No. 18 Indiana handles Charlotte

Adam Morrison led Gonzaga to another win.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Marco Killingsworth had 17 points and Robert Vaden and Marshall Strickland each made four of Indiana's 13 3-pointers as the 18th-ranked Hoosiers pulled away from Charlotte for a 71-54 victory Monday night.
Vaden finished with 14 points and Strickland added 12 as Indiana (6-2) showed little rustiness from a nine-day layoff for exams. D.J. White saw his first action of the season after sitting out the first seven games with a broken left foot, and he contributed eight points and five rebounds.
The Hoosiers lost a heartbreaker in this series last season, when Brendan Plavich made a heave from halfcourt just before the buzzer to give the 49ers a one-point victory. Of course, Indiana thought perhaps the ball left Plavich's hands after the clock had expired, making the rematch a bit more important.
The 49ers' fans wasted little time reminding their guests of that, with a sign in the student section reading, "All I need 4 X-Mas is 0.7 seconds" -- the amount of time Plavich had to get off his shot.
Once the Hoosiers started making 3-pointers, however, none of that mattered.
They were 13-of-23 for the game after making 10 in the first half, leaving Charlotte (5-5) with few options on defense. Cover the perimeter and leave Killingsworth alone in the paint, or double-team down low and allow open shots from the perimeter?
In the end, the 49ers -- also playing for the first time in nine days -- had trouble stopping both.
No. 8 Gonzaga 75, E. Washington 65
SPOKANE, Wash. -- Adam Morrison scored 29 points, just above his Division I-leading average, to lead Gonzaga.
J.P. Batista added 22 points for the Bulldogs (8-2), who have won four straight games overall and 20 in a row over Eastern Washington since 1990.
Freshman Rodney Stuckey had 20 points for the Eagles (4-5), who led by five points in the second half in the game played in Spokane Arena.
Morrison, who came in averaging 28.4 points, has scored at least 25 seven times this season. Morrison scored seven points after Eastern tied the game for the sixth time in the second half, 60-60 with 5:35 to go.
Arizona 87, Sam Houston St. 51
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Out of the regular-season national rankings for the first time in 18 years, Arizona routed Sam Houston State in the first round of the Fiesta Bowl Classic.
Chris Rodgers hit a career-high five 3-pointers -- in eight attempts -- and scored 19 points for the Wildcats (6-3), while freshman Marcus Williams added 18, the most in his young career, on 8-for-9 shooting.
No Sam Houston player reached double figures. Ryan Bright led the Bearkats (6-3) with eight points.
Arizona plays Western Kentucky in the title game on Wednesday night and Sam Houston State meets Central Florida for third place. Western Kentucky beat UCF 73-68 in Monday's first game.
Earlier Monday, the Wildcats dropped out of the regular-season rankings for the first time since the start of the 1987-88 season, a span of 312 consecutive polls. They found the failure perplexing because Arizona, then ranked No. 24, won at Utah 73-43 in its only game last week.
"Obviously we're disappointed," Wildcats coach Lute Olson said before the game. "We feel like we've played a tough schedule to this point, and we'll just have to work on starting another streak."
The Wildcats, who lost to No. 2 Connecticut and No. 10 Michigan State at the Maui Invitational and at Houston, took out their frustration on the outmatched Bearkats, who committed 29 turnovers, resulting in 33 Arizona points.
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