Bruins rise to 8-0...Butler doesn't do it

Saturday, December 9th 2006, 10:16 pm

By: News On 6

NDATED (AP) The #1 team in college basketball survived a close call. UCLA responded by beating 6th-ranked Texas A&M 65-62 in the John Wooden Classic in Anaheim, California. Arron Afflalo had 8 of his 13 points in the final nine minutes.

Josh Shipp led UCLA with 18. Darren Collison added 15 points, but committed 6 of the Bruins' 13 turnovers. UCLA is 8-0.

Elsewhere in the Top 25:

-- 2nd-ranked Pittsburgh survived a scare from upset-minded Buffalo, 70-67. Seven-foot Panthers center Aaron Gray had 19 points and 11 boards.

-- 3rd-ranked North Carolina topped High Point, 94-69. Tyler Hansbrough had 24 points to give Tar Heels coach Roy Williams his 500th career victory.

-- 4th-ranked Alabama walloped Alabama State, 92-58. Richard Hendrix poured in a career-high 34 on 15-19 shooting.

-- 5th-ranked Ohio State improved to 8-1 by beating Cleveland State, 78-57. Seven-foot freshman center Greg Oden hit his first 8 shots and finished with 16 points in 23 minutes of action due to foul trouble.

-- 7th-ranked Duke led from start to finish in beating visiting George Mason 69-53. DeMarcus Nelson's 24 points helped the Blue Devils extend the nation's longest home non-conference winning streak to 48 games.

-- 10th-ranked Wichita State beat Wyoming, 83-69. Kyle Wilson led the 7-0 Shockers with 19.

-- #11 Wisconsin withstood a late rally and held off 17th-ranked Marquette 70-66. Alando Tucker led the victorious Badgers with a season-high 28 points.

-- Sophomore guard Brandon Rush netted a career-high 5 3-pointers and finished with 19 points to lead 12th-ranked Kansas to a 68-58 victory over Toledo.

-- Indiana State upset 15th-ranked Butler, 72-64. Gabe Moore scored a career-high 24 for Indiana State.

-- 16th-ranked Memphis bounced back from Wednesday's upset loss at Tennessee and beat visiting Mississippi 82-70. Chris Douglas-Roberts was high man for the Tigers with 17 points.

-- #21 Syracuse beat Colgate, 79-52. Demetris Nichols matched his career high with 28 points.

-- #22 Oklahoma State beat Ball State, 75-56. Mario Boggan scored 24 for the 11-0 Cowboys.

-- Creighton posted a 73-67 win over #24 Xavier. Anthony Tolliver scored 17 for Creighton.

-- Vanderbilt beat 25th-ranked Georgia Tech, 73-64. Shan Foster had 25 for the Commodores, who snapped a nine-game losing streak against ranked teams.