LJUBLJANA, Slovenia -- Slovenia earned a place in next years World Cup by beating Serbia 92-74 at the European basketball championship on Thursday. Zoran Dragic scored 23 points for Slovenia in a game between two quarterfinal losers. Slovenia will play for fifth place and Serbia for seventh. Seventh place will be enough for a slot at the World Cup because host Spain is a direct qualifier and is already in the European semifinals. Slovenia outscored Serbia 30-16 in the first quarter and held on to win. Goran Dragic and Jaka Blazic added 15 points each for Slovenia. Nenad Krstic had 16 for Serbia, which went 2-for-18 from 3-point range. . In five games last month, Billings led all scorers with 11 goals, 27 assists and 38 points as the Rock posted a 2-3 record. .J. -- Patrick Sharp is on one of those streaks.
http://www.cheapbluejacketsjerseysauthe ... nes-jersey. Former San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds made his longshot request of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit upheld Bonds conviction in September. . After two months of mediocrity, perhaps the Washington Nationals have turned the page. Strasburg struck out 11 in seven innings Wednesday night and the Nationals kept the Philadelphia Phillies bats quiet yet again in an 8-4, rain-interrupted win. . -- Howie Kendrick had a two-run single in his first game batting leadoff this season, Chris Iannetta hit a pair of RBI singles and the Los Angeles Angels beat Cleveland 6-4 Tuesday night, sending the Indians to their fifth straight defeat.ABBOTSFORD, B.C. - Olivier Roy made 24 saves as the Abbotsford Heat beat the Charlotte Checkers 7-1 in American Hockey League action Tuesday. Roy was making his first start with the Heat and was seven minutes away from his first career AHL shutout. The 22-year-old was acquired by the Calgary Flames from the Edmonton Oilers on Nov. 8, but was immediately assigned to their ECHL affiliate Alaska before his call up when Joey MacDonald suffered a concussion last week. When Joni Ortio was recalled to the Flames on Sunday to replace the injured Kari Ramo, Roy got his chance to start. Corban Knight had a goal and two assists to lead the way offensively. Max Reinhart and Markus Granlund had a goal and an assist, while Josh Jooris, Blair Jones, Ben Street and Carter Bancks also scored for Abbotsford (30-14-4). The Heat have now won three straight and are 4-0-2 in their past six games. With the win they move into a tie for first in the Western Conference with Grand Rapids. John Muse allowed four first-period goals on just 12 shots before Mike Murphy relieved him, making 24 saves for Charlotte (22-22-1) Philippe Cornet scored the lone Checkers goal. The Heat opened the scoring at 4:29 of the first. Jooris finished off a great Heat possession, one-timing a pass from Corey Locke in the high slott off the post and in, beating Muse glove side.dddddddddddd. Its the third straight game Jooris has scored. Roy made a big save just shy of the eight-minute mark while the Checkers were killing a penalty. Chris Terry cut to the front of the net from the corner and tried to wrap the puck around Roys right pad, but the 2009 fifth-round choice stretched out his leg to cover the far post, keeping his team up by one. Reinhart scored at 8:54 on the same power play to make it 2-0. Granlund fed it to Knight, who quickly found Reinhart backdoor for the one-timer. The Heat chased Muse from the crease with two goals in 28 seconds. First, Jones one-timed Derek Smiths set up from the left face-off dot on the power play. Then Bancks collected Lane MacDermids rebound before backhanding home a goal. Granlund scored another power-play goal, taking a loose puck in the slot and whipping one past Murphy at 8:17 of the third to give him his team-leading 20th goal of the season. Two minutes later Knight deflected Smiths point shot past Murphy to make it 6-0. Cornet broke Roys shutout bid with seven minutes to go after he one-timed Victor Rasks centring feed just inside the post. Street scored his 18th of the season, one-timing Brett Olsons set up at 14:54 to restore the six-goal cushion. ' ' '
