No. 16 Virginia beats Clemson for 18th win

Men’s basketball: Mike Scott scored 23 points, including four free throws over the final 16.8 seconds, and had 10 rebounds as No. 16 Virginia defeated Clemson 65-61 on Tuesday at Charlottesville, Va.

Joe Harris of Chelan, Wash., added 19 points for Virginia (18-3, 5-2 Atlantic Coast Conference), which used a 19-3 second-half run to take command. The Cavaliers, coached by former Washington State coach Tony Bennett, reached 18 victories before the end of January for the first time since 1981-82.

Devin Booker scored 16 points and Tanner Smith had 14 for the Tigers (11-10, 3-4).

• Wildcats roll at home: Freshman Anthony Davis had 18 points, eight rebounds and seven blocked shots as No. 1 Kentucky (22-1, 8-0 Southeastern Conference) beat Tennessee 69-44 at Lexington, Ky., to extend the Wildcats’ home winning streak to 48 games.

• Illini edge Spartans: Brandon Paul shook off a poor-shooting game to score 18 points, including two free throws with 45 seconds left that gave Illinois the lead in a 42-41 win over No. 9 Michigan State at Champaign, Ill.

Paul had two chances to extend the lead for the Illini (16-6, 5-4 Big Ten) but he missed the front end of 1-and-1s with 26 seconds and 11 seconds to play.

Michigan State’s Derrick Nix had a chance to tie the game at 42 with 14 seconds left but he made one of two free throws for the Spartans (17-5, 6-3).

• Razorbacks knock off Vanderbilt: Ricky Scott scored 18 points and Arkansas equaled its Southeastern Conference-best with nine 3-pointers in pulling away to an 82-74 victory over No. 25 Vanderbilt at Fayetteville, Ark.

Five players scored in double figures for the Razorbacks (16-6, 4-3), who improved to 16-0 at Bud Walton Arena this season. The Commodores (16-6, 5-2) led 40-37 in the second half before Arkansas’ Hunter Mickelson tied the game with a 3-pointer. That started a stretch where the Razorbacks hit six of seven field goals from behind the arc and took a 59-46 lead.

Knicks rout Pistons in Anthony’s return

NBA: Carmelo Anthony scored 25 points in his return to the lineup, Landry Fields added 16 of his 18 in a flawless first half, and the New York Knicks snapped a three-game losing streak with a 113-86 victory over the visiting Detroit Pistons.

Tyson Chandler had 17 points and Amare Stoudemire 15 for the Knicks, whose slumbering offense awoke in just their second victory in 11 games. They shot 60 percent from the field – the first time they bettered 50 percent all season – and fell just a point short of matching their highest-scoring effort.

• Mayo hits in overtime: O.J. Mayo scored 18 points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 35 seconds left in overtime, as the Memphis Grizzlies snapped a four-game losing streak with a 100-97 victory over the Denver Nuggets at Memphis, Tenn.

Mayo’s basket gave Memphis a 98-97 lead, and two free throws by Mike Conley with 8 seconds left gave Memphis the final margin. Rudy Fernandez’s potential tying 3-point attempt in the closing seconds for Denver bounced off the rim, sending the Nuggets to their second straight loss.

Malkin connects for Penguins

NHL: Evgeni Malkin tied it with 6 seconds left in regulation and then scored the lone shootout goal to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-4 victory over visiting Toronto.

Malkin’s 27th goal capped a furious third-period rally by the Penguins, who trailed by three with 13 minutes to play. The NHL’s leading scorer later flipped a wrist shot past Jonas Gustavsson in the second round of the shootout to extend Pittsburgh’s winning streak to eight games.

• Nashville’s late burst downs Minnesota: Mike Fisher scored two of Nashville’s three goals in the last 31/2 minutes and the Predators stunned the Minnesota Wild 5-4 at St. Paul, Minn., for their fifth straight victory.

• Stamkos scores 33rd goal: Steven Stamkos scored his NHL-leading 33rd goal at 2:45 of overtime, giving the Tampa Bay Lightning a 4-3 victory over Washington at Tampa, Fla.

DePaul crushes No. 14 Louisville

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Anna Martin scored 19 points and Katherine Harry had a career-high 20 rebounds and six assists, leading DePaul to an 86-61 rout of No. 14 Louisville at Chicago.

The win was the second straight for the Blue Demons (17-6, 5-4 Big East) while the Cardinals (17-5, 6-3) had their three-game winning streak snapped.

DePaul improved to 10-1 at home, the only loss coming against No. 3 Connecticut.

• No. 2 Irish rout No. 13 Rutgers: Skylar Diggins scored 18 points and Natalie Achonwa added 15 to help No. 2 Notre Dame beat 13th-ranked Rutgers 71-41 at Piscataway, N.J., for the Irish’s 19th straight victory.

Notre Dame is 22-1, 9-0 in Big East. The Scarlet Knights (17-5, 6-3) were missing second leading scorer Khadijah Rushdan, who suffered a concussion in Sunday’s loss to Georgetown.

Coach’s wife accused of sex with players

Miscellany: An affidavit filed in a slander suit against Syracuse University and basketball coach Jim Boeheim says the wife of fired assistant Bernie Fine had sex with players, and several people associated with the program knew about it, including Fine.

In the affidavit, Bobby Davis, a former ball boy with the men’s team, says he was present on several occasions with basketball players when he heard them speaking of having sex with Laurie Fine. Davis said players joked about it and it seemed to be an openly known fact that Laurie Fine had sex with basketball players. A lawyer for Laurie Fine said the accusations were “disgusting.”

After Davis and his step-brother, Mike Lang, accused Bernie Fine of molesting them when they were boys, Boeheim vehemently defended his longtime friend and assistant coach. He said Davis was lying to cash in on the publicity generated by a sexual abuse scandal unfolding at Penn State University. The Hall of Fame coach later backed off, saying he based his defense on loyalty and two previous claims of abuse against Fine that authorities could not substantiate.

Boeheim apologized after a third accuser came forward at the end of November and a years-old audiotape surfaced of a phone conversation between Davis and Laurie Fine that some have interpreted as Fine acknowledging Davis was abused by her husband.