Red Raiders

HAMILTON, N.Y. -- There were different expectations. And it was a different game, too.But in the end, with a possible NCAA Division I-AA playoff berth at stake, it was the same old story when the Towson football team visited Colgate yesterday and left with a 38-14 loss at Andy Kerr Stadium. It was the fourth blowout loss to the Red Raiders in four meetings between the teams.While playing itself within one win of a Patriot League co-championship this season, Towson, which finished its season at 7-4, 4-2, had proved a worthy peer of the six other members.

All signs indicated this was the year Navy's women's soccer team would win its first Patriot League title.The Midshipmen had posted a 17-2-1 record, outscored the opposition, 51-11, and gone unbeaten in league play (5-0-1). They entered the championship game with Colgate yesterday with nine wins and a tie in their last 10 games. What's more, the Mids had won their regular-season meeting with the Red Raiders Sept. 12, 2-1.But a chilled crowd of several hundred fans at Dewey Field, which is on a site along the Severn River, found out why Colgate has dominated the league, competing in all eight championship games.

Mount St. Mary's opened its women's basketball season with an 85-54 loss to the hosts in the first round of the Florida International University Tip-Off Classic last night in Miami.The game marked the head coaching debut of the Mountaineers' Vanessa Blair.Kia Williams scored 21 points and Megan Gardiner 17 for the Mountaineers.Western Kentucky defeated Howard in the other first-round game, 89-66. The Mountaineers face the Lady Toppers in tomorrow's second round.Colgate 69, UMES 57: Megan Gibbons had 17 points and 11 rebounds as the Red Raiders (1-0)

In its 80-52 loss at Navy yesterday, Colgate was in the game, if only for a moment.Chad Wiswall hit a jumper to bring the Red Raiders into a 2-2 tie 1: 20 into the game.The remaining 38: 40 failed to live up to any expectations brought by Wiswall's jumper as the Midshipmen (7-6, 2-0) scored their second blowout victory in as many games."This Navy basketball team really impressed me today in the first half," Navy coach Don DeVoe said. "I couldn't ask for any more; it seemed like everything came together for us after the 18-minute mark.

ATLANTA - Massachusetts is No. 1, Georgetown is the favorite and both of them are envious of what Arkansas accomplished the previous two years.Texas Tech could have picked a better region than the East in its quest for some national recognition. Being an afterthought is nothing new to the Red Raiders, but even when people should be talking about the most accomplished season in the program's history, all the folks back in Lubbock want to do is shout over some broken glass.Texas Tech plays a third-round game against Georgetown tonight (7: 40)

The last time Colgate played Navy in Annapolis, 11 months ago, the Red Raiders suffered a humiliating 42-point defeat.But yesterday at Alumni Hall, it was Navy on the wrong end of a rout after Colgate pounded the Midshipmen, 89-67, and gained sole possession of the Patriot League lead.The game was not as close as the final margin indicated. Colgate coach Jack Bruen pulled all his starters, including All-America candidate Adonal Foyle (24 points, seven blocks, six rebounds), with 2:34 remaining and the Red Raiders leading 82-54.

ATLANTA -- The Southwest Conference built its reputation on football, so it was appropriate that its basketball history came to a close at a football stadium, with one of its teams doing a pretty good job of blocking and tackling.The SWC never has produced an NCAA basketball champion in its 82 years, and it never will, after Texas Tech's physically brutal 98-90 loss to Georgetown at the Georgia Dome last night.The second-seeded Hoyas (29-7) will be in search of their first Final Four appearance in 11 years tomorrow, when they play Massachusetts in the East Regional final.

RICHMOND, Va. - A backboard wasn't all that came crashing down around North Carolina yesterday.The shattered glass that lay on the Richmond Coliseum floor, courtesy of a follow-up dunk by Texas Tech's Darvin Ham, served as a symbol for the No. 6-seeded Tar Heels, who were taken apart by the third-seeded Red Raiders in a 92-73 loss in the East Regional.Ham's slam, with 12: 06 left in the first half, tied the score at 16. It also sent pieces of glass all the way to the other free-throw line, and sent both teams into their locker rooms during a 26-minute delay.

The coaches of three teams in the NCAA women's Mideast Regional in Knoxville, Tenn., this weekend have spent a lot of time expressing the requisite niceties about the region's top seed and host school, Tennessee.And for good reason. After all, the third-ranked Lady Vols (31-2), who meet No. 9 Western Kentucky (28-3) tonight in a regional semifinal, have a lot going for them, including history, a tremendous home-court advantage and a desire -- bordering on obsession -- to return to the Final Four.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- The bearhug between Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt and her star center, Dana Johnson, with less than a minute to go in last night's Mideast Regional final spoke volumes.Three years of coming ever so close but not quite getting over the hump had come to a glorious end as the third-ranked Lady Vols earned their way to next weekend's Final Four with an 80-59 thumping of No. 5 Texas Tech.And it was Johnson and fellow senior Nikki McCray who powered the Lady Vols (33-2)

Reserve forward Gavin Edwards scored 17 points to lead a balanced offense, and No. 2 Connecticut beat visiting Delaware State, 79-49, last night. Jerome Dyson scored 15 for the Huskies (7-0), and Hasheem Thabeet tied his career high with 17 rebounds. Donald Johnson scored 25 for the Hornets (1-9), including 16 in the first half, when his teammates had two. He was 6-for-11 from three-point range. No. 16 Syracuse 86, Colgate 51: : Paul Harris had 22 points and the host Orange (7-0) defeated the Red Raiders (2-3)

All the top teams took care of their business and the Bowl Championship Series standings were unchanged at the top yesterday, with Alabama and Texas Tech holding the top two spots and Florida, Texas and Oklahoma poised to move up. The Crimson Tide ran away from Mississippi State in the second half of a 32-7 victory that kept Alabama on top of both the USA Today coaches' poll and the Harris poll. Alabama has a .9787 BCS average. Texas Tech (.9698) remained second in the polls and first according to the computer ratings during a week off. The Red Raiders head into their fourth straight game against a ranked opponent, this time at Oklahoma, in control of their national title and Big 12 championship hopes.

No scoreboard-watching necessary for Texas Tech. Less than 24 hours after the Red Raiders gave the national championship race a makeover by defeating then-No. 1 Texas, they received more good news when the Bowl Championship Series standings were released yesterday. Texas Tech was in second place, behind Alabama and just ahead of third-place Penn State. And Maryland, which had last weekend off, unexpectedly jumped into the standings at No. 23. If the undefeated Red Raiders of the Big 12 and undefeated Crimson Tide of the Southeastern Conference win out, they will likely meet in the BCS national championship game Jan. 8 in Miami.

HAMILTON, N.Y. -- The Navy men's basketball team entered this snowy town on a six-game winning streak and tied for the Patriot League lead. No. 7 would have clinched the Patriot League regular-season title and home-court advantage in the conference tournament. But yesterday's 73-62 loss to Colgate - coupled with American's victory over Lafayette - means the Midshipmen (16-13, 9-5) will enter the tournament as the No. 2 seed. "I felt we played a great game," Navy coach Billy Lange said.

LUBBOCK, Texas -- Bob Knight cared about breaking the NCAA wins record enough to select the song that celebrated the accomplishment. Frank Sinatra's "My Way" played over the loudspeaker as red and black confetti fell to the floor and the United Spirit Arena crowd roared, reveling in the 880th win of Knight's career. The final step past North Carolina's Dean Smith didn't come easy. Texas Tech blew a 20-point lead before coming back for a 70-68 win yesterday over New Mexico. Knight, perhaps the most polarizing coach in college basketball history, became the winningest one in men's Division I play when New Mexico guard J.R. Giddens' 40-footer bounced off the back rim at the buzzer.

TUCSON, Ariz. - There were hugs and tears and sloppy kisses on the Texas Tech sideline. Bob Knight, whose more famous emotional outbursts have involved slapping players, throwing chairs and bellying up to referees, wrapped his senior point guard Ronald Ross in a full-body embrace, then sent his son, Patrick, into the stands to bring his wife, Karen, onto the floor. Texas Tech, seeded sixth in the Albuquerque Regional, had just moved into the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 after upsetting No. 3 seed Gonzaga, 71-69, yesterday at the McKale Center.

TUCSON, Ariz. - There were hugs and tears and sloppy kisses on the Texas Tech sideline. Bob Knight, whose more famous emotional outbursts have involved slapping players, throwing chairs and bellying up to referees, wrapped his senior point guard Ronald Ross in a full-body embrace, then sent his son, Patrick, into the stands to bring his wife, Karen, onto the floor. Texas Tech, seeded sixth in the Albuquerque Regional, had just moved into the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 after upsetting No. 3 seed Gonzaga, 71-69, yesterday at the McKale Center.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Saint Joseph's may have been raining jumpers on Texas Tech all game, but it was center Dwayne Jones' layup with the shot clock near zero and 13.4 seconds left that sealed a 70-65 win at HSBC Arena. The top-seeded Hawks (29-1) will return to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1997 and will have lots of support in East Rutherford, N.J., when they face Wake Forest on Thursday at the Meadowlands. "I was surprised Delonte [West] threw the pass inside, to be honest with you," Jones said.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Wake Forest looked like a team in the midst of a confidence crisis for most of its game against Virginia Commonwealth in the opening round of the NCAA tournament yesterday at the RBC Center. The Demon Deacons, a No. 4 seed despite losing their previous three games, appeared on the verge of having their season end. That was before freshman point guard Chris Paul took over. Paul, the Freshman of the Year in the Atlantic Coast Conference, brought Wake Forest back from a six-point deficit midway through the second half to lead the Demon Deacons to a 79-78 victory.

Alvine Mendeng scored 14 points and added 11 rebounds as the North Carolina State women handed Maryland a 61-45 loss yesterday at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh, N.C. After a 3-0 start to their conference schedule, the Terrapins lost for the fourth time in their past five Atlantic Coast Conference contests. The host Wolfpack (10-10, 2-5) won its second straight league contest and avenged a Jan. 2 loss to the Terrapins (12-7, 4-4). Mendeng's jumper with 12:15 remaining in the game gave the Wolfpack a 37-35 lead and started a 22-6 run. Crystal Washington hit a three-pointer with 1:23 left, but by then the Terps were down by double digits.