College Basketball -- No. 8 Iowa Deepens Ohio State's Recent Woes - - Hawkeyes Beat Buckeyes For 8Th Time In 10 Games

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Necole Tunsil scored 20 points last night, leading No. 8 Iowa to a 64-61 victory over No. 22 Ohio State in Big Ten women's basketball.

Cathy Marx added 16 points for the Hawkeyes (7-1, 14-2), who defeated Ohio State for the eighth time in their past 10 meetings.

Katie Smith scored 28 points for the Buckeyes (4-4, 11-7), who lost for the fourth time in five games.

Iowa, which led 35-34 at halftime, went on a 12-4 run to start the second half, pulling ahead 47-38. The Hawkeyes expanded the lead to 55-44 with 10:12 left, but Ohio State rallied and cut it to 64-61 on a three-pointer by Smith with 55 seconds left.

The Buckeyes had two more possessions, but Smith missed three-pointers both times.

Other Top 25 women

At No. 1 Penn St. 87, Minnesota 77 - Tina Nicholson scored 26 points and Katina Mack added 20 as Penn State beat Minnesota in the Big Ten.

The Lions (8-0, 17-0) hit nine of 12 free throws down the stretch to hold off Minnesota (6-4, 11-6), which committed 22 turnovers.

Carol Ann Shudlick led Minnesota with 30 points. Penn State's Missy Masley had eight points, 13 rebounds and six steals.

No. 9 Connecticut 80, at Pittsburgh 63 - Rebecca Lobo scored 21 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and Jamelle Elliott added 18 points as Connecticut (10-1, 17-2) beat Pittsburgh to take sole possession of first place in the Big East Conference.

Pitt (9-2, 15-4) had its four-game winning streak snapped in losing to Connecticut for the 14th time in 16 games.

Connecticut led 41-25 at halftime after limiting Pitt to 29 percent shooting. Pitt's Jonna Huemrich scored 16 points, her 45th consecutive game in double figures. Freshman Erin Miller had a season-high 16 points for the Panthers.

No. 10 Virginia 59, at Florida St. 50 - Wendy Palmer had 21 points and 11 rebounds as Virginia beat Florida State in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Florida State (1-10, 1-16) led by nine points for much of the second half before Virginia (9-0, 15-2) went on a 14-2 run to take a 39-36 lead. FSU twice got within three points in the final minutes. But Charleata Beale, who scored all of her 13 points in the final six minutes, helped Virginia withstand the rally.

After connecting on all nine first-half free throws, Florida State could only convert two of nine in the second half.

Jeffra Gausepohl had 10 points and 13 rebounds for Virginia. Peercy led FSU with 15 points.

No. 12 Purdue 64, at Indiana 52 - Stacey Lovelace scored 14 of her career-high 24 points in the first half, and Purdue opened the game with 11 straight points on the way to a Big Ten victory over Indiana.

Lovelace, a sophomore forward, was seven of nine in the first half and scored six points in the opening 3:50 as the Boilermakers (7-1, 16-3) took an 11-0 lead.

Indiana (4-4, 13-4) drew within three with 4:18 left in the first half, but Purdue finished with a 10-3 run to take a 33-21 halftime lead.

Purdue's Leslie Johnson had nine points and 11 rebounds in the opening half and finished with 15 points and 15 rebounds.

Bridget Porter led Indiana with 22 points before fouling out with three minutes to play.

At No. 23 Montana 74, Montana St. 58 - Guard Kelly Pilcher scored 19 points and dished out seven assists to lead Montana to a Big Sky Conference victory over Montana State. Ann Lake and Kristy Langton added 17 points each as the Grizzlies (6-1, 16-3) extended their home winning streak to 25.

Montana jumped to a 20-0 lead midway through the first half and used tough man and full-court defense to keep Montana State from mounting a serious threat.

Montana State (5-2, 10-8) hit just 28 percent of its shots in the first half, including just one of nine from three-point range.

Montana led 33-19 at the half, and the closest the Bobcats got after that was to within six points twice in the second half.

Julie Brown hit a three-pointer with 8:42 to play to bring MSU to within 50-44, and Cass Bauer's two free throws with 7:15 left made it 52-46.

Montana hit 10 of 11 free throw attempts in the final 1:07 to put the game away. Cass Bauer led the Bobcats with 22 points and 13 rebounds. Angel Nickelson added 12 points.

Local men

At Boise St. 67, E. Washington 51 - Junior center John Coker scored 18 points while Boise State prevented Eastern Washington from scoring for nearly the first 10 minutes as the Broncos dominated the Eagles in a Big Sky Conference game.

Boise State raised its conference record to 2-4, 9-9 overall. Eastern is winless in Big Sky games and 4-13 overall.

Junior forward Bernard Walker added 14 points for Boise State. Eastern Washington was paced by freshman guard Ed Bridwell with 13 points.

Boise State led 20-0 before Eastern Washington hit its first basket with 10:27 left in the first half. The Eagles trailed 38-16 at halftime after shooting only 25 percent from the field.

Local women

Lewis and Clark 76, at Pacific Lutheran 48 - Shelly Mills poured in 18 points and Kathy Gibson added 14 points and a game-high 11 rebounds to power Lewis and Clark (7-1, 16-4) over PLU (0-9, 1-18) in a Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges game. The Pioneers, ranked No. 10 in NAIA Division II, took a 35-14 halftime lead. The Lutes, who lost their 15th straight game, shot just 29 percent from the field, committed 29 turnovers and was outrebounded 54-35. Jennifer Riches' 11 points was PLU's high.