minutes by light rain on an unseasonably cool night -- eve

Louisville, KY (SportsNetwork.com) - Jockeying for position in the top-heavy ACC, the 13th-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels will take on the 10th-ranked Louisville Cardinals in a key conference battle at the KFC Yum! Center on Saturday. Roy Williams Tar Heels come in with plenty of momentum, as they have won six straight games. UNC was most recently in action on Monday as the Heels knocked off Syracuse in a shootout, 93-83. With the win, North Carolina moved to 7-1 in conference play, good for third place behind No. 2 Virginia and No. 8 Notre Dame. Rick Pitinos Cardinals arent far behind, as they are sporting a 5-2 mark in their first season in the ACC. Louisville has won two straight and three of its last four games, including Wednesdays 81-72 victory at Boston College. North Carolina holds a 10-3 advantage in the all-time series with Louisville and is seeking the regular-season sweep after earning a hard-fought 72-71 decision over Louisville in Chapel Hill on Jan. 10. North Carolina trailed Syracuse by five points at halftime, but caught fire after the break, shooting .621 from the field and rolling up 58 points over the final 20 minutes of action to earn the 10-point decision. Star guard Marcus Paige came up huge in the win, posting 22 points, six rebounds and eight assists. Kennedy Meeks, Nate Britt and Brice Johnson each poured in 17 points, with Johnson completing a double-double with 11 rebounds in the win. That kind of offensive firepower is nothing new for North Carolina this season, as the team is averaging a robust 80.0 ppg and doing so on a solid .468 shooting. UNC also likes to enforce its will on the glass, where it outrebounds foes by more than 10 caroms per game (+10.1). Scoring depth is apparent with four of the five starters averaging double figures. Paige is the straw that stirs the drink in Chapel Hill though, as he paces UNC in scoring (14.1 ppg), assists (4.2 apg) and steals (30). Meeks (13.0 ppg, 8.3 rpg) and Johnson (12.2 ppg, 7.9 rpg) are a potent one-two punch in the frontcourt. Justin Jackson (10.0 ppg) and J.P. Tokoto (9.0 ppg) add even more options. The Cardinals will attempt to slow down the Tar Heels with their stingy defensive play. It has been a staple with Louisville this season, as the team holds opponents to a mere 58.5 ppg. Opponents are shooting under 40 percent from the floor (.373) and under 30 percent from behind the arc (.293). The Cardinals have four double-digit scoring averages on the roster as well, with the best of the bunch being sophomore guard Terry Rozier and his 18.1 ppg (third in the ACC). Junior Montrezl Harrell is the teams top playmaker in the frontcourt, as he shoots .578 from the floor and averages 14.9 points and 8.9 rebounds per game (fifth in the ACC). Chris Jones (13.4 ppg) and Wayne Blackshear (11.8 ppg) provide support. Despite shooting a sterling .580 from the floor in the game, Louisville was unable to really distance itself from Boston College until the end. It was the guard play which made the difference, as Rozier and Jones combined for 51 points in the victory. Jones was a stellar 10-of-13 from the floor and led all scorers with 28 points. Rozier poured in 23 points, while Harrell and Blackshear checked in with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Adidas Boone Jenner Jersey . The deals were announced on Friday. Beckham will receive $4.175 million in base salary, while De Aza will receive $4.25 million. Beckham hit .267 with five home runs and 24 RBIs over 103 games last season, his fifth with the White Sox. Adidas Zach Werenski Jersey . -- Its been 21 years since Joe Gibbs Racing celebrated its only Daytona 500 victory. http://www.cheapbluejacketsjerseys.com/?tag=adidas-josh-anderson-jersey . For the Miami Heat, that was outstanding news. LeBron James scored the last of his 32 points on a layup that put Miami up for good with 11. Scott Harrington Jersey . On Wednesday, Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas hit back. In a passionate defence of himself and the London clubs medical staff, the Portuguese coach rebuked the "incompetent people" who have attacked Tottenham for allowing Lloris to continue playing after being briefly knocked unconscious against Everton on Sunday. Adidas David Savard Jersey . Browns advice worked. Irving scored 20 points, including seven in the fourth quarter, and Cleveland defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 88-82 Saturday night. Irving made his first shot of the night on a layup a little over three minutes into the game.MINNEAPOLIS -- Yoenis Cespedes knew how to pace himself in this rain-delayed home run derby, drawn out further by a new format. The Oakland Athletics outfielder simply trusted his own strength. Cespedes became the first repeat winner of the All-Star skills contest in 15 years, powering his way past Cincinnatis Todd Frazier 9-1 in the final round Monday night. Ken Griffey Jr. took the title in 1998 and 1999. With a serious, determined look on his face the whole time, Cespedes finished with 28 homers. That was four fewer than last year, when he beat Washingtons Bryce Harper 9-8 in the final round. The 28-year-old Cuban even told Athletics teammate Josh Donaldson he was doing this wrong. "I knew he wasnt going to win because his mentality was to take the ball out of the stadium, and I told him that is not the way you win this competition," Cespedes said through an interpreter. He added: "Im somebody whos very conscious of the power that I have. So I dont need to put more of a swing or more of an effort in order to hit a home run. I just have to look for a good pitch and put a good swing on it, and it usually takes care of it." Cespedes saved his best for last, a 452-foot blast to the third deck above left field that officially measured as the longest of the night. As third base coach Mike Gallego again pitched to Cespedes, who went deep 32 times in last years derby at Citi Field in New York. Gallegos arm looked nearly out of gas by the final round, which started after 10:30 p.m. local time. "Maybe next year Ill put up a better showing at the end," Frazier said. "Now that I understand, maybe Ill do a couple of more push-ups." Cespedes topped Torontos Jose Bautista, and Frazier surprisingly beat Miamis Giancarlo Stanton in the semifinals. Bautista and Stanton each earned a bye to the semifinals under the new bracketed format, which gave each player seven outs and pitted the survivors from each side in the final round. Bautista went deep 10 times in the first round, keeping the fans in the second deck above left field on their toes, and Stanton hit six. That was all for him, though. After a long wait for his next turn, Stanton put up a zero in the semifinals and let Frazier advance with only one. Oh, but Stantons six were beauties. One landed in the thirrd deck above left field, about a half-dozen rows shy of the very top of the ballpark.dddddddddddd Another reached the second deck above the centre field batters eye, a place never touched by a ball during an actual game here. Bautista, the AL captain, has 11 home runs in 14 regular-season games here, the most by any visiting player. Thats only one less than Twins cornerstone Joe Mauer, who has played 284 career games at Target Field. Cespedes, who beat Donaldson in a tiebreaker after each finished with three in the first round, breezed by Baltimores Adam Jones in the second round. Frazier topped NL captain Troy Tulowitzki on the other side. Colorados Justin Morneau, the fan favourite after 10-plus years and four All-Star games for the host Twins, was eliminated in the first round. Morneau returned to his roots, and so did the event itself, considering the inaugural contest was held at the Metrodome before the 1985 All-Star game. Admission then was a mere $2, slightly less than the $200-and-up price tags on the derby these days. The original form was actually a 1960s-era television show, featuring sluggers like Harmon Killebrew of the Twins. Morneau is from New Westminster, B.C. Delayed 54 minutes by light rain on an unseasonably cool night -- even for Minnesota -- with a start-time temperature of 59 degrees, the contest began with a rainbow protruding from the clouds beyond left-centre field that framed this limestone-encased ballpark that opened in 2010. Frazier went first, and while he went deep twice, he didnt quite reach the rainbow. Neither did Twins second baseman Brian Dozier, the smallest of the participants who had the backing of the crowd with chants of his last name during his two-homer round. "Even my brother he said he got chills," said Dozier, one of seven first-time participants. His brother, Clay, was his pitcher. The loudest roars were for Morneau, the only left-hander in the event his year. His third derby appearance brought the fans to their feet with AC/DCs "Thunderstruck" blaring in the background, and he hit two in the first round before Frazier beat him in the three-swing tiebreaker. The only player shut out? Dodgers sparkplug Yasiel Puig. He was the first homerless participant since Robinson Cano two years ago in Kansas City. ' ' '