Mountaineers muster upset of No. 2 Panthers
Freshman Devin Ebanks scored a career-high 20 points to lead scrappy West Virginia to a 74-60 upset of No. 2 Pittsburgh on Thursday night in New York, knocking out the defending Big East tournament champions and advancing to the semifinals for the second straight season.
Alex Ruoff added 18 points and Da’Sean Butler had 16 for West Virginia (23-10).
The tournament’s seventh seed got a big assist from DeJuan Blair, the league’s co-player of the year, who spent most of the game on the bench for Pittsburgh (27-4). The big man managed only 14 points and five rebounds before fouling out with 1:17 left in the game.
•Villanova slips by Marquette: Dwayne Anderson’s last-second layup fell in as the buzzer sounded – his only field goal of the game – to give No. 10 Villanova a 76-75 victory over No. 21 Marquette in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament in New York.
•Cowboys ride late free throws: James Anderson hit two free throws with 2.3 seconds left and Oklahoma State (22-10) upset No. 6 Oklahoma (27-4) 71-70 in a quarterfinal of the Big 12 tournament in Oklahoma City.
•Baylor stuns No. 11 Kansas: LaceDarius Dunn hit six 3-pointers and scored 24 points, leading a late surge as Baylor (19-13) rallied after blowing a 17-point lead to stun No. 11 Kansas (25-7) 71-64 in the Big 12 tournament quarterfinals in Oklahoma City.
Yellow Jackets sting Tigers: Lewis Clinch set a career high with 32 points and last-place Georgia Tech (12-18) pulled off the first big upset of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, beating No. 17 Clemson (23-8) 86-81 in Atlanta.
Golf
Mickelson mighty
Phil Mickelson can’t recall hitting the ball this long or having a short game this superb, and it showed when he chipped in three times on his way to a 7-under-par 65 for a share of the lead in the CA Championship in Doral, Fla.
In his first stroke-play event since winning the U.S. Open last summer, Tiger Woods managed only three birdies on a Blue Monster course where he has never finished out of the top 10. He wound up with a 71 to tie for 40th in an 80-man field.
•Lamely, Day top leaderboard: Monday qualifier Derek Lamely and 20-year-old Australian Jason Day shot 6-under 66s in windy, sometimes rainy conditions in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, to share the first-round lead in the Puerto Rico Open.
NHL
Flames burn Red Wings
Olli Jokinen and Mike Cammalleri scored shootout goals to give the Calgary Flames a 6-5 comeback victory over the Red Wings in Detroit.
Jokinen also had two goals in regulation for Calgary, which overcame a 4-2 deficit by scoring three goals in a 2:02 span late in the third period.
•Avalanche grab SO win: Milan Hejduk and Wojtek Wolski scored shootout goals, and Peter Budaj stopped both of Minnesota’s shootout attempts in the Colorado Avalanche’s 2-1 victory over the Wild in Denver.
•Blue Jackets sneak by: Kristian Huselius had a goal in regulation and the only shootout goal and the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 in Columbus, Ohio, after blowing a three-goal lead in the third period.
NBA
Lakers clinch spot
The Los Angeles Lakers are the West’s first team in the playoffs. Kobe Bryant made sure of it.
Bryant scored the last of his 23 points on a 3-pointer with 1:46 left, and the Lakers secured a postseason spot with a 100-95 win over the Spurs in San Antonio.
Winter sports
Vonn wins Super-G
Lindsey Vonn won the super-G season finale at the World Cup finals in Are, Sweden, becoming the first American woman to capture the championship title in the discipline.
Vonn earned her third crystal globe this season, tying the U.S. record set by Phil Mahre in 1982.
The 24-year-old Vonn finished in 1 minute, 20.63 seconds.
•Svindal clinches title: Aksel Lund Svindal finished second behind Werner Heel in the final super-G of the season to clinch the discipline title at the World Cup finals in Are, Sweden.
•New Iditarod leader: In Takotna, Alaska, Aaron Burmeister took the lead in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and a Norwegian musher had to abandon the race after a sled accident that organizers said probably left him with internal injuries.
Miscellany
Dodgers show curiosity
Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said at spring training that he is “curious” about the possibility of filling the team’s fifth spot in the rotation with free agent right-hander Pedro Martinez. Martinez pitched six innings of one-hit ball for the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic last week.
•M’s add one, drop five: The Seattle Mariners signed veteran right-hander Chad Cordero to a minor league contact and invited him to the final weeks of their spring training camp.
Meanwhile, right-hander Josh Fields, the Mariners’ first-round draft pick in 2008, was one of five players the team reassigned to its minor league camp.
•Hawks lose defensive tackle: Howard Green, a Seahawks backup defensive tackle, has agreed to a two-year contract with the New York Jets, according to The Sporting News.