PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas -- Ryan Arcidiacono had not made a shot all night. So naturally, he was Jay Wrights choice on the play that wound up deciding Villanovas fate. And it was the right choice. Arcidiaconos 3-pointer with 10.1 seconds left put Villanova on top for good, and the Wildcats upset No. 2 Kansas 63-59 in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis on Friday night. "We had a choice who we were going to run that for," said Wright, the Villanova coach whos now 4-1 in last five games against teams ranked in the top five. "And we picked Ryan. I dont think theres a guy on our team who would doubt that. ... Everybody just knows he lives for that. When we practice end of the game situations in practice, he always makes the shot." Sure enough, he delivered. Arcidiacono had missed all five of his previous shots, but made the one that counted -- the only field goal for the Wildcats in the final 7 minutes. "I thought I was wide open, so I just pulled the trigger," Arcidiacono said. Arcidiacono got it off in plenty of time, even as Kansas Perry Ellis -- listed as 5 inches taller -- charged his way. "Almost," Ellis said. Darrun Hilliard and Dylan Ennis each scored 14 for Villanova (6-0), which meets Iowa in Saturday nights championship game. JayVaughn Pinkston scored 13 and James Bell added 10 for the Wildcats. Frank Mason scored 12 for Kansas (5-1). His three-point play with 34.2 seconds left gave Kansas its first lead in more than 25 minutes, but the Jayhawks couldnt hold on in the final moments. "It was not a pretty game," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "Certainly, I hate that it came down to one possession like that." Ellis scored 11, while Canadian Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid added 10 each for Kansas, which plays Texas-El Paso in the third-place game Saturday. Villanova led 57-46 with just over seven minutes left, then got outscored 13-1 to lose the lead -- and then found a way at the end to cap a wild night where one team would go on a run, then the other would follow. It held true to the end, with the Wildcats having the last run. Pinkstons layup made it 36-26 early in the second half, before Kansas ran off eight unanswered points in a flash -- four of them by Ellis -- to get within two. Villanova was undeterred. The Wildcats answered with a 12-2 run, capped by Ennis 3-pointer with 12:44 remaining to give Villanova what was its biggest lead, 48-36. The margin was still 11 with 7:19 left, but the Jayhawks just kept coming. And after Villanova went more than 4 minutes without scoring, Kansas was back within 57-54 with plenty of time left. Masons layin off a lob cut Villanovas lead to one, and the converted ballroom serving as an arena this weekend was simply rocking. Kansas fans had filled the building, and they werent quiet. That is, until Arcidiacono rendered them silent and gave Villanova a huge early win. "He seemed like a tough kid to me," Self said. "Usually, in a game like this, the tough guy is the one making plays. It didnt surprise me at all that hes the one who took the shot." For the first 6 1/2 minutes, Villanova made nothing. Literally, outside of a couple free throws, nothing. It was 11-2 Kansas out of the gate, and Villanova was looking wholly overmatched in the early going. The Wildcats missed their first seven shots, not getting anything from the field to drop until Hilliard -- who had scored 12 by intermission, seven more than anyone from Kansas to that point -- hit a 3-pointer with 13:14 remaining. Just like that, everything changed. Villanova scored 27 of the next 35 points over a stunning 12 1/2-minute stretch, turning that 11-2 deficit into a 29-19 lead, the last point coming when Arcidiacono made one of two free throws awarded after Self was protesting a bit too much with one of the referees during a time-out. The shot by Arcidiacono capped a 12-0 burst by the Wildcats. It was his only point until the 3-pointer in the final moments. Kansas went into the locker room down only 29-22. It could have been so much worse -- after holding Villanova without a field goal for nearly seven minutes to start the game, the Jayhawks went the last eight minutes of the half without one of their own, going 0 for 7 from the floor with five turnovers during that dismal stretch. Combined, the teams were 14 for 53 in the opening 20 minutes. Villanova shot 29 per cent, Kansas 24 per cent, but the Wildcats held a 28-15 rebounding edge in the half. "Were a long ways to go," Self said. "I love our talent, I love our players and all that stuff. But the thing is, theres a difference between trying hard and actually competing. And we have to learn how to compete. And its not going to happen overnight." . Tokarski, a somewhat controversial choice -- with his 10 games of NHL experience and all -- to replace an injured Carey Price in Game Two had a night to remember, turning back a Rangers team that was dominating play from the get-go, outshooting the Canadiens 14-4 in the first period and 37-25 overall. . Crawford hit his slam off Pirates starter Edinson Volquez to give San Francisco a four run lead in the fourth and they never looked back. Brandon Belt had three runs batted in as well. Bumgarner pitched all nine innings and allowed just four hits.
http://www.officialmavericksfanstore.co ... ks-jersey/. The 18-year-old Januzaj has made his breakthrough at United this season, including scoring twice in a 2-1 win over Sunderland before the recent international break. His performances have sparked a debate about where his international future lies. . Louis Cardinals for the National League Wild Card, are in the drivers seat as they open the final series of the regular season, but they face a large task in the form of the Philadelphia Phillies. . -- Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jin Ryu will be the Dodgers starting pitchers in their two-game season-opening series in Australia against the Arizona Diamondbacks.Nashville Predators 3 Winnipeg Jets 2 OT – After a game like this, the question is often about the extra point. Was it a point gained, or a point lost? For Jets head coach Claude Noel and a number of players the thought was it was a point lost because after a very good start to the game, they could not maintain it for a full 60 minutes. For other players, being down 2-1 and tying the game with three minutes left against a very good defensive team was a point gained. The Jets controlled the early going, out-shooting the Predators 7-1, but a Shea Weber power play goal at 15:53 opened the scoring. The Jets have only scored the games opening goal twice this season. Anthony Peluso scored the only goal of the second period to tie the game at one. The goal came on a wrap around and was his first NHL goal. In the third, Patric Hornqvist put home a rebound from the high slot to regain the lead for the Predators, until Blake Wheeler tied the game at 16:59. For Wheeler it was his third of the year and he has now scored in back to back games. The Jets got a late power play but did not register a shot on goal. The Jets have now gone six games without a power play goal. Last season they started with nine power play goals in the first nine games, before going through stretches of no PP goals in eight games and one in 16 games. Craig Smith with his second goal of the year ended the contest at 4:43 of overtime in favour of the Predators. It looked like the Jets were going to get one last rush until the puck bounced over the stick of defenceman Dustin Byfuglien setting the stage for David Legwands pass to Smith. Jets are now 1-1-1 on thee road, with three more games on this Central Division trip that continues in Dallas, Saturday (TSN 1290).dddddddddddd Jets are 4-5-2 overall on the season. Byfuglien played over 30 minutes in the game and had six shots on goal in a losing cause. The Predators are a very good face-off team, winning 66% of the draws. Matt Cullen led the way winning 15 of 16 from the faceoff circle. The Jets outshot the Predators 36-33, they also missed the net with another 12 attempts and had 24 blocked, six by Shea Weber. "We had a solid first ten minutes," commented Noel post-game. "Text book. But could not sustain it. Its good we came back and got a point but the test is still to be consistent for 60 minutes. We play in spurts. First five minutes of the third we struggled. Bad puck management, no support. We need to take the next step, were 11 games in. But we did some good things. Battled physically, got traffic to the net. We had a great north/south game going then wanted to play cute." Defenceman Mark Stuart was back in the lineup after missing two games due to injury and forward Eric Tangradi played after being a healthy scratch the last three games. Jets were still minus Jim Slater, Jacob Trouba and Chris Thorburn due to injury, while Adam Pardy and Patrice Cormier were healthy scratches. James Wright slipped in the middle on the fourth line and played well. Goaltender Carter Hutton has now stopped 72 of 75 shots in his two games against the Jets. Its back to back for the Jets this weekend as they are in Dallas Saturday and Colorado Sunday before closing out the trip in St. Louis Tuesday. ' ' '
