We used the early games as a practice to get

RALEIGH, N. LeSean McCoy Green Jersey.C. -- George Washington kept hanging around, refusing to let Memphis pull too far ahead. The Colonials just couldnt come up with the one shot they needed to prolong their first NCAA tournament visit in seven years. Isaiah Armwood scored a season-high 21 points in ninth-seeded GWs 71-66 loss to eighth-seeded Memphis in the second round of the East Regional. Armwood picked up his fourth foul with 12:02 remaining for GW (24-9), which was just 2 of 12 from 3-point range yet never fell behind by more than 10 points. "It definitely changed my defence, because when Im on defence, Im usually active. I couldnt foul," Armwood said. "It definitely hurt us because I gave up some layups that I dont usually give up." Leading scorer Maurice Creek -- who averages 14 points -- finished with nine on 2-of-13 shooting for GW, but he airballed a 3-pointer in the final seconds that would have tied it. Michael Dixon Jr., the top sixth man in the American Athletic Conference, scored 19 points and hit four free throws in the final 10 seconds for Memphis, which never trailed. Joe Jackson added 15 points for the eighth-seeded Tigers (24-9), who are halfway to Geron Johnsons post-AAC tournament guarantee of two wins in the first weekend of the NCAAs. "As long as we think big and we play hard, the skys the limit," Jackson said. "Weve just got to continue to think that we can get there. Weve got to know we can get there." They entered the tournament having lost three of five to fall out of the national rankings, and shot 49 per cent in this one but struggled to put GW away until the final seconds. Patricio Garino added 10 points for the Colonials, who were making their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2007 and hung around all game before making a final late push. They had the ball down 67-64 after Jackson threw the ball away with 1:16 left. But Creeks jumper in the lane was short and so was Nemanja Mikics 3-point attempt from the right wing with less than a minute remaining. "I think if we would have tied it, the momentum was sort of shifting and maybe we would have tied it, had some time outs and things wouldve been different," GW coach Mike Lonergan said. Crawford missed a 3 for Memphis with about 30 seconds left and the rebound went out of bounds off Jackson with 26.6 seconds left. Joe McDonald beat Crawford off the dribble for a layup to make it 67-66 with 13.6 seconds left, and the Colonials fouled Dixon with 9.6 seconds left. Dixon hit both free throws and the Colonials called a timeout to set up their final possession. McDonald dribbled a few seconds off the clock before passing to Creek, whose final 3-pointer with about 3 seconds left left failed to draw iron. "A shot I usually hit," said Creek, a 41 per cent shooter from 3-point range. Dixon added two more free throws with 0.4 of a second remaining for Memphis, which could never push its lead past 10. Its last big lead came on Dixons jumper from the corner with 9 1/2 minutes left. Creek hit a 3-pointer -- GWs second, and last, of the game -- before GWs 1-3-1 zone forced a turnover and Garino made a layup to make it a 64-62 game with 2 1/2 minutes left. Out of a timeout, Memphis worked the ball to Dixon -- who buried an open 3-pointer from the right wing and kept his shooting hand aloft for an extra moment. At the time, that seemed like the dagger -- but the Colonials kept scrapping. "They made a run at the end," Dixon said, "but we never got flustered or rattled." Both teams werent especially good behind either line on the court: Memphis was 11 of 16 from the free throw line and hit just 27 per cent of its 3-point attempts, while GW was 14 of 24 from the free throw line in addition to its poor 3-point shooting. "Theyve got a good inside-out punch," Jackson said. "Fortunately, we kind of stopped them from shooting 3s because it probably would have been a long night for us." Seth Joyner White Jersey. PAUL, Minn. Jerome Brown Green Jersey. Now its going to cost him -- four games and four paychecks. The Colts career sacks leader was suspended Friday by the NFL after violating the leagues ban on performance-enhancing substances.CALGARY -- Kyle Shewfelts Olympic gold medal in gymnastics shines bright a decade later because it is the first and only of its kind in Canada. Unlike the Olympic champion who has a teammate or hero to follow or emulate, Shewfelt blazed his own trail to win the floor routine in 2004. He is the only Canadian to win an Olympic medal of any colour in gymnastics. The Calgarian is among the athletes, builders and coaches who will be inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in June. Hell join speedskater Cindy Klassen, the victorious mens eight rowing team of 2008, speedskating coach Marcel Lacroix, hockey coach Pat Quinn and the late, former Alberta premier Ralph Klein among the 2014 inductees. Sports journalist Richard Garneau, who covered 23 Olympic Games, will receive the Canadian Olympic Order posthumously. While Shewfelt agrees no Canadian beat a path to the podium for him, he didnt feel isolated in his quest. "Why did it happen for me? I wasnt by myself," Shewfelt said. "I had tons of supporters, amazing teammates, my national federation was so supportive of the dream. They sent me around the world when I was 17 to get that experience. I just never wavered in my belief that it was possible. "I watched the Russians, I watched the Americans, the Chinese and the Japanese and I imagined myself being just like them. I did have incredible Canadian ambassadors in sport, Jennifer Wood was my idol, Curtis Hibbert, Stella Umeh, these are people I really looked up to. "For myself, I wanted to take it to the next level and I guess it took a lot of courage for myself to do that, but it was something I was willing to risk. I knew as an athlete that when I ended by career, I wanted to look back and have no regrets. I had to chase the biggest dream possible." Shewfelt, 31, retired in 2009 after competing in three Olympic Games. He broke both legs in competition less than a year out from the 2008 Summer Games, yet finished ninth in the vault and 11th in the floor routine in Beijing. Shewfelt, who has a vault named after him, recently opened a gymnastics school in the city. The Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame was established in 1949. It is housed in the Frank King Olympic Visitors Centre at Calgarys Canada Olympic Park about a kilometre from Canadas Sports Hall of Fame. Previous inductees into the Olympic Hall of Fame include wrestler Daniel Igali, swimmer Mark Tewksbury, synchronized swimmer Caroline Waldo and sprinter Donovan Bailey. The class of 2014 was revealed Wednesday in downtown Calgary along with the announcement that the city will host a three-day celebration June 4-6 of Canadas performance at the Sochi Games. Shewfelt and Lacroix, who coached Christine Nesbitt and the mens pursuit team to Olympic gold in 2010, attended the news conference. Quinn and members of the mens eight participated in a conference call. Klein spearheaded Calgarys bid for the 1988 Winter Games when he was mayor of the city. Albertas premier from 1992 to 2006 died last year at the age of 70. Winnipegs Klassen won five medals, including one gold, at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee at the time, labelled her "the woman of the Games." With six career medals, she and Clara Hughes are Canadas most decorated Olympians of all time. Klassen, 34, did not compete in trials to qualify for Sochi because of a concussion. She has yet to announce her retirement from speedskating. Canada won the first mens hockey gold in 50 years in 2002 with Quinn behind the bench. Canadians were still stinging from finishing out of the medals four years earlier when NHL players first participated in the Winter Games. It didnt help that Canada got off to a rough startt in Salt Lake City with a loss to Sweden. Wes Hopkins Green Jersey "In the first game, we had eight lousy minutes," Quinn recalled. "Everybody was down after the first loss to Sweden. By the time we reviewed the tape of the game, we knew that we werent that far off. Even though the score was ugly, the game wasnt ugly." The leadership of Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic and Joe Nieuwendyk steered the team through choppy waters and also got young players on the team to toe the line, Quinn said. "Our leadership took over and said this is the way were going to do it," Quinn said. "That was when we simply had a change in our mindset about what team means. We got these young guys paying attention through the process. "Thats what saved us in Salt Lake. Our goal was to get better shift by shift because we had no real practice time and thats where the coach needs his team to come together is through practice. We used the early games as a practice to get ready for the final round." The mens eight of coxswain Brian Price, Andrew Byrnes, Ben Rutledge, Dominic Seiterle, Kyle Hamilton, Malcolm Howard, Jake Wetzel, Adam Kreek and Kevin Light led the final from start to finish to win gold in Beijing. It was a tale of redemption after a heavily favoured Canadian crew finished out of the medals four years earlier. The Canadians dodged early pitfalls in Beijing. Primed and ready for their first heat, races were cancelled that day due to lightning. "Picture a bunch of racehorses or dogs at a race track and theyre all revved up to go and attack and they have all this energy and adrenaline built up," Kreek explained. "We were like these racehorses ready to run, these hunting dogs ready to pounce." With officials hustling boats off the course, Price used what little time they had to get hard rows in as they headed for the docks. "We didnt have to go back and sit on bikes or on the rowing machine and try to get some work in," Hamilton said. "We were able to manipulate the situation to make sure we got our work in and were ready to go. "Instead of just paddling back, Brian had already shifted us into the next day into the next race plan. That really kind of set us up for the next day, set us up for the regatta and told the young guys on the crew that we were ready to go, we knew what we were doing and we could handle every situation." They needed that composure the following day. Not 500 metres into their heat, the Australians blew a rudder and veered towards the Canadian boat. "Were seeing this Australian boat coming towards us and its going to pierce right through our hull," Kreek recalled. "The eight of us wont act unless Brian says something. Brian sees the Aussies coming at us and says take five strokes now. "All eight of us take the biggest strokes of our life. We barely missed the Aussie boat as it skidded right behind our stern." Lacroix coached Nesbitt and the mens pursuit team of Denny Morrison, Mathieu Giroux and Lucas Makowsky to gold at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C. Now the associate director of sport at Calgarys Olympic Oval, Lacroix says Canadas sport system now recognizes and values the coachs contribution to an athletes performance. One example is the Canadian Olympic Committee now pays medal bonuses to coaches of Olympic medallists. "From the provincial level all the way to the national team and to the COC, there is a big push in terms of recognizing the profession of coaching," Lacroix said. "It has become a profession. Now with the bonuses that are given to the coaches for their effort, I think it is showing a lot of respect for that profession at all levels." wholesale jerseys  ' ' '