Collison leads UCLA past Oregon

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

01/04/2009 - Eugene, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Darren Collison scored 22 points and had nine assists to lead the 12th-ranked UCLA Bruins over the host Oregon Ducks, 83-74, Sunday at McArthur Court.

Josh Shipp was 5-for-6 from beyond the arc and scored 17 points to help UCLA complete a sweep of its trip to Oregon. UCLA (12-2, 2-0) opened Pac-10 play on Friday against Oregon State with a 69-46 victory.

Oregon (6-8, 0-2) was led by Tajuan Porter's 24 points and Joevan Catron's 13 points. Oregon also opened the Pac-10 portion of its schedule on Friday, falling to USC, 83-62, in front of a home crowd.

With 15:51 remaining in the opening half Oregon closed the Bruins' lead to 7-6, but UCLA built the advantage to 17-8 with 12:29 left in the half. The Ducks came back to trail 18-15 with 9:17 remaining, but the Bruins pushed their lead to 30-20 with 5:20 left and were able to reach halftime leading 40-29.

The second half saw Oregon cut the deficit to 44-39 with 16:59 to play, and the Ducks trailed 46-43 after Porter's layup with 14:48 left. Kamyron Brown's three-pointer made the score 51-48 with 12:36 to go.

Shipp drained a three with 8 1/2 minutes left to put UCLA up by seven, but Porter's three with 6:13 left cut the Oregon deficit to four, 64-60.

Shipp nailed another three-pointer with 4:16 remaining to give UCLA a 69-60 advantage, and Collison completed a three-point play with 2:50 left to make the score 72-60.

Oregon got to within 77-70 with a minute to play, but the Ducks took too long to get off their shots, and the Bruins made their free throws down the stretch, allowing UCLA to take the victory.

Game Notes

UCLA leads the series with Oregon 80-25 and has won four straight versus the Ducks...The win was the eighth in a row for the Bruins this season...UCLA's Alfred Aboya fouled out with 2:44 remaining to finish with 12 points, and teammate Nikola Dragovic also had 12...Oregon's Lekendric Longmire added 10 points.

Wwwnextmedia NCAA Basketball Betting News

<< Markov sends Habs past Panthers in shootout
Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Andrei Markov tallied the lone shootout goal, and the Montreal Canadiens topped the Florida Panthers, 6-5, at Bell Centre. After the first five shooters were all stopped, the newly-named All-Star starte

<< Eagles TE Smith inactive vs. Vikings
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Eagles tight end L.J. Smith is inactive for Philadelphia's wild card game against the Minnesota Vikings due to a shoulder injury. Smith was limited in practice this week and listed as questionable

<< Beckham set for Milan debut
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti is seriously considering handing David Beckham an immediate debut when Serie A resumes on Jan. 11. Beckham has joined the Rossoneri on loan from Major League Soccer side,

<< Jamison, Wizards sink Cavs
Washington, DC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Antawn Jamison recorded 26 points and 13 rebounds, and nailed the go-ahead jumper with 10.5 seconds to play as the host Washington Wizards held off the Cleveland Cavaliers, 80-77, at Verizon Center. The

<< Vikings DT Pat Williams out vs. Eagles
Minneapolis, MN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Minnesota Vikings defensive tackle Pat Williams is inactive for the team's wild card playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Williams missed the last two games of the regular season wit

Real tops Villarreal on Robben's winner >>
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Arjen Robben scored the lone goal Sunday as defending La Liga champions Real Madrid topped Villarreal 1-0. Madrid has now won three of four in all competitions to climb into the top four of the league t

Pistons escape LA with 12th straight win over Clippers >>
Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rodney Stuckey continued to shine for the shorthanded Pistons, scoring 24 points, as Detroit narrowly edged the Clippers, 88-87, at Staples Center. Tayshaun Prince provided 20 points and seven

Calgary recalls Lundmark from Quad City >>
Calgary, AB (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Calgary Flames recalled forward Jamie Lundmark from the Quad City Flames of the American Hockey League, it was announced on Sunday. After 35 games with the Quad City Flames this season, Lundmar

Bears' Woods, French to coach at All-Star Classic >>
Springfield, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Hershey Bears head coach Bob Woods and assistant coach Mark French have been named the coaches of the Canadian American Hockey League All-Star team for the 2009 All-Star Classic on Jan. 25-26 i

Extra Mayo! Memphis ends losing streak to Dallas >>
Memphis, TN (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - O.J. Mayo scored 21 points and grabbed six rebounds, as the Memphis Grizzlies topped Dallas, 102-82, to snap a 13-game losing against the Mavericks. Coming into the contest, Memphis had lost 18 of t

COLLEGE FOOTBALL BETTING

NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

Get free Sports Betting lines RSS feeds from top rated online sportsbook MySportsbook.com