Oakley

WASHINGTON - It's not often that a guy who plays only seven minutes and scores only two points draws the lion's share of attention after a game, but then, Charles Oakley isn't just any basketball player. Last night, Oakley's experience and knowledge were just what the Washington Wizards needed to pull out an emotional, 105-102 win over the Utah Jazz at MCI Center. Oakley, 38, in his 17th NBA season, had been largely an afterthought for the Wizards (5-4) this year, playing just nine minutes in Washington's season opener in Toronto on Oct. 30. But in a game in which experience was sprinkled heavily on the court, Oakley was the ace in the hole, entering in the last seven minutes, with the Wizards trailing by seven.

Rashida Suber and Shalamar Oakley have been backcourt mates at Coppin State for three years and scoring guards virtually all their lives. Team harmony withstood that delicate dynamic - two scorers, one ball - and the result is the Eagles are poised to make a fourth straight postseason run when the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference women's tournament begins tomorrow in Raleigh, N.C. Suber and Oakley, both seniors, will leave a legacy of unparalleled success...

Senior Matthew Oakley's goal was that both he and Poly go out winners in his last Baltimore City wrestling match. He got to do just that. The Engineers placed five in the finals, including Oakley, and won the Baltimore City wrestling championship by 53 1/2 points over second-place Douglass at Northwestern. Patterson finished third with 139 points. As for Oakley, he ended his evening with a pin of Patterson's Ronny Williams 3:53 into the 171-pound championship for his second straight city title.

ATLANTA - A Baltimore man being tried on murder charges with Ravens player Ray Lewis told a hotel clerk that he had been robbed, then abruptly left town hours after a deadly brawl - behavior that prosecutors characterized yesterday as a cover-up. A clerk testified that Reginald Oakley came to the front desk about 8:30 a.m. Jan. 31, saying he had been robbed and needed a new key to his room. He returned 10 minutes later and checked out. He was wearing a black jogging suit that was too big for him, the witness said.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- For the Coppin State women's team, the one constant is always defense. For Danielle Anders, it always has been her weakest link. That may be changing - for Anders, but not Coppin. The Eagles got a big defensive contribution from their junior forward and enough offense from seniors Shalamar Oakley and Rashida Suber to take down Delaware State, 63-56, yesterday at the RBC Center and advance to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference women's championship game. Second-seeded Coppin (21-11)

The list of public school state wrestling champions from the city is short. Very short. When Poly's Dennis Scott won the heavyweight title in 1999, he became the first -- and only -- city public school wrestler to capture a state championship. Matthew Oakley of Poly and DeShawn Barrett of Patterson want to give Scott some company. And so far this season, they've shown they're up to the task. Oakley, a defending city and regional champ at 171 pounds, is 13-0 with 11 pins. Barrett, a 215-pounder, has pinned all 17 rivals in the first period.

ATLANTA - Ravens star Ray Lewis took the stand for the first time yesterday, describing a moment when "all hell broke loose" and demonstrating on a manikin some of the blows struck in the course of a vicious street fight that left two men dead. Lewis testified for the prosecution, describing how three of the companions with him early Jan. 31 took part in the brawl and that one of them afterward demonstrated to him how he had held a knife. The testimony, coming a day after Lewis pleaded guilty to misdemeanor obstruction in exchange for having felony charges against him dropped, revived Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard's faltering case against the two other men. But even if it prevents the judge from throwing out the case, it might not win a conviction.

ATLANTA - After a week of backfiring witnesses, the prosecution's case in the murder trial of Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis is riding on the strength of DNA evidence, which the jury will start to hear in midweek. But legal analysts following the trial say even blood evidence may have limited value in this case, because all three defendants admit they were at the crime scene during the early morning melee Jan. 31 in which two men were killed. "It's far more important when somebody claims they were never there," said Clarke Ahlers, a criminal defense attorney in Columbia.

RAY LEWIS - Baltimore Ravens linebacker to Charm City's television stations, but "former murder suspect" to Atlanta's - stood in front of cameras and microphones Friday afternoon to let the world know he's an angry man. "Yes, I'm angry at [Fulton County] District Attorney Paul Howard," Lewis said at the news conference at the Ravens' Owings Mills training complex. "Because from Day One, I tried to speak to him and tell him that I was an innocent man." Lewis didn't say so explicitly, but he implied that he would have stood a better chance of getting a dead dog to roll over than of getting Howard to see reason.

Fugitive Reginald Oakley, indicted along with Ravens star Ray Lewis in the stabbing deaths of two men after a Super Bowl party, has been urged by a legal adviser to surrender to Atlanta authorities nearly a week after he was last seen in Maryland by his girlfriend. Jesse Ingram, an attorney who lives in Columbia, said he told Oakley several days ago to return to Atlanta and speak with police, but that he hasn't heard from the 31-year-old suspect since. "I'm quite concerned," Ingram said yesterday.