Hamilton reaches 1,000 mark in Huskie victory

Hamilton scored 29 points and passed the 1,000-point mark in his career last night as No. 7 Connecticut defeated Big East rival Villanova 80-65.

Hamilton, the Big East's second-leading scorer at 21.4 a game, now has 1,009 points. He joined Ray Allen of the Milwaukee Bucks as the only other player in Connecticut history to surpass 1,000 as a sophomore.

"When I first came to UConn, I thought it was hard to score 20 points," Hamilton said. "Everything has come so fast. In high school it took me three years to score 1,000 points."

After struggling to a 36-34 halftime lead, Hamilton and the Huskies (10-2 Big East, 20-3 overall) turned up the pressure and ran away from the Wildcats (6-6, 9-11).

AP PHOTO Connecticut's Jake Voskuhl taps the ball into the net to help the seventh-ranked Huskies beat Villanova, 80-65, last night, but Voskuhl was just a minor player in a milestone day for teammate Richard Hamilton.

Hamilton scored 14 straight points for Connecticut during an 18-2 run that made it 67-43.

"I told the kids at halftime that we were being outworked and outhustled," Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said. "We couldn't allow that. I told them that we might lose the game, but it wouldn't be because we got outworked."

Khalid El-Amin had 17 points and Kevin Freeman had 11 for the Huskies.

"We played our game in the second half," said El-Amin. "In the second half we played Connecticut basketball, up-and-down, up-and-down."

Hamilton credited the freshman point guard with Connecticut's second-half surge.

"Khalid did a great job of getting everybody involved in the second half," Hamilton said. "He set the tempo and when he plays like that nobody is going to beat us."

Howard Brown led Villanova with 17 points.

No. 21 Xavier 91, La Salle 59: Xavier came out shooting and hardly missed.

The Musketeers hit 11 of their first 12 shots and 18 of their first 20 last night in a 91-59 win over La Salle.

James Posey led Xavier (7-3 Atlantic 10, 15-5) with 21 points, but it was Lenny Brown who keyed the victory with a 14-point first half on 5-for-6 shooting, including 4-of-4 from 3-point range.

"We didn't have too much intensity in warmups, so I wanted to try to get my team off," said Brown, who finished with 18. "I hit my first shot and that helped my confidence."

Posey added nine rebounds and five steals as the Musketeers won for the seventh time in nine games. Torraye Braggs had 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Darnell Williams added 15.

"Lenny Brown really got us going," Xavier coach Skip Prosser said. "We wanted to get off to a quick start. It was important to get that first run because it's a game of runs."

La Salle (3-7, 7-12) has lost two straight after winning its previous three. Donnie Carr led the Explorers with 18 points and Victor Thomas had 16. It was La Salle's lowest point total of the season.

Xavier missed only two of its first 16 shots in building a 36-26 lead. The Musketeers shot 69 percent (22-of-32), including 5-of-8 from long range, in taking a 52-35 lead at the half.

Women's AP Top 25

No. 14 Duke 79, Wake Forest 55: Georgia Schweitzer and Lauren Rice each scored 17 points and No. 14 Duke never trailed last night in a 79-55 victory over Wake Forest.

Wake Forest (0-11 Atlantic Coast Conference, 4-17) lost its 10th straight game. The Demon Deacons got just 16 points from their starting five.

Kristen Shaffer led the Demon Deacons with 15 and Alisha Mosley had 10.

Schweitzer hit three 3-pointers and scored 13 points during a 19-2 second-half run that turned a nine-point game into a rout. Schweitzer closed the burst with a baseline jumper for a 60-34 lead with 11:20 to play.

02-03-98