Memphis

P.J. Tucker had 24 points and 13 rebounds and Daniel Gibson added 18 points as No. 15 Texas beat fourth-ranked Memphis, 69-58, yesterday, snapping the host Tigers' eight-game winning streak. The Longhorns (11-2), ranked No. 2 for the first five polls of the season before consecutive losses, held Memphis almost 30 points below its average and sealed the win by going 17 of 19 from the free throw line over the final 8:34. Duke 84, Bucknell 50 -- Shelden Williams stopped a rare drought early in the second half with 8 of his 23 points, J.J. Redick finished with 22 despite some poor shooting, and the...

The late bass player Donald "Duck" Dunn was honored Wednesday in the city where he performed on some of R&B's best-known hits, with musicians leading a lively funeral march down Memphis' Beale Street. Musicians played trumpets, saxophones and drums — and more than 100 fans walked and danced — during the New Orleans-style march to remember Dunn, a famed session musician who died May 13 at age 70 while on tour in Japan. Musicians played "When the Saints Go Marching In" and "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" as they ambled past bars along the street, known as a capital of blues and...

MEMPHIS -- Eric Shelton scored his fourth touchdown with 37 seconds left, and No. 14 Louisville held off Memphis, 56-49, last night. The Cardinals (6-1, 4-0 Conference USA) and their high-powered offense did just enough to keep the Tigers (5-3, 2-3) from beating a ranked opponent for the first time since 1996. Shelton, who ran for 136 yards on 14 carries, scored three rushing touchdowns in the second half, and Stefan LeFors added three touchdown passes. LeFors, the nation's most efficient passer, wasn't as sharp as his 76 percent season completion rate, but he still hit on 24 of 34 attempts...

Blake Griffin woke up Monday with his sprained left knee not feeling worse, but not really much better. Rest is the only remedy, a luxury the Los Angeles Clippers don't have, and doctors guess he might miss two weeks if this were the regular season. Griffin? He says he will play in Game 1 on Tuesday night against the San Antonio Spurs. Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro is making no such guarantees. "I don't know yet," Del Negro said Monday. "I'll make that decision tomorrow after shootaround, after I talk to the trainer.

Justin Leonard thought he won on the final hole of regulation only to see his ball go left of the cup. Then he was a foot away from victory on the first playoff hole. Luckily, his ball rolled one last turn into the cup on the next hole. Leonard won the Stanford St. Jude Championship at Memphis in a playoff yesterday, holing a 19-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole to beat Masters champion Trevor Immelman and Robert Allenby. Leonard blew a one-stroke lead with two holes left, but won on the 150-yard, par-3 11th, when Immelman pushed his birdie attempt.

Memphis coach John Calipari doesn't hesitate to say what players love to hear. "We're a team trying to play fast," he said. The 12th-ranked Tigers did just that yesterday in a 77-65 victory over Oklahoma in the opening-round of the Maui Invitational in Lahaina, Hawaii. The Tigers were far from perfect, committing 18 turnovers and missing 17 free throws, but their speed and balanced attack made life miserable for Oklahoma, which had 21 turnovers. "Memphis did a great job of spreading the floor and driving.

Texas-El Paso coach Tony Barbee almost made his years coaching at Memphis pay off. Luckily for the top-ranked Tigers, they had enough talent to overcome the inside knowledge and a horrendous shooting performance. Chris Douglas-Roberts scored with 2:31 left to break a 60-all tie, keeping Memphis as the country's only undefeated team with a 70-64 home victory yesterday over UTEP. "A lot of how we played is because of Tony's preparation," Memphis coach John Calipari said of Barbee, who was his assistant from 2000-06 and played for Calipari at the University of Massachusetts.

MEMPHIS - No. 1 no more. And the perfect season is gone, too. Tyler Smith hit a turnaround jumper in the lane with 26.5 seconds left and No. 2 Tennessee knocked off the nation's last unbeaten team, edging top-ranked Memphis, 66-62, last night. Tennessee (25-2) won on a night when star guard Chris Lofton scored only 7 points, beating the Tigers with a dominating performance on the boards. Lofton did finish it off, though, hitting a couple of free throws with 4.5 seconds to go after Memphis intentionally missed at the line.

Memphis and Louisville will renew their longtime rivalry in the 2011 Basketball Hall of Fame Shootout. The game, which was announced by Basketball Hall of Fame officials in Springfield, Mass., on Wednesday, will be at 4 p.m. Dec. 17 at Louisville’s KFC Yum! Center and will be broadcast nationally by CBS. It will be the 86th meeting between the two teams, with the Cardinals holding a 51-34 advantage. The Cardinals and Tigers will meet again in the 2012-13 season at FedExForum in Memphis.

MEMPHIS — Jurors took less than two hours yesterday to convict a man of murdering his brother and five others, including two children, in a bloody rampage in a Memphis home two years ago. Jessie Dotson, 35, faces the death penalty for one of the city’s worst mass slayings. He showed no emotion, looking straight ahead as the verdict was announced. The jury now will decide whether he should be executed by injection. Jurors concluded that Dotson shot and killed his brother, Cecil, during a 2008 argument and then went after everyone else in the house with his gun and a knife to eliminate...

Two residents of a Tennessee assisted living center plan to marry on Sunday, more than 60 years after they first met. The State Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/IYjAFw) that Peggy Schuster and the Rev. Henry Freund were college sweethearts in the early 1950s. Freund said the couple often sat together in class at Rhodes College in Memphis (then Southwestern) and frequently dated. But they eventually went their separate ways and married other people. While attending a church meeting in Memphis in 2001, Freund learned that Schuster had been widowed.

The Memphis Grizzlies have the Los Angeles Clippers frustrated and hurting. Blake Griffin sprained his left knee, Chris Paul went to the Clippers' bench with a sore right hip and another late comeback fizzled against a Memphis team that got back to its bruising, grinding style to stave off elimination with a 92-80 victory over Los Angeles on Wednesday night. Game 6 in the first-round Western Conference series is in Los Angeles on Friday night. If needed, Game 7 will be Sunday in Memphis.

O.J. Mayo scored 10 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, and the Grizzlies bounced back to beat the Los Angeles Clippers, 105-98, Wednesday night in Memphis. The Grizzlies blew a 27-point lead in losing Game 1 Sunday night and letting the Clippers grab home-court advantage in the best-of-seven, first-round Western Conference series. They got back to their physical style and evened the series. Game 3 is Saturday in Los Angeles. Rudy Gay scored 21 points as Memphis showed off its depth with six players reaching double figures.

Charles "Skip" Pitts, the longtime Memphis guitar player for Isaac Hayes whose distinctive sound helped define soul and make "Shaft" cool, has died. He was 65. Tim Sampson, communication director with the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, said Pitts died Tuesday in Memphis after a long struggle with cancer. Pitts was responsible for the unforgettable wah-wah pedal guitar sound on Hayes' "Theme from Shaft," the '70s Blaxploitation film that remains a memorable moment in American popular culture — mostly due to the enduring popularity of the song.

Sir Isaac Newton taught us that mass times acceleration equals force. When a 6-foot-3-inch, 346-pound man (mass) runs a 40-yard dash in 4.98 seconds (acceleration), NFL observers start to think he could be quite a force in the middle of a defensive line. Dontari Poe is that potential force. The Memphis defensive tackle was the talk of Indianapolis during the NFL combine when he posted his 40-yard time, a 29 ½-inch vertical leap, and bench-pressed 225 pounds 44 times.

NEW YORK - Andrew Love, a tenor saxophonist who as half of the Memphis Horns helped define what came to be known as the Memphis sound, infusing 83 gold and platinum records with instrumental buoyancy, died Thursday at his home in Memphis. He was 70. The cause of death was complications of Alzheimer's disease, said his wife, Willie. Mr. Love was black, tall, and laid back. His musical partner, the trumpeter Wayne Jackson, was white, short, and intense. After meeting at Stax Records in the mid-1960s, they became a singular musical...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Luc Richard Mbah a Moute was a nervous freshman playing his first college game away from Pauley Pavilion. John Calipari's crew had yet to discover its chemistry. Even though Memphis and UCLA met once already this season, it was so long ago there's not much either side can glean from that November game as they prepare to play again tonight with a trip to the Final Four at stake. "I watched the tape last night," Calipari said yesterday. "They're way better and we're way better . . . I'll be honest, I did not draw a whole lot from it. But I watched it to say I watched it. " The...

Memphis 38 Akron 31 DETROIT -- DeAngelo Williams set an NCAA record with his 34th 100-yard rushing game and scored three touchdowns, leading Memphis to a 38-31 victory over Akron last night in the Motor City Bowl. Williams ran for 233 yards on 30 carries and finished his career with 6,021 yards rushing -- trailing only Ron Dayne, Ricky Williams and Tony Dorsett in Division 1-A history -- and an NCAA-record 7,568 all-purpose yards.

Dwight Howard had 20 points and 22 rebounds and Glen Davis had 23 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Orlando Magic to an 88-82 win over the 76ers Saturday night in Philadelphia. J.J. Redick scored 11 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter to help the Magic snap a five-game losing streak. The Magic pushed aside the lingering rift between Howard and coach Stan Van Gundy to win for the first time since March 26. Thaddeus Young scored 20 points, Jodie Meeks had 16, and Lou Williams 15 for Philadelphia.