Home cooked
Top-ranked Wake Forest was handed its first loss and No. 7 Michigan State went down, too. Playing at home was little help for two of the nation's elite teams.
Malcolm Delaney scored 21 points and Virginia Tech held on to upset the Demon Deacons 78-71 on Wednesday night for its second victory over a No. 1 squad in three seasons.
"Our defense really let us down tonight," Wake coach Dino Gaudio said. "That part's a little bit disheartening."
Jeff Teague scored 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting for Wake Forest (16-1, 3-1 Atlantic Coast Conference), playing as a No. 1 team for the first time since November 2004 when Chris Paul was running the show.
That group held the top spot for two weeks. These Demon Deacons don't even figure to match them, thanks in large part to a Virginia Tech team that forced 16 turnovers and turned them into 25 points.
"You never want to lose, but I'm kind of glad we got it out the way," Teague said. "Everybody was trying to play perfect, and everybody didn't want to mess up and things like that, because they wanted to stay No. 1."
One thing Michigan State is used to doing is dominating in its own backyard. But the Spartans were stunned 70-63 by Northwestern in East Lansing, Mich., snapping their 28-game home-court winning streak.
Kevin Coble scored 31 points to pace the Wildcats (10-6, 2-4 Big Ten), who have won consecutive games against ranked opponents for the first time. Northwestern beat then-No. 18 Minnesota on Sunday.
Clutch 3-point shooting and an aggressive 1-3-1 zone carried the Wildcats past Michigan State (15-3, 5-1), which still has a one-game lead in the Big Ten. The Spartans' home-court win streak had been tied for third-longest in the nation behind Notre Dame (45) and Kansas (35).
"It was a shame," coach Tom Izzo said. "We looked like a dysfunctional team. That's what happens when you don't make shots."
In other Top 25 games Wednesday, it was: No. 3 Connecticut 89, No. 20 Villanova 83; No. 5 North Carolina 94, No. 10 Clemson 70; No. 6 Oklahoma 72, Nebraska 61; No. 9 Louisville 78, Rutgers 59; No. 15 Xavier 84, St. Bonaventure 64; No. 17 Arizona State 53, Arizona 47; No. 22 Memphis 80, Rice 52; and South Carolina 70, No. 24 Florida 69.
Michigan State had won 12 straight against Northwestern and 11 in a row overall this season since losing to then-No. 1 North Carolina on Dec. 3. The Spartans committed 18 turnovers.
The Spartans got only one point from leading scorer Raymar Morgan, who entered averaging 14.8 per game. He was bothered by flulike symptoms and played just 18 minutes.
Michael Thompson added 20 points for Northwestern.
At Winston-Salem, N.C., Virginia Tech made sure there are no unbeaten teams left in Division I.
A.D. Vassallo and Jeff Allen had 16 points apiece for the Hokies (12-6, 3-1), who shot 50 percent against a Wake Forest team that was holding opponents to 36 percent.
