Huskies edge Cal to take Pac-10 crown

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/13/2010 - Los Angeles, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Quincy Pondexter had 18 points to lead Washington to a 79-75 win over California, as the Huskies won their second Pac-10 Conference Tournament title.

Isaiah Thomas had 16 points and Venoy Overton added 10 points and five boards for the Huskies (24-9), who won their only other title in 2005 and received the automatic berth the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

Theo Robertson had 25 points and five boards while Jamal Boykin added 20 points and 14 rebounds for the Golden Bears (23-10), who have never won a Pac-10 Tournament title.

With the score tied at 66-all, Jerome Randle gave Cal the lead with two from the line, but Elston Turner put Washington on top. He sank a layup moments before knocking down a three for a 71-68 Huskies lead with 3 1/2 minutes to play.

A Robertson turnover was converted into two points by Justin Holiday, expanding Washington's lead to two possessions.

Patrick Christopher answered with a three, but two Tyreese Breshers foul shots followed by a Pondexter jumper gave Washington a 77-71 lead with a minute left.

On the next Cal possession, Randle pulled up for a long three-ball and made it a one-touch game with 50.1 seconds to play.

Following a timeout, the Huskies ate up as much time as they could, but a turnover by Pondexter resulted in California taking the ball downcourt and calling timeout with 15.2 seconds to play.

Turner was called for a foul and Randle hit one of his shots from the line with 4.4 seconds to play to make it a two-point game. But Overton hit both his attempts with 2.1 seconds left to seal the win.

Washington built a seven-point lead early in the second half, when the teams traded a number of runs. The Huskies were ahead 59-51, but moments later, a Boykin jumper kick-started a 12-0 burst that he completed with another basket for a 64-61 lead with just over eight minutes to play.

A few minutes later, Christopher made a jumper, but Matthew Bryan-Amaning followed with a basket, and a three-ball from Overton tied the game with just under five minutes to play.

The lead went back and forth through the first several minutes of the first half, but the Golden Bears were ahead 25-22 with 10 1/2 minutes to play thanks to a Robertson layup.

Pondexter scored eight straight Huskies points to help them go in front, and a Thomas jumper had Washington up 41-37 at the break.

Game Notes

It was only the Bears' second appearance in the final, as they lost to UCLA in 2006...California holds a 77-76 lead in the series...Randle had 12 points while Christopher had 11...Washington shot 52.7 percent while California hit 41.7 percent of its shots.

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FOOTBALL TRASH TALK

NFL Football Trash Talk

Trash talk has a place in every competitive endeavor (except baseball; those stirrup-wearers are too busy chewing on their sunflower seeds and their supplements to worry about what their opponents are doing).

Fantasy sports is no exception. Any intelligent discussion of the subject would probably start with a thesis statement or a definition of terms. Thankfully, this wont be an intelligent discussion.

Let me just say that I am happy to take a place in this space alongside my talented colleagues, even our commissioner. (You should see how she bleats like a demented paper boy about league fees on our fantasy site).

Trash talking, I would argue, is primarily about amusing your friends, their sheeplike demeanors and sloping foreheads notwithstanding. The best place I have found for football trash talking is at www.SportsAlarm.com.

Beyond the entertainment factor, though, I would recognize that the sophomoric ritual has one advantage, when properly applied. It magnifies your fantasy triumphs and mitigates your fantasy failures by transforming the eventual point total into an afterthought. Winning makes it seem like your opponent really is a truss-owning, lapel-pin-wearing nitwit. And in defeat, trash talk can be the air bag to break the fall from your hyperbolic heights. The plug-necked yahoos on your team, you can say, will be sacking groceries by the end of the season.

The best trash talk, in my view, is layered and nuanced. And it doesnt focus only on your opponents team. It picks apart your opponent. The idea is to create a shock-and-awe-scale blizzard of nonsense, and the goal is to make your opponent drop his hands from his keyboard in exasperation.

What team does your opponent root for? Accuse a Giants fan of having a Joe Namath pillowcase. Wheres your opponent from? Give a look of concern no matter his reply, then say, I'll try to type slower for you next time. Is your opponent into politics? Label everyone a tax-and-spend corporate shill.

Cap all that with a liberal application of irrelevance. For instance, dont just conclude by saying your opponent is a twerp who drafts like my grandmother. Say that your opponent is a sweater-wearing, eyebrow-plucking twerp who drafts his team about as well as Zsa Zsa Gabor gave acceptance speeches at the Oscars. By the time your foe makes sense of that, his starting running back will have had puppies.

But what about you? Hmm? Recall a memorable slam? Have a tried-and-true technique? Know someone who seems impervious to insult? Take a moment and tells us about it. Put together some (fit-for-publication) thoughts. You wont be too busy returning phone messages from your friends, Im sure, to reply.

In addition to the trash talking, the Sports Alarm has a huge gallery of high resolution pictures of beautiful women and models in bikinis. The most popular models are: Lindsay Lohan, Carrie Underwood, Alessandra Ambrosio, and Paris Hilton.