Tar Heels Cement No. 1 Ranking; Ohio St. Saves Season

No. 1 UNC 90 Florida State 77

Just a day after regaining the No. 1 ranking, North Carolina showed why it deserved the top spot with a routine home win over Florida State.

UNC was ranked No. 1 from preseason through the Jan. 14 poll, after which it suffered its first loss of the season, 82-80, to Maryland.

Since then, Memphis and Tennessee had assumed the lead, but both lost key games and with only one other loss—to Duke—the Tar Heels were the obvious choice, especially since Ty Lawson is fully recovered from injury and playing again.

North Carolina will get its final test of the regular season and a chance to make amends at Duke on Saturday.

The Blue Devils upended North Carolina a month ago, 89-78 at Chapel Hill. Lawson was inactive for that game, but he will be ready to put in his best effort in a game that will determine the ACC regular-season champion, if Duke takes care of business Wednesday night at Virginia.

Lawson scored 10 points in 20 minutes against the Seminoles, and looks to be ready to play 30 or more minutes against Duke's guards, Greg Paulus and Jon Scheyer.

Ohio State 80 No. 15 Purdue 77

The Buckeyes have been knocking on the Big Ten door the last few games and finally they just knocked it down with a big win that could pave the way for an Ohio State entry into the NCAA field.

The Buckeyes held Purdue to 41 percent shooting, while hitting 48 percent themselves. Jamar Butler led all scorers with 25 points as Ohio State battled into overtime with one of the co-leaders of the conference.

The loss dropped the Boilermakers (14-3 Big Ten) a half-game behind Wisconsin (14-2) and a half-game ahead of 13-3 Indiana.

While the game certainly had implications to the tight Big Ten-title race, it was the most important win of the season for the Buckeyes, who improved to 9-8 in conference play and 18-12 overall.

Ohio State had lost four straight and sorely needed a win to stay in consideration for post-season play.

Texas 70 No. 9 Nebraska 66

A good showing by the Cornhuskers wasn't enough to keep them on the bubble for the big dance as they dropped to 6-9 in conference play. The Longhorns play their final game of the regular season at home, Sunday, against Oklahoma State.

No. 21 Marquette 67 Florida-Gulf Coast 37

This was like practice for Marquette, as it plays most of its games in the Big East and is looking ahead to the postseason.

The Golden Eagles’ starters only played 21-30 minutes, with no player from Gulf Coast scored more than six points as its record fell to 10-21.

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