Hornets 115, Cavaliers 110

Wednesday, December 27th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) â€” Jamal Mashburn scored eight of his 27 points in overtime Tuesday night as the Charlotte Hornets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 115-110 for their seventh consecutive win.

The Hornets have the longest current winning streak in the NBA and have won 11 straight at home.

The Cavaliers dropped their fourth straight and fell 3 1/2 games behind the Hornets in the Central Division.

Cleveland, which rallied from 14 points down in the fourth quarter, became only the second team this season to score 100 or more points against the Hornets. But the Cavaliers scored only 11 in overtime, and all but three came after Charlotte built an eight point lead.

David Wesley led the Hornets with 32 points. Elden Campbell scored 17 and P.J. Brown had 11 rebounds. Rookie Lee Nailon was 4-for-4 from the floor for a career-high 12 points.

Derrick Coleman, who returned to Charlotte's lineup after almost six weeks on the injured list, played 13 minutes. He scored four points, had one rebound and picked up four fouls.

Andre Miller led Cleveland with 30 points. Matt Harpring scored 25 and Lamond Murray had 18.

The Cavs, who placed 7-foot-3 center Zydrunas Ilgauskas on the injured list before the game with a broken foot, briefly lost Harpring when he strained his left Achilles tendon late in the third quarter.

Charlotte was clinging to a 76-72 lead when Harpring went down. The Hornets stretched their lead to 87-73 before Harpring returned with just over eight minutes left.

Once Harpring returned, Cleveland got back into the game and cut its deficit to 93-91 on Murray's two free throws with 3:39 to play.

The Cavaliers tied it at 99 on Harpring's long jumper with 21 seconds to play. The Hornets then failed to win it in regulation when Mashburn missed a layup with four seconds left.

Harpring fouled out 14 seconds into overtime, and without him guarding Mashburn, the forward had an easy time getting to the basket.

Mashburn scored on three straight jumpers, and his dunk with 28 seconds to play in overtime made it 112-105.

NOTES: Cleveland coach Randy Wittman said he wouldn't speculate on whether Ilgauskas will play again this season. ``Sometimes you build up hope and then you have a letdown,'' he said. ... Wittman singled out Murray as someone who would have to pick up the slack for Ilgauskas: ``He needs to step up for us, work harder to get open and demand the ball.'' ... Hornets forward Jamaal Magloire sat out the game with a sore left foot. He missed three games earlier this month with the same injury.