(Eds: With AP Photos.)AP Sports ColumnistThe guys from Dunk City had quite a celebration after putting on the show of the NCAA tournament and sending fans around the nation to their iPads in search of Florida Gulf Coast University.It was the kind of joyful exuberance you love to see in March: a dancing, yelling, water spraying celebration of youth and victory. And right in the middle of it all was...

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) - Serena Williams' match was more than an hour old Monday before she began providing a soundtrack for her comeback."Come on!" she shouted at her fist through gritted teeth. Her demeanor transformed after a listless start, Williams rallied past Dominika Cibulkova in the fourth round of the Sony Open 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.The top-ranked Williams, seeking her sixth Key Biscayne title ...

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Stephen Curry shifted the focus from his troublesome right ankle by putting the Golden State Warriors on firm footing in the Western Conference playoff chase.Curry had 25 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds on the sprained ankle, and the Warriors held off the Los Angeles Lakers 109-103 on Monday night."I've been through a lot with the ankle," Curry said. "This year has bee...

WASHINGTON (AP) - John Wall finished Washington's last game on the bench after getting two technical fouls.He stuck around for the finish of his best NBA performance Monday, scoring 17 of his career-high 47 points in the fourth quarter as the undermanned Wizards beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 107-94."I was just in a zone. I made my first couple of shots and I knew I was in a great rhythm. Ten points ...

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Late in the third quarter, the game was tied and the Miami Heat winning streak seemed to be in jeopardy.Then LeBron James got mad.And then the Orlando Magic had no chance.James finished with 24 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, throwing down a dunk to start a huge, swift run that decided everything and the Heat won their 27th straight game by topping the Magic 108-94 on Mo...

CHICAGO (AP) - Dustin Brown converted his own rebound with 1:27 remaining, lifting the Los Angeles Kings to a 5-4 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday night.Brown's first attempt went off the back of Blackhawks defenseman Johnny Oduya, but it bounced right back to the captain, who sent it past Corey Crawford for his 12th of the season. Anze Kopitar set up the score by winning a faceoff in...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Ryan Anderson scored 23 points, Brian Roberts doubled his career high with 18 assists and the short-handed New Orleans Hornets beat Denver 110-86 on Monday night, ending the Nuggets' 15-game win streak.New Orleans, playing without its starting backcourt of Eric Gordon and Greivis Vasquez, won its third in a row and was in control all the way. The Hornets led by nine at the end o...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In the ultra-scrutinized world of U.S. professional sports, there is still one line that no one has ever crossed.There is still not a single openly gay player in any of America's major professional sports leagues.In a country with openly gay politicians, entertainers and even soldiers, professional sports has become a final frontier.Questions are now being asked why sports, wh...

ZURICH (AP) - FIFA is studying a protest from the Costa Rica soccer federation, which wants a World Cup qualifier against the United States replayed after losing 1-0 in a snowstorm."FIFA will now analyze the content of the letter and next steps will be determined in due course," the governing body said Monday in a statement.The Costa Rican federation said Sunday that the "physical integrity" of pl...

(Eds: Eds: Updates with details, comments. With AP Photos.)EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The Big Ten has a nation-high four teams still in the NCAA tournament, bolstering its season-long boast that its conference is the best in college basketball.The Big Ten has combined to win 10 games so far, its best showing through the round of 32 - ever.And, it could get even better.An All-Big Ten Final Four is ...

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - The moment was vintage Tiger Woods, and so was his reaction.Seconds after Rickie Fowler made a 40-foot birdie putt on the 12th hole to pull within two shots of the lead, Woods posed over his 25-foot birdie putt until he swept the putter upward in his left hand and marched toward the cup as it dropped for a birdie.Fowler, standing on the edge of the green, turned with a slight ...

The ability to make long putts (and short ones, for that matter) is one of the strangest and most mysterious forces in all of sports. It takes obvious talents and skills, of course — touch and feel and balance and nerve and an ability to see paths through the grass. But it takes something on top of that, something harder to describe. The young Tiger Woods had that something. Well, the young Tiger ...

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Tiger Woods is back to No. 1 in the world with a game that looks as good as it ever has.Woods tied a PGA Tour record Monday by winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational for the eighth time. He never let anyone closer than two shots in the final round at Bay Hill, closing with a 2-under 70 for a two-shot victory over Justin Rose.Next up is the Masters in two weeks, when Woods will...

CARLSBAD, Calif. (AP) - Beatriz Recari had three-putted No. 18 in regulation and again on the first hole of a playoff with I.K. Kim as dusk approached Sunday.Here she was again, with a chance to win the Kia Classic.This one was true enough that Recari began her victory celebration even before her 18-foot birdie putt from the fringe rolled into the cup.The 25-year-old from Pamplona, Spain, raised h...

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) -Sergio Garcia provided an amazing highlight Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational when he climbed into an oak tree and played a shot back out to the fairway."First, I went up there to identify the ball and then saw that I could make the shot with just one hand," Garcia said on his website. "Luckily, it went well."The rest of the day did not.Garcia withdrew from the tourna...

GOODYEAR, Ariz. (AP) - Mark Berry's conversation with his sister Michelle may have saved his life.The Cincinnati Reds third base coach has been diagnosed with cancer on his tonsils and neck lymph nodes. The 50-year-old traveled to Cincinnati on Wednesday to have a biopsy of his lymph nodes, which was positive."I first noticed in early December. My tonsils swelled up," Berry said. "I hurt like a co...

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Tyler Kennedy scored 2:33 into overtime and the Pittsburgh Penguins ran their winning streak to 12 games with a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday night.Sidney Crosby tied things late in regulation and Kennedy won it with his fifth goal of the season, a wrist shot from the left circle.Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 27 shots for Pittsburgh, which remained unbeaten in Ma...

FONTANA, Calif. (AP) - Denny Hamlin was airlifted to a hospital Sunday after colliding with Joey Logano on the last lap while NASCAR's newest rivals raced for the win in a thrilling finish at Fontana.And Logano has even bigger worries than his burgeoning feud with Hamlin, whose team expects him to be fine: Three-time champion Tony Stewart got into a post-race shoving match with Logano, threatening...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Amanda Kessel scored twice, and the Gophers breezed by Boston University 6-3 on Sunday to finish the first perfect season in the 13-year history of NCAA women's hockey.Mira Jalosuo, Hannah Brandt, Milica McMillen and Rachel Ramsey also scored for the Gophers (41-0), who won their second straight national championship - and fourth overall - and stretched their record winning stre...

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) - Mired in a marathon game midway through the opening set, Maria Sharapova wore down her opponent with characteristic resolve and relentlessness, winning the last point without hitting a shot.That put Sharapova ahead to stay, and she beat fellow Russian Elena Vesnina on a muggy, 85-degree afternoon at the Sony Open, 6-4, 6-2.The No. 3-seeded Sharapova moved into the fourth ...