Maryland Holds On to Beat a Road-Weary Kansas, 86-83

Playing close to home with a chance to knock off the No. 2 team in the country, Maryland came out energized and fearless.

Weary from crisscrossing the country from tournament to tournament, Kansas showed up flat.

The result: a frenetic first half and a 54-41 lead for the No. 23 Terrapins. Though they blew the lead, lost their two top players because of fouls and didn’t score a field goal in the last 4:10, they held on by making seven of eight free throws in the final two minutes to beat Kansas, 86-83, Sunday in the first round of the Franklin National Bank Classic in Washington, D.C.

“We weren’t intimidated from the start,” said senior guard Matt Kovarik, part of an ad hoc Maryland lineup left at the end of the game after Rodney Elliot and Laron Profit had fouled out. “We knew we could play with them.”

Elliot had 21 points and 12 rebounds for Maryland (4-2), but fouled out with 3:58 to play. Profit had 13 points, but was gone with 2:11 left. Sarunas Jasikevicius also had 21 points.

Paul Pierce led Kansas (8-1) with 26 points, but he also fouled out. Raef LaFrentz had 24 points and 16 rebounds for the Jayhawks, who failed to make the championship game of a holiday tournament for the first time in Roy Williams’ 10 years as coach.

Even though it’s early December, Kansas has already won the Preseason NIT and played in the Great Eight in Chicago. By the end of this tournament tonight, the Jayhawks will have played four games in seven days with only one practice.

No. 13 Connecticut 59, Rutgers 44--The Huskies (7-1, 2-0 in the Big East) got 21 points from Richard Hamilton, including five in a 9-2 run that gave them a 42-29 lead with 13:49 to play, and held Rutgers to three second-half field goals in a victory at Piscataway, N.J.

The teams combined for 41 turnovers, and Rutgers had only one field goal in the final 12 minutes.

Southern Illinois 75, Long Beach State 72--In a Saturday night game, the 49ers were beaten when Rashad Tucker connected on a field goal with 1:05 left in overtime and added a free throw with 12 seconds to go in the first round of the PowerBar Invitational tournament at Honolulu. Quincy Nuckles sent the game into overtime when he hit a three-point shot with seven seconds left and gave Long Beach (2-4) the lead, 71-70, with 2:12 left in the extra period, but James Jackson followed with a field goal before Tucker added his game-winning points.