NBA-LATEST SCORES Carter gets 48 in Magic victory

UNDATED (AP) Vince Carter poured in 48 points in the Orlando Magic's 123-117 victory over the New Orleans Hornets. Carter scored 34 in the second half as the Magic rallied from a 17-point deficit.

Carter was 19 of 27 from the field and grabbed seven rebounds.

Dwight Howard added 25 points and 12 boards as the Magic improved to 35-and-17.

Three Hornets had big nights in defeat. Peja Stojakovic (PAY'-zhah stoy-AH'-koh-vich) had 29 points, followed by Darren Collison and David West with 27 apiece.

T25 Basketball-LATEST SCORES 'Nova wins in Morgantown...Pitt still king of the Steel City

UNDATED (AP) Fourth-ranked Villanova didn't sulk for long following its embarrassing loss at Georgetown on Saturday. The Wildcats continued their road trip to Morgantown and beat the fifth-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers 82-75. Scottie Reynolds scored 19 of his 21 points in the final 13 minutes.

The victory moves the Wildcats into a first-place tie with Syracuse atop the Big East at 10-and-1. Overall, Villanova is 21-and-2. West Virginia led early but never overcame an 11-point halftime deficit and had its six-game winning streak end. West Virginia is 19-and-4 overall and 8-and-3 in the Big East.

In the rest of the AP Top-25: Matt Howard scored 20 points to lead No. 18 Butler past Loyola of Chicago 62-47. The Bulldogs' 13th straight win clinches at least a share of Butler's fourth straight Horizon League regular season title.

No. 25 Pittsburgh is still king of the Steel City. The Panthers won bragging rights by remaining unbeaten against city rival Robert Morris 77-53. Ashton Gibbs scored 20 and Jermaine Dixon added 18.

T25 BASKETBALL-Poll Jayhawks stay on top

UNDATED (AP) Kansas remains the top team in the weekly Associated Press top-25 men's basketball poll, and for the fourth straight week there's a new No. 2. Syracuse moves into the second spot, the highest ranking for the Orange since a six-week stretch at No. 1 in 1989-90.

UNLV moves into the poll at No. 23 giving the Mountain West Conference three teams in the Top 25, one more than the Atlantic Coast Conference.

T25 BASKETBALL-WOMEN'S POLL UConn remains No. 1

UNDATED (AP) For the 38th straight week the University of Connecticut is the No. 1 team in the women's AP basketball poll.

Once again UConn received all 40 first-place votes from the nationwide media panel.

Stanford stays No. 2 with Nebraska up a spot to No. 3. Notre Dame is No. 4 with Tennessee remaining No. 5.

NHL-LATEST SCORES Sharks are the roadies of Hockey

UNDATED (AP) The San Jose Sharks have the best record in the NHL's Western Conference, and they are proving to be road warriors as well. The Sharks won their eighth straight road game by winning at Toronto 3-2. Ryane Clowe scored with less than seven minutes left for the winning goal.

Dan Boyle and Joe Pavelski also had goals for the Sharks. They handed Jean-Sebastien Giguere (zhee-GEHR') his first loss since being acquired from Anaheim on Jan. 31. Giguere had posted consecutive shutouts in his first two games with Toronto.

Evgeni Nabokov made 32 saves for San Jose.

In other hockey action: Mike Richards scored the go-ahead goal with less than eight minutes left in the third period, leading the Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

NHL-CANADIENS GM steps down

MONTREAL (AP) The president of the Montreal Canadiens says Bob Gainey is stepping aside as general manager and being replaced by Pierre Gauthier (GOH'-tyay). Team president Pierre Boivin says that Gainey will remain with the team as a special counsel to Gauthier.

Gauthier was the assistant general manager under Gainey, who starred for the Canadiens between 1973-89 in a Hall of Fame career.

A Montreal native, Gauthier was Anaheim's GM from 1998 through 2002. Before that, he was Ottawa's GM from 1995 through 1998.

SUPER BOWL Saints to go marching in a parade

NEW ORLEANS (AP) In New Orleans, people lined up by the hundreds to buy Monday's Times-Picayune, which in a five-inch headline hollered "AMEN!" from its front page. The Saints' 31-17 Super Bowl victory over Indianapolis was a prayer answered in the struggling city still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Swarms of fans in black and gold greeted the players as they stepped off a chartered plane at the suburban airport, cheering them with "Who Dat!" chants. The Saints, cellar dwellers for decades, delivered not just their first Lombardi trophy but optimism for their citizens.

Thousands of fans lined the road with their Saints jerseys, "Who Dat!" chants, homemade signs, fleur-de-lis garb, face paint and Mardi Gras costumes. Coach Sean Payton held the Lombardi trophy aloft through the sunroof of his car, eliciting wild screams.

At the airport, 37-year-old courier Aaron Washington said "the dawn of a new day" had come. A brass-band version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" blared from his car stereo.

This was just the impromptu welcome home for the Saints. The official parade is Tuesday.

SUPER BOWL-RATINGS Super Bowl had record viewership

NEW YORK (AP) The Super Bowl was watched by more than 106 million people, surpassing the 1983 finale of "M-A-S-H" to become the most-watched program in television history. The Nielsen Co.

estimated Monday that 106.5 million people watched the New Orleans Saints upset the Indianapolis Colts. That beats the "M-A-S-H" finale, which had 105.97 million viewers in an era when there were fewer television sets.

The game also obliterated the previous record viewership for a Super Bowl, last year's game between Arizona and Pittsburgh in which 98.7 million people watched.

SUPER BOWL-COMMERICALS Record number of commercials

NEW YORK (AP) Think Sunday night's Super Bowl seemed like it had a lot of ads? You're right. Commercials took up nearly 48 minutes of the game, the most for any Super Bowl. Research firm Kantar Media says the amount of ads that aired on CBS was nearly 3 minutes longer than last year's total, the previous record holder.

Commercials typically come in 30-second blocks, which sold this year for between $2.5 million and more than $3 million.

MLB-HOT STOVE Hall of Fame number for Vizquel

CHICAGO (AP) The Chicago White Sox are taking Hall of Famer Luis Aparicio's (LOO'-ee AH'-puh-ree-cee-ohz) number 11 out of retirement for newly acquired 11-time Gold Glove winner Omar Vizquel (vihz-KEHL'). A Venezuelan like Aparicio, Vizquel will wear the number as a tribute to his countryman.

Aparicio, the 1956 AL Rookie of the Year with the White Sox and a 10-time All-Star shortstop, was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1984, the same year his number was retired.

In other big league news: Second baseman Skip Schumaker and the St. Louis Cardinals have agreed to a $4.7 million, two-year contract, avoiding an arbitration hearing. Schumaker, who just turned 30, hit .303 with four homers and 35 RBIs in 153 games last year. He also switched from the outfield to second base.

Randy Winn and the New York Yankees have finalized a $1.1 million, one-year contract. The deal, reached Jan. 27, is subject to a physical. That pretty much eliminates any chance Johnny Damon had of returning to the World Series champions.

The Yanks also signed soon-to-be 33-year-old outfielder Marcus Thames (tihmz) to a minor league deal. He hit .252 with 13 homers and 36 RBIs with Detroit last year.

Former major league manager Bob Melvin has been hired as a professional scout by the New York Mets, who also brought back Mookie Wilson as their minor league outfield and base running coordinator.

OLYMPICS No snow...IOC warns the Russians

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) Snow is still being trucked and flown in to Cypress Mountain in an effort to get the Olympic venues ready for the Vancouver Games, which open Friday. The first event scheduled for Cypress Mountain is women's moguls qualifying on Saturday, with the finals to be raced later that day.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) Less than a week before the start of the Winter Olympics, IOC president Jacques Rogge (zhahk ROH'-geh) has expressed concern about the high number of doping cases among Russian biathletes and cross-country skiers. Rogge says the IOC has alerted the Russian authorities and adds: "We expect them to comply."


Nascar-DAYTONA-DANICA Patrick's NASCAR Debut

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) Danica Patrick will make her NASCAR debut this weekend at Daytona International Speedway. The IndyCar star will drive the No. 7 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports in Saturday's Nationwide Series race.

The decision to race at Daytona was made after team officials dissected her stock-car racing debut in the ARCA race at Daytona Saturday.

SAILING-AMERICA'S CUP No go

VALENCIA, Spain (AP) The opening race of the eagerly anticipated showdown between two-time defending champion Alinghi (ah-LING'-gee) of Switzerland and American challenger BMW Oracle Racing was postponed because of light, unsteady wind off the coast of Valencia, Spain.

The giant multihulls USA and Alinghi 5 were towed out of port before dawn to get to the starting line some 28 miles off the Valencia coast. They floated idly for nearly four hours in the cold before the race was called off.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APNP 02-08-10 2210CST | save this article / add to your favorites list