Top 25 basketball: Kentucky cruises to victory

By The Associated Press

Published: Monday, Nov. 30, 2009 10:00 p.m. MST

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — DeMarcus Cousins scored a season-high 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead No. 5 Kentucky to an easy 94-57 win over UNC-Asheville on Monday.

John Wall added 12 points and a school-freshman-record 14 assists, while Patrick Patterson had 17 points and nine boards as the Wildcats (7-0) cruised during their annual appearance at Freedom Hall.

Sean Smith led UNC-Asheville (0-6) with 19 points, but the Bulldogs were hardly more than bystanders for most of the night against the bigger, deeper Wildcats.

Kentucky had little trouble getting out on the break, where Wall dazzled with a series of alley-oop passes to his teammates while adding a couple of highlight-reel dunks himself.

During a dizzying 29-6 burst midway through the second half, the Wildcats converted five-straight dunks — all on alley-oop passes from Wall.

NO. 8 SYRACUSE 92, COLGATE 58: At Syracuse, N.Y., Wes Johnson scored 19 points, Andy Rautins hit three 3-pointers to help key an early surge and Syracuse beat Colgate.

It was the 162nd meeting between the teams, and Syracuse (7-0) leads 117-45, including 44 wins in a row.

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Johnson hit a pair of 3s and Rautins drained three more in the first 6:31. That gave him 205 career 3-pointers, tied with Demetris Nichols for fourth place at Syracuse, three behind Eric Devendorf.

Mitch Rolls, Kyle Roemer and Yaw Gyawu led Colgate (0-6) with eight points apiece.

Johnson had a game-high nine rebounds and five assists. Rautins finished with nine points, eight assists and four steals.

NO. 16 GEORGETOWN 83, MOUNT ST. MARY'S 62: At Washington, Greg Monroe scored a season-high 19 points and pulled down 11 rebounds, Chris Wright added a season-high 18 points and Georgetown remained undefeated.

Julian Vaughn had a career-high 14 points and matched his best with eight rebounds and three blocks for the Hoyas (5-0), who built a 20-point cushion by opening the second half with an 11-2 run.

After the Mountaineers cut it to 55-44 with 9:30 left, Monroe scored seven-straight points during a 17-5 Georgetown run to put the game away.

Jean Cajou scored 16 points for the Mountaineers (3-3).