In brief: Portland Trail Blazers defeat Houston Rockets

NBA: LaMarcus Aldridge had 26 points and 14 rebounds, and the Portland Trail Blazers held off the visiting Houston Rockets 105-100 on Wednesday.

Portland limited James Harden to 18 points and tied the Rockets for third place in the Western Conference.

Harden was averaging just more than 27 points to rank second in the league.

Corey Brewer scored 23 points for Houston, including 17 in the fourth quarter.

Robin Lopez finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Blazers.

• Smart, Bradley help Celts top Grizzlies: Marcus Smart converted a go-ahead, three-point play with 52 seconds left, Avery Bradley added a clutch jumper with 8 seconds remaining and the Boston Celtics ended a five-game losing streak against the visiting Memphis Grizzlies with a 95-92 victory.

Bradley scored 17 points for the Celtics, who won their second in a row as they chase a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Conley led Memphis with 20 points despite missing time in the second half with an injury.

• Nuggets beat conference-leading Hawks: Danilo Gallinari had 23 points, Will Barton added 16 and the Denver Nuggets beat Eastern Conference-leading Atlanta 115-102 for their eighth straight home win over the Hawks.

By the end of the third quarter, Atlanta coach Mike Budenholzer had seen enough and inserted his bench players, who went on a 24-1 run midway through the fourth quarter to make the score respectable. The Hawks haven’t won in the Mile High City since Dec. 6, 2006.

Kyle Korver had 18 points to lead Atlanta.

No. 19 North Carolina tops Boston College

College Basketball: Brice Johnson scored 17 points to help No. 19 North Carolina beat Boston College 81-63 in the second round of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Marcus Paige also scored 17 for the fifth-seeded Tar Heels. North Carolina played without starting forward Kennedy Meeks but pulled away late and won its seventh straight meeting to set up a matchup with No. 14 Louisville.

UNC led by 13 at the half and never by fewer than eight from there.

Aaron Brown scored 20 points to lead BC, while all-ACC guard Olivier Hanlan scored 18.

• Lafayette wins Patriot League title: Nick Lindner scored 25 points and Lafayette held off several second-half runs by American to win the Patriot League tournament title with a 65-63 victory over the Eagles in Easton, Pennsylvania.

The fourth-seeded Leopards became the lowest seed to win the league tournament title – and its automatic bid to the NCAA tournament – in its 25-year history.

Lindner hit a driving shot with 38 seconds to go to put Lafayette up by one. After American’s John Schoof missed a 3-pointer, Lindner hit two free throws to seal it.

Lindner, a sophomore point guard, was named tournament MVP.

• Mavin’s heave from midcourt lifts FIU: Dennis Mavin scored 15 points, including a winning, half-court heave as time expired to lift Florida International over seventh-seeded Texas-San Antonio 57-54 in the opening round of the Conference USA tournament in Birmingham, Alabama.

Mavin added nine rebounds and five assists, and Ray Rodriguez scored 14 for tenth-seeded FIU, which will play second-seeded UTEP on Thursday.

Mavin moved into third on FIU’s single-season scoring list with 546.

Rangers move into 1st by beating Capitals

NHL: The New York Rangers moved atop the Metropolitan Division by beating the host Washington Capitals 3-1, while overcoming Alex Ovechkin’s league-leading 45th goal.

Martin St. Louis, Carl Hagelin and J.T. Miller each scored a goal for the Rangers.

Cam Talbot made 28 saves, including one particularly spectacular glove grab of a close-in shot from Nicklas Backstrom during a 5-on-3.

A night after a 2-1 victory at the New York Islanders, the Rangers moved a point ahead of their city rivals with exactly one month left in the regular season.

• Bozak lifts Leafs past Sabres in shootout: Tyler Bozak tied the score late in regulation and had the only goal in the shootout to lift the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 4-3 victory over the visiting Buffalo Sabres.

Jonathan Bernier had 30 saves through overtime and then stopped all three shots he faced in the tiebreaker. Brandon Kozun and Leo Komarov also scored in regulation for Toronto.

• Gaudreau, Stajan each score twice for Flames: Johnny Gaudreau and Matt Stajan each scored two goals, leading the Flames to a 6-3 win over the Anaheim Ducks in Calgary, Alberta.

Sean Monahan and Jiri Hudler also scored for the Flames.

With the win, Calgary moved within one point of the Vancouver Canucks for second place in the Pacific Division.

Ryan Getzlaf had two goals for the Ducks.

U.S. defeats France for Algarve Cup title

Miscellany: Julie Johnston scored her first international goal, and the United States beat France 2-0 at Faro, Portugal, for the American women’s soccer team’s 10th overall Algarve Cup title and first in two years.

Christen Press also scored for the second-ranked U.S., which rebounded from a 0-0 draw against Iceland on Monday.

It was the 20th appearance for the U.S. in the Algarve Cup, the last tournament before the Women’s World Cup in June. France has never won the Algarve title.

• Silva lifts PSG into quarterfinals: Thiago Silva scored on a looping header over goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois in the 114th minute, lifting Paris Saint-Germain over Chelsea and into the Champions League quarterfinals in London.

Silva’s goal tied the ill-tempered match at 2 and knotted the aggregate score of the home-and-home series at 3-3. PSG advanced because of its 2-1 margin in away goals.

Silva got the key goal with his header from about 13 yards off Thiago Motta’s corner kick, lofting the ball over an outstretched arm of the 6-foot-7 Courtois.

• Matthews wins Paris-Nice third stage: Michael Matthews of Australia took charge of the week-long Paris-Nice race after sprinting to victory in the third stage in Saint-Pourcain-Sur-Sioule, France.

Matthews, who claimed his first stage win in the Race to the Sun, enjoyed an impressive lead-out from his Orica-GreenEdge teammates to edge Italians Davide Cimolai and Giacomo Nizzolo in the finale of the 111-mile stage.

Matthews took the race leader’s yellow jersey from previous leader Michal Kwiatkowski.