Team To Win

The Vegas oddsmakers already are looking past this season's Super Bowl to the probabilities for next season, and the Ravens - at 11-1 - are listed as the sixth-most-likely team to win the NFL title. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/schmuckblog)

It took a half Saturday night for the Blast to play the top-notch style of indoor soccer it had displayed throughout the 2012-13 Major Indoor Soccer League season, but it was worth the wait for the home team. Overcoming a shaky start, the Blast relentlessly attacked the goal against the Missouri Comets to overcome a halftime deficit in the second game of the MISL Championship Series. After Adriano Dos Santos scored in the fourth quarter and rookie Lucas Roque followed shortly after with another goal, the Blast was able to confront the Comets' final stand with its signature defense to come away with an 8-6 win and a two-game sweep in front of an announced 8,704 at 1st Mariner Arena . "They've been tremendous all season long, only five losses, and a couple of those we probably could have won," coach Danny Kelly said.

The winners"You have to give credit to [the Ravens'] coaches because they came back from halftime and made adjustments, and it was hard for us to move the ball." Willie Davis, Oilers wide receiverthe losers"It's all about performance. We have the talent on this team to win games, but for some reason or another, we just haven't gotten it done as a team." Matt Stover, Ravens kickerPub Date: 12/07/98

It's part of the job description for Andy Bilello to be equal parts matchmaker and recruiter, as much a spreadsheet expert as he is a scheduling broker. These days, though, there might be a more apt title for Inside Lacrosse's director of business development: kingmaker. As the conductor of high-profile lacrosse events such as Saturday'sKonica MinoltaFace-Off Classic, Bilello orchestrates nationally televised doubleheaders and tripleheaders that make up some of the sport's biggest regular-season showcases.

It's a fact Montreal's 4-3 win Thursday gave the Expos 80 wins for the first time since 1996, when they went 88-74. Milestone The Athletics are the 18th team to win 100 games in con secutive seasons. The last team was the 1997-99 Braves. The number 334: Diamondbacks ace Randy Johnson's strikeout total, 10th on baseball's all-time single-season list.

Three slow-pitch softball teams of the Howard County Youth Program are ready to continue their winning ways.Two teams, the age 10-and-under Mustangs and the 12-and-under Hurricanes each won consecutive tournaments, while a third, the 14-and-under Terminators, placed first and took second in another.The Mustangs and Hurricanes captured the PONY East Zone tournament last weekend at Cedar Lane Park and won titles at the Bob Hoffman Memorial Tournament the weekend before in York, Pa. The Terminators finished second at Cedar Lane and placed first in Pennsylvania.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Tonight's deciding Game 3 of the WNBA Finals will either be the extension of the league's old guard or the beginning of a new age. In the Western corner stand the Los Angeles Sparks, who have won the previous two WNBA championships, following the four in a row won by the Houston Comets. In the Eastern corner stand the Detroit Shock, perhaps the best East team to contend for the championship since Houston won the league's inaugural 1997 title as an Eastern Conference team.

WIN THE CROWD. That's the sage advice the protagonist got in the film "Gladiator." Coach Gary Williams and the University of Maryland men's basketball team have finally done that, or so it seems. But sports teams, like their fans, are fickle, enigmatic creatures. You can't always count on your team to win - unless your team is the Globetrotters - and you can't expect the fans you've won to stay. That's life, not art. The Terrapins have overcome their embarrassing home-court loss to Duke in January.

REGINA, Saskatchewan -- The winning streak started in Memphis, Tenn., in August, when the Baltimore Stallions, battling a two-game losing streak, needed a fake punt and a goal-line stand to escape the Liberty Bowl with a 16-13 victory.Stopping an opponent on three straight tries from the 1-yard line is most unusual in the Canadian Football League, where the defense must line up a yard off the ball. Then again, the Stallions showed over the past three months that they were an atypical team.

HOUSTON -- Why not the Houston Rockets? Why not again?Why? Because you don't win with a sixth-place team that struggled all season, you don't win without a true power forward, and you don't win with a bunch of CBA and European league castoffs.But the Houston Rockets again are NBA champions, ending an improbable run to the title with a 113-101 win over the Orlando Magic last night that completed a four-game sweep and a playoff stretch in which they knocked off the top four teams in the NBA."

LARGO - The last time a Baltimore-area team captured the prestigious IAABO Holiday Girls Basketball Tournament, now in its 39th year, was 13 years ago. Aberdeen changed that Wednesday night - and did so rather decisively in the championship game against Wise from Upper Marlboro. In a title game featuring undefeated teams, the No. 1 Eagles proved far dominant at both ends of the floor, rolling to an 82-44 win at Prince George's Community College. Senior center Brionna Jones, who was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player, led an efficient offense with 30 points, and a trapping zone defense was too much for the Pumas (7-1)

Matt Jablonski may be gone, but Loyola still rules the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association. Kevin Corbusier led the way, winning without much trouble as top-ranked Loyola put four runners in the top 10 and claimed its third consecutive A Conference title in Wednesday's championship race at Oregon Ridge Park. Much of the publicity Loyola received over the past few years focused on Jablonski, arguably one of the nation's top high school distance runners. Jablonski graduated in the spring and now runs for Oregon, but the Dons kept right on rolling without him. Corbusier had a strong season this fall and won this race in 15 minutes, 52 seconds.

There is a revealing statistic about last season's Maryland team, which tied eventual national champion Duke atop the Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season standings. Like this year's team, the 2009-10 Terps played in plenty of close conference games. The difference is, they usually won them. From Feb. 4, 2010, until the end of the regular-season schedule, Maryland played seven games decided by single digits. The Terps — led by the animated, ultra-competitive Greivis Vasquez, who returns to Comcast Center to be honored at Sunday's N.C. State game — won all seven.

Glenelg won its first Howard County girls basketball title since the 1998-99 season Thursday night when the No. 9 Gladiators defeated Oakland Mills, 41-34. The game was a matchup between the top two teams in the county standings. "To win it as a senior is really special," said Glenelg's Liz Ebeling, who took three charges in the game. Those charges had a cumulative effect on Oakland Mills, making the Scorpions hesitant to drive to the basket. "We were afraid to get the charges," Oakland Mills' Jasmine Hill said.

Monsters of the Midway Steve Svekis Sun Sentinel Based on performance in one season, the final four are the 1985 Bears, 1991 Redskins, 1973 Dolphins and the 1989 49ers. These teams had fewer than three losses and dominated their postseasons, including the Super Bowl. The 14-2 Redskins were the only such team whose regular-season opponents finished above .500 cumulatively. Still, they are far, far back of the 1985 Bears. With that smothering "46" defense, "Sweetness" and the funky QB known as Jim McMahon, Chicago lost only once in the regular season.

The Navy men's lacrosse team was voted the preseason favorite to win the Patriot League championship. The Midshipmen have won at least a share of the regular-season Patriot League title in five of the six seasons they have been in the conference. Navy secured 11 of the 14 first-place votes (they were eligible for only 12 because schools could not vote for themselves). Bucknell accounted for the remaining three first-place votes. Mids long-stick defensive midfielder Jaren Woeppel , a two-time All-Patriot League selection, was named Preseason Defensive Player of the Year.

REVEL, France - For six years, Lance Armstrong was the only member of his team to win a stage at the Tour de France. Now in a matter of four days, two of Armstrong's Discovery Channel teammates have crossed the finish line first. Sunday, it was loyal lieutenant George Hincapie winning the toughest mountain stage of the 2005 race. And yesterday it was Italian Paolo Savoldelli grabbing the lead with 100 meters to go and winning the longest stage of this Tour. Savoldelli, 32, outsprinted Kurt-Asle Arvesen of Norway to win the 148.8-mile run from Pau. The route took the riders over four small climbs and Salvoldelli finished in a time of 5 hours, 41 minutes, 19 seconds.

It finished fifth in the eight-team Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, but Loyola has justification to pound its chest.The Greyhounds, who began playing in 1908, suffered through their worst record last season, 2-25. Yesterday at Reitz Arena, Loyola banged its way to an 80-73 victory over Fairfield that clinched its first winning season since 1986-87.The Greyhounds take a 14-12 regular-season record into the MAAC tournament in Albany, N.Y., next weekend, accomplishing one of the biggest turnarounds this season among the 301 Division I teams.

The Vegas oddsmakers already are looking past this season's Super Bowl to the probabilities for next season, and the Ravens - at 11-1 - are listed as the sixth-most-likely team to win the NFL title. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/schmuckblog)

The Blast defended its home turf for the first time in more than a month last night and repulsed a rival intent on payback. In the process, Baltimore (7-1) increased its first-place margin to two games over its closest pursuer, Monterrey La Raza, the losing team in last season's Major Indoor Soccer League championship game. Denison Cabral scored twice on penalty shots last night and added an assist as the Blast prevailed, 8-5, before an announced 6,840 at 1st Mariner Arena, improving its home record to 4-0. Monterrey (6-4)