LUBBOCK, Texas -- Forced into the starting lineup after Zach Smith twisted his ankle in warmups, junior transfer Niem Stevenson led Texas Tech with a career-high 16 points, five rebounds and three assists in a 87-50 drubbing of the University of Texas-San Antonio Wednesday.Its next man up, Stevenson, a transfer from Kansas Seward County Community College, said. Zach couldnt play this game. Just running the offense. Devon (Thomas) finding people, everybody sharing the ball. They trust me to take them shots.Keenan Evans scored 16 points and teammate Matthew Temple scored a career-high 13 points.Justin Gray and Anthony Livingston finished with 10 points apiece for Texas Tech. Thomas added seven points, six rebounds and six assists.Im probably tougher on Devon than anybody on this team because I know that we gotta get something out of him to kind of have the kind of season we all want to have, Texas Tech coach Chris Beard said of Thomas.Texas San Antonio (2-7) was led by 10 points from Jeff Beverly and eight points apiece from Byron Frohnen and Giovanni De Nicolao.Beverly entered the game averaging 15.8 points per game.We just couldnt get any rhythm going, Texas-San Antonio coach Steve Henson said. Tech does a good job, again, on both ends of the floor. Their defense was good. Obviously, people are paying a lot of attention to Jeff.The Red Raiders, who never trailed, won the points off a turnover margin of 23-8. Texas Tech outrebounded the Roadrunners 36-27.Beard, in his first season as Texas Techs coach, has his team on a five-game winning streak.The Red Raiders only loss came to Auburn on Nov. 22, 67-65.After UTSA was held scoreless for the final three minutes of the first period, Texas Tech led 42-21 at halftime.Entering the game, Texas Tech was No. 4 in the nation in shooting percentage with 52.3 percent. Against the Roadrunners, it finished shooting 52 percent from the floor.BIG PICTURETexas-San Antonio: The Roadrunners, which last won a game on Nov. 25 against Texas State, are in their first season under Henson. Henson is one of 10 Division I mens basketball coaches that have both played and coached in the NBA.Texas Tech: The Red Raiders have thrived even without standout forwards Norense Odiase and Aaron Ross, who are out with lower leg injuries. Smith, a forward who averages 11.3 points per game, was a late scratch after sustaining an injury during warmups.We miss Norense, Beard said. And we miss Ross. Now, tonight, the deal with Zach was just a freaky thing. We just have to get healthy more than anything.UP NEXTTexas-San Antonio hosts Southeastern Oklahoma State Saturday.Texas Tech faces Nicholls State at home on Dec. 14. Phil Niekro Jersey . Thousands of Southern California fans enveloped the Trojans to celebrate an improbable win secured by an interim coach, an inconsistent kicker and a thin defence that wouldnt break. A. J. Minter Jersey .J. -- Pitcher Carl Pavano is retiring after 14 major league seasons. http://www.custombravesjersey.com/custom-bob-uecker-jersey-large-167z.html ., for the next three years with the signings on Monday of Daryl Townsend and Michael Carter. Julio Teheran Jersey . -- Timbers coach Caleb Porter didnt stray from his business-like approach to the season even after Portland downed the two-time defending league champion Los Angeles Galaxy to gain crucial playoff position. Gene Garber Jersey . The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling "puts an end to my dreams of being a top player," the 27-year-old Troicki said in a statement. "I worked my entire life for it, and it has been taken away from me in one afternoon by a doctor I didnt know," said Troicki, whose ranking peaked at No. RIO DE JANEIRO -- Nobody really thought the United States would be shut out of Olympic gold medals on the track at these Summer Games, but the bullion still wasnt in the bank when the three 100-meter hurdlers crouched at the start Wednesday.Brianna Rollins projected the aura of a former world champion. Nia Ali proved she could return to world-class form after becoming a mother last year. Injury impeded Kristi Castlins path to the 2012 Olympics, but shed been through far worse, losing her father to murder at age 12 and living through the slaughter of 32 innocents as a Virginia Tech student.The trio represents the latest wave of U.S. excellence in the event, accelerating out of a talent pool so deep that a defending Olympic champion and a current world-record holder were left at home on the bench. Any one of them could have won it, but they approached ambition as a team. They understood they could be greater than the sum of their parts if they swept an Olympic podium for the first time in U.S. track history. They stayed off social media in the days before the race and prayed together instead.We said it was our time, lets go, lets do this and get it out of the way, Ali said.They broke the mini-drought and propped open the floodgates. Rollins won going away in 12.48 seconds. Ali knew shed finished second in the hubbub when she saw her time of 12.59. Then Castlins name popped up in third place on the scoreboard just two-hundredths of a second behind and the flags came out and the women who leap for a living jumped for joy and posterity and the cameras, this time in unison.I typically run in seventh place until about the last three hurdles, said Castlin, who pirouetted for the crowd as she came out of the tunnel. Im a closer. Im a finisher. My thing was not to win a bronze medal for myself, it was about upholding the team.Rollins rolled through interview after interview clutching an apple in one hand, too busy to take a bite. She said she clipped a few hurdles and felt relieved at the outcome.The U.S. women long jumpers doubled down on gold and silver as the versatile Tianna Bartoletta sent the sand flying with a personal-best mark of 7.17 meters -- enough to edge defending champion Brittney Reeses 7.08.Bartoletta, who has moonlighted as an elite bobsledder, was trying to stay earthbound after her clutch win, because she has to run a preliminary round of the 4x100-meter relay Thursday. My work is not yet finished, she said. Tori Bowie addedd a bronze in the 200-meter event.ddddddddddddThe mens 200 will be missing the amiable but polarizing figure of Justin Gatlin, who fell one spot and .03 short of advancing to Thursdays final and another duel with two-time defending champion Usain Bolt of Jamaica. Gatlin said he is still bothered by lingering soreness in his right ankle after rolling it last November, an issue that didnt prevent him from finishing second to Bolt here in the 100.Gatlin spoke to reporters at length, saying he hasnt been fazed by the booing that has greeted him in the Olympic Stadium -- a reception that may owe partly to his past but mostly to Bolts extraordinary persona.The rivalry I have with Usain has turned it into a professional wrestling feel, Gatlin said. Everyones cheering for Usain, but they have somebody theyve got to boo against. It would be an immature mindset for me to come out here and think that every Brazilian is against me. They want to see a great show, and Usain is a great competitor and a showman. He puts on a great show.Gatlins two previous doping suspensions have made him a human heat conductor at these Games where the debate over sanctions has boiled over into numerous athletes public comments. I dont really focus on likes and dislikes, he said. I try to give everyone around me respect. I try to get to know them. He predicted a strong final for teammate LaShawn Merritt, whose 19.94 seconds seeded him third behind Bolt and Canadas 21-year-old Andre De Grasse.Bolt continued his frisky romp through Rio, casting an amused eye to his right when De Grasse came up on his shoulder in their semifinal and forcing him to hustle a little more than hed planned. Bolt finished in 19.78 seconds and the mens playful double-takes and interaction lacked only the passing of a torch.I see the talent in him, Bolt said. I see that he got a national record, actually, so he means business.Bolt, somewhat superfluously, added that he is on the right track. ... I felt energetic and everything was going smooth.But the charisma award Wednesday night went to Alis adorable 15-month-old son with the formidable name -- Titus Maximus Tinsley -- who starred in her victory lap.Im happy we have photos, cause then hell know Im not making up stories about that one time I ran in the Olympics, Ali said. But what happened was better than fiction. ' ' '
