San Diego State sneaks past Wyoming in OT

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

02/23/2012 - San Diego, CA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jamaal Franklin scored the first five points of overtime and finished with 12 points all together to help No. 24 San Diego State sneak past Wyoming, 67-58, at Viejas Arena on Wednesday.

Garrett Green came off the bench to score 14 points on 6-of-6 shooting and Tim Shelton and Chase Tapley each chipped in 10 points apiece as the Aztecs (21-6, 7-4 MWC) snapped a three-game losing streak.

"We have to find a way to win. We can't be excuse-makers," said San Diego State head coach Steve Fisher. "We've got to make a play. We've got to dig and dig and dig and dig and make a play. That's what this team has done. We have fought and fought and fought and not given up. And I like the way we have fought."

Arthur Bouedo led Wyoming (18-9, 4-7) with 11 points and Adam Waddell netted 10 to go with six rebounds for the Cowboys, who lost their fourth straight contest.

Franklin scored the first five in the extra session, as his three-point play gave the Aztecs a 60-55 lead less than a minute into overtime.

Tapley managed a steal and a layup, but Francisco Cruz quickly answered with 1:44 remaining to make it a 62-57 contest.

Green responded with a thunderous dunk down the heart of the defense to press the lead back to seven.

The Aztecs held on down the stretch, going 3-of-4 from the charity stripe to secure the overtime victory.

The Cowboys took a 44-35 lead with 11:13 left, but went the next six-plus minutes without a field goal as the Aztecs reeled off a 10-1 to tie the game at 45.

Leonard Washington would end the drought by nailing a three but Franklin answered with a triple of his own to tie the game at 48 with just under four minutes remaining in the contest.

Leading 53-52, the Aztecs got two free throws from Green to take a two-point lead after a Luke Martinez missed foul shot, but Martinez responded with a three from the wing that hit nothing but net to tie the game at 55 with 29.2 seconds left, allowing the Aztecs to hold for the final shot.

Tapley drove the lane but came up short on the left-handed layup and Wyoming corralled the rebound with 1.7 still showing on the clock, but Wyoming came up empty on a desperation attempt at the buzzer.

"The critical thing tonight was we missed foul shots with 45 seconds left to take the lead and they came down and made two," Wyoming head coach Larry Shyatt said. "We had two chances to win it in regulation, but couldn't get them. I thought we shot the ball better in the second half tonight, which has been a nemesis for us the last five games."

Wyoming used an 11-2 run to jump out to an early 13-4, but San Diego State countered with a 12-3 run of its own to take a 26-24 lead.

The Cowboys took a 30-26 lead into the locker room after scoring the final six of the half.

Game Notes

The Aztecs have defeated Wyoming in five straight games for the first time during the all-time series which now stands at 37-34 in favor of Wyoming...The Cowboys finished 9-of-22 from long range, while the Aztecs made 3 of their 11 three-point attempts.

Wwwilovebasketball NCAA Basketball Betting News

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SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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