Wake Forest gave Duke an invitation to join the growing club of fallen No. 1 teams.
James Johnson made a layup with 0.8 seconds left Wednesday night to give sixth-ranked Wake Forest a 70-68 win over Duke, the team that supplanted the Deamon Deacons this week atop The Associated Press’ poll.
“Pittsburgh goes down, then we go down, then Duke – I mean, whoever’s No. 1, they’ve got a rude awakening,” said Jeff Teague, who had 11 points on 4-of-14 shooting.
Connecticut appears poised to become the fourth team to take the top spot in five weeks after roughing up DePaul 71-49. A win over Providence on Saturday should make them No. 1 after Duke, Wake Forest and Pittsburgh, which was No. 1 for what has become an eternity in 2009: two weeks.
Jerome Dyson, who scored 18 points for No. 2 UConn, says the team is ready for the challenge after being ignored for most of the season.
en playing under the radar,” he said.
In other ranked games Wednesday, it was: No. 21 Villanova 67, No. 3 Pittsburgh 57; No. 5 North Carolina 80, Florida State 77; No. 7 Louisville 80, South Florida 54; No. 10 Xavier 69, Charlotte 47; Providence 100, No. 15 Syracuse 94; No. 18 Memphis 85, East Carolina 64; and Cincinnati 65, No. 25 Georgetown 57.
At Winston-Salem, N.C., Duke trailed most of the way and rallied from a late 13-point deficit. Gerald Henderson’s jumper with 10 seconds left tied it at 68.
Kyle Singler had 22 points and 12 rebounds for Duke (18-2, 5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), which had its 10-game winning streak snapped.
“I didn’t think we had the aggressiveness or toughness that we’ve shown. Then, all of a sudden, we had so much of it, it was unbelievable,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Our kids played so hard to put themselves in a position to win.”
Wake Forest bounced back from last week’s home loss that knocked them from No. 1 by forcing the Blue Devils into their worst shooting night of the season (33 percent).
Johnson had 13 points and 11 rebounds and freshman Al-Farouq Aminu finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Demon Deacons (17-1, 4-1 ACC).
ce 2006.
At Rosemont, Ill., the Huskies (19-1, 8-1 Big East) built a 14-point lead in the first half, only to watch it dwindle to six at the break. They opened the second half with a 10-3 run and went on to send the Blue Demons (8-13, 0-8) to their eighth straight loss.
UConn’s defense was particularly tight in the second half, as the Huskies outscored the Blue Demons 30-14 and held them to 6-of-25 shooting.
“We talked very loudly at halftime about the fact that we weren’t playing defense,” coach Jim Calhoun said. “That is as good a defensive performance as we’re going to have.”
No. 21 Villanova 67, No. 3 Pittsburgh 57
At Philadelphia, Reggie Redding had a career-high 18 points and seven rebounds to lead Villanova in the last college basketball game played in the Spectrum.
Dante Cunningham added 15 points for the Wildcats (16-4, 4-3 Big East), who beat a ranked team for the first time in five tries this season.
Sam Young had 14 points for the Panthers (18-2, 6-2), who had one field goal over the game’s final 5 minutes.
No. 5 North Carolina 80, Florida State 77
At Tallahassee, Fla., Ty Lawson’s 3-pointer at the buzzer lifted North Carolina.
antic Coast Conference) wipe out a 52-39 deficit.
North Carolina (18-2, 4-2) was led by Lawson’s 21 points. Danny Green added 20.
No. 7 Louisville 80, South Florida 54
At Louisville, Ky., Edgar Sosa scored 16 points, Samardo Samuels had 14 and Earl Clark added 12 points and seven rebounds as the Cardinals (16-3, 7-0 Big East) won their eighth straight.
Dominique Jones had 19 points and seven rebounds for South Florida (7-14, 2-6).
Louisville played its 800th game at Freedom Hall (664-136).
No. 10 Xavier 69, Charlotte 47
At Cincinnati, B.J. Raymond scored 23 points, Kenny Frease added 17 points and Xavier won its ninth straight.
C.J. Anderson had 10 points for Xavier (18-2, 6-0 A-10), which limited the 49ers to just four field goals in the first half.
Charlotte (6-13, 1-5) was led by senior Charlie Coley’s 12 points.
Providence 100, No. 15 Syracuse 94
At Providence, R.I., Sharaud Curry scored a season-high 22 points for the Friars.
Marshon Brooks scored 17 points, and Geoff McDermott and Jonathan Kale each scored 15 for Providence (14-6, 6-2 Big East), which matched its best Big East start since 2000-01.
Jonny Flynn had a career-high 35 points as Syracuse (17-5, 5-4) lost its fourth in five games.
No. 18 Memphis 85, East Carolina 64
, N.C., Antonio Anderson scored a season-high 26 points for Memphis (17-3, 6-0 Conference USA), which won its 48th consecutive conference game.
Jamar Abrams scored 18 points to lead the Pirates (10-9, 2-4).
Cincinnati 65, No. 25 Georgetown 57
At Cincinnati, Deonta Vaughn scored 20 points, and Cincinnati (14-7, 4-4 Big East) improved to 1-2 against ranked teams this season by extending Georgetown’s losing streak to four.
Chris Wright scored 15 points for Georgetown (12-7, 3-5 Big East).
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