitchell added 19 points and 12 rebounds as he and Harris outplayed Duke's top twosome of Seth Curry and Mason Plumlee, giving Virginia (20-8, 10-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) its 16th consecutive victory at home. It came 11 years to the day since an 87-84 victory, also against No. 3 Duke.
Curry led Duke with 28 points, all but five coming after halftime, and Quinn Cook had 22, but the Blue Devils (24-4, 11-4) failed to slow down either Harris or Mitchell, whose dominating play kept a sellout crowd giddy all night. Plumlee finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and three turnovers and several times looked up to see Mitchell dunking over him.
No. 16 Ohio St. 63, Northwestern 53: In Evanston, Ill., Lenzelle Smith scored a season-high 24 points, Deshaun Thomas added 19 and Ohio State used a late run to beat Northwestern.
The Buckeyes (21-7, 11-5 Big Ten) moved one-half game ahead of Michigan and took sole possession of fourth place in the Big Ten with another difficult win over a team that's given it fits in recent years.
This time, they led by 11 points early in the second half and regrouped after Northwestern took the lead, sending the Wildcats (13-16, 4-12) to their sixth straight loss and eighth in nine games.
Northwestern led by a point twice in the second half and was up 49-48 with about four minutes remaining. But Ohio State outscored the Wildcats 15-4 the rest of the way.
Thomas scored six points during that stretch, and the Buckeyes took advantage of three turnovers to come away with a tight win.
No. 25 Louisiana Tech 84, Utah St. 61: In Ruston, La., Brandon Gibson scored 20 points, Raheem Appleby added 15 and Louisiana Tech cruised past Utah State in its first game as a nationally ranked team since 1985.
Louisiana Tech (25-3, 15-0 Western Athletic Conference) never left anything in doubt, taking a 15-2 lead in the opening minutes on the way to a 49-23 halftime advantage. It was a surprisingly lopsided game considering the Bulldogs beat Utah State (19-8, 9-6) 51-48 in Logan, Utah, on Jan. 26.
Louisiana Tech used its constant full-court press and deep bench to frustrate the Aggies.
Original Print Headline: Another upset: Duke falls at Virginia
Associated Images:
Virginia guard Joe Harris goes up for a shot in front of Duke forward Josh Hairston during Thursday's game in Charlottesville, Va. Harris had 36 points as Virginia won 73-68. STEVE HELBER/AP
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