North Carolina Central’s 77-71 victory over Texas-Pan American on Wednesday night was the Eagles’ first of the season and gave them a 1-18 record.
It also left New Jersey Tech as the only Division I school without a victory. The Highlanders dropped to 0-17 with a 70-62 loss at Loyola, Md., on Wednesday, extending their losing streak to 50 games with Penn up next on Saturday.
The Division I record for consecutive losses is 34 by Sacramento State from Dec. 22, 1997 to Jan. 27, 1999. New Jersey Tech’s current streak isn’t recognized as a Division I record because the Highlanders went 0-29 last season while they were reclassifying to Division I.
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ANOTHER CHALLENGE: The ACC-Big Ten Challenge is the highest profile of the Division I matchups between conferences with the Southeastern Conference/Big East Invitational and Big 12/Pac-10 Hardwood Series also contested early in the season.
Next season there will be another as the Mountain West and Missouri Valley conferences will start an annual series.
ther games will be played with Wyoming finishing at Northern Iowa on Dec. 23.
Evansville, which finished last in the Missouri Valley last season, will not participate the first year.
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OT STREAK: Saint Joseph’s snapped a streak that took the Hawks extra time to put together.
Their 92-86 triple-overtime victory over Rhode Island last weekend snapped an eight-game losing streak in overtime games. Their last overtime win was a 104-97 victory over St. Bonaventure on Feb. 1, 2001.
The triple-overtime game was the Hawks’ longest since a 127-120 four-overtime victory over Utah in the third-place game of the 1961 NCAA tournament. That and Canisius’ 79-78 victory over North Carolina State in the first round in 1956 are the longest games in NCAA tournament history.
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RISING STAR? Santa Clara freshman Kevin Foster showed no fear in his first rivalry game against Saint Mary’s.
Foster hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 12 seconds left on the way to a career-best 31 points, only to see Patty Mills hit a long 3 with 2.6 seconds remaining to lift the Gaels to a 63-62 victory in the teams’ West Coast Conference opener.
Luring Foster out of his home state in Texas was an impressive move by second-year Santa Clara coach Kerry Keating. Foster was named a top-30 recruit in his state out of Morton Ranch High School in Katy. His older brother, Rodney, is a senior guard at Rice.
‘t concerned about facing Mills, a key member of the Australian national team during the Beijing Olympics.
“I’ve gone up against a couple of NBA players myself,” Foster said after the game. “I wasn’t thinking about that. I was thinking about playing my own game and trying to win.”
Foster played with leg cramps late in the game and still found a way to score Santa Clara’s last 14 points.
“Thank goodness,” Saint Mary’s coach Randy Bennett said of Foster’s condition. “Or else he might have had 40.”
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INJURY NEWS: Kansas guard Mario Little, the Big 12’s preseason newcomer of the year, has decided to play this season instead of applying for a medical hardship after missing the first 12 games because of injuries.
Little, who averaged 15.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists at Chipola (Fla.) College and was ranked the No. 1 junior college player in the country, broke his hand in practice on Dec. 16, less than two weeks after returning from a stress fracture in his left leg.
coach Bill Self put him in the starting lineup.
“I knew if I was going to play I might as well start playing better because I can’t look back now,” Little said after the game. “Coach told me I was going to start yesterday. He tried to give me some confidence so I would play better.”
It wasn’t all good injury news in recent days:
-Nikola Kecman, a transfer who had six points and five rebounds in 11 minutes in his only appearance for Ohio State, will miss the rest of the season after injuring a knee during practice.
-Louisiana-Monroe senior guard Tony Hooper will miss the rest of the season because of a fracture in his left foot.
-Willie Powers, Georgia Southern’s leading scorer, will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury. The guard was eighth in the Southern Conference averaging 14.5 points a game and he was also in the league’s top 10 in assists (3.6), free throw shooting (80 percent) and steals (1.5).
“Willie was having an all-conference type season, so I do feel for him,” coach Jeff Price said. “It is a tough situation for him, but knowing Willie he will work extremely hard to get back as soon as he can.”
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ryant Stith, with six honors in 1988-89, was recognized more.
Landesberg, who is fourth in the ACC in scoring with an 18.5 average, is halfway to the conference record.
Kenny Anderson of Georgia Tech was selected ACC rookie of the week 10 times of a possible 13 weeks in 1989-90.
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HONORS: There will be several teams and individuals honored by their schools.
Long Island University will induct the undefeated 1935-36 team into its Hall of Fame this weekend.
“The courage and character displayed by the 1935-36 men’s basketball team is a story that should be honored and remembered by everyone,” LIU director of athletics John Suarez said.
The 1935-36 team was the first of coach Clair Bee’s undefeated teams, posting a 25-0 record. The lineup featured Jules Bender, Ben Kramer and Irv Torgoff, all of whom earned the Haggerty Award as the top player in the New York metropolitan area. Another member, Marius Russo, later pitched for the 1941 world champion New York Yankees.
he National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame for its decision to boycott the 1936 Olympics.
Darrall Imhoff, who helped California to the 1959 NCAA championship and was a member of the gold medal-winning 1960 U.S. Olympic team, will have his number “40” retired in a halftime ceremony Feb. 14 when Cal hosts Stanford.
Michigan State will retire the “42” worn by New Orleans Hornets guard Morris Peterson, who helped lead the Spartans to the 2000 national championship.
Saturday’s ceremony will mark the ninth Spartan to have a jersey retired.
And Michigan is having a reunion of its only national championship team this weekend when the 1989 team gets together for a 20-year reunion.
“I’ve talked to a few of the guys I keep in touch with,” said former center and captain Mark Hughes, now a scout with the New York Knicks. “It will be interesting to see how many people show up for it.”
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AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley in San Francisco contributed to this report
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