Rose, Bulls wrest victory from Grizzlies

NBA: Derrick Rose scored Chicago’s last seven points, including an acrobatic layup that led to a crucial three-point play, and the host Bulls beat the rugged Memphis Grizzles 99-96 on Friday night.

Rose (24 points, seven assists) made two free throws with 21/2 minutes left to give Chicago the lead, then drove past Tony Allen and converted over Marc Gasol with 10 seconds remaining to increase Chicago’s lead to 97-93. Once again hearing those “MVP!” chants, Rose made the resulting free throw.

• Blazers’ Batum hits at buzzer to beat Spurs: Nicolas Batum scored over Tony Parker at the buzzer and the host Portland Trail Blazers edged the San Antonio Spurs 98-96.

San Antonio led by as many as 10 in the fourth quarter but Portland pulled within one at 91-90 after a pair of free throws from Batum. Parker answered with a layup and Manu Ginobili made a 3-pointer to put San Antonio in front 96-90 with 1:21 left.

Andre Miller made two straight layups before Batum added another pair of free throws to tie it with 0.9 seconds left.

• Bobcats rally from 13 down to beat Celtics: Dante Cunningham hit a go-ahead 15-foot jumper with 34 seconds left and the visiting Charlotte Bobcats erased a 13-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the struggling Boston Celtics 83-81.

The Bobcats outscored the Celtics 30-15 in the final period. Boston’s last hopes ended when Ray Allen missed a 3-point attempt and Kevin Garnett failed on a jumper in the final 5 seconds.

• Without West, Hornets still beat Suns: Carl Landry, starting in place of injured David West, scored 19 points and the New Orleans Hornets pulled out a 106-100 victory over host Phoenix, sinking the Suns further out of the Western Conference playoff race.

The Hornets, who lost leading scorer West for the season with a knee injury in a victory at Utah on Thursday night, won for the fifth time in six games to stay in a virtual tie with Portland for the No. 6 spot in the West.

Chris Paul led five Hornets in double figures with 22 points. Jarrett Jack added 17, Trevor Ariza 16 and Willie Green 15.

Cole’s goals lead ’Canes past Lightning

NHL: Erik Cole scored two goals to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3 in Tampa, Fla., to remain three points behind Buffalo for the final Eastern Conference playoff spot.

Cole put the Hurricanes up 2-1 with a power-play goal at 8:23 of the second period and added an unassisted backhander 6:50 into the third.

• Neal scores in shootout as Pens beat Devils: James Neal scored in the third round of a shootout and the host Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New Jersey Devils 1-0 in a game dominated by goalies Marc-Andre Fleury and Martin Brodeur.

Fleury made 21 saves for his third shutout of the season. Brodeur made 26 saves for the Devils.

• Sakic joins Avalanche front office: Joe Sakic is joining the Colorado Avalanche front office.

The longtime Colorado captain will serve as an executive adviser, involved in all facets of hockey operations. He will also represent the team at the board of governors meetings as an alternate governor.

He takes on his new position at the end of the regular season.

Montoya earns pole for Auto Club 400

NASCAR: Juan Pablo Montoya will start on the pole for his 150th career NASCAR race.

Montoya had the fastest time in qualifying at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif., hitting 184.653 mph on the 2-mile oval. The former Formula One driver will start Sunday’s 400-mile race on the front row next to Denny Hamlin.

Joey Logano qualified third and Regan Smith was fourth.

Laird leads Bay Hill; Tiger still in picture

Miscellany: Martin Laird shot a 7-under-par 65 to take a one-shot lead over K.J. Choi and Spencer Levin going into the weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf event in Orlando, Fla.

Laird finished the day at 9-under 135. Choi fired a tournament-best 64. Levin shot a 70 in the morning.

Still in the mix is Tiger Woods, a six-time winner at Bay Hill. He had a 68 and was six shots back.

Alex Prugh (Ferris, UW) shot a second-round 76 and missed the cut with a two-day total of 155.

• Shin takes Kia Classic lead: Second-ranked Jiyai Shin shot a bogey-free 9-under 64, birdieing nine of the first 14 holes, to take a four-stroke lead in the rain-delayed Kia Classic.

The South Korean star had a 12-under 134 total on the Industry Hills (Calif.) Golf Club course.

Germany’s Sanda Gal was second at 8 under with nine holes left when play was suspended for the day because of darkness.

Wendy Ward (Edwall, Wash.) was 2 over through 15 holes and 7 over for the tournament when play was suspended.

• Tressel forwarded emails to Pryor’s mentor: Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel forwarded emails to Terrelle Pryor’s mentor that accused the star quarterback of selling memorabilia to a man under federal investigation, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper reported that Tressel sent the information to Ted Sarniak, a businessman in Pryor’s hometown of Jeannette, Pa.

Ohio State director of compliance Doug Archie told the paper that Sarniak and Pryor are longtime friends and that Sarniak was the player’s primary contact during recruiting.

• Foster’s 35 lead Santa Clara over SMU: Kevin Foster scored 35 points, Troy Payne added 15 and Santa Clara beat Southern Methodist 72-55 in Dallas to reach the title game of the CollegeInsider.com tournament.

Santa Clara (23-14) will face Iona or East Tennessee State, who play today. SMU (20-15), finished its first 20-win season since 1999-2000.