LeBron James catches fire Saturday night to help the Cavs extend win streak to 11 in 113-106 victory over the New York Knicks. James had the single best half in Cavaliers’ history scorching the Knicks with 35 first half points, overtaking the previous record of 34 held by Walt Wesley.

Reminiscent to the show he put on in the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals scoring 25 straight points, James poured in 24 consecutive Saturday night in a span of 5:29. “My God,” Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni said. … [visit site to read more]

Tina Charles and Jacki Gemelos were considered by most to be the top recruits in the high school Class of 2006. They remain close friends to this day.

Charles has played in 135 games at UConn and has 2,021 points and 1,191 rebounds in her college career.

Gemelos, a one-time UConn commit who later signed with the University of Southern California, has not played a single minute of college basketball. Her last game was Feb. 22, 2006, for St. Mary’s High of Stockton, Calif. She tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee that night and has had four ACL surgeries — two on each knee — since.

The Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) announced today that the 2010 WBCA High School All-America Game presented by Nike will be played on the same court as the NCAA® Women's Final Four® in San Antonio, Texas.

The college-style regulation game is free to the public and is scheduled to tip-off at 4:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, April 3, at the Alamodome. As a part of the NCAA Women's Final Four and WBCA National Convention festivities, the game will feature the nation's top 20 high school girls' basketball players.

The 2010 WBCA High School All-America Team will be announced in mid-February. Tickets for seating in a reserved section are available for purchase at www.wbca.org.

This year, right as the luncheon was about to start, I saw a message on my BlackBerry that Kansas senior Danielle McCray had suffered an ACL injury and was out for the season.

I had to look at it three times to believe it. I kept thinking -- hoping? -- I was reading it wrong. You'd think after all the ACL injuries I've had to report about in 26 years of covering women's basketball, they would lose the power to upset me. But that isn't the case.

Early in Val Whiting's freshman year at Stanford University, the coach of the school's NCAA championship swim teams spoke to Whiting and her basketball teammates about the secret to becoming the best in the country.

Stanford had never won an NCAA women's basketball title, but knew it had the makings of a top team.

"He talked to us about how the mentality of a team striving to be a champion is different than somebody just happy just to be there," Whiting recalled Friday. "That just made us work harder and have more fun. It really turned our season around. Everybody's mentality changed."

Winter reminisces with Asylum about his five minutes in the NBA. "You have five fouls to give," Flip Saunders said before a game against Shaq, "and for every foul you don't use, we'll fine you $1,000." Mission accomplished. [Asylum]

Of all the nights for the team bus to run late.

Hannah Wilkerson was about ready to drive the Miller High School girls' basketball team to Morrisville herself on Thursday night when the Lady Cardinals' bus didn't arrive on time.

"I was freaking out," said Wilkerson, a Miller senior and Missouri State signee. "I told Coach to call the bus barn and tell them hurry up."

Who could you blame her? Wilkerson had history to make.

Last night, at the Raptors-Nets game, Vanilla Ice inexplicably appeared as the halftime entertainment. Resident Canadian high-end potato salesman, Gourmet Spud, was in attendance. He filed this report.

With about five minutes left in the second quarter, the P.A. announcer let it be known that we should stay in our seats at halftime, as Vanilla Ice (not Rob Van Winkle, mind you) would be performing for our pleasure. I would say the reaction was a mixture of "is this a joke?" and ecstatic giggling. Please note that this was not heavily promoted. Halftime came, and two guys rushed to set up a tiny little platform for him to stand on. Then the lights dimmed, the bass (guitar?) riff for "Play That Funky Music" started, and out he came. He got a nice ovation, and he seemed to be in good spirits. The Raptors cheerleaders circled around him and started dancing, presumably so he didn't look so very alone up there.

After "Funky" finished, he did a mini back-and-forth with the crowd, before asking if we wanted some "Ice, Ice Baby". Suffice it to say, we did. So he went right into that song, the place went nuts, people were rapping along, the old couple next to me looked confused, and as quick as he started, he was done. He ran off to a pretty nice ovation, and I would say the whole thing was pretty positively received. As we were leaving the game (an ugly Raptors win over the Nets), I overheard one guy deadpan, "I definitely was not expecting to see Vanilla Ice tonight", which sums it up pretty well I think.

Oh, and during his mini-set, Vanilla Ice shouted "what's up, Canadaaaaaaaa?" about three or four times, which usually makes Canadians smile. Kind of like Nickelback asking a Portland audience, "HEY, ALL OF AMERICA - ARE YOU READY FOR SOME SUCK?"

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Thanks for your continued support of Deadspin's perceived pro-choice Ding Dongery and SKEETS!. Barry will be here in a few.

Plus, tomorrow, we'll have live reports from Philadelphia's titty-puke extravaganza, The Wing Bowl, courtesy of feisty Philly miracle boy, Brian Hickey. So come back.

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Those of us involved and on the front lines of women's professional sports know that we are pushing society to accept us as a given. But we also know that women's sports usually embody the very things that people value most in sports: accessible players playing for the love of the game, overcoming obstacles to achieve their dreams of being professional athletes, acting as true role models in the game and in the community.