Winning

Antawn Jamison scored 21 of his 28 points after halftime, Caron Butler made two big baskets down the stretch and the Washington Wizards put together a rare winning streak Monday with a 97-92 victory over the visiting Portland Trail Blazers. Jamison was 3-for-10 from the field at halftime, but he shot 7-for-11 in the second half in a game that was close throughout. The victory gave the Wizards two wins in a row - only the fourth time they've accomplished that in a distressing season that includes last week's guilty plea to a felony gun charge by three-time All-Star Gilbert Arenas . Randy Foye added 19 points ,and Butler had 18 for the Wizards, who made 25 of 28 free throws.

Shelby Mercer and her Century field hockey teammates needed only the motivation of a county championship to refocus Monday as they came off a loss that ended a nine-game winning streak. Knocking off No. 10 Westminster, which had won the past two county titles and six of seven overall, took precedence over everything else. So the No. 9 Knights started with a high level of intensity and held it throughout most of the game, beating the Owls, 2-1, to clinch the county title. Century (10-2-1, 6-0 county)

Vince Lombardi was the original. The coach. The martinet. The genius. The manipulator. The winner. The star.You can take your Don Shulas and Bill Walshes and Tom Landrys and Chuck Nolls and none of them can match Lombardi. Wins and losses don't matter here. Super Bowls don't figure in this equation. Lombardi was bigger than the game of football, period.Politicians courted him. Businessmen quoted him. Sociologists loathed him.When the 25th Super Bowl is held today in Tampa, Fla., the winning team will be awarded a sterling silver trophy named after Vincent T. Lombardi.

The Severna Park volleyball team has towered over its competition in Anne Arundel County so far this season. The No. 2 Falcons have three players on the front line who average 6 feet tall - Mary Smith (6-3), Sophie Hoekstra (5-11) and Tara Register (5-10) - but it's 5-foot-7 setter Morgan Kline who makes the offense work. Kline, a junior, contributed 26 assists and 10 digs to lead host Severna Park (10-0, 9-0) to a 25-19, 25-21, 25-14 victory over No. 8 Arundel (9-2, 8-2) in a key Anne Arundel County league game Monday.

One victory over Pittsburgh.It electrified Memorial Stadium. It captivated a city of skeptics. It maybe even signaled the turnaround of this staggering franchise.But enough of this touchy-feely celebration.What are the Ravens trying to do, blow a top five draft pick?The sky is falling! Their position is falling!The answer is yes."Winning right now is more important to me than whether we're picking fourth or 10th," said Ozzie Newsome, Ravens director of player personnel.Newsome has to say that -- he's in the business of winning football games.

It could have been, and perhaps should have been, a lot better.By dropping three straight this weekend to the Detroit Tigers, the Toronto Blue Jays did their best to make this week's four-game showdown with the Orioles take on late September importance.But only in yesterday's 3-2, 10-inning win over the Cleveland Indians did the Orioles take advantage of the Blue Jays' giving nature, as they stumbled in the first two games of the series.But the Blue Jays, who have beaten the Orioles 13 of 19 times at SkyDome, including seven times in their last at-bat, probably will not be as generous in person as they have been from afar.

Mike Benning joined Lee Janzen as the winner of a major golf title in recent weeks, only for his effort at the U.S. Open, Janzen received more recognition, and a lot more money.Benning's reward was more personal -- a sense of accomplishment and proof that determination and hard work do pay off.He earned that by winning the stroke- and match-play titles at the56th annual International One-Arm championships in England.Benning grew up with golf at Congressional Country Club while his father, Bob (currently director of golf at Stoneleigh GC in Round Hill, Va.)

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Burning Roma claimed the lead down the backstretch and never looked back, winning the 25th renewal of the $400,000 Meadowlands Cup last night at the Meadowlands. Burning Roma defeated Volponi, the favorite, by three-quarters of a length. It was an additional length back to Windsor Castle. Gander, the morning-line favorite, was scratched, and Laurel-based Include finished fifth. "He wanted to go early, so I just let him go," said winning jockey Eibar Coa. "I broke kind of slow, but I saw everyone taking a hold so I just decided to go, and he really responded for me."

DEAR CAL -- I'm an assistant coach for my son's 12-and-under travel team. He has been playing on this team for the past four years and is seeing a lot less playing time this year. This year, there has been a dispute among some parents and coaches regarding batting the minimum number of players in the lineup. We started the season batting all 12 kids. I understand the logic of batting the minimum and getting more at-bats to the top and middle of the lineup, but I'm concerned about the effect it's having on the kids who are not getting as much playing time.

Perhaps there's something to be said for the Blast's being guilty of a late-season fade during which it lost five straight games to finish with a losing record and fail to make the playoffs in its first season "back."No sooner did the team beat the Montreal Impact, 11-6, in its final home game Friday and the players were spread around the arena floor signing autographs when coach Kevin Healey, eyes squarely on the future, said, "We know what we have to do."Forget about enjoying this one, he thought, give thanks to the fans for supporting us and let's get started on next season.

We're back at Connolly's, where we're gonna start pricing our rail drinks based on how many points the suddenly, high-powered Ravens offense scores weekly. I'm kidding about that - I'm gouging you people with ridiculous prices, because you can't stay away from the witty banter - and I'm not turning to football yet. The bartending crew - Pete Schmuck is really just a keg lifter, but we try to include him - is all in Kansas City. We're chewing on barbecue and the idea of the Orioles' season ending in Kauffman Stadium.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh woke up Monday and watched the tape from Sunday's game again. It was even more enjoyable than witnessing it from his spot on the sideline. "It was a lot more fun watching the tape … when I already know the outcome," said Harbaugh, a day after the Ravens had one of their most explosive offensive performances in team history and routed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48-17 at Raymond James Stadium. "But any time you see a touchdown, it's fun. It's a joy, it's just a great feeling.

Republican Larry Hogan could win this year's governor's race, but it's going to take more than he's shown voters so far in this campaign. That's the message of today's Sun Poll, which shows him trailing Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown by seven percentage points with just over three weeks to go before election day. The Sun's results are in line with two other recent polls, one conducted by the Washington Post, which showed Mr. Brown with a nine-point lead,...

Jeff Zrebiec, reporter: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers stink -- let's get that out of the way first. But the Ravens still needed an offensive performance like this on the road. It was extremely beneficial to get Torrey Smith going, and also to incorporate a couple of more targets, like Michael Campanaro and Kamar Aiken, into the offense. Not to be outdone, the defense played well until it let down in the second half. They got a rare interception from a defensive back and a rare - at least lately - sack from Terrell Suggs.

Laurel Park Ben's Cat could be first to win 4 Md. Million races Ben's Cat has a chance next Saturday at Laurel Park to become the first horse to win Jim McKay Maryland Million races in four different years. After victories in 2010, 2011 and 2012 in the Turf Sprint, the King Leatherbury homebred finished second in the Turf a year ago after the Turf Sprint was eliminated. Leatherbury has cross-entered his star in the Sprint and Turf. The 8-year-old has won 27 of 43 starts, with earnings of $2,175,990.

With two passionate fist pumps Saturday evening, Kansas City Royals center fielder Lorenzo Cain punctuated an evening when he swung nearly every big moment in a tense 4-hour, 17-minute game in his team's direction. The first celebration came after his final running catch of the night kept the game tied. The second, two innings later, came after his fourth hit of the night helped ensure his Royals would head back to Kansas City with a 6-4 win and a two-game lead in the American League Championship Series.

How would you like to be the official oddsmaker for the American Hockey League playoffs?No matter what happens tonight when the Bandits and Syracuse Crunch meet in Game 7 of their unfathomable series at the Baltimore Arena, the four survivors in the semifinal round of the run for the Calder Cup are going to look like something the cat dragged in.Rochester, third-place finisher in the Central Division, awaits the victor of the Bandits and Crunch, who finished...

Dottie Mochrie doesn't have to answer the endless questions anymore, to herself or anybody else. She doesn't have to go to sleep at night thinking about birdie putts that stopped inches short of the cup, or about championships that kept slipping away.Winning cures a lot of problems on the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour. Mochrie went nearly two years between victories before winning this year's Nabisco Dinah Shore, and then went only two weeks before winning again at the Sega Women's Championship.

Boxing Crews wins Police Athletic League middleweight title Franchon Crews of Baltimore captured the National Police Athletic League middleweight championship Saturday in Oxnard, Calif., winning by technical knockout in the second round against former Baltimorean Danielle Mitchell , now of North Hollywood, Calif. In the 165-pound semifinals, Crews won by TKO over Kira De Morales of San Pedro, Calif. Next, Crews will help her husband and training partner, Glenn Dezurn of Baltimore, prepare for his fifth professional fight, set for Oct. 24 in Somerset, N.J. Colleges Cirovski suspended for violating Big Ten sportsmanship policy Maryland men's soccer coach Sasho Cirovski was suspended one game Wednesday by the Big Ten Conference for violations of the conference's sportsmanship policy after the team's 3-2 overtime loss to Northwestern on Sunday.

As a four-year starter for the No. 2 River Hill girls soccer team, All-Metro forward Alex Hamer has scored more than her share of big goals. The one she put in Thursday against Atholton was right up there. The Hawks were celebrating Senior Night with a chance to wrap up their fourth straight Howard County championship and Hamer made it happen. Finding space between defenders, she ran on to a pass from Lauren Hessler and buried a shot from 14 yards away with 18 minutes left, giving River Hill a 1-0 win over the visiting Raiders.