SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — John Jenkins scored 16 points, and Festus Ezeli and Jeffery Taylor each had 15 to lead Vanderbilt to a 72-65 victory over reeling No. 8 North Carolina 72-65 on Sunday night in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off tournament.
The Commodores (3-1) beat a top-10 team for the first time since knocking off No. 1 Tennessee on Feb. 26, 2008.
The few hundred Vanderbilt fans who made the trip to Puerto Rico serenaded the Tar Heels (2-2) with chants of “Overrated!” For this year’s Tar Heels, they might be right.
Coach Roy Williams insisted after losing to Minnesota on Friday that he didn’t think anymore about last year’s 17-loss debacle. He’ll be forced to answer more questions now about what’s wrong with the slumping Tar Heels.
Tyler Zeller had 20 points and 10 rebounds for North Carolina. Harrison Barnes rebounded from a bad performance to score 11.
In other games, Erving Walker scored 16 points, Chandler Parsons added 13 points and 11 rebounds and host No. 9 Florida survived a scare from Morehead State 61-55. ... Kris Joseph had 18 points, Rick Jackson added 11 points and 10 rebounds and host No. 10 Syracuse survived a major scare from William & Mary 63-60. ... Wesley Witherspoon scored 20 points to lead No. 19 Memphis to a 70-61 victory over LSU. ... Malcolm Delaney scored 23 points, Dorenzo Hudson added 17 and No. 22 Virginia Tech bounced back from a loss to Kansas State with a 92-70 victory over UNC Greensboro. ... Kawhi Leonard had 20 points and 10 rebounds to help No. 25 San Diego State remain undefeated with a 61-46 victory over IUPUI.
TOP 25 WOMEN
NO. 1 CONNECTICUT 71, GEORGIA TECH 51
ATLANTA - Maya Moore scored 30 points in her homecoming, leading No. 1 Connecticut to its 81st consecutive victory with a rout of Georgia Tech. The Huskies (3-0) tied Washington University, an NCAA Division III school, for the most consecutive wins by a woman’s program at any level. The Bears won 81 in a row from 1998-2001.
In other games, Shekinna Stricklen (Morrilton) scored 18 points, and Glory Johnson added 14 points and 15 rebounds to help host No. 4 Tennesse beat Arizona State 80-64. ... Victoria Dunlap scored 24 points and redshirt freshman guard Bernisha Pinkett had a career-high 17 points as host No. 9 Kentucky beat Notre Dame 81-76. ... Courtney Ward scored a career-high 31 points, making a career-best seven 3-pointers, to help host No. 16 Florida State beat Vanderbilt 72-66. ... Jasmine James scored 18 of her season-high 21 points in the first half to lead host No. 18 Georgia to a victory over Indiana 84-51.
Sports, Pages 20 on 11/22/2010