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By DAVE SKRETTA, AP Basketball Writer Gonzaga and UCLA continued their hold on the top two spots in The Associated Press Top 25 college basketball poll on Monday, setting the stage for their highly anticipated showdown this week, while Purdue and Duke barged their way into the top five. The Bulldogs (4-0) had an easy week with wins over Alcorn State and Bellarmine and received 55 first-place votes from the 61-person medial panel that regularly covers college basketball.Newly Jordans The Bruins (4-0) received five first-place votes after blowing out Long Beach State and North Florida last week to head to Las Vegas with some momentum. Gonzaga played Central Michigan and UCLA faced Bellarmine on Monday night in the Good Sam Empire Classic. Then, the nation's top two...

By DAVE SKRETTA, AP Basketball Writer KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Paul Pierce and Antawn Jamison forged a lasting friendship when they arrived in St. Louis in April 1995 for the McDonald's All-American Game, the traditional showcase for the best high school basketball players in the country. It lasted through their college years, when Pierce starred at Kansas and Jamison for fellow blueblood North Carolina. And it endured through long NBA careers, Pierce's spent mostly with Hoka Shoes Boston and Jamison having bounced around the league. They rekindled it this weekend, too, when Pierce and Jamison led a seven-man class that included Hersey Hawkins and the late Len Bias that was inducted into the National College Basketball Hall of Fame. “We played each other ...

NEW YORK (AP) — David Ortiz, Ryan Howard, Tim Lincecum and Alex Rodriguez are among 13 first-time candidates on the Hall of Fame ballot of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, joining 17 holdovers. Steroids-tainted stars Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens make their 10th and final appearance on the BBWAA ballot along with Curt Schilling, who fell 16 votes shy of the necessary 75% in last year’s balloting. Schilling appeared on 71.1% of ballots, Bonds 61.8% and Clemens 61.6%. Justin Morneau, Jimmy Rollins and Jake Peavy also are new to the ballot along with Carl Crawford, Prince Fielder, Joe Nathan, Jonathan Papelbon, A.J. Pierzynski and Mark Teixeira, the Hall and BBWAA said Monday. Holdovers include Bobby Abreu, Mark Buehrle, Todd Helton, Tim Hudson, Torii H...

By DOUG FEINBERG, AP Basketball Writer PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas (AP) — Dawn Staley's top-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks turned up their defense in the fourth quarter to turn away UConn. Aliyah Boston had 22 points and 15 rebounds and the Gamecocks held the No. 2 Huskies to three points in the final 10 minutes of a 73-57 victory in the championship game of the inaugural Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. “Our players are determined. They are resilient,” said Staley, Ecco Women's Shoes  South Carolina's Hall of Fame coach. “We knew exactly what we had to do especially on the defensive side of the ball. We had to disrupt. UConn’s a team that's a well-oiled machine. If you allow them to run their stuff, they've made teams look stupid. We had the personnel to disrupt and ...

By DOUG FERGUSON, AP Golf Writer The PGA Tour is raising purses even higher in five of its biggest events, with two FedEx Cup playoff events now offering $15 million in a schedule that pushes prize money closer to the $500 million mark this year. The increases, which include $12 million purses in the three invitational tournaments, were approved at a board meeting two weeks ago in Houston and outlined in a memo PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan sent to players on Monday. “We are positioned to grow faster in the next 10 years than Hey Dude Shoes we have at any point in our existence,” Monahan said in the memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press. Monahan said the tour’s forecast is for 55% of revenue going back to the players in prize money, bonus ...

By TOM WITHERS, AP Sports Writer CLEVELAND (AP) — Doug Jones, a five-time All-Star reliever who had his best success closing for the Cleveland Indians, has died. He was 64. Jones spent seven seasons with the Indians and ranks third on the club's career saves list with 129. The club, which officially transitioned to Cleveland Guardians last week, said Monday it was “saddened by the loss of one of our organization's all-time greats.” The team said Jones died in Arizona. A cause was not immediately known. One of Jones' former Indians teammates, pitcher Greg Swindell, Skechers Womens Outlet  posted on Twitter that his friend had died. Swindell called Jones “one hell of a pitcher.” Known as “Jonesy,” Jones pitched in the majors for 16 seasons with Clevel...