SYRACUSE, N. Evander Kane Authentic Jersey .Y. -- Syracuses streak lives on -- barely. With their key players struggling, the top-ranked Orange used their defence to remain unbeaten, edging North Carolina State 56-55 on C.J. Fairs layup with 6.7 seconds left Saturday night. Rakeem Christmas started the winning sequence with a steal in the lane off a trap in the left corner, and Fair finished it with a layup in transition. "We got out of it by making a good play at the end," Orange coach Jim Boeheim said. "We were able to make some good plays finally at the end, and one big play." The start of the game was pushed back four hours because of a snowstorm that wreaked havoc along the eastern seaboard. N.C. State did not land in Syracuse until Saturday afternoon. The teams Twitter account announced the Wolfpacks arrival at 3:07 p.m., seven minutes later than the original scheduled tip-off. It turned out to be worth the wait, tight all the way through a frantic finish full of missed opportunities. "Theyre terrific," N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried said. "Obviously, when you have a year like theyre having, when youre undefeated youre going to have some close ones, some not-so-close ones. We just tried to prepare for them as best we could and I thought our guys did a great job." Ralston Turner missed a 3 for N.C. State with 2:45 left with Syracuse clinging to a one-point lead, and then Fair was off on a hook driving across the lane. After N.C. States Anthony Barber hit the side of the backboard with a baseline jumper, Jerami Grant missed a spinning drive in the lane for Syracuse. Freshman point guard Tyler Ennis of Brampton, Ont., so cool and collected all year, then showed hes human, fouling Turner while shooting a 3, and he made all three free throws to give the Wolfpack a 55-53 lead with 62 seconds left. Fair sank 1 of 2 foul shots with 41.4 seconds remaining and N.C. States Desmond Lee then lost the ball out of bounds when he was double-teamed at midcourt. Ennis negated that turnover with a charge with 14.7 seconds left, but the Wolfpack couldnt close it out. Wolfpack star T.J. Warren was fouled in the back by Trevor Cooney and his shot went in, but the basket was waved off. The referees ruled the infraction occurred before the shot, forcing N.C. State to inbound the ball and setting up the winning trap in the corner. "That should have counted," Gottfried said. "That was a made basket to put us up three with T.J. going to the line to go up four. That changed things." Christmas had 14 points and set career highs with 12 rebounds and seven blocks as Syracuse earned its 10th single-digit win despite shooting 35.2 per cent. Grant had 12 points and 14 rebounds, and Fair scored 11 points on 5-of-16 shooting. "We keep our composure all the time," Christmas said. "We dont let anything get to us." After Fairs winning layup, Warren missed from the top of the key on one last try for N.C. State. Warren finished with 23 points, Kyle Washington had 14 and Turner 13 for the Wolfpack. Despite its torrid season, Syracuse (25-0, 12-0) is clinging to a half-game lead over Virginia in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The Oranges start is the third-best in ACC history, behind only North Carolina State (27-0) in 1973 and North Carolina (32-0) in 1957. North Carolina State (16-9, 6-6) was looking for its seventh win over the nations No. 1 team. It got its last one just over a year ago, beating Duke 84-76. The Wolfpack, who had won five of six, shot 39 per cent (22 of 56) from the field. Syracuse was coming off a dramatic last-second victory at No. 25 Pittsburgh on Wednesday night. Ennis hit a 3-pointer from 35 feet as time expired to lift the Orange to a 58-56 road win. But the hostile Carrier Dome crowd of 31,572 didnt seem to faze the Wolfpack, who used Warrens big effort to hang right with Syracuse. He scored six straight points to start the second half and Washingtons hook in the lane gave N.C. State a 34-30 lead. Syracuse tied it at 34 on a slam by Christmas off an air ball by Fair from the right corner, and foul trouble on the Wolfpack hurt their chances. Grants follow off a miss by Christmas gave Syracuse its first lead of the second half at 40-39 with 9:19 left. There were seven ties and seven lead changes in the opening half, and the Wolfpack had the biggest advantage at 26-22 after a driving backdoor layup by Warren. A spinning drive through the lane and layup by Fair and a fast-break dunk by Cooney off a Wolfpack turnover in the closing 2:11 made it 26-26 at the break. It was Syracuses fourth crowd of more than 30,000 this season. Thats the most in any single season since Syracuse had six Carrier Dome crowds of more than 30,000 in 1990-91. Mark Stuart Jets Jersey . Filion, from Laval, Que., and Montreals Benfeito finished third with 326.10 points. Ruolin Chen and Hao Wang of China won gold with 360.66 points and Paola Espinosa and Alejandra Orozco of Mexico were second at 327.Zach Bogosian Jersey For Sale . Bautista led off the 10th inning with his second homer of the game, lifting the Toronto Blue Jays to a 5-4 win over the Cleveland Indians on Saturday night. MONTREAL -- The Montreal Alouettes quarterback carousel has taken a promising turn with 2006 Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith. The former Ohio State star who only joined the Alouettes in August threw three touchdown passes in his first CFL start as Montreal downed the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 36-5 to tighten the race for playoff positions on Sunday afternoon. "Its been cool," Smith said of his quick adaptation to 12-man football. "My teammates have helped me out tremendously. "The adaptation is definitely still going on. Im trying day in and day out to get things down pat. Its been fun." The team announced this week that CFL all-time passing leader Anthony Calvillo, who has been out since August with a concussion, will not return this season. That made finding a starter to finish out the campaign and take Montreal into the playoffs has been a priority. Tanner Marsh had a good stretch but then faltered, as did Josh Neiswander. Now it is Smiths turn, and he passed the first test by completing 17 of 35 passes for 247 yards, three TDs and no interceptions. "He did a great job," said coach Jim Popp. "I dont know if he was nervous. "We didnt run everything right. Its great to be able to take what we did today and improve on it. We know theres a lot of upside to what were doing. We were moving the ball and scoring and we got over that 30-point mark like we said we needed to do." S.J. Green, with two, and Arland Bruce were on the receiving end of TD throws, while Tyrell Sutton ran one in. Sean Whyte had two field goals as Montreal won for the third time in four games. The third-place Alouettes (7-9) are hoping to overtake Hamilton (8-8) for second place in the East Division and the right to play host to a playoff game. The teams meet again on Saturday in Guelph, Ont., with the winner taking the season series between the two clubs. The Montreal defence held CFL offensive player of the week C.J. Gable to no yards on three carries and only 39 yards on six catches. It also limited Henry Burris to 106 passing yards before he was replaced by Dan LeFevour late in the third quarter. Coach Kent Austin didnt know what to make of a team that was coming off winning its season series with first-place Toronto, who they can still catch for first place. They were anaemic on attack, and ruined a handful of positive plays with penalties. "Just generally speaking, for whatever reason, we werent ready to play and they were," said Austin. "They brought the game to us. "They were more physical than us. Evander Kane Jersey. They just whipped us in all three areas of the game. We werent disciplined. We had too many penalties. Ive got to figure out why we werent ready to play like we have been the last couple of weeks. Ive got to get to the bottom of it. Ive got to get my team better prepared." The Ticats only scoring came from a Luca Congi field goal and a safety. "We executed our defence," said Montreal linebacker Shea Emry. "Weve had lots of games where we put that many points up and we let teams slip back in. "There were times we almost did that, but then we didnt let them capitalize on those penalties or plays." Smith has seen mostly spot duty since he signed, but after Neiswander struggled in a loss to Winnipeg last week, Popp decided to give the former Baltimore Raven and San Francisco 49er a start. Smith, the fourth Alouette quarterback to start a game this season, didnt disappoint as he threw for 207 yards and three TDs in the first half as Montreal opened a 31-3 lead. In the opening quarter, he hit Green for TDs of 64 and two yards. With his 11th and 12th of the season, Green reached a career high in TD catches in a season and passed the 1,000-yard mark for a third straight year. After Congis 26-yard field goal to open the second quarter, Sutton scored on a 19-yard run off tackle at 5:46. Whyte added a 32-yard boot after a 40-yard punt return by Bo Bowling at 12:21 and Smith hit Bruce with a sideline pass for a 26-yard score just ahead of halftime. Montreal slowed play down after the intermission, adding a field goal, while each team conceded a safety. Smith admitted he was a nervous at the start. His first two possessions were two-and-outs. But then he hit Bowling with a 12-yard pass and on the next play found Green wide open for a TD. He also showed he could use his feet, both to buy time for a pass while scrambling or to gain 16 yards on three rushes. "To start off, I was anxious," he said. "Some of my throws were not normal throws. The first completion to Bo Bowling was huge. Sometimes you just need something like that to get you going." Notes: Bowling returned after missing the opening 15 games with an ankle injury. . . The result tied the season series between the teams at one win each, as the Ticats beat Montreal 28-26 in Moncton, N.B. on Sept. 21. . . The Ticats wasted a chance to clinch a home playoff date. . . Burris rushed for one yard, leaving him five short of 5,000 for his career. ' ' '
