Daily sport news

AP - Paul Pierce scored 30 points and Ray Allen had nine of his 14 in the final quarter to lift the Boston Celtics to a 91-89 win over the struggling New York Knicks on Friday night.

AP - Chay Shegog had 20 points and Candace Wood added 14 points, leading No. 23 North Carolina to a 64-56 win over Virginia on Friday night.

AP - Luke Ridnour made the tiebreaking 3-pointer with 1:23 left, Nikola Pekovic scored a career-high 27 points, and the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the New Jersey Nets 108-105 on Friday night.

AP - Dwyane Wade scored 26 points, and LeBron James had 19 points and 12 rebounds to lift the Miami Heat to a 99-79 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday night.

Reuters - Federal prosecutors on Friday dropped an investigation centered on whether seven-time Tour De France champion Lance Armstrong and his teammates cheated the sponsor of their bike racing team with a secret doping program.

AP - Pittsburgh will join the Atlantic Coast Conference's Coastal Division in football, the league announced on Friday.

AP - Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo returned to the lineup for Friday night's game against the New York Knicks after missing the previous eight games with a right wrist injury.

AP - He fishes, goes to wine festivals, even kisses his girlfriend in full view at a Boston Celtics game.

AP - In this new NFL age of throw first and throw again, it's easy to forget to first rule of football: Defense wins championships.

Reuters - Federal prosecutors on Friday dropped an investigation centered on whether seven-time Tour De France champion Lance Armstrong and his teammates cheated the sponsor of their bike racing team with a secret doping program.

Reuters - A British woman stalked and harassed New York Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, convincing him to pay her $6,000 after what her lawyers called an inappropriate relationship, prosecutors and others familiar with the case said on Friday.

AP - Attention, SB46 fans: Looking for a celebrity? Need a parking spot or a bathroom? How about a place to eat without waiting for hours? The answers could be just a tweet away.

AP - Sorry, Los Angeles. The only NFL expansion happening anytime soon is to next season's schedule of Thursday night games.

AP - Like most Brazilians, Evandro dos Santos' devotion to soccer borders on the religious. Even when he wasn't watching a game, he loved hearing the roar of the crowd in nearby Maracana stadium — this nation's temple to the sport.

Reuters - Texas Rangers outfielder and recovering alcoholic Josh Hamilton admitted on Friday he had suffered a relapse in two Dallas-area establishments this week, a moment of weakness he hoped never to repeat.

AP - Less than a year ago, Tom Brady, Logan Mankins, Osi Umenyiora and seven other players filed an antitrust suit against the NFL, a key moment in a convoluted and contentious labor dispute between the union and league that threatened to cut short — or even wipe out — the 2011 season.

AP - University of Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun, who missed three games earlier this season because of NCAA sanctions, is taking an indefinite medical leave of absence because of back problems.

AP - Any time Kansas comes to town, it's a big deal for Missouri. It seems a bit bigger this time around.

AP - Protesters filled the streets and clashed for a second day Friday with police who fired tear gas and birdshot in Cairo, as a deadly soccer riot focused rising public anger over lawlessness and collapsing security a year after Egypt's uprising.

AP - Federal prosecutors dropped their investigation of Lance Armstrong on Friday, ending a nearly two-year effort aimed at determining whether the seven-time Tour de France winner and his teammates participated in a doping program.