Sports - Page 20

Troy Murphy scored 22 points and Mike Dunleavy added 21 to help the Indiana Pacers beat the Atlanta Hawks 113-90 on Saturday night to snap their 11-game losing streak. Another loss for the Pacers would have tied a franchise record for consecutive defeats last reached in the 1988-89 season. Danny Granger scored 19 points, Ike Diogu scored 15 and Jamaal Tinsley had 14 assists and no turnovers for... More Info...  

Boston College's Jared Dudley and Jessie Sapp of Georgetown went up for a rebound and then went nose-to-nose, jawing at each other. Neither was about to back down. It was like old times again for the former Big East rivals. After they were separated and double technical fouls were called, the Hoyas asserted their dominance inside, and took another step toward their return to the top of college... More Info...  

Tommy Amaker maintained it was fair to expect Michigan to earn an NCAA tournament bid in his sixth season leading the basketball program. When the Wolverines fell short of that goal, athletic director Bill Martin decided it was time for a change. "Letting Tommy go was the toughest decision I've had to make in seven years as athletic director," Martin told The Associated Press on Saturday. More Info...  

Hold the questions about Greg Oden's future. Ohio State isn't finished in the NCAA tournament. Ron Lewis revived the Buckeyes' national championship hopes with a long 3-pointer with two seconds left to force overtime, then Mike Conley Jr. dominated the extra period for a 78-71 victory over Xavier in a second-round South Regional game Saturday. More Info...  

Latest news and information from the world of sports. MESA, Ariz. – The Chicago Cubs remain patient as 26-year-old Mark Prior tries to regain what was left of a promising career. More Info...  

Kevin Durant's first NCAA tournament game went just as his first collegiate regular season -- beyond his years. The 18-year-old candidate for national player of the year had 27 points and eight rebounds to lead fourth-seeded Texas to a 79-67 victory over hard-charging New Mexico State on Friday night in the first round of the East Regional. More Info...  

Shaquille O'Neal scored 23 points, Eddie Jones and Jason Williams had 19 apiece, and the Miami Heat extended the NBA's longest current winning streak to nine games with a 103-97 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Friday night. James Posey added 16 points and 11 rebounds for the defending champion Heat, who've won 14 straight at home and pulled into a virtual tie with Washington for the Southeast... More Info...  

Virginia Tech waited 11 years -- and most of its first-round game against Illinois -- to win another NCAA tournament game. After trailing by as many as 13, the Hokies beat Illinois 54-52 on Deron Washington's banked runner in the final minute Friday night in a first-round game in the West Regional. Illinois (23-12) led by 10 with just over 4 minutes left, but didn't score in the last 4:28 as the... More Info...  

No first-round exit for Kansas this time. The fast-breaking and top-seeded Jayhawks took care of that early Friday night, running out to a 25-point halftime lead and routing Niagara 107-67 in the West Regional. Sent to the sidelines by first-round losses against Bucknell and Bradley the last two seasons, Kansas (31-4) was too fast, too deep and too talented for the Purple Eagles. More Info...  

Colorado Rockies pitcher Jeff Francis and manager Clint Hurdle were suspended by the commissioner's office Friday for their roles in a dustup with the San Diego Padres this week. Francis was suspended for five regular-season games for intentionally throwing at San Diego's Kevin Kouzmanoff on Tuesday after a warning had been issued earlier in the game. More Info...  

Paying too much attention to Nick Fazekas is a gamble when trying to stop Nevada. Marcelus Kemp, Ramon Sessions and Kyle Shiloh gave the Wolf Pack just enough balance to overcome a gritty performance from Creighton and lift Nevada to a 77-71 overtime victory in a first-round South Regional game Friday. More Info...  

Wisconsin seemed in a daze, almost like jittery rookies playing in their first NCAA tournament. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the newcomer to college basketball's biggest event, looked like the veterans -- at least at the start. Flustered for most of the first half, Wisconsin overcame an 18-point deficit to beat the 15th-seeded Islanders 76-63 Friday in the opening round of the Midwest Regional. More Info...  

When Craig Bradshaw arrived at tiny Winthrop four years ago, fellow freshman Torrell Martin told his New Zealander teammate he needed a lesson. On how to dance. "I told him this was America. Get a little swagger," Martin said, laughing. The Winthrop guys all have it now. They beat Notre Dame. Bradshaw scored 24 points and Martin added 20 and a career-high 11 rebounds as previously hollow Winthrop beat... More Info...  

Telecommunications giant AT&T sued NASCAR after racing series officials would not let the company put its logo on Jeff Burton's race car. More Info...  

Latest news and information from the world of sports. Our hoops-junkie correspondent spends a dream day at his local bar with every NCAA tournament game in front of him. Here's his report. More Info...  

Duke's done. Eric Maynor hit a 15-foot jumper with 1.8 seconds left to give Virginia Commonwealth a 79-77 upset victory over the Blue Devils in the first round of the NCAA tournament Thursday night. Maynor finished with 22 points, six in the final 1:24. Duke lost a first-round game for the first time since 1996. More Info...  

Greg Oden grabbed the ball off the backboard, slammed it through the net and screamed. It was the kind of athletic, powerful play that's come to symbolize the Ohio State freshman's considerable talent. Too bad it didn't count. A Central Connecticut foul before the shot wiped out the dunk, one of the few times Oden and the top-seeded Buckeyes were stopped during their 78-57 win over the Blue Devils... More Info...  

Bowie Kuhn was baseball's bespectacled Ivy League lawyer and looked the part every day of the tumultuous 15 years he ruled as commissioner. Prim and proper with wire-rim glasses, he stood ramrod straight -- all 6-foot-5 of him. Detractors called him a "stuffed shirt" and "pompous," labels that amused him. More Info...  

Arron Afflalo put an awful game behind him in UCLA's impressive NCAA tournament opener. Shaking off a terrible performance in last week's Pac-10 tournament, Afflalo had 22 points and eight rebounds to lead the Bruins to a 70-42 victory over Weber State on Thursday night in the West Regional. Darren Collison had 14 points and eight assists while playing on a sprained ankle, and Josh Shipp added 12... More Info...  

After finding out he'd made the Texas Rangers' 40-man roster, Sammy Sosa hit a home run that went so far it must have felt like the good old days. The solo shot that almost sailed into the street beyond left field at Tucson Electric Park was just one of 26 hits in a game won by the Arizona Diamondbacks 15-12, but it was part of a big day for the 38-year-old slugger in his comeback after a year... More Info...