At the start of last week, Maryland's Tiffany Brown ranked seventh in the country -- and tops among ACC players -- in 3-point field goals made per game. This week, Brown has company -- from teammate Marché Strickland.

Five in 65

A play-by-play look at the final 65 seconds of Sunday's Maryland-Georgia Tech game: 1:05: Strickland 3-pointer. Score: Tech 69, Terps 55 0:58: Tech timeout. 0:45: Tech jumper blocked, Maryland rebound. 0:38: Strickland 3-pointer. Score: Tech 69, Terps 58 Maryland timeout. 0:34: Maryland foul; Aves 2-2. Score: Tech 71, Terps 58. 0:26: Strickland 3-pointer. Score: Tech 71, Terps 61. 0:25: Maryland foul/timeout; Stewart 1-2. Score: Tech 72, Terps 61. 0:21: Brown missed 3-pointer. 0:13: Strickland 3-pointer. Score: Tech 72, Terps 64. 0:10: Maryland foul; Aves 1-2. Score: Tech 73, Terps 64. 0:04: Strickland 3-pointer. Score: Tech 73, Terps 67.

While Brown, who has made 55 3-pointers and averages 3.1 long-range bombs per game, still leads the pack, Strickland, a sophomore, gained some ground -- and needed just more than a minute to do it.

In a 73-67 loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday, Strickland sank five 3-pointers in the game's final 65 seconds. She finished the game 6-for-9 from beyond the arc, and led all scorers with a career-high 32 points. In 34 minutes, Strickland went 11-for-17 from the field.

On the season, Strickland ranks fourth in the ACC with 34 3-pointers. She is shooting 43 percent (34 of 79) from 3-point range.

Brown leads the ACC with a school-record 55 3-pointers. She is 55 of 166 (33.1 percent) this season for Maryland, 11-7 overall. The Terps were just 6-21 last season, and haven't dropped back-to-back games in 1999-2000.

Senior center Summer Erb of ACC rival North Carolina State said the rest of the conference is wary of Maryland's 3-point shooting abilities. The Wolfpack beat Maryland 71-52 two weeks ago, but Maryland kept it close until getting outscored 20-6 to end the game.

"We knew that they could get hot, so that was something we focused on," Erb said. "We did the best we could to keep them from getting the ball outside and getting off the 3-pointer like they like to. That's been a big concern every time we play them."

When they met on Jan. 9, Maryland trailed 27-18 at halftime before making five of its first eight 3-point attempts of the half to cut the Wolfpack lead to five, 51-46, with 5:16 to play. But the Terps went scoreless over the final 2:22 as the Wolfpack sealed the win from the charity stripe. Brown led Maryland with 12 points on four 3-pointers.

By hook and by Crook ... and Bowie?
So when someone mentions Ball State, do you automatically think of its most famous alum, David Letterman? Us, too, but isn't it about time that changed?

After all, the Ball State women's basketball team, off to its best start in the program's 25-year history, has given us something else to consider this season.

	Tamara Bowie scored 31 points against Ohio last week.

The Cardinals are 12-5 overall, including a 64-57 win over perennial Mid-American Conference power Toledo -- Ball State's first win over the Rockets since the 1989-90 season -- on Sunday, and tied for first place in the MAC West Division.

First-year Ball State coach Brenda Oldfield deserves much of the credit, but so do Tamara Bowie and Shala Crook, a pair of former high school teammates from Lansing, Mich., who have been reunited in Muncie.

Bowie, a 5-foot-11 freshman forward, leads the Cardinals in scoring, averaging 13.6 points. The runner-up? Crook, a 5-6 sophomore guard, with an 11.9 scoring average. Together the Sexton High School graduates have combined for 434 points, more than one-third of Ball State's total offense.

Last Wednesday, Bowie scored a career-high 31 points -- in just 26 minutes -- in an 87-74 win at Ohio, which also saw Crook notch her fourth double-double (15 points, 12 assists) of the season.

Crook, who averages eight assists per game, ranks among the top five assists leaders in Division I basketball after dishing out 136 assists in 17 games. She also ranks among the nation's steals leaders, averaging 4.2.

Always in Stiles
Growing up, Jackie Stiles' didn't have many idols. Her father, Pat, was one, simply because he was the one who first put a ball in his daughter's hands.

But when Stiles was 12, she saw Southwest Missouri State's Melody Howard play, and right away, Stiles aspired to be like her.

"I just wanted to be half as good as her someday," Stiles said Monday during a chat with ESPN.com.

Howard, who led SMS to the Final Four in 1992, is the Lady Bears' all-time career scoring leader after pouring in 1,944 points from 1991 to 1994.

However, Stiles, a junior at SMS, needs just 49 points to break Howard's record, and has a good chance to do so at Hammons Student Center. The Lady Bears tip off a four-game homestand Thursday against Northern Iowa, followed by a matchup with Bradley on Saturday.

Stiles had scored at least 10 points in 42 straight games, and in two games last week, Stiles combined for 47 points, including a 33-point performance by Illinois State.

The week that was
LSU spells SEC? Yes, we know there's more than a month left in the regular season. Still, did anyone really expect LSU to be alone atop the SEC standings this week? Maybe not, but that's exactly where the Tigers sat through Monday. LSU has tied its best-ever start in the SEC, and its four-game SEC winning streak is its longest since the 1986-87 season. Georgia and Tennessee, both of which were picked to finish ahead of LSU in the SEC media preseason poll, are tied for second 4-1. Georgia's lone loss was to LSU (80-74) on Dec. 2. Georgia handed Tennessee its worst-ever SEC loss, a 78-51 clubbing, on Jan. 17.

Of note, LSU, which won the SEC Tournament crown in 1991, has never won a regular-season title. The Lady Vols have won the past two regular-season SEC titles, and Tennessee and Georgia have combined to win nine of the past 10 (Mississippi snuck in there in 1992, back before Van Chancellor was in Houston leading the Comets to a three-peat). In all, just five SEC teams -- Kentucky is the other one, having won in 1982 -- have won the regular-season crown.

Bulldogs rule: After Georgia handed SEC rival Tennessee its worst loss in 15 years, the Bulldogs also beat three of its other biggest rivals -- Florida, Georgia Tech and Auburn -- in an 11-day span by an average of 19 points per game. At 19-2, Georgia could cap coach Andy Landers' 17th 20-win season on Thursday at Mississippi.

Underdogs do, too: Two top-five teams took a tumble Sunday as Texas beat then-No. 5 N.C. State and Michigan State beat then-No. 4 Penn State, snapping the Lady Lions' 12-game winning streak.

Oh Carolina: After making the short trip to Raleigh, Duke had its 15-game winning streak broken by N.C. State, as the Wolfpack beat the then-No. 8 Blue Devils 80-75 in overtime. Senior center Summer Erb had 19 points and 10 rebounds against Duke, then added a 32-point effort on 12-for-17 shooting in the loss to Texas on Sunday.

The week ahead
No. 4 Tennessee vs. No. 8 N.C. State (at Cleveland's Gund Arena), 2:30 p.m. ET Saturday: Although it's a non-conference game, it still matters. Tennessee, especially its point guards, have yet to come up big against highly ranked opponents. And N.C. State, despite opening the season with a 14-0 record, hasn't gotten many chances this season to really prove itself. Beating Duke last week was the first step. A victory over Tennessee would be bring some more clout to the Wolfpack.

Oregon at No. 14 UCLA, 4 p.m. ET Saturday: Although Oregon lost some credibility -- and a Top 25 ranking -- after blowing a double-digit lead to Stanford two weeks ago, this matchup pits last season's Pac-10 co-champions. UCLA (11-4, 5-0) is the only Pac-10 team with an unbeaten conference record, and is led by senior Maylana Martin, who averaged 18.5 points, 10.0 rebounds, 2.0 blocked shots, 2.0 steals and 1.5 assists in two games last week, shooting 14-for-21 from the field.

No. 9 Duke at No. 24 Virginia, 12:30 p.m. ET Sunday: The ACC race has gotten interesting, and this game will only add more intrigue. Although all three teams play Thursday, Virginia and Duke topped the ACC standings through Monday with 6-1 conference records. N.C. State was second at 6-2.

One step forward
Boston College: Although the Eagles' schedule has been a little soft, it's tough to question a 12-game winning streak. Now the question is how will Boston College fare without sophomore forward Becky Gottstein, out at least six weeks with a stress fracture in her right ankle. Gottstein was the Big East's top rebounder at 10.1 a game, and also was averaging 13.2 points. More bad news: The Eagles travel to Storrs on Wednesday for a game with No. 1 Connecticut.

Virginia: Who would have figured that the Cavs would win five straight after their leading scorer left the team?

Two steps back
North Carolina: You can't be surprised by this one. And yes, we had the Tar Heels here last week as well. But after that performance against Iowa State ....

The fine line
Louisiana Tech's Betty Lennox didn't make nearly all of her shots or notch another double-double. But, the Lady Techster matched her career-high with 31 points, and added seven assists, six steals and five rebounds in La. Tech's 85-61 victory over Western Kentucky on Sunday.

	Betty Lennox, La. Tech
	31 pts | 7 ast | 6 stl | 5 reb 13-21 FG | 4-8 3-PT FG

Lennox went 13-for-21 from the field, including a 4-for-8 performance from 3-point range, in 31 minutes.

Honorable mention: N.C. State's bench. The Wolfpack reserves combined to score 40 points Thursday as N.C. State snapped Duke's 15-game winning streak. In particular, freshman Amy Simpson came off the bench to score a season-high 26 points, including a 3-pointer with 1:12 to play which gave the Wolfpack the lead for good. Three bench players combined to go 15 of 28 from the field, making 54 percent of their attempts.

Parting shot
LSU coach Sue Gunter, whose team ranks last in rebounding in the SEC yet outrebounded league-leader Ole Miss 46 rebounds to 35 on Sunday: "I'm stunned about the rebounds. I thought it was a misprint in the stats."