In brief: West Virginia handles Georgetown
Men’s basketball: Da’Sean Butler scored 22 points in his final home game and No. 10 West Virginia beat No. 19 Georgetown 81-68 on Monday night in Morgantown, W.Va.
The Mountaineers (23-6, 12-5 Big East) led the Hoyas (19-9, 9-8) by as many as 27 points early in the second half.
•Mountain West reprimands Alford: The Mountain West Conference reprimanded New Mexico coach Steve Alford over his heated exchange of words with BYU forward Jonathan Tavernari, despite the coach’s insistence it was just a byproduct of a hard-fought game.
•Utah State grabs share of WAC title: Tai Wesley scored 21 points and Utah State (24-6, 13-2) ran past Fresno State (14-17, 6-9) 76-39 in Logan, Utah, to clinch a share of the Western Athletic Conference title.
•Notre Dame’s Harangody may not return: Forward Luke Harangody, Notre Dame’s leading scorer and rebounder, may not return this season from a bone bruise to his right knee.
Harangody injured his knee Feb. 11 against Seton Hall.
Blazers bounce back over Grizzlies
NBA: Brandon Roy scored 25 points and Nicolas Batum added 21 as Portland erased a 14-point first-half deficit with a strong third quarter and defeated the Grizzlies 103-93 in Memphis, Tenn.
Portland overtook Memphis by outscoring the Grizzlies 41-21 in the third quarter.
•Cavs use big half to top Knicks: LeBron James had 22 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, and the Cleveland Cavaliers used a 74-point first half to hammer the New York Knicks 124-93 at Cleveland, in their first game since learning Shaquille O’Neal will miss the rest of the regular season with a thumb injury.
•Spurs parting with Finley: The San Antonio Spurs waived swingman Michael Finley after nearly five seasons with the team.
Syracuse gets upset over West Virginia
Women’s basketball: Erica Morrow scored 23 points to help the Orange beat the seventh-ranked Mountaineers 67-48 in Syracuse, N.Y.
The Orange (20-9, 7-9 Big East) outrebounded West Virginia (26-4, 13-3) 54-36 – including 27-10 on the offensive end – and forced 28 turnovers.
Red Wings return to ice with win
NHL: Nicklas Lidstrom scored a power-play goal with 9:03 left in the third period and lifted the Detroit Red Wings past the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 in Denver.
Tomas Holmstrom had a goal and two assists, Pavel Datsyuk had two assists and Jimmy Howard made 22 saves for Detroit.
It was the first game since Feb. 14 when the NHL took a two-week break for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
U.S. tops Sweden, reach Algarve final
Miscellany: With the first two-goal game of her international soccer career, Lauren Cheney put the United States into the final of the Algarve Cup against Germany.
Cheney entered at the start of the second half and lifted the United States over Sweden 2-0 in Ferreiras, Portugal.
•Jets, Jones to part ways: Running back Thomas Jones will not rework his contract, according to a source close to the situation, and thus likely will be released by the Jets this week.
The Jets wanted the veteran, who is scheduled to make $2.8 million in base salary in 2010, to take a pay cut.
•More from Zenyatta trainer: The trainer of Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Zenyatta will send out another one of his star females to challenge the boys in the $10 million Dubai World Cup.
Trainer John Shirreffs told the Associated Press that Life is Sweet will be shipped to Dubai to compete in the world’s richest race on March 27.