Cougars

Freshman quarterback Jake Heaps threw four touchdown passes, connecting with Cody Hoffman on three scores, and finished with 264 yards passing to help BYU beat overmatched Texas-El Paso, 52-24, on Saturday in the New Mexico Bowl. It capped a big turnaround for the Cougars (7-6), whose 1-4 start included a loss to in-state rival Utah State. At that point, BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall told his team it would be a remarkable feat to reach a bowl game and win it. The Cougars won five of their last seven regular-season games to become bowl eligible.

Fallston gave Marriotts Ridge a detailed lesson in power volleyball Monday night. Shannon Webb and Rachael Holehouse were the teachers. Webb finished with 20 kills and Holehouse added 19 as they helped the No. 5 Cougars take advantage of their decided edge in power and roll to a 25-13, 25-14, 25-20 victory over No. 14 Marriotts Ridge in the Class 2A state championship at the University of Maryland's Ritchie Coliseum. The Cougars finished with a 19-2 record on their way to their first volleyball state title while the Mustangs ended at 11-8 and made their first trip to the state final.

For Michael Marsh and the Chesapeake Cougars, the 2010 baseball season has been a chance to exceed expectations. Unfortunately for the Cougars, they fell one expectation short Friday night at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen. Sherwood's pitching staff of Jamie Dejter and William Bouey held Chesapeake of Anne Arundel County to three hits and struck out 10 batters (Dejter six, Bouey four) en route to a 2-1 victory in the Class 4A state championship game. The victory is the second state title for the Montgomery County school, which also won the title in 2008.

Google, the search engine giant, has banned CougarLife.com, a website promoting relationships between older women and younger men, from advertising on its "family friendly" pages, while taking no such action against websites that offer to match young women with "sugar daddies," such as DateAMillionaire.com. Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher made the May-December romance so mainstream that we now have a prime-time television show, "Cougar Town," on the topic. Even Demi's ex, tough guy Bruce Willis, is cool enough with it to show up at family gatherings.

Goals: F-Antinozzi 4, Thrasher, Wolf, White, Baker; G- Z. Wynne 3, N. Wynne 3, Conway, Rollyson, Clifford. Assists: F- Gutermuth, Antinozzi; G- N. Wynne 2, Z. Wynne, Conway, Hofstetter. Saves: F- Abney 9; G- Taylor 11. Half: Tied 4-4

Entering the NCAA tournament, the Maryland Terrapins were desperately playing for time. The Terps were trying to extend a memorable season and keep their three starting seniors' college careers alive at least one more game. Maryland, the No. 4 seed, survived 26 points by Houston guard Aubrey Coleman and beat the 13th-seeded Cougars, 89-77, to advance to a second-round meeting with fifth-seeded Michigan State here Sunday for a spot in the Sweet Sixteen. It was the 10th straight victory for Maryland in a first-round NCAA game dating back to 1998.

Since 1990, No. 4 seeds are 64-17 in the first round of the NCAA tournament. But the fourth-seeded Maryland Terrapins know their opponent tonight possesses a skill that can be the great equalizer - the 3-point shot. Houston, the No. 13 seed, made more 3-pointers this season - an average of 8.3 per game - than in all but three years of its history. "We definitely focused on it knowing that Houston is all about run-and-gun - getting the ball up and getting a lot of 3s up," Maryland junior guard Adrian Bowie said before a shootaround Thursday night at Spokane Arena.