DAYTON, Ohio -- Dont get discouraged, coach Cuonzo Martin told his Volunteers during those long NCAA tournament timeouts. Instead, hang in there and figure a way to pull it out. They went about it a most improbable way. With forward Jarnell Stokes using his 280 pounds to dominate inside and a highly regarded defence finally locking in, Tennessee pulled off the first amazing comeback of the NCAA tournament. Stokes opened overtime with a three-point play that put Tennessee ahead to stay, and the Volunteers defence shut down Iowa in overtime for a 78-65 victory on Wednesday night, finishing off the First Four with an exclamation point. "I told our guys weve been through everything this season, keep your composure down the stretch," said Martin, who got his first NCAA tournament win in his third season at Tennessee. "Find ways to win the ball game." The Vols (22-12) head to Raleigh, N.C., where theyll play sixth-seeded Massachusetts on Friday in the Midwest Regional. They left Dayton with a lot of momentum -- six wins in their last seven games. "We did a tremendous job toward the end of fighting back," said Jordan McRae, who had 20 points. "We did a great job on our defence. For us to hold them like we did was a great job." Tennessee didnt lead until Antonio Bartons 3-pointer put the Vols up 59-57 with 3:05 left regulation. There were five lead changes before McRae missed a jumper missed at the buzzer, leaving it tied at 64. No surprise that Barton made the big shot. The senior transfer is the only Volunteer with any significant NCAA tournament experience, having appeared in three of them with Memphis. Stokes three-point play in overtime was the key moment in his 18-point, 13-rebound performance, putting the Volunteers ahead to stay. It was his 20th double-double this season, the most by a Volunteer since Bernard King had 22 of them in 1976-77. Tennessees highly regarded defence took it from there, holding Iowa (21-13) to one free throw the rest of the way. The Hawkeyes missed all eight of their shots from the field in overtime. "You go through anything so often -- being in those games, being in those situations -- were a much better team the last eight games," Martin said. "Guys stepped up and made plays." It was a tough ending to a long and stressful day for Iowa coach Fran McCaffery. He started the day in Iowa with his teenage son, Patrick, who had surgery to remove a thyroid tumour. His assistant coaches led the Hawkeyes through a meeting and their final practice, and McCaffery was back by game time. Martin and the Volunteers hugged him after the game and wished him well. "Their players hugged me and told me they were thinking of me," McCaffery said. "I was really impressed with their guys and the program Cuonzo has built there." Adam Woodbury had 16 points for Iowa, which got a subpar performance from its leading scorer. Roy Devyn Marble was only 3 of 15 from the field for seven points, matching his season low. "I dont think we ran out of gas," Woodbury said. "We made some key mistakes down the stretch and that hurt us." The ending will sting the Hawkeyes for a long time. They were struggling as they headed into their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2006, losing six of their previous seven games. Defence was the biggest problem, often letting them down in the second half. They opened the game in promising fashion, switching from man-to-man to zone to half-court traps. It worked. They got off to a 16-4 lead and were still ahead 29-26 at halftime. They kept swatting away the Volunteers runs until the last few minutes of regulation. Marbles basket tied it at 64, and he was guarding McCrae when he missed his fade-away shot at the buzzer sending it to overtime. Tennessee got an at-large bid by closing the season with a defensive flourish. The Volunteers won five straight before losing to No. 1 Florida 56-49 in the Southeastern Conference tournament. They gave up 61.1 points per game, second only to Florida in the SEC, and allowed an average of only 47.4 points in the last four games. In overtime, that defence decided it. . Louis Cardinals on Sunday afternoon; a brief, poor outing that served to highlight two trends that have developed this season. . It was well worth the wait. Manning and the Denver Broncos waited eight long months, then another 33 minutes to get the season started because of a lightning storm.
http://www.cheapsteelersjerseysonline.c ... sey-online. INJURIES - Reds RF Jay Bruce is facing knee surgery for a torn meniscus and it could cost him a month of playing time. Chris Heisey, who has shown some pop (43 home runs, . . Perhaps as important, shes sending a message to 17-year-old gold medal favourite Sara Takanashi of Japan. Iraschko-Stolz relegated Takanashi, who has 10 World Cup victories this season, to second place in two of three training jumps Saturday. . Yet heading to New York, the Habs remain positive as it all comes down to the one main ingredient that the organization has built its team on - character.SAN ANTONIO - Tony Parker had 27 points and the San Antonio Spurs held on to beat the Sacramento Kings 112-104 on Friday night —their second straight victory without Gregg Popovich.Popovich missed his second straight game following a recent undisclosed minor medical procedure. The veteran coachs status is unknown for the teams upcoming four-game road trip, which begins Sunday in Boston, but he did visit with the team Friday morning.Assistant coach Ettore Messina led San Antonio to its sixth straight victory. Messina said everything he is doing has Popovichs seal of approval.Kawhi Leonard scored 19 points, Tim Duncan had 18 and Danny Green 11 for San Antonio (11-4).Darren Collison and Ryan Hollins had 15 points each for Sacramento (9-6) and Ben McLemore had 14 points.HAWKS 100, PELICANS 91ATLANTA (AP) — Jeff Teague scored 26 points, DeMarre Carroll added 19 and Atlanta held off New Orleans.Ryan Anderson and Jrue Holiday each had 20 points for New Orleans. The Pelicans couldnt recover after being held to a season-low 28 first-half points.Tyreke Evans had 18 points for New Orleans. Anthony Davis had 14 points and 11 rebounds.The Pelicans cut Atlantas lead to seven points three times in the fourth period, the last at 94-87. Teague answered with a basket that barely beat the shot clock with 39 seconds remaining.Paul Millsap had 13 points and nine rebounds and Al Horford had 10 points and 10 rebounds for Atlanta.THUNDER 105, KNICKS 78OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Russell Westbrook scored 32 points in his first game back from a broken right hand, and Oklahoma rolled past New York.Westbrook was injured in the second game of the season and hadnt played since. He returned in grand fashion, making 12 of 17 shots, including 3 of 4 3-pointers, and adding eight assists and seven rebounds in just 23 minutes before checking out late in the third quarter because the Thunder were in control.Amare Stoudemire had 20 points and nine rebounds for the Knicks, who shot 39 per cent and scored a season-low point total in their third straight loss. Carmelo Anthony, a Top 10 scorer in the league, missed his second straight game with back spasms. He said before the game he was unsure when he would return.CLIPPERS 102, ROCKETS 85HOUSTON (AP) — Blake Griffin had 30 points and 10 rebounds and Jamal Crawford added 21 points to help Los Angeles coast to a win over injury-depleted Houston.The Rockets were playing their fifth straight game without Dwight Howard (knee strain) and were also missing two other starters.The Clippers took the lead at the end of the first quarter and didnt trail again. Houston got within 10 points early in the third, but a run by Los Angeles pushed the lead to 18.An alley-oop dunk by DeAndre Jordan made it 94-73 with about six minutes remaining and the starters went to the bench soon after that.James Harden had 16 points to lead Houston.PACERS 98, MAGIC 83INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Rodney Stuckey scored a season-high 24 points and David West had 18 points in his first game of the season to lead Indiana to a win over Orlando.Solomon Hill scored 11 points and Lavoy Allen had 10 points and 14 rebounds as the Pacers (7-9) handed the Magic (6-12) their fourth straight loss.West wasted little time in re-establishing himself. The Pacers power forward had missed the first 15 games of the season with an ankle injury, but he scored Indianas first four points before two quick fouls sent him to the bench.Nikola Vucevic led Orlando with 16 points. Tobias Harris and Victor Oladipo each scored 14 and Ben Gordon had 12 points for the Magic.BUCKS 104, PISTONS 88AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) — Ersan Ilyasova scored 22 points and Jared Dudley added 16 points as Milwaukee beat slumping Detroit.Milwaukee didnt have a single starter score in double figures, but got 69 points off the bench to hand Detroit its seventh straight loss.The teams were playing for the third time this month and the second time in four days. The Pistons posted one of just three wins this season on Nov. 7, but Milwaukee answered with a 98-86 victory on Tuesday.Former Piston Khris Middleton added 12 points for Milwaukee, which got four reserves into double figures. Andre Drummond led Detroit with 26 points and 20 rebounds, but Greg Monroe only had five points on three shots.WARRIORS 106, HORNETS 101CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Marreese Speights scored 16 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, and Golden State Warriors beat Charlotte for their eighth straight win.Stephen Curry finished with 26 points despite a poor shooting night from 3-point range, and Klay Thompson added 17 points for the Warriors (13-2).Brian Roberts scored 20 points aand Al Jefferson had 18 points for the struggling Hornets, who have lost eight straight games and 10 of their last 11.dddddddddddd Cody Zeller had 15 points and 14 rebounds and Kemba Walker had 13 points and 13 rebounds for Charlotte (4-13).Curry, making his return to Charlotte where he played high school basketball and starred at nearby Davidson College, was just 1 of 10 from 3-point range. But he finished 9 of 20 from the field and made all seven free throw attempts.The Warriors out-rebounded the Hornets 16-8 on the offensive glass.NUGGETS 122, SUNS 97DENVER (AP) — Arron Afflalo led seven Nuggets in double figures with 22 points, and Denver won its fourth straight at home by beating Phoenix.Timofey Mozgov added 13 points as the Nuggets snapped a five-game losing streak to the Suns, who took the first of their home-and-home series on Wednesday after sweeping four meetings between the teams last season.Eric Bledsoe had 16 points to lead Phoenix, which had an off night shooting, connecting on 38.8 per cent of its shots from the field. Gerald Green added 12 points.Helped by their deep rotation and dominance on the boards (Denver outrebounded Phoenix 58-34), the Nuggets opened a 66-47 halftime lead, piling up the most points in a half by a Suns opponent this season.GRIZZLIES 112, TRAIL BLAZERS 99PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Marc Gasol had 26 points and nine assists as Memphis held off Portland to snap a nine-game Portland winning streak.Mike Conley added 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Grizzlies, who have lost just two of 16 games this season for the NBAs best record. Memphis is undefeated against conference foes this season.Wesley Matthews scored 26 or the Blazers, who lost just their second game at home. LaMarcus Aldridge added 19 points and 10 rebounds.The Grizzlies led by as many as 15 points. But Matthews nailed a 3-pointer to narrow it before Chris Kamans layup cut the Grizzlies lead to 89-85 with 7:26 to go.Tony Allens layup put Memphis up 94-85. He added a 3-pointer that extended the lead to 108-93 with 1:37 left to seal it.Zach Randolph had 14 points and 13 rebounds for Memphis, which has won eight of its last nine games. Conley had nine assists to just miss out on a triple double.MAVERICKS 106, RAPTORS 102TORONTO (AP) — Monta Ellis scored 15 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter, Tyson Chandler had 11 points and 10 rebounds and Dallas won for the eighth time in 10 games, beating Toronto.Chandler Parsons scored 16 points, Dirk Nowitzki had 15 Al-Farouq Aminu 14 as the Mavericks snapped Torontos winning streak at six games.Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle won his 300th game with Dallas. Hes the third coach in team history to reach the mark, joining Don Nelson (339) and Dick Motta (329).Kyle Lowry scored 25 points, Amir Johnson had 20 and Lou Williams 16 for the Raptors, who saw All-Star DeMar DeRozan leave in the third with a strained left groin.BULLS 102, CELTICS 102BOSTON (AP) — Jimmy Butler hit four free throws late in the game and finished with 22 points, Derrick Rose scored 21 points and Chicago pulled out a win over Boston Celtics.Pau Gasol had 15 points and 15 rebounds, and Joakim Noah added 15 points with 14 boards for the Bulls, who had lost four of their previous six games. Boston has lost six of seven.Jared Sullinger led Boston with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Avery Bradley had 18 points and Brandon Bass 16 with nine boards. Rajon Rondo had eight points, seven rebounds and nine assists for the Celtics.Butlers two free throws tied it with 80 seconds to play. Rondo missed two free throws and Sullinger front-rimmed an attempted 3 before Butlers two free throws put the Bulls ahead for good, 104-102, with 51 seconds left. Noah nailed a short jumper on Chicagos next possession.TIMBERWOLVES 120, LAKERS 119LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rookie guard Zach LaVine scored 18 of his team-high 28 points off the bench in the second quarter, and Mo Williams had 25 points and 11 assists to lead Minnesota over Los Angeles Lakers. Kobe Bryant missed a 3-pointer as time expired that helped seal the win for Minnesota.LaVine, the 13th overall pick in the draft out of UCLA, played 25 minutes in his Staples Center debut and made 11 of 14 shots. He was the fifth and last player off the Timberwolves bench as they snapped a three-game losing streak.Bryant finished with 26 points on 10 for 18 shooting and Nick Young scored 13 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter. Wesley Johnson had 19 points against his former club and Jeremy Lin had 18 points and 11 assists in the Lakers fourth straight loss. Seven of their 13 defeats this season have been by seven or fewer points. ' ' '
