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TORONTO - Once he got going, no one could calm Jonas Valanciunas down, despite Kyle Lowrys best efforts. As Valanciunas was whistled for a rare technical toward the end of the third quarter - a result of waving his hand at an official after being called for a foul - Lowry pulled the Raptors sophomore aside, corralling him by his jersey and patting him on the back. "Youve got to be smart in certain situations," Lowry told the young centre. "I just tried to say look, you cant waste your money." "Yeah, he was trying to calm me down," Valanciunas said of the conversation with his point guard, speaking with a mischievous look on his face following the Raptors 98-91 win over the Cavaliers. "That technical foul cost me, so I feel bad now." He shouldnt. The tech will cost Valanciunas a small fraction of his next paycheque but the unbridled emotion he played with in the second half of Fridays game was the driving force of Torontos rapid turnaround. Valanciunas, like the rest of his team, got off to an ugly start. The Raptors were fortunate to be down by only five going into the break, scoring just 39 points in the first half and shooting 33 per cent from the field. For the third straight game coming out of the All-Star break, Valanciunas got a quick hook in the first quarter. The seven-footer has been strangely quiet of late, averaging under six points in four games entering Fridays contest. His minutes have been down, as hes battled growing pains on the defensive end. After being sent to the bench midway through the opening quarter, he sat for around 12 minutes of game time before re-entering. Somewhere, somehow, someone lit a fire under the sophomore and not only did it spark him, it ignited the whole team. Valanciunas was a possessed man coming out of the halftime break. He was aggressive on defence, manic on the boards and dominant down low. He ran the floor with a purpose, worked to establish position, then demanded the ball. As he turned to face up Clevelands Tyler Zeller midway through the third, he pump faked - not once, but twice - took the contact and drained the jumper. Before completing the three-point play, he pumped his fist in the air and yelled out to the crowd, or the Cavs, or his teammates, or whoever was listening. His face was as red as the logo at centre court. He meant business. "Hes going to have ups and downs but tonight he was intense," Lowry said of Valanciunas, who had 10 points and four rebounds in the third quarter, finishing the game with 18 points and eight boards. "He really kind of carried us with his intensity and his passion and fire tonight." The 21-year-olds inspired play lifted the Raptors in what turned out to be a game-deciding third quarter. Toronto scored 37 points in the frame - two fewer than its first-half total - and shot 70 per cent, turning a five-point deficit at intermission into an 11-point advantage going into the fourth. "Hes our enforcer in the paint," said Amir Johnson, who returned to the starting lineup Friday after coming off the bench in his two previous outings, nursing an ankle injury. "When he gets going, everybody else plays good and that just gets everybody open shots when hes scoring in the paint." Johnson also came to life in the second half, the two bigs even hooked up on an alley-oop lob - from Johnson to Valanciunas - late in game. "We had to give our bigs a wakeup call," Dwane Casey said. "They turned it around in the second half. We reminded them, theres more to the game than the offensive end." "You can do a lot of different things other than make shots," he continued, "and I thought the second half, Amir Johnson and JV worked at it and got it done." Although Valanciunas helped turn the game, the best Raptor on the night - from start to finish - was fellow sophomore Terrence Ross, hands down. Ross scored a team-high 20 points, shooting 9-for-18, but his most important contribution was on the defensive end, where he went toe-to-toe with All-Star Game MVP Kyrie Irving. When the game began, Ross was assigned to check former Raptor Jarrett Jack while Lowry defended Irving. Early in the first quarter, there was a switch and Ross ended up on the Cavs point guard and leading scorer. It stuck for the rest of the evening, and Ross did not disappoint. The Raptors forward used his length and athleticism to frustrate Irving, forcing him to launch tough perimeter jumpers, keeping him out of the paint and holding him to 3-of-16 shooting. "He can score in a lot of different ways [and] get his teammates involved," Ross said of Irving, who ended up with 17 points and nine assists for Cleveland. "So if you slow him down, you slow the team down." "He had to chase [Irving] everywhere," Johnson said of Ross. "He chased him off screens, he didnt quit on plays and thats how you have to play a guy like that. [Irvings] so crafty and hes always moving so you just have to keep a body on him and stay in front of him. [Ross] did a great job." It was Canada Basketball Night at the Air Canada Centre Friday, as local product and first overall pick Anthony Bennett made his NBA debut in Toronto. Bennett, who continues to improve after a slow start to the season, knocked down his first two shots and finished with nine points in 15 minute of action while fellow Canadian Tristan Thompson scored 13 to go along with nine boards. In snapping Clevelands six-game winning streak, the Raptors picked up their 30th win of the campaign, doing so in just 55 games. It took them 78 contests to reach the 30-win mark a year ago. Patrick Omameh Jersey .Y. - Islanders forward Anders Lee has been fined $2,286 by the NHL for elbowing St. Kareem Martin Giants Jersey . You can catch all of the action LIVE on TSN2 at 6pm et/3pm pt. The Heat reached that mark Saturday night when they ruined the Philadelphia 76ers home opener. http://www.nygiantsproshop.com/authentic-saquon-barkley-jersey.html . Coming off a 6-0 drubbing at Chelsea on Saturday, Arsenal endured another demoralizing result after rallying for a 2-1 lead -- only to concede a fluke equalizer. Ray-Ray Armstrong Giants Jersey . Ronaldo netted his 14th goal of the season in Europes top competition to give Madrid a clear advantage ahead of next weeks quarterfinal return leg in Germany. But it came at a price as the Portugal forward, who came into the first-leg nursing a sore left knee, came off in the 80th minute. Jonathan Stewart Giants Jersey .J. -- Richard Sherman, Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch deservedly draw the attention for what theyve done in getting the Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl.Danny Manning grew up watching Wake Forest play games at the Greensboro Coliseum, memories that linger in his mind all these years later. He never thought one day hed coach the Demon Deacons. Manning, the former Kansas star who spent the past two seasons coaching Tulsa, was hired Friday as Wake Forests basketball coach. Hell be introduced at a news conference next week on campus in Winston-Salem, N.C., a short drive from where Manning grew up. "I spent a lot of my formative childhood years in North Carolina," Manning told The Associated Press on Friday at AT&T Stadium, the site of this weekends Final Four. "I spent the majority of my life in Kansas," Manning said, "but this was a chance to be a part of a university that I share the same values and history with." His hiring ends Wake Forests two-week search for a replacement for Jeff Bzdelik, who resigned under intense public pressure following four mostly unremarkable seasons. Manning, who was 38-29 with two post-season berths in two seasons at Tulsa, interviewed this week and toured the campus in Winston-Salem on Wednesday before taking the job two days later. His hiring is considered somewhat risky because of his lack of head coaching experience, but theres no question he brings instant name recognition to a program that dropped to near the bottom of the expanded Atlantic Coast Conference. "There have been very few players who have had as much success on the court as Danny," Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman said in a statement. "He has played for and worked under a number of legendary coaches and he has been successful in his coaching career. We fully expect that Dannys coaching career will reflect the excellence of his playing career." Manning attended Greensboro Page High School before his family moved to Lawrence, Kan., for his senior year, and when it was time to choose a college, he picked Kansas over North Carolina. After his "Danny and the Miracles" team won the national title in Kansas City, not far from the Jayhawks campus, Manning was drafted first overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in 1988. He made two All-Star teams during a career maarred by injuries before joining coach Bill Selfs staff at Kansas in 2003.dddddddddddd Responsible primarily for working with post players, Manning was promoted to assistant coach in 2006 and two years ago earned his first head coaching job at Tulsa. Self called Manning "one of the most accomplished, humble people youll ever meet." The 47-year-old Manning took the Golden Hurricane to the CBI in his first year and followed that by guiding them to the Conference USA tournament title and their first NCAA tournament berth since 2003. They earned a No. 13 seed and lost to UCLA in their tournament opener. Tulsa forward Rashad Smith said he found out about Mannings move through teammates and media reports, though he said the coach texted him shortly thereafter. Guard James Woodard said it was "kind of shocking. "You know in the back of your mind, the run we had this year, there would be a lot of opportunities out there," Woodard said. "Im happy for him." Wake Forest never came close to making the NCAA tournament under Bzdelik, who stepped down March 20. Bzdelik went 51-76 with a 17-51 record in ACC play, and won only two league road games. Eight players transferred out during his tenure, and the Demon Deacons have been one of the youngest programs in the country -- with only one fourth-year senior in each of the past two years. Barring any more transfers, Manning will inherit a team with eight players who are either juniors or redshirt juniors -- including promising big man Devin Thomas and tempo-setting guard Codi Miller-McIntyre. As details of Mannings hiring trickled across Twitter, Miller-McIntyre tweeted: "Finally its over! Time to get back to work." Manning called the Demon Deacons a "sleeping giant," one that he believes will be able to contend with Tobacco Road rivals Duke and North Carolina in the near future. "A few years back, they were ranked No. 1 in the country," Manning told AP. "Theyve had great players. Youre about Chris Paul, Tim Duncan, just to name a few, because theyve had quite a few. "Im looking forward to going there and being part of that great tradition." 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