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LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP)—Tyler Thornton had taken nine shots all season, and was on the court for his defense.

When Duke needed a big shot, he hit two.

Thornton capped a thrilling game between basketball behemoths, hitting an off-balance 3-pointer with 20 seconds left to give the sixth-ranked Blue Devils enough cushion to finish off a 68-61 win over No. 14 Kansas for its fifth Maui Invitational title.

Thornton hit one 3-pointer with 1:10 left and put the Blue Devils ahead for good with his second, sending the crowd into a frenzy while keeping Duke (7-0) undefeated in 15 Maui Invitational games.

Kansas forward Justin Wesley, …
AP – Nov 24, 1:21 am EST

Kansas players Kevin Young, le…
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The Duke bench and fans celebr…
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Duke guard Seth Curry carries …
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Duke forward Ryan Kelly was vo…
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Kansas head coach Bill Self an…
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Duke guard Seth Curry, left, l…
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Duke guard Austin Rivers, left…
AP – Nov 23, 11:13 pm EST

 

“It’s a dream shot,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “People will say it’s a lucky shot, but I’ll say I’m lucky to have him on my team. Sometimes you’re on a bus with a guy who deserves and for that moment we were on his bus. Thank goodness he knew how to drive it.”

The Blue Devils and Jayhawks went toe-to-toe from the start, electrifying the crowd with the kind of compelling counterpunching you’d expect from blue blood programs.

Unleashing an array of alley-oops, 3-pointers and teeth-jarring picks, they never let the other get too far ahead, with 16 lead changes and 12 ties.

Ryan Kelly hurt Kansas with his inside-outside game, scoring 17 points to earn MVP honors. Mason Plumlee gave the Jayhawks fits inside with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

Kansas was led by Thomas Robinson, who had 16 points and 15 rebounds. Jeff Withey provided an unexpected lift with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Tyshawn Taylor had a solid first half on his way 17 points, but tired down the stretch to finish with 11 of Kansas’ 17 turnovers.

Fittingly, it came down to a thrilling finish.

Eljiah Johnson hit a 3-pointer with 1:33 left to put Kansas (3-2) up 61-60. Thornton answered 23 seconds later, surprising the Jayhawks with a 3 of his own.

Thornton then put the punctuation on this classic in paradise, dropping in his 3 after Taylor had his 11th turnover at the other end.

“We couldn’t have guarded him any better,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “That was unbelievable.”

This rare early matchup of college basketball powers had the potential to be one of the most exciting in the 28-year history of the Maui Invitational.

Duke’s resume includes four national titles, the winningest coach in Division I history—Krzyzewski passed mentor Bobby Knight last week—and as strong a following as any team in the country.

Kansas has three national titles, a coach who’s won 83 percent of his games in Self and is right up there with the Blue Devils as a fan favorite.

Duke lost its top three scorers from last season, reloaded with another stellar recruiting class, headed by Austin Rivers. Big, versatile and athletic, the Blue Devils outlasted Tennessee to win their Maui opener, then shot past No. 15 Michigan in the semifinals.

Kansas lost a good chunk of its top end, too, not to mention half of its heralded recruiting class because of eligibility issues.

Still, the Jayhawks have Robinson, Taylor and three of those talented freshmen.

Kansas opened the Maui Invitational by bumping off gritty Georgetown, then outlasted UCLA in the semifinals after nearly blowing all of a 20-point lead.

By getting through one of the toughest brackets ever at the Maui Invitational, these two elite teams set up a championship game that figured to be as sparkling as the Pacific Ocean just outside.

The atmosphere inside quaint Lahaina Civic Center fit the matchup, with the rowdy fans from each team trading chants, cheers and boos.

“This is what the Maui Invitational is all about,” Krzyewski said.

The show lived up to the billing, starting with Rivers’ deep, leg-splaying 3-pointer for the game’s first points and an alley-oop by Miles Plumlee.

Robinson shook off a shot to the face in the first 15 seconds to throw down a pose-after-it dunk and Taylor had a surprising three-point play on his way to 13 first-half points, asking his teammates with an incredulous look if the shot went in.

Kansas also got a lift from Withey, who had 10 points after averaging 6.3 the first four games, to take a 35-31 lead at halftime.

The highlights continued in the second half.

Withey scored on an alley-oop from Taylor, who had an up-and-under reverse layup the next trip. Seth Curry opened with a 3-pointer, Kelly followed with one of his own.

It kept going like that until Thornton provided the knockout blow in a memorable Maui finale.

“Give him credit; I don’t know if he even saw the rim when he took the shot,” Self said. “It was a great shot and that was the ballgame. That was game.”

An amazing one at that.

after signing up to play the Brisbane International in January.

The Jan. 1-8 Brisbane International, which for several years has served as a warmup for the Australian Open later in the month, has been elevated to WTA Premier level.

As well as Williams and Stosur, former top-ranked Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters and Ana Ivanovic will play in Brisbane.

Williams, who counts five Australian Open titles among her 13 Grand Slam wins, will be opening her 2012 season at Brisbane.

“Well, I never played in Brisbane and I’ve never been to Brisbane (but I’ve) heard great things about it,” Williams said in a statement.

“It’s brand new (for me) so all that is going to be really exciting and it will help me with my seeding going into the Australian Open too, so that would be good,” she added.

Clijsters, the reigning Australian Open champion, will be returning to the WTA Tour after being sidelined by a torn abdominal muscle that prevented her defending her U.S. Open title this year.

MILAN (AP)—Italian reports say Anzhi Makhachkala striker Samuel Eto’o is interested in returning to Inter Milan on-loan during the Russian league’s winter break.

Eto’o, who left Inter for Anzhi Makhachkala in a ?27 million ($37.17 million) transfer in August, was spotted driving his Ferrari around downtown Milan earlier this week.

The Gazzetta dello Sport reports Eto’o could play nine Serie A matches with Inter in January and February and one Champions League game if it advances from the group stage.

Anzhi would still have to approve such a move.

Eto’o led Inter with 37 goals in all competitions last season, and Milan has struggled without him, gaining just four points in its opening five league games this season.

BERLIN, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Basel coach Thorsten Fink has said he will take over at Bundesliga club Hamburg SV in the next few days, ending weeks of speculation over the 43-year-old German’s possible move to the former European champions.

“It now happened very quickly. I will not do the morning training (at Basel) today and will have to say goodbye to the team,” he told Sport1 broadcaster on Thursday, adding the Swiss team had given him the go-ahead despite having a contract until 2013.

Bottom-of-the-table Hamburg have been without a coach since the sacking of Michael Oenning last month with interim coach Rodolfo Cardoso’s provisional licence to lead a Bundesliga club having expired after two league games in charge.

Hamburg sporting director Frank Arnesen will coach the team for Sunday’s match at Freiburg.

Officials at the club could not be immediately reached for a comment.

LONDON, Oct 13 (Reuters) – Mexico striker Javier Hernandez has signed a new five-year contract with Manchester United, according to his agent.

The 23-year-old, nicknamed “Chicharito”, made a big impact with United in his first season, scoring 20 goals from 45 appearances in all competitions after arriving in July 2010 from his hometown club Chivas de Guadalajara.

His agent Eduardo Hernandez told ESPN Deportes: “We have renegotiated Javier’s contract and he is now committed for five years with Manchester United.

“The initial contract was good for Manchester and for Javier because it enabled them both to see if they could fit together and if he could achieve what was expected of him.

“Both sides have met their expectations and United were happy to reward Javier after his very good performances last season.

“I will not talk about numbers, but it is a five-year contract. It is a fixed salary with incentives based on the team’s success in each of the different tournaments.

“Javier was not badly paid with his initial contract, but it was his first contract and, with respect, not comparable with the likes of Wayne Rooney and Nani. But today, I can say that the contract has just been signed and everyone is satisfied.”

Hernandez becomes the 13th member of the United first team squad to sign a new deal in the last year.

His excellent form pushed Dimitar Berbatov out of a regular starting place and the Bulgarian striker’s future at Old Trafford is still to be decided. (Reporting by Mike Collett; Editing by John O’Brien)

NEW YORK (AP) — Regular-season games could be at stake when NBA owners and players meet this weekend.

And those might not be all that is lost, Commissioner David Stern warned, without real headway toward a new labor deal.

“All I’d say to that is that there are enormous consequences at play here on the basis of the weekend,” Stern said Wednesday. “Either we’ll make very good progress, and we know what that would mean — we know how good that would be, without putting dates to it — or we won’t make any progress and then it won’t be a question of just starting the season on time, it will be a lot at risk because of the absence of progress.”

Talks between negotiators ended after two days Wednesday so they could return home before summoning their respective bargaining committees to New York for the most important stretch of the lockout. They will meet Friday and are prepared to talk through the weekend if progress toward a new collective bargaining agreement is being made.

There hasn’t been enough of it so far, with the lockout nearly three months complete.

Both Stern and union president Derek Fisher of the Lakers said they are not close, with the Nov. 1 season opener a little more than a month away, and Fisher added the commitment to block out multiple days this weekend “points more toward the calendar than actually being able to measure progress.”

“It points to the realities that we face with our calendar and that if we can’t find a way to get some common ground really, really soon, then the time of starting the regular season at its scheduled date is going to be in jeopardy big-time,” he added.

Training camps already have been postponed and 43 games scheduled for the first week of the preseason have been canceled. The league has said it will make decisions about the remainder of exhibition play as warranted, and those could come shortly.

The league denied an ESPN.com report that Stern planned to threaten players with cancellation of the entire 2011-12 season if there wasn’t progress toward a deal by the end of the weekend.

“It’s simply not true,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank said.

Fisher said some of the league’s biggest names could join the executive committee in Friday’s meeting, and Miami guard Dwyane Wade has committed to attend.

Wade was part of a meeting about labor issues at the 2010 All-Star weekend in Dallas, when players were briefed about owners’ plans for dramatic changes to the league’s salary structure. Owners have been looking to reduce the players’ guarantee of basketball-related income from 57 percent to somewhere in the mid-40s.

“I look forward to learning something that I didn’t learn two years ago,” Wade told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “Hopefully, it’s different information, something that will move us forward. Hopefully we don’t walk out of the meeting back at where we were at the All-Star game two years ago.”

Wade has been in New York for the past couple days for business meetings. When the invitation came to attend Friday’s session, he did not hesitate.

“I’ve talked to a couple guys,” Wade said. “I’m here. … I was going to leave tomorrow, but I’m going to stay in town and go to the next meeting.”

Fisher will brief the players first on the state of the talks.

“I can’t say that common ground is evident, but our desire to try to get there I think is there,” Fisher said. “We still have a great deal of issues to work through, so there won’t be any magic that will happen this weekend to just make those things go away, but we have to put the time in.”

The sides met for about four hours Wednesday, again in small groups.

The full groups have met only once since the lockout began July 1, and it resulted in a setback. Players were prepared to make what union executive director Billy Hunter called a “significant” financial concession, but owners rejected their call to leave the current salary cap structure intact as a condition of the move.

Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said it was time to go back to the larger groups again because “whatever decisions we are now going to be making would be so monumental given the point of the calendar that we’re at.”

Stern wouldn’t comment on reports that owners had softened their insistence on a hard salary cap in favor of adding more restrictions to the current cap system that allows teams to exceed it through use of certain exceptions. Nor would he say if the season could still start on Nov. 1 without any preseason play.

“I shouldn’t deal with hypotheticals here,” he said. “I’m focused on let’s get the two committees in and see whether they can either have a season or not have a season, and that’s what’s at risk this weekend.”

BOSTON (AP) — Move over, Bucky Dent. Step aside, Bill Buckner. Make room, incredibly, for Jonathan Papelbon.

The star closer is the stunned symbol of the latest Red Sox collapse. This one lasted a month and finally ended when there were no more games left to lose.

“This is just maybe the worst situation that I ever have been involved in my whole career,” designated hitter David Ortiz said. “It’s going to stay in a lot of people’s minds for a while.”

No team has blown a bigger lead in September — a nine-game margin through Sept. 3 — and missed the playoffs. Boston went 6-18 after that and did not win consecutive games at any point in the month.

Stunning.

“This is one for the ages, isn’t it?” general manager Theo Epstein said, a blank stare on his face.

Boston began play Wednesday tied with Tampa Bay in the AL wild card race. But the Red Sox lost to the Baltimore Orioles 4-3 when Papelbon, who had blown just one save before this month, blew his second in September, allowing two runs in the ninth.

A few minutes later in St. Petersburg, Fla., Evan Longoria’s solo homer in the 12th inning gave the Rays a hard-to-believe 8-7 win over the New York Yankees after they trailed 7-0 through seven.

Add that to the long list of collapses witnessed by generations of devastated Boston fans.

In 1974, the Red Sox led the AL East by seven games on Aug. 23, but went 7-19 after that and finished third, seven games behind.

In 1978, they squandered all of a nine-game lead they had on Aug. 13, then rebounded to win their last eight games and force a one-game playoff against the Yankees. Boston led that game, 2-0, but the light-hitting Dent hit a three-run homer in a four-run seventh and New York won 5-4.

In 1986, the Red Sox were one strike away from a World Series championship after taking a 5-3 lead in the 10th inning of Game 6 against the Mets. But New York won 6-5 when Mookie Wilson’s grounder went through first baseman Buckner’s legs, allowing the winning run to score. Then, the Mets won Game 7.

Another crushing blow came in 2003 in Game 7 of the AL championship series when another Yankee infielder not known for his power, Aaron Boone, hit Tim Wakefield’s first pitch in the 11th inning for a series-winning homer.

“I was terrified,” Wakefield said later, “that I would be remembered like Buckner.”

Papelbon coughed up another lead in the third and final game of the 2009 AL division series, giving up three runs that handed the Los Angeles Angels a 7-6 win.

“Who knows,” he said after that game, “I may be replaying this on the TV in my weight room in the offseason and give me a little bit motivation for next season.”

Now, he’s in a similar spot — the brilliant closer who allowed the runs that ended his team’s season.

“I don’t think this is going to define me as a player, I don’t think this is going to define this ballclub,” said Papelbon, who can become a free agent this offseason. “I’ve always been one to bounce back. I’m not worried about myself, I’m not worried about anybody else in this clubhouse about bouncing back next year and going after it again.”

There have been plenty of other teams remembered for their late-season swoons — the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951 and 1962, the Chicago Cubs in 1969, the Angels in 1995 and the Mets in 2007.

Four years ago, New York had a seven-game lead on the Philadelphia Phillies with 18 days left but was tied with one game remaining — just as the Red Sox and Rays were tied Wednesday.

The pregame mood in the clubhouse was “quiet, not too much energy. When you lose that big a lead, it’s tough,” Mets shortstop Jose Reyes recalled on Wednesday.

In that finale, Tom Glavine had one of the worst games of his 21-year career and the Mets lost 8-1 to Florida. A few minutes later, their season was over when the Phillies beat Washington 6-1.

“Things started snowballing. We got cold in every aspect of the game — pitching, hitting and defense,” Mets third baseman David Wright said Wednesday. “We had such good players, everybody wanted to be the guy that stepped up and got us out of that. Sometimes when you try too hard, that could have that negative result.”

The Red Sox, desperate to make up for missing the playoffs in 2010, had a roster filled with very good players when this season began — Papelbon, Ortiz, Josh Beckett, Jacoby Ellsbury, Adrian Gonzalez, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Carl Crawford, Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz.

But they opened 2-10, and immediately questions started to surface.

Manager Terry Francona was able to calm the troops, though, and the Red Sox rebounded with an 82-44 mark over the next 4½ months.

And September started like a stroll to the postseason. On the first day of the month, they led the Yankees by 1½ games in the AL East, and the Rays by nine. They started Sept. 4 still nine games ahead of the Rays and one-half game behind the Yankees.

Now the season is over. Francona’s eight-year run as manager may be finished as well after their 7-20 record in September.

To be fair, Francona and some of his current players are responsible for bringing the franchise two World Series titles. It’s not like this is an organization without championships, an outfit known to be cursed. That label was shredded years ago.

But that doesn’t take the sting out of the September Slide.

“What we did this month, it was horrible,” Ortiz said. “I have been in bad situations before, and believe me, when these things happen and you drop down like we did, it stays in your head for a long time.”

Just like Boston’s other collapses.