Louisiana State Stops Kentucky, 70-57

Stromile Swift provided the scoring for Louisiana State, but it was defense that led the Tigers to their first victory over Kentucky since 1992.

Swift had 26 points and No. 25 LSU harassed No. 11 Kentucky into 23 turnovers Sunday in a 70-57 victory at Baton Rouge, La.

“We feel like we can beat anybody when we’re playing the kind of defense we played today,” Swift said. “If we just stay with our game and play really good defense, we can keep this thing going against anybody.”

That combination was certainly effective against Kentucky, as the Tigers (19-4, 6-4 Southeastern Conference) had 17 steals.

“I don’t know if I have ever had a team play defensively as well or play as hard as this team has played over this last stretch of games,” LSU Coach John Brady said. “I haven’t ever been on, or been a coach on a team that has put together five or six games where the effort and rebounding and commitment or guarding has been like this team.”

Kentucky (17-7, 7-3) rallied from a 20-point deficit with 10:53 left and closed to within five points. The Tigers then finished with an 11-3 run, giving them their fourth victory over a ranked team.

No. 1 Cincinnati 87, DePaul 64--The Bearcats extended their home winning streak to 42 games, second-longest in the nation, and also extended their domination of the Blue Demons.

DePaul (16-8, 6-5 Conference USA) has lost 17 of 18 games to Cincinnati (23-1, 11-0) since 1992-93. Its only victory was 61-60 in overtime last season at Chicago.

The Blue Demons’ Quentin Richardson, Bobby Simmons and Steven Hunter tried to blanket Cincinnati’s front line of Kenyon Martin, Pete Mickeal and Jermaine Tate with man-to-man defense. It didn’t work. Martin finished with 23 points and DePaul wound up with its most lopsided loss of the season.

Cincinnati has the nation’s longest winning streak at 15 games.

No. 10 Indiana 86, Michigan 65--Strong first-half shooting by Kirk Haston and Michael Lewis, combined with tight defense, helped the Hoosiers coast to victory at Ann Arbor, Mich.

Haston scored 10 of his 19 points in the first half and Lewis had 11 of his 15 during the first 20 minutes as the Hoosiers (18-4, 8-4 Big Ten) opened a 16-point halftime lead.

The Wolverines (12-9, 3-7) turned the ball over 18 times on the way to a sixth consecutive defeat.

Indiana, coming off a 77-75 loss at Minnesota on Wednesday, kept its hopes alive for at least a share of the Big Ten regular-season title. The Hoosiers can assure themselves at least a tie for the title by winning their last five games.

No. 19 Temple 73, No. 23 Maryland 65--The Owls (18-4) won their ninth consecutive game--and 20th in a row at home--by holding the Terrapins (17-7) to 38% shooting and forcing 27 turnovers with a variety of zone defenses.

Pepe Sanchez had five points, 11 assists and nine steals for the Owls, who lead the nation in scoring defense at 53.9 points a game. Lynn Greer, who missed all five of his shots in the first half, scored 10 consecutive points in the second half for Temple as it took the lead for good.

Owl Coach John Chaney said that before the game the team learned that Steven Wesby, the older brother of freshman reserve Alex Wesby, had died Saturday night of an apparent drug overdose at a party in a Philadelphia suburb. Toxicology tests were scheduled.

OTHER GAMES

Kevin Braswell scored 29 points, including five free throws down the stretch, to help Georgetown (14-10, 4-7 Big East) hold off a comeback, 72-65, at Pittsburgh (10-11, 2-8). The Panthers played with only eight players after Coach Ben Howland dismissed senior guard Kellii Taylor for violating team rules. . . . Clint Hordemann made a three-point shot with five seconds left to give Boise State (10-11, 4-6 Big West) a 66-65 victory over New Mexico State (15-7, 6-4) at Las Cruces, N.M. The win ended a 14-game winning streak at home for the Aggies.