Freshman Kevin Love had 26 points and 11 rebounds for his 13th double-double and No. 5 UCLA routed Arizona 82-60 on Saturday night for its 20th victory of the season.
The Bruins (20-2, 8-1 Pac-10) built a 20-point halftime lead and cruised on 57 percent field goal shooting. Russell Westbrook added a career-high 21 points, Josh Shipp 13 and Darren Collison 12 and seven assists as the Bruins won their fourth in a row.
Adam Emmenecker saw an opportunity to step out of his established role as a playmaker, and he took it.
Emmenecker scored a career-high 20 points, and No. 16 Drake defeated Indiana State 83-77 for its 20th win.
Emmenecker leads the Missouri Valley Conference in assists, but averages just seven points per game. He shot just 5-of-13, but made 10 of 11 free throws. He didn’t completely change his style – he still had eight assists – but he was much more focused on attacking the basket than usual.
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Rivalries, its something the National Hockey League has wanted to promote in effort to step up the intensity in regular season play. One natural rivalry is between the Minnesota Wild and the Columbus Blue Jackets. While both teams entered the league in 2000, the directions the franchises have taken since their inception have been significantly different.  The Wild have had a fair amount of success while the Blue Jackets have dwelled in mediocrity and never really close to post-season contention.  In fact the closest Columbus has ever been to making the playoffs was back in their first season back in 2000-01 when they finished 19 points out of playoff picture. The result of this long period of unfulfilled dreams has been a fairly annoyed fanbase, leaving the team struggling to fill the seats at Nationwide Arena. Yet tonight, the arena would be sold out (another game where the Wild have come to town drawing a sellout from a team that seldom does, so much for the “boring” hockey that is ruining the game theory, eh) to watch their Blue Jackets hopefully spank the visiting Wild. Would these fans leave happy?
Confidence, its something that could be seen from the drop of the puck. The Wild took control right from the start, skating with speed as the Blue Jackets were giving Minnesota more space than perhaps they should have. Minnesota’s speed would give the Blue Jackets some early headaches, and Columbus defenseman Jan Hejda would earn a minor for interference just 34 seconds into the game. On the man advantage the Wild would move the puck well, but at times some small mental lapses would cost the team some early scoring chances, and while defending a good shorthanded rush by the Blue Jackets’ Manny Malholtra, Brent Burns would take a tripping penalty to negate the early power play. Minnesota’s penalty kill was up to the task of keeping Columbus off the scoreboard. A few minutes later, off a nice rush, Brian Rolston would unload a rocket that Fredrik Norrena would hold onto. The Wild seemed calm and collected and its patience would pay off as Mikko Koivu would win a faceoff and slide the puck back to Kurtis Foster who side stepped Columbus’ Michael Peca and flung a wrist shot that Norrena clearly did not see until it was in the back of the net to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. Columbus would try to respond, as Nikolai Zherdev would use a nice toe-drag move to get open enough for a wrister, but Niklas Backstrom would come up with the big save. Minnesota would also try to add to its lead when the Wild would start elevating their play along the boards and this would lead to a nice chance from the point by Nick Schultz that Norrena would stop but none of his defenseman were able to track down the rebound and Brian Rolston would take the puck and spin and fire a blast that the Finnish goalie managed to hold onto to keep the game 1-0 going into the 2nd.
Australian GP
MELBOURNE, Australia – Event chairman Ron Walker says the future of the Australian Grand Prix is safe, despite reported comments from Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone that the race would be more financially viable elsewhere.
The contract for the 25-year-old Australian race, held first in Adelaide and then in Melbourne since 1996, is up for renewal in 2010. On Sunday, News Limited newspapers quoted Ecclestone as saying the contract might not be renewed.
Silva and Makaay
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored his 20th and 21st goals of the season Sunday to help Ajax beat Feyenoord 3-0 and cut PSV Eindhoven’s lead to eight points in the Dutch First Division soccer league standings.
John Heitinga played his 200th career match for Ajax and gave the team the lead in the eighth minute with a low shot past Henk Timmer after a pass from Luis Suarez.
Portsmouth have admitted that striker Jermain Defoe is only on loan at the Fratton Park club.
It was thought that Defoe, who scored on his debut, had signed a permanent deal from Tottenham on transfer deadline day but that is not the case.
LEADING Queensland jockey Stathi Katsidis has been charged with possessing illegal drugs and driving with an excessive alcohol limit.
Katsidis was stopped by Toowoomba police on Saturday night and his car searched after he gave a positive breath test.
The jockey had flown back to the Queensland city of Toowoomba after riding beaten favourite Gold Edition in Saturday’s Lightning Stakes at Flemington in Melbourne.
After fading late in its previous three Missouri Valley Conference games, Creighton closed with a flurry Saturday to snap its three-game losing skid with a 65-63 win over Wichita State.
The Bluejays (15-6), who trailed by 15 midway through the second half, outscored Wichita State 26-9 over the final nine minutes.
Cavel Witter led Creighton’s comeback with 14 second-half points.
The only loss on Meza-Clay’s resume came back in May 2006, after he was halted in eleven rounds by Edner Cheery. Trying to square the books on national TV, Meza-Clay never took a step back but rather just kept firing leather and stepping inside Aiken’s power punches.
At the 1:47 mark of the 4th, Meza-Clay rocked Aiken with two more sizzling right hands to the jaw and a left hook to the face that drove his opponent back against the ropes. It was the same scenario in the 5th, when Aiken did manage to land one decent right hand but Meza-Clay came roaring back and scored with another whip-like volley to the face that again pinned the ex-champ against the ropes.
Arthur Blank, owner of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, wants his sports operation to expand outside of American football and Major League Soccer is high on his list. Blank said ‘he is “actively looking at” bringing a Major League Soccer expansion team to Atlanta. He described it as “in the exploratory stage” and said the team would need a soccer-specific stadium. “We’re out looking at stadium sites right now … in a variety of places,” he said.’
Blank brings a lot of what league officials want to the table. He is rich (worth about $1.3 billion), has strong sports connections to the local community (owns the Falcons and came close to owning baseball’s Atlanta Braves) and has a good business history (he was co-founder of Home Depot). In addition, the Deep South is the one region of the country where MLS is completely absent. Since Atlanta is the largest market in the region and ninth-largest metro area in the nation, it has the size needed to make the team a success.