TORONTO -- Dwane Casey saw it as a sign of maturity on the part of his young team. After a first half in which he thought "the lid was on the basket," the Toronto Raptors coach watched his squad mount a second half surge to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 98-91. "Thats another step in our growth," Casey said after Friday nights win at Air Canada Centre. "Last year at this time, if wed have missed shots like that wed have caved in. "But we kept grinding it, grinding it, grinding it and thats what you have to do when the shots arent falling." The Raptors (30-25) shot a woeful 32.7 per cent from the field in the first half and trailed 44-39. But, with second-year centre Jonas Valanciunas leading the way, Toronto shot an impressive 16-for 23, or 69.5 per cent, in the third quarter on the way to winning their fourth game in five starts. "We said we need to pick it up, we need to come out with energy," Valanciunas, who finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, said of the talk in the locker room at halftime. "Thats what it was all about. "We shot really bad the first half but we did a better job the second half and thats what matters." Valanciunas scored 10 of his 14 second-half points in the third quarter, including five in a row during a 4:07 stretch that saw the Raptors turn a one-point deficit into a 10-point lead. Second-year guard Terrence Ross had a team-high 20 points as the Raptors snapped the Cavaliers (22-34) six-game winning streak and widened their lead to 3-1/2 games over the idle Brooklyn Nets atop the NBAs Atlantic Division. With the win, the Raptors equalled the third-fastest time theyve reached the 30-win mark in team history, just one game off the best mark of 54 games in both the 2009-10 and 2007-08 seasons. The Raptors, who have missed the playoffs in each of the past five seasons, didnt win their 30th game until their 78th outing last year. Although Ross led the Raptors in scoring, it was his defensive play against Cleveland guard Kyrie Irving, who was named MVP of last weekends NBA All-Star Game, that drew rave reviews from his teammates. "Defensively, hes always been impressive, and hes getting better," Toronto guard Kyle Lowry said after Irving was held to 3-for-16 shooting on his way to 17 points. "I told him that on the bench tonight." Lowry had 14 points, nine assists and six rebounds. DeMar DeRozan added 14 points and five assists. Clevelands Luol Deng led all scorers with 21 points and added 11 rebounds while Tristan Thompson of Brampton, Ont., added 13 points and nine assists and Anthony Bennett, also from Brampton, who last spring became the first Canadian to ever go first overall in the NBA draft, had nine points in his first game here. "We just had to pick up our defensive intensity," Ross said of the message delivered at halftime. "The biggest thing, we were coming out, playing too lackadaisical and we had to pick that up." Toronto outscored Cleveland 37-21 in the third quarter to take control. Valanciunas made a layup with 7:22 to go in the quarter to put the Raptors up for good at 53-52. After Valanciunas and Amir Johnson combined for just four points in the first half, Casey said he gave the big men "a wake-up call" going into the second half and they responded at both ends of the court. "We reminded them theres more to the game than the offensive end," Casey said. "You can get rebounds. You can get back in transition. You can challenge shots and you can go vertical. "You can do a lot of different things other than make shots and I thought the second half (they) worked at it and got it done." Santonio Holmes Ohio State Jersey . Nat Borchers headed in the sole goal in the 54th minute, getting on the end of a Kyle Beckerman free kick. The defeat cost Sporting top spot in the Eastern Conference. Even a draw would have moved the Kansas City club above Columbus. Raekwon McMillan Ohio State Jersey . Vincent Lamar Carter is no longer the lean, athletic dynamo who dazzled Raptors fans with eye-popping dunks that posterized even the leagues best defenders. http://www.cheapnflwholesalejerseys.cc/ ... ey-81.html. The same for both the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers. Durron Neal Oklahoma Jersey . Western and the second-ranked Laval Rouge et Or (7-0) once again received 20 and 10 first-place votes from the Football Reporters of Canada panel, respectively. Rounding out the Top 10 are the Calgary Dinos (7-0), Queens Gaels (7-1), Guelph Gryphons (7-1), Montreal Carabins (5-2), Bishops Gaiters (5-2), McMaster Marauders (5-3), Manitoba Bisons (4-3) and the Saskatchewan Huskies (4-3) Western crushed York 50-10 last Saturday in its league finale to secure first place in the OUA standings and a bye in the first round of the conference playoffs. Billy Sims Oklahoma Jersey . -- First baseman Carlos Pena and outfielder Brennan Boesch have signed minor league deals with the Los Angeles Angels.NEW YORK -- The Williams sisters overcame a minor scare Wednesday. Next up: A major test. Venus and Serena Williams overcame two service breaks in the second set to advance to the U.S. Open quarterfinals with a 6-1, 7-6 (3) victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Lucie Safarova. The Williams sisters, who have combined for 13 Grand Slam doubles titles, will play the defending champion and top-seeded Italian team of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci on Thursday. The Italians beat the sisters in three sets in the Australian Open quarterfinals. "We learned from the match in Australia," Venus Williams said. "Obviously, they play well, they play often. Theyre a great team, so were going to learn from that and go for it tomorrow." The doubles is keeping Serena Williams sharp during her two-day break between Tuesday nights 6-0, 6-0 victory over Carla Suarez Navarro in the singles quarterfinals and her meeting with Li Na in Fridays semifinals. Vinci, meanwhile, lost to Flavia Pennetta in singles Wednesdayy and now only has doubles.dddddddddddd. She and Errani have three Grand Slam titles, including this years Australian Open. "Honestly, a different dr[list=]aw would have been better," Vin[/list]ci said. "Well see whether Serena already is thinking about the (singles) semifinals. If we play them, itll be very, very hard. ... They serve well, return well. But Venus is playing a bit less well than (Serena), so well need to go after Venus more." In Wednesdays match, the Williams sisters lost only three points on their serve in the first set, but both sisters got broken once in the second. The second break came against Serena when she was trying to serve out the match at 5-4. The Williams won the first five points of the tiebreaker, lost the next three, then closed it out two points after that on Serenas service winner. "I can always blame her if things dont go right," Serena joked in her on-court interview. "Shes the older sister so she always takes the blame. Im never wrong." Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys Wholesale NFL Jerseys Jerseys From China Wholesale NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys ' ' '