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Donnie McGrath scored 18 points to lead No. 23 Providence to its sixth straight win, a 65-50 victory over visiting Georgetown last night.
The Friars (14-3, 5-1 Big East) have won five in a row in the conference and moved into a tie for first place with No. 7 Pittsburgh.
Gerald Riley had 22 points for the Hoyas (11-5, 2-4).
Sheiku Kabba had 15 points and Dwight Brewington added 12 for the Friars, who moved into the Top 25 for the second time this season earlier yesterday.
Georgetown led, 10-7, about eight minutes into the game when Providence took control. Ryan Gomes, the team's leading scorer at 20.3 points per game, got his first field goal to draw Providence within 1 and McGrath hit a 3-pointer that gave the Friars the lead for good.
Kabba made it 21-10 before Georgetown's Courtland Freeman put in a missed shot to stop a 14-0 run by the Friars with about six minutes left in the half.
Kabba scored 5 points and McGrath 3 during a half-closing 28-8 run that gave Providence a 35-18 lead.
Riley hit three straight 3-pointers and Ashanti Cook added two field goals as Georgetown cut the lead to 42-33. But two 3-pointers by Tuukka Kotti and a basket by Gomes stretched the lead to 50-33, and Georgetown never seriously threatened again.
Gomes finished with 8 points and 10 rebounds.
Georgetown shot 18 for 53 (34 percent) and committed 16 turnovers, all but five in the first half. Providence shot 54 percent (22 for 41), including 8 for 15 from 3-point range.
Princeton 86, S. Vermont 48 -- Reserve center Mike Stephens scored a career-high 16 points and Will Venable added 13 as the host Tigers (7-6) returned from a 15-day layoff and thumped the Division 3 Mountaineers (8-7). Tigers freshman Harrison Schaen scored a career-high 10 points, 6 on layups in the first half. Princeton's biggest lead in the second half was 48 points (77-29).
Sean Key led the Mountaineers with 15 points.
New Haven 87, Bentley 75 -- Ismael Caro scored a career-high 46 points as the Chargers (11-5) held off the Falcons (10-8) in West Haven, Conn. Caro scored 14 points during a 22-4 New Haven run to close the first half.
Attleboro's Tim Forbes scored 25 points for Bentley.
Sacred Heart 72, Cent. Conn. 69 -- Omar Wellington scored Sacred Heart's final 7 points in a Northeast Conference victory over the Blue Devils in Fairfield, Conn. Sacred Heart (8-9, 4-4) led by a point with 13 seconds left when Wellington made two foul shots. DeMario Anderson and Ron Robinson then missed 3-point attempts in the final seconds for CCSU (5-8, 2-4).
The victory snapped a nine-game losing streak for Sacred Heart against CCSU.
Fairleigh Dickinson 84, Quinnipiac 81 -- Gordon Klaiber scored a career-high 31 points, including two free throws with 14.7 seconds left in overtime, to lead the Knights (10-7, 5-3 Northeast Conference) past the Bobcats (6-11, 2-4) in Hamden, Conn. C.J. Vick led Quinnipiac with 23 points and nine rebounds.
Texas 62, Texas Tech 61 -- Brandon Mouton hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to force overtime and Royal Ivey made two free throws with 17 seconds to play to lift the 16th-ranked Longhorns (13-3, 4-1 Big 12) past the 13th-ranked Red Raiders (16-3, 4-1) in Lubbock, Texas. Mouton's 22-foot shot off a crosscourt inbounds pass with 2.6 seconds left was from right in front of his bench and tied the game at 55.
Women
Wake Forest 69, North Carolina 67 -- Liz Strunk scored 15 points and Tonia Brown added 14 to lead the Demon Deacons (9-9, 2-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) past the Tar Heels (15-3, 5-2) in Winston-Salem, N.C. Strunk, a 73 percent shooter from the free throw line, made two key free throws with 21 seconds left and Brown made 1 of 2 with 13 seconds left for the Demon Deacons.
Southern N.H. 76, Teikyo Post 67 -- Colleen Quinn scored 12 of her team-high 14 points on 3-point shots as the Penmen (7-11) defeated the Eagles (6-10) in Waterbury, Conn.
