In brief: Shiffrin picks up where she left off before injury

World Cup skiing: Mikaela Shiffrin is definitely back.

Two perfect runs saw the American win a women’s World Cup slalom by almost a half-second on Monday in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in her first race after two months out with injury.

Crossing the line smiling after her second run, Shiffrin turned to look at the timings board then put her head in her hands at the realization she had won.

“I came in blind a little bit,” she said. “I knew my training skiing was some of the best I was doing but I just wasn’t sure. It was kind of close your eyes and go, see what happens at the end of the run.

“I didn’t know what to expect from the rest of the girls. I was just watching on television and wasn’t sure of the pace. I could see it but it’s different from being there.”

It was Shiffrin’s first race since tearing a ligament in her right knee in December. The Olympic and world slalom champion started skiing again only two weeks ago.

Shiffrin won two slaloms in Aspen, Colorado, and both by big margins, before the training mishap in Sweden. She has won her last six slaloms stretching back to last season.

It was Shiffrin’s 18th win on the circuit, moving her level with Tamara McKinney for the second-most wins by an American woman. She turns 21 next month.

Leading after the first run, Shiffrin finished 0.45 seconds faster than Nastasia Noens of France and 0.50 ahead of Marie-Michele Gagnon of Canada as several of her rivals struggled in difficult conditions.

Villanova holds on to top ranking in AP poll

Men’s basketball: Villanova is No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for a second week and Kansas, coming off wins over two top 10 teams, jumps four places to second.

Duke, which had one of the longest consecutive poll streaks ever, returns at No. 20 after two weeks out of the Top 25.

Villanova (22-3) received 44 first-place votes from the 65-member national media panel with Kansas (21-4) getting the other 21.

Oklahoma, which lost to Kansas in their rematch, and Iowa stayed third and fourth. North Carolina jumped four places to fifth and was followed by Maryland, which had been No. 2, and Virginia. Michigan State and Xavier are tied for eighth and West Virginia, which also lost to Kansas, is 10th.

Joining Duke as newcomers are No. 19 Notre Dame and No. 22 Indiana. They replace Texas A&M, Southern Cal and Wichita State.

Jayhawks avenge earlier loss to Cowboys: Wayne Selden Jr. scored 18 points, Landen Lucas added 14 points and 10 rebounds, and second-ranked Kansas rolled to a 94-67 victory over Oklahoma State in Lawrence, Kansas.

Perry Ellis shrugged off a sluggish start to finish with 15 points, and Frank Mason III had 14 for the balanced Jayhawks (22-4, 10-3 Big 12), who avenged a surprising loss to the Cowboys last month.

Oklahoma State (12-13, 3-10) led much of the first half, fell behind by 18 early in the second, then trimmed their deficit to 62-56 with about 11 minutes to go. But the Jayhawks got hot down the stretch, pulling away for a lopsided victory over coach Bill Self’s alma mater.

The Jayhawks finished the first half on a 30-9 run. They finished the second on a 32-11 run.

No surprise, UConn women remain No. 1

Women’s basketball: UConn turned another top showdown into an easy victory and remained No. 1 in the AP women’s basketball poll.

The Huskies beat then-No. 2 South Carolina by 12 points on Feb. 8 and defeated Temple 85-60 on Sunday to stay unbeaten and stretch their winning streak to 61 consecutive games. UConn has now won the last six matchups between the top two teams in the AP poll.

The Gamecocks dropped one spot to third, switching places with Notre Dame.

Baylor and Ohio State are fourth and fifth. Maryland, Oregon State, Texas, Arizona State and Florida State round out the top 10.

NCAA names current top 4 seeds: UConn, South Carolina, Notre Dame and Baylor are still the four No. 1 seeds according to the NCAA women’s basketball selection committee.

It’s the second time this month that the NCAA has released its top 10 women’s teams to help build a buzz for the tournament in March.

The four schools were also the top choices when the NCAA revealed the teams on Feb. 1.

Islanders top Wings behind red-hot Greiss

NHL: Brock Nelson had a goal and an assist to key a three-goal second period and the New York Islanders beat the visiting Detroit Red Wings 4-1.

Josh Bailey, Marek Zidlicky and Ryan Strome also scored to help New York win for the fourth time in five games overall and fourth straight at home. Thomas Greiss stopped 28 shots to win his fifth straight start and seventh of his last eight, improving to 16-6-2 on the season.

Ducks power past Flames: Corey Perry had a goal and an assist and the visiting Anaheim Ducks went a perfect 3 for 3 on the power play in a 6-4 victory over the Calgary Flames.

Mike Santorelli, with a pair of goals, Hamphus Lindholm and Rickard Rakell also scored for Anaheim. The Ducks, 9-1-1 in their past 11 games, leapfrogged San Jose into second place in the Pacific Division.

Jiri Hudler had two goals and an assist to lead Calgary.

Panthers win shootout with Penguins: Jussi Jokinen scored the winning goal in a shootout to lead the Florida Panthers over the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 in Sunrise, Florida.

Nick Bjugstad also scored in the shootout and in regulation for the Panthers. Al Montoya made 31 saves.

Stars rally past Predators: Mattias Janmark scored at 3:49 of overtime to give the Dallas Stars a 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators in Nashville, Tennessee.

Cody Eakin and Ales Hemsky also scored for Dallas.

In overtime, Tyler Seguin’s shot from the left side was stopped by Nashville goaltender Carter Hutton. Seguin then poked the rebound over to the right side, where Janmark had an easy tap-in for the game-winner.