Clemson Can’t Get Over the (Chapel) Hill

The Chapel Hill curse lives on for Clemson.

The No. 2 Tigers came to town with their highest national ranking ever, but left with the same frustrating result--a 61-48 defeat by No. 19 North Carolina on Sunday. It was their 43rd consecutive loss at Chapel Hill.

Clemson took more than twice as many shots as North Carolina (66-32) and had 25 offensive rebounds, but shot a season-low 27.3%.

The Tigers, 16-3 overall and 5-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, scored only 16 points in the first half and the Tar Heels (12-5, 3-4) shot 63.2% to maintain double-digit leads for most of the second.

North Carolina forward Antawn Jamison, the ACC’s leading scorer, had 22 points.

No. 1 Kansas 77, No. 18 Colorado 68--Raef LaFrentz, playing at center in place of the injured Scot Pollard, had 21 points and 14 rebounds as the Jayhawks (20-0, 6-0) defeated the Buffaloes (15-4, 6-1) in a Big 12 Conference game at Boulder, Colo.

Kansas led by as many as 16 points in the first half. Colorado guard Chauncey Billups scored all of his 23 points in the second half, and the Buffaloes went ahead, 64-63, with 6:19 left. But LaFrentz scored twice in a 10-0 run that restored order.

No. 3 Kentucky 83, Arkansas 73--Nazr Mohammed made eight of nine shots and had 18 points, and the Wildcats (18-2, 6-1) scored 34 points off 25 turnovers in defeating the Razorbacks (10-6, 4-3) in a Southeastern Conference game at Fayetteville, Ark.

No. 7 Maryland 74, No. 10 Duke 70--Laron Profit dunked off two alley-oop passes from guard Sarunas Jasikevicius late in the game to give the Terrapins (17-2, 6-1) the lead for good in the ACC game at College Park, Md.

Duke (15-5, 4-3) led, 66-64, with 4:07 left when the Jasikevicius-Profit combination struck twice in a 54-second span.

No. 21 Indiana 70, Penn State 55--The Hoosiers (17-4, 4-3) held the Nittany Lions (8-8, 1-6) without a basket during a first-half 26-2 run that decided the Big Ten Conference game at State College, Pa.

No. 23 Texas 78, Missouri 74--The Longhorns (11-5, 5-1) pressured the Tigers (10-9, 2-5) into 27 turnovers and made nine of 10 free throws in the final two minutes of a Big 12 Conference game at Austin, Texas.

No. 25 Marquette 61, DePaul 49--The Golden Eagles (13-3, 4-1), who lead the nation in field-goal percentage defense (33%), held the Blue Demons (3-14, 1-5) to 18-of-71 shooting in a Conference USA game at Chicago.

OTHER GAME

Forward Todd Burgan had 17 points and 12 rebounds to lead resurgent Syracuse (12-7, 3-4) to a 65-53 Big East victory over Connecticut (11-6, 4-4) at Hartford, Conn.