Louisville 98, Lafayette 57 -- Not that anybody seriously expected an upset. But often the better teams in the Patriot (we consider Fran O'Hanlon's team in that category no matter their early season record) will hang with the big boys for a while before being worn down.

That didn't happen in Lou-a-vul, though, as Brian Bennet .points out in the Louisville Courier-Journal, this one was over early:

"The starters took all of the suspense out of the game in the opening minutes. Francisco Garcia, Dean and Larry O'Bannon hit back-to-back-to-back three-pointers in the first 1:09 for a 9-0 lead. The Leopards (1-4) missed their first nine shots and didn't make one until nearly six minutes into the game"

The fast start gave Rick Pitino a chance to experiment, says the Lexington Herald-Leader :

"It was good for us,' Pitino said. 'We got to work against a 1-3-1 (zone defense); we got to work on our zone offense, which was very effective. We overmatched them, but it was still good to get some different combinations out there."

Here's the Lafayette-Louisville box.

Other games:

Minnesota 72, Holy Cross 56 -- (box score) The Crusaders experienced a similar run at Minnesota, though according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune it came a little later in the game:

". . . a 17-0 Gophers run midway through the first half. That spurt, in which Holy Cross was held scoreless for more than seven minutes, enabled the Gophers to open a double-digit lead that was never truly challenged the rest of the way."

Bucknell 73, Yale 65 (OT) -- (box score) Charles Lee had 18 rebounds and 22 points, including a 3-pointer with 17 seconds left to force overtime, for the Bison, who overcame a 6-point deficit in the final minute of regulation. Bucknell is now 10-1 in OT games in 11 years under Pat Flannery. The win evens the Patriot League's record against Ivies at 4-4. Here's a link to the New Haven Register's story. You will need a user name and pasword to see the whole story. You might try hooptime and hooptime (hint, hint *LMAO*)

Syracuse 68, Colgate 55 -- (box score) This is what we mean when we talk about Patriot teams hanging tough before getting worn down. Colgate was tied with No. Syracuse with 10 minutes to go before the Orange pulled away.

This is also what we mean when we talk about a paper and its Web site doing a great job covering college hoops. Mad props to our old friends at Syracuse.com and the Syracuse Post-Standard for their three-story package with all the frills.

Stony Brook 56, Lehigh 49 -- (box score) Lehigh went Lehigh went 18:37 without a field goal in losing on the road. As Tom Roack of Newsday points out:

"That's almost an entire half of play without a layup, a jumper, a putback, even a lucky chuck."

Ohio 90, Navy 55 -- (box score) How easy was the win for OU? The Annapolis Capital said:

"Ohio turned 32 Navy turnovers into 33 points and never trailed in the game. The Bobcats played 13 players, each for at least nine minutes."

St Francis (N.Y) 78, Army 64 -- (box score)Army continues to drag the conference's RPI down. The Cadets have yet to beat a D-I team.