Cavaliers

It hinges on sore joint Ira Winderman Sun Sentinel Only LeBron's right elbow knows for sure. For months, Danny Ferry thought he had cobbled together a roster that could win even with one hand tied behind its back. But when that hand is attached to the balkiest elbow this side of Andy Pettitte, there have to be concerns. Everything in Cleveland is designed around James creating sufficient elbow room to allow Mo Williams to attack from the perimeter and Shaquille O'Neal to work with room in the lane.

Alex Puller scored her game-high fifth goal and the game-winner with a minute left in sudden-death overtime as No. 14 Archbishop Spalding beat No. 13 Mount de Sales, 12-11, in an Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference tournament first-round game Thursday. The Sailors (8-8) took a 4-0 lead in the first half and the Cavaliers (12-7) battled back to tie the score at 5 at halftime. Mount de Sales went up by four goals again in the second half and Spalding tied the game again to force overtime.

A muddy field helped keep Century quarterback Josh Bordner off balance in Friday night's Class 2A West regional semifinal and host South Carroll took care of the rest, smothering the Boston College-bound quarterback with consistent pressure, stopping the run and using a pair of first-half scores to take a lead it never relinquished in a 10-6 win. "If Bordner is on, it's going to be hard to beat them," South Carroll coach Steve Luette said....

The No. 8 Loyola boys lacrosse team used a balanced offense - four Dons scored twice - to beat No. 9 Archbishop Spalding, 12-2, on Saturday. Loyola (10-5, 3-3 Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference) led 5-1 at halftime and went on a 4-0 run in the third quarter to put the game out of reach. The visiting Cavaliers fell to 10-8, 0-6. Kevin Jackson, Tyler Llewellyn, Devin McNamara and Tim Nordbrook each scored twice for Loyola. The Dons will next have to fight two top teams on the road, No. 5 Gilman on Tuesday and No. 1 Boys' Latin on Friday, and finish at home May 7 against No. 4 Calvert Hall.

With under three minutes to play in the third quarter and his team managing a slim lead against No. 1 Mount St. Joseph, Archbishop Spalding boys basketball coach Derrick Lewis saw something he didn't like and promptly called timeout. In the huddle, he challenged his players with a simple question: "Are you guys scared to win this game?" he asked. The No. 8 Cavaliers' response was an impressive one. Along with diving for loose balls and grabbing tough rebounds — the little things Lewis wanted to see — Spalding got an inspiring second-half shooting performance from guard Jourdan Grant to pull off a stunning 81-71 home win Tuesday night in Severn.

NO. 6 MARYLAND VS. WAKE FOREST At Greensboro, N.C. Today, 1:30p.m. TV: ESPNU The sixth-ranked Maryland women's basketball team poured it on early against Virginia on Friday night, parlaying balanced scoring, supremacy inside and deft 3-point shooting into a 70-58 victory in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament quarterfinals at Greensboro Coliseum. The win was third-seeded Maryland's fifth in a row overall and third straight this season against the Cavaliers.

Brothers K.K. and D.J. Smith combined for 215 yards on 12 carries and two touchdowns to lead No. 7 Archbishop Spalding football team over host Severn, 41-0, on Friday. Cavalier (3-2) quarterbacks Donnie Abey and Brian Louck tacked on three passing scores from 56 yards on 4-for-5 passing against the Admirals (0-4). Senior K.K. Smith rushed for 102 yards on five carries for two touchdowns, while his little brother D.J. carried seven times for 113 yards. The Severn offense was limited to fewer than 100 yards of offense and was intercepted twice by junior Brian Baublitz and senior Julian Washington.

It was not a typical season for the South Carroll Cavaliers last year.Region playoff appearances and county titles have been the norm for quite some time -- 7-15 seasons are not.That's the kind of season it was for coach Jim Carnes and his young Cavaliers. South Carroll, which went into last season with a string of seven straight playoff appearances and winning the county three of the past four years, lost its top seven players from the year before and it was a learn-as-you-go experience for the rest.

LANDOVER -- The 1991-92 Cleveland Cavaliers boast what former Baltimore manager Earl Weaver called "deep depth" when his Orioles ruled the American League.Challenged by one of the season's best efforts from the struggling Washington Bullets last night, Cavaliers coach Lenny Wilkens called on his talented reserves, and they proved the difference in a 111-102 victory before 8,935 at the Capital Centre.Led by sixth man John Williams' 25 points, the Cleveland subs combined for 54 points. They were particularly effective in the fourth quarter when the Cavaliers, trailing 84-80, scored 11 straight points and never looked back.

Both county basketball titles will be on the line tonight when South Carroll and Westminster square off against one another in boys and girls action.The boys game will be played at South Carroll, with the girls game scheduled for Westminster. Both will start at 7 p.m.Both girls teams come into the game with 4-0 county marks, and this will be the only time the two teams meet. The game scheduled at South Carroll on Feb. 10 was postponed and will not be made up.Four of the county's top five scorers -- all forwards -- will be featured.

At 6-7, Virginia's only hope for avoiding its first absence from the NCAA tournament since 2004 is upsetting No. 4 Maryland this Friday and then disposing of either No. 1 Duke or No. 2 North Carolina on Sunday to capture the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. The Cavaliers figure to be downright ornery as they fight for their postseason lives, and coach John Tillman acknowledged that he is worried about the Terps (9-2) matching their opponent's intensity at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C. “That's certainly a concern,” he said during his weekly conference call Tuesday.

No. 5 Maryland maintains a 45-43 lead in the series with its Atlantic Coast Conference rival, but No. 13 Virginia has won seven of the past eight meetings. The Terps (6-1 overall and 1-1 in the conference) entered the week ranked second in Division I in scoring (14.0 goals per game), but have averaged just nine goals in their past two contests. The Cavaliers (5-4) have lost three straight games for the first time since 2004 and four of the past five. This is Virginia's first game in the ACC this season.

Maryland rediscovered itself Saturday, and Virginia is still searching. Terps attackman Jay Carlson scored three goals, and the No. 5 Maryland men's lacrosse team - behind a dominating midfield that scored five times - held on for a 9-7 victory over No. 13 Virginia in front of an announced crowd of 5,226 at Klockner Stadium. The Terps (7-1), who suffered a 10-8 upset loss to North Carolina on March 23, showed no side effects of that loss. Besides Carlson's three goals, offensive midfielders John Haus added two and Mike Chanenchuk had one. But the surprise of the day was long-pole midfielder Jesse Bernhardt's two goals, which showed how the Terps controlled the pace of the game and how quickly goalkeeper Niko Amato got the ball out on clears.

When Virginia opened the season with four consecutive wins - including a 13-12 overtime decision over Drexel - the program appeared to have recovered from the graduation losses of attackmen Steele Stanwick and Chris Bocklet and midfielder Colin Briggs, defenseman Matt Lovejoy and goalkeeper Rob Fortunato. Since then, however, the No. 13 Cavaliers have dropped four of their past five games and their last three, including a 15-8 setback at the hands of No. 12 Johns Hopkins in the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore Saturday.

Johns Hopkins has dominated this series, winning 53 of 82 contests and the last two. No. 13 Virginia (5-3) has dropped three of its last four games, but the offense ranks sixth in Division I in scoring with a 12.9 average. The Cavaliers have unearthed a quarterback in junior attackman Nick O'Reilly, who leads the team in assists (16) and points (30) after redshirting last season. The No. 12 Blue Jays are 5-2, but they are 0-2 against ranked opponents. Johns Hopkins boasts an offense tied for fourth in scoring and is getting plenty of possessions via senior faceoff specialist Mike Poppleton, who has won 71.1 percent (96-of-135)

The Johns Hopkins men's lacrosse team took all the mystery out of the program's 85th meeting with Virginia. Scoring 11 of the game's first 12 goals, the No. 12 Blue Jays dominated the Cavaliers in a 15-8 victory that wasn't nearly as close as the final score suggested during the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic at M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday. Johns Hopkins' impressive performance came after a 13-8 loss to No. 6 Syracuse on March 16. Both of the Blue Jays' losses this season have been to ranked opponents - against the Orange and to No. 11 Princeton, 11-8, on March 1. For at least one day, the Blue Jays (6-2)

The Washington Bullets' week started with a game against the league's best team. Now it's on to the NBA's hottest.That's the Cleveland Cavaliers, who take a league-best nine-game winning streak into tonight's game against the Bullets at the new Gund Arena in downtown Cleveland.Washington might get center Kevin Duckworth (sore Achilles' tendon) back to its injury-depleted lineup tonight. Guard Rex Chapman, who has missed eight of Washington's past nine games, is out tonight. But the Bullets aren't the only team hit hard by injuries.

RICHFIELD, Ohio -- Understand, oh Boston Celtic fan, that with three or four strategically placed defensive rebounds last Friday night in Game 3, the Cleveland Cavaliers would already have wrapped up this series.Face it: The Celtics can't stop Cleveland from scoring. In the last three games, the Cavaliers have shot 57 percent, 54 percent and 56 percent from the field. Go back to Game 2 and we can throw in a 52 percent. The Celtics had built themselves a nice little reputation as a defensive team, but now that we're in the playoffs, Cleveland is embarrassing them with coldly efficient offense.

Jade Scaife Archbishop Spalding, senior, forward The toughest player to defend on the No. 1 team, Scaife led the Cavaliers to a 29-2 record and the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference championship. "She rose to the occasion in the biggest games," Archbishop Spalding coach Bookie Rosemond said. The 6-foot forward averaged 13.5 points and 10.5 rebounds and had 18 double doubles. She had 28 points and 18 rebounds in a double-overtime win, 70-57, over nationally ranked Riverdale Baptist.

COLLEGE PARK - The regular season's biggest game was approaching, and Maryland coaches had scrawled the words "Play with Passion" and "Play with Pride" on the blackboard inside Comcast Center. Head coach Mark Turgeon assembled the players, telling them the matchup with No. 2 Duke later that day presented the opportunity to finally claim the "signature win" that had eluded them this season. The Terps didn't disappoint, upsetting Duke, 83-81, in what seemed like a breakthrough victory on Feb. 16 - until they went out three days later and lost at Boston College, flattening the upbeat mood and squandering their hard-earned momentum.