Clark lifts No. 12 Georgetown over St. John's

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/12/2012 - Washington, D.C. (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jason Clark struggled mightily from the floor, but provided two key baskets late, lifting No. 12 Georgetown to a 71-61 wire-to-wire win against St. John's.

Clark netted 11 points on just 1-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc while Nate Lubick had seven points, eight rebounds, five assists and three blocks for the Hoyas (19-5, 9-4 Big East), who were coming off Wednesday's overtime loss at second-ranked Syracuse.

The freshman duo of D'Angelo Harrison and Moe Harkless kept the Red Storm (10-15, 4-9) in the contest. Harrison nailed five three-pointers en route to 24 points while Harkless poured in 20 to go with eight boards. St. John's has lost three consecutive games and eight of its last 10.

Wwwmysteries NCAA Basketball Betting News

<< Star-spangled Sunday: Rangers stay hot, clip Capitals
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Brandon Prust's short-handed goal early in the third period proved to be the difference, as the Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers took down the Washington Capitals, 3-2. Fresh off a hat trick ag

<< Hertha fires Skibbe after five matches
Berlin, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Michael Skibbe's tenure as Hertha Berlin coach is over after just five matches. Hertha Berlin lost all five matches since Skibbe replaced Markus Babbel, and now sits in 15th place and just two points

<< Celtics' Bass to miss time with knee injury
Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Boston Celtics forward Brandon Bass will miss at least 10 days of action due to a knee injury. Bass, who could miss up to two weeks, is averaging 11.6 points and 6.1 rebounds in 25 games (five starts) th

<< Tipsarevic propels Serbs into Davis Cup quarters
Nis, Serbia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Serbia needed only one victory on Sunday against Sweden, and world No. 9 Janko Tipsarevic did not waste any time in the first reverse singles rubber as he helped the 2010 champions beat Sweden

<< Melzer lifts Austria past Russia, into Davis Cup QFs
Wiener Neustadt, Austria (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jurgen Melzer was the hero on Sunday, as he straight-setted Alex Bogomolov Jr. to propel Austria past Russian and into its first Davis Cup quarterfinal since 1995. The Austrians led b

Duke holds off Florida State >>
Tallahassee, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Haley Peters scored 18 points and the fifth-ranked Duke Blue Devils held off the Florida State Seminoles, 67-57. Elizabeth Williams and Shay Selby added 13 and 11 points, respectively, for the Blu

Michigan uses balanced attack to beat Illinois >>
Ann Arbor, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Tim Hardaway, Jr. led a balanced attack with 15 points, as No. 22 Michigan downed Illinois, 70-61, at Crisler Arena. Trey Burke added 14 points, Evan Smotrycz had 13 and Zack Novak totaled 12 points wit

Bryant's late shot gets Lakers past Raptors >>
Toronto, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kobe Bryant broke away from the double team of James Johnson and DeMar DeRozan while Metta World Peace led him perfectly into the right corner on the inbounds pass. Bryant pulled up along the right base

Bordeaux edges Lille in nine-goal thriller >>
Lille, France (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ludovic Obraniak scored 3 minutes into injury time and Bordeaux escaped Stadium Lille Metropole with a 5-4 win over Lille on Sunday in Ligue 1, despite blowing a three-goal second-half lead. Nicolas Maurice-B

Ronaldo's hat trick lifts Real over 10-man Levante >>
Madrid, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat trick after Levante had Vicente Iborra sent off, and Real Madrid won 4-2 at the Bernabeu on Sunday to open a 10-point lead atop La Liga. Gustavo Cabral fired fourth-place

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