Melbourne United survived a late scare and snapped their National Basketball League season duck with a 98-87 victory over the Adelaide 36ers on Friday night.Piloted by Tai Wesley (18 points) and Todd Blanchfield (17), Melbourne exploded with a dominant 32-17 second term and led by as many as 24 points late in the third quarter in Adelaide.With skipper Mitch Creek exiting the match with a leg injury sustained in the first quarter and star guard Jerome Randle (20 points) fouling out late, Nathan Sobey provided much-needed spark off the bench for the home side, helping peg the gap back to five points near the death.But they werent able to overhaul those final buckets and slipped to a 1-2 record.United led by one point after a see-sawing opening stanza before blitzing Adelaide in the second, with Blanchfield catching fire from the perimeter and Wesley proving a powerhouse in the paintAfter a tough first half - on the back of sustained shooting ails in the opening round - Chris Goulding finally found his range, while Wesley demonstrated a nice outside stroke to go with his inside game, as Melbourne worked out to 80-56 late in the third.While United fired on all cylinders, Adelaides offence repeatedly spluttered with poor shot options and consistent turnovers proving costly before Sobey and Ferguson did their best to conjure a last-ditch miracle.Five points down inside the final 30 seconds, Daniel Johnson fluffed two late chances to steal the unlikeliest of wins and Melbourne iced it from the stripe through Goulding.Adelaide coach Joey Wright took some heart from the Sixers fierce fourth-quarter fightback even though the damage was already done.Its great that we came back ... we knew if we played like that from the beginning wed be successful. But we didnt.They controlled the tempo in our own gym which was disappointing.Melbourne coach Dean Demopoulos said United must improve their ability to close out opposition fourth-quarter comebacks, after his sides 24-point third-quarter lead was whittled to just five points inside the last minute.Obviously wed like to do better, he saidBasketball is a game of runs and every team is going to get them.We could do a better job of closing that quarter out. Cheap Penguins Jerseys . The 20-year-old Pelicans big man glanced up and smiled widely at the well-wishers -- a fitting end to a day he wont soon forget. Davis responded to his selection earlier in the day as a Western Conference All-Star with 26 points and 10 rebounds, and the New Orleans Pelicans overcame a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 98-91 on Friday night. Pittsburgh Penguins Pro Shop . - Chris Tierney snapped a tie with a power-play goal late in the third period as the London Knights rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Erie Otters 5-3 in Ontario Hockey League action on Wednesday. https://www.cheappenguinsjersey.com/ . "Trying to breathe," he said with a grin. Bernier stopped 42 of 43 shots on Monday night, including all 22 in a hectic middle frame, his heroic performance propelling the Leafs toward an undue point in their final game before the Christmas break. Wholesale Penguins Jerseys . -- Playing time has been limited for Maxim Tissot this season, so the Montreal Impact defender made the most of his first scoring opportunity on Saturday. Fake Penguins Jerseys . Duchene scored two goals and had an assist, helping the Colorado Avalanche beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Friday night to match the best 10-game start in team history. MILAN -- At 40, Francesco Totti may not be Romas `Golden Boy anymore, but he is still very much `the King of Rome.Totti celebrates his 40th birthday on Tuesday but the Champions Leagues oldest scorer is showing no signs of slowing down and indeed seems to have found a new lease of life.There was speculation last season that maybe the time had come for Il Capitano to hang up his boots and move into the boardroom but, with six goals in his past 11 league matches and several assists, Totti is proving his doubters wrong.Totti marked the final match of his 30s on Sunday by becoming only the second player to score 250 Serie A goals, reaching that mark with a penalty kick in Romas 3-1 loss at Torino.The man who upset Tottis pre-birthday celebrations, Torino coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, helped persuade then Roma coach Vujadin Boskov to hand a 16-year-old Totti his debut.Mihajlovic had been amazed by the precocious youngster, who was giving him and his fellow first-team defenders trouble in training as well as racking up goals for the youth team.On March 28, 1993, with Roma winning 2-0 at Brescia, Mihajlovic ran up to Boskov and said come on, bring the kid on... The rest is history.Mihajlovic joked at the weekend that Totti owes him a dinner for that, and it cant be at a pizzeria, it has to be oysters and champagne before adding he is the best player in Italy since Ive been here.And for nearly a quarter of a century Totti has been living up to those expectations. With his stunning goals and defense-splitting passes, Totti is, for many Roma fans, the epitomy of the Roman gladiator that he has tattooed on his right shoulder.If Rome is the Eternal City, Totti is Romas eternal leader and has been since he was first made captain in 1998, at the age of just 22.Zdenek Zeman, who promoted Totti to the captaincy, was such an ardent admirer that he once said: Who are the best five Italian players? Totti, Totti, Totti, Totti, Totti.Several teammates and coaches have compared Totti with a famous Roman monument, with Claudio Ranieri saying the star player is as important as the Colosseum is to Rome.He has been just as immovable.Totti has spent his entire career at Roma and wheen his current contract expires, he will have had 25 years in its first team -- remarkably more than 28 percent of the clubs existence.ddddddddddddTotti could have won more than the solitary Serie A title, two Italian Cups and two national Super Cups he lifted with Roma, but he rejected offers of more money and glory to remain with his childhood club.I grew up playing for Roma and I want to die playing for Roma ... I have always been a Roma fan, said Totti, who was raised in the Porta Metronia area of the city.Tottis face adorns murals and posters across Italys capital, where he is loved by Roma fans and respected by supporters of bitter rival Lazio, despite his antics against them.Totti has scored 11 times against Lazio and often celebrates these extra-special goals with t-shirts made for the occasion. One famously said I have purged you again, while he revealed another reading simply Game Over after a victory in May 2015.He hit the headlines in January of that year when he scored the second of two goals against Lazio and, in a pre-planned celebration for becoming the all-time leading scorer in the derby, grabbed his phone off Romas goalkeeping coach and took a selfie under the Curva Sud with thousands of adoring fans in the background.Totti has also been a star for Italy and he helped the Azzurri to the European Championship final in 2000 as well as the World Cup trophy in 2006.He grabbed global attention at Euro 2000 with one of the moments of the tournament, in the semifinals against the Netherlands. In the tense penalty shootout, the 23-year-old Totti kept his cool to cheekily chip Edwin van der Sar with his spot-kick.Totti was named man of the match in the final, despite Italy losing 2-1 to France.Totti played in all seven of Italys World Cup matches in 2006 and his last match for the Azzurri was the final against France, concluding his international career with 58 caps and nine goals.Asked what gift Totti should get for his 40th birthday, Roma coach Luciano Spalletti was among the people who suggested a time machine. ' ' '