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Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
Kobe Bryant hit a baseline jump shot with 4.2 seconds left and the Los Angeles Lakers wrapped up a six-game road trip by holding on to beat the Raptors 94-92 on Sunday, their eighth victory in nine meetings with Toronto
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Miami coach Al Golden says the worst is behind him, but his headaches figure to continue now that former booster Nevin Shapiro, now in jail, says his involvement with the Hurricanes program will result in stiff penalties.
Eleven shots separated Phil and Tiger Sunday at Pebble Beach as Lefty secured his 40th Tour win. Jason Sobel had hole-by-hole reports.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
AP
LOS ANGELES - California came out rushing against a UCLA team eager to keep its slim NCAA tournament hopes alive. Once the Golden Bears settled down, the Bruins were quickly sent packing for the season.
Jerome Randle scored 24 points and Theo Robertson had 15 of his 20 in the second half when Cal dominated on its way to an 85-72 victory Friday night in the Pac-10 tournament semifinals.
“In the second half, we threw the first punch,” Randle said. “We were able to sustain the lead.”
The top-seeded Golden Bears (23-9) advanced to Saturday’s title game, where they’ll play No. 3 Washington (23-9), a 79-64 winner over Stanford.
Patrick Christopher added 16 points for the Bears, seeking their first league tournament title to go with their first outright regular-season championship in 50 years.
Michael Roll scored a career-high 27 points in his final game for fifth-seeded UCLA (14-18), which ended the season with its worst record since 2003-04, coach Ben Howland’s first in Westwood.
“To have a losing record is very, very disappointing with the success we’ve enjoyed the previous five seasons,” said Howland, whose tenure includes three consecutive Final Four appearances. “The key to it all is recruiting. We have three players that are coming in, and I’m going out to recruit at least a couple more. That’s the key.”
Jerime Anderson added 15. Freshman Reeves Nelson, who powered UCLA to a quarterfinal upset of Arizona, finished with eight points.
“I don’t care about the career high or anything like that,” Roll said. “It’s just unfortunate that we lost and I’m done.”
Cal made 13-of-14 free throws over the final 5:13, with Randle hitting all six of his attempts.
Randle, the Pac-10 player of the year, surpassed 2001 player of the year Sean Lampley as Cal’s career scoring leader with 1,790 points.
“Sean can stop biting his nails,” Randle said. “He’s been calling me and asking when I’m going to do it and I said, ‘Be patient.’ It’s good I can do that and still win.”
The Bears came out playing defense in the second half, keeping UCLA scoreless on its first three possessions while taking their first lead, 40-39, on a 3-pointer by Robertson.
Robertson, Cal’s career 3-point shooting leader, hit three long-range baskets in the first eight minutes of the second half, when the Bears led 52-44. They shot 71 percent over the final 20 minutes, while limiting the Bruins to 38 percent.
“Everything I got was the product of us playing good defense and getting out on the break,” Robertson said.
UCLA was outscored 17-5 in that stretch and dissolved in a sequence of errors, including an airball and missed 3-pointer by Nikola Dragovic, Malcolm Lee missing an open pass underneath the basket, and a shot clock violation.
“We tried to get inside a little more. We had a couple turnovers,” Roll said. “They came out trying to apply more pressure to me, trying to stop me from getting the ball because obviously I had a good first half.”
The Bruins got no closer than seven points over the final six minutes.
They opened the game on a 20-10 run. Roll scored 10 points in the run, including his three-point play that ended the spurt during which they shot 61 percent. He went over 1,000 career points in his final game, finishing with 1,008.
“UCLA came out with a real passion. We knew they’d be fired up,” Stanford coach Mike Montgomery said. “This was their opportunity to go to the NCAA tournament. It took us a while to adjust. We got more aggressive.”
Randle got Cal back into the game, scoring nine points in a 14-5 burst that drew the Bears within one.
Anderson sparked the Bruins the rest of the half, scoring all seven of his points in a 14-11 run that kept them ahead 39-35 at the break. UCLA got key defensive stops in that stretch, too.
Washington 79, Stanford 64
Quincy Pondexter scored 19 points and Washington defeated Stanford in a matchup of poor shooting teams.
Washington hasn’t been to the championship game since 2005, when it beat Arizona for its lone tourney title. Cal reached its only final in 2006, losing to UCLA.
Isaiah Thomas added 17 points and Justin Holiday 11 for the Huskies, who led all the way in winning their sixth straight against Stanford — equaling their streak against the Cardinal from 1974-77.
Landry Fields led Stanford with 20 points. The seventh-seeded Cardinal (14-18) improved their shooting to 31 percent by game’s end, but were just 26 percent from 3-point range.
Arc's five up, five down: After No. 11 Michigan State's 58-48 upset of No. 3 Ohio State, you'd be a fool to discount the Spartans' national title chances now.
Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 15 points and Evan Smotrycz added 13, helping No. 22 Michigan remain unbeaten at home with a 70-61 win over Illinois on Sunday.
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Zambia has won the African Cup of Nations, beating pre-tournament favorite Ivory Coast 8-7 on penalties in a dramatic final at Stade de l'Amitie.
Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
After leading by 18 points in the first half, the Los Angeles Lakers were staring at a four-point deficit with less than two minutes to play.