Georgia State

Arron Afflalo equaled his career high with 27 points and tied a season high with five three-pointers as No. 1 UCLA beat No. 14 Washington by 96-74 in Los Angeles. The Bruins (13-0) concluded a sweep of their opening Pac-10 games after surviving a three-point scare against Washington State on Thursday. Darren Collison added 15 points and 12 assists for UCLA. Washington (10-3, 0-2) was led by 21 points from Spencer Hawes, the 7-foot freshman center who recently ended the double-digit scoring streak of LSU's Glen Davis at 48 games.

Anson Carter signed a one-year contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets yesterday, two days before the team opens training camp. Carter, who has played nine years in the NHL, is coming off a career-best 33-goal season with Vancouver. The Blue Jackets hope he will serve as the big, physical player they have been missing. Soccer The United States had the biggest drop among the top 30 teams in the FIFA monthly rankings for September, slipping six places to No. 29. France, England and the Czech Republic moved up, while five-time World Cup champion Brazil remained on top. France is second - up two places from No. 4 - after last week's 3-1 victory over world champion Italy in European Championship qualifying.

Making a push to extend the nation's longest streak of NCAA tournament appearances, Arizona used a relentless defense to crush Arizona State, 68-47, yesterday in Tucson. Ivan Radenovic's 14 points led the Wildcats (17-10), who were ranked No. 10 in the first Associated Press poll before falling on hard times. The Wildcats, who have won four of their last five games, are trying to extend a 21-year NCAA streak, which dates to Lute Olson's second season as Arizona's coach. Bryson Krueger led the Sun Devils (10-15)

A visit by Georgia State is just what the Drexel basketball team needed. The Dragons had lost three games in a row, by a combined 11 points, including one at the buzzer and another in overtime. Last night, they stopped their skid. In front of 1,023 fans at the Daskalakis Athletic Center, Drexel rolled to a 73-57 no-sweat win over its Colonial Athletic Association opponent and improved to 10-8 overall, 4-3 in the CAA. Georgia State fell to 4-11, 2-6. "This was a big plus for us," said Dragons center Chazz Crawford, who finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

Aaron Gray scored 20 points and Carl Krauser had 19 for No. 12 Pittsburgh, which shook off a 13-point deficit to remain one of three unbeatens in Division I with a 73-65 victory over DePaul (8-6) last night in Pittsburgh. Pitt, unranked as late as two weeks ago, is 13-0 for only the fourth time in its 100-year basketball history to join No. 1 Duke (15-0) and No. 2 Florida (15-0) as the only major college unbeatens. Freshman guard Levance Fields, getting more playing time as Pitt gets into its Big East schedule, scored six points during a pivotal 13-3 run midway through the second half that opened a 54-44 lead.

Indiana State's two-man show was better than Indiana's defense in the second half last night. David Moss and Tyson Schnitker combined for 28 of 42 second-half points as they led the Sycamores to a 72-67 come-from-behind upset of 18th-ranked Indiana in Terre Haute. Moss finished with 19 points and nine rebounds while Schnitker scored a career-high 19 points, including five three-pointers, to lead Indiana State (4-0) to its third victory in the last four meetings with Indiana (4-2)

David West became the first Xavier player to earn Associated Press all-American honors yesterday when he was announced as the leading vote-getter on the 2002-03 team. The three-time Atlantic Ten Conference player of the year was joined on the first team by fellow seniors Nick Collison of Kansas and Josh Howard of Wake Forest, junior Dwyane Wade of Marquette, and sophomore T.J. Ford of Texas. Earning honorable mention were Notre Dame's Matt Carroll, a Hatboro-Horsham High graduate; St. Joseph's Jameer Nelson; and Penn's Ugonna Onyekwe.

Fifth-ranked Texas and eighth-ranked Texas Tech advanced to the final of the Big Twelve tournament with victories last night in Dallas. Stacy Stephens had 20 points and 15 rebounds, leading Texas (24-5) to a 62-47 win over Colorado (22-7). Plenette Pierson scored 22 points as Texas Tech (25-4) rallied late to defeat No. 7 Kansas State (28-3), 71-65. Texas advanced to the conference finals for the first time since 2000, but it has never won the Big Twelve tournament. Texas Tech hasn't advanced to the league final since 1999, when the Red Raiders beat Iowa State to win their second straight Big Twelve title.

Brandin Knight took control early with his quick cuts to the basket and pull-up jumpers and No. 4 Pittsburgh, in what was supposed to be its first big test of the season, cruised to a 69-49 victory over Ohio State last night in Pittsburgh. Knight, content to be a playmaker in Pitt's first six games against a decidedly soft schedule, scored 17 points, had six assists and teamed with teammate Julius Page to shut down Ohio State star Brent Darby. With the Panthers (7-0) playing tough, physical defense in a game in which much of the second half was spent at the foul line, Darby was limited to three points on 1-of-9 shooting.

Tennessee's displeasure with its seeding in the Women's NCAA Tournament has been well documented already. It's matched by that of the Lady Vols' first-round opponent. Sixth-ranked Tennessee (25-4), seeded second in the Midwest Regional, plays No. 15 seed Georgia State today. Georgia State coach Lea Henry played at Tennessee for coach Pat Summitt and, like her mentor, expected more favorable treatment from the NCAA committee. "We are upset, because we thought that there were a lot of teams in the NCAA field that had a lower RPI than us," she said.