No. 20 Kentucky defeats No. 21 Vanderbilt

Men’s basketball: Brandon Knight scored 17 points and No. 20 Kentucky finally found a way to win a close game, edging No. 21 Vanderbilt 68-66 on Tuesday night in Lexington, Ky.

Terrence Jones added 15 points and nine rebounds for the Wildcats (21-8, 9-6 Southeastern Conference), who remained unbeaten at Rupp Arena under coach John Calipari.

Festus Ezeli led the Commodores (21-8, 9-6) with 22 points but fumbled away a chance at a game-tying shot just before the final buzzer. John Jenkins scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half for Vanderbilt, which rallied from a 15-point deficit to take the lead with 4:25 to play.

Kentucky, which came in 0-6 in games decided by five points or less this season, regained its composure behind Knight. The Wildcats hit 7 of 8 free throws over the final 1:36 to win their 34th straight home game.

• BYU suspends key player for rest of season: No. 3 BYU has suspended sophomore forward Brandon Davies for the rest of the season for violating the school’s honor code.

School officials said coach Dave Rose would address the issue following today’s game against New Mexico.

Davies started 26 of 29 games this season, averaging 11.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 24.9 minutes.

Lowry leads Rockets in rout of Blazers

NBA: Kyle Lowry had 21 points and 11 assists, and the Houston Rockets won their fifth straight with a 103-87 victory over the Trail Blazers in Portland.

Luis Scola added 21 points and Kevin Martin had 20 for Houston, which snapped a four-game losing streak at the Rose Garden.

Portland leading scorer LaMarcus Aldridge was held to 14 points.

• Perkins, Thunder reach agreement: Before even playing a game with the Oklahoma City Thunder, center Kendrick Perkins signed an extension to stay with his new team for a while.

Perkins joined the Thunder five days ago in a trade with Boston, where he spent the first seven years of his career and won the 2008 NBA title. Now, he’s due to make about $36 million while staying in Oklahoma City through the 2014-15 season.

• Cleveland’s Jamison out for season: Cavaliers forward Antawn Jamison has undergone surgery to fix a broken pinky that will likely sideline him for the remainder of this season.

Jamison fractured his left little finger during Sunday’s 95-91 home loss to Philadelphia.

Cardinals pitcher Carpenter injured

MLB: The St. Louis Cardinals had two aces when they arrived at spring training. Now, both are hurt.

Chris Carpenter left the Cardinals’ 7-1 victory over the Florida Marlins at Jupiter, Fla., in the third inning after feeling a twinge in his left hamstring. The injury came one day after fellow All-Star Adam Wainwright had season-ending elbow surgery.

Carpenter was diagnosed with a strained hamstring, but said the problem isn’t serious.

• Red Sox owner fined for comments: Boston Red Sox owner John Henry has been fined $500,000 by Major League Baseball for publicly criticizing the sport’s revenue sharing rules.

After the 2009 season, Henry said seven “chronically uncompetitive teams” received more than $1 billion in revenue sharing and wondered who could think that was a good idea besides those clubs.

• Bradley leads M’s to Cactus League win: Milton Bradley, who had his best season in the major leagues for the Texas Rangers in 2008, had three hits against his former team as the Seattle Mariners rolled to a 5-4 victory at Peoria, Ariz.

The veteran outfielder, battling with young Michael Saunders for a starting job in left field, went 3 for 3 with a double and two runs batted in.

Judge backs NFLPA in television spat

NFL: A federal judge backed the NFL players’ union over the league in Minneapolis, in a dispute over television revenue with implications for the looming potential lockout.

U.S. District Judge David Doty ruled that the league violated its agreement with the union in carving out $4 billion for itself in additional television revenue.

The union had argued that the league was effectively stockpiling money to prepare for a lockout.

At a hearing last week, NFL attorney Gregg Levy argued it would be “repugnant to federal labor law” for Doty to intervene in the broadcast rights fees issue. Players’ union attorney Jeffrey Kessler countered that the billions in leverage is part of a long-devised lockout plan and that the NFL didn’t act in good faith.