AP Monday Sports Roundup

Panthers still perfect...Pats lose for second straight week...Steelers win big

UNDATED (AP) —

with 1:05 left as the Panthers preserved their perfect season with a 41-38 victory over the New Orleans Saints.

Carolina is the only remaining unbeaten team in the NFL. Carolina is the ninth NFL team to start 12-0 in league history.

Newton was 28 of 41 for 331 yards, But he twice had to lead the Panthers back from fourth-quarter deficits as the 4-8 Saints tried desperately to avoid a four-game losing streak.

Drew Brees passed for 282 yards and three touchdowns in a losing effort.

In other Week 13 action:

— Najee Goode scored on a blocked punt, Malcolm Jenkins returned an interception 99 yards for another touchdown and the Philadelphia Eagles stunned the New England Patriots 35-28. The Pats have blown 14-point leads in consecutive weeks. And now they are tied with Cincinnati and Denver for best record in the AFC at 10-2. It's the first time the Pats have lost back-to-back regular season games since 2012.

— Jeremy Maclin had two touchdowns catches and Tyvon Branch returned an interception of Derek Carr for a game-clinching score against his former team and the Kansas City Chiefs rallied for their sixth straight win, 34-20 over the Oakland Raiders.

— Green Bay and Minnesota are now tied atop the NFC North at 8-4. The Vikings lost their half-game lead over the Packers when Seattle clipped Minnesota, 38-7. Russell Wilson threw three touchdowns and rushed for another as the Seahawks improved to 7-5 with their third straight win.

— The Cincinnati Bengals routed Cleveland 37-3 to complete their Battle of Ohio season sweep. Andy Dalton threw two touchdown passes and ran for a TD as the Bengals improved to 10-2.

— NFC West leader Arizona is 10-2 after whacking St. Louis, 27-3. Larry Fitzgerald hauled in his 1,000th career reception in the game for the Cards and surpassed 1,000 yards in receiving yards this season.

— The Buffalo Bills improved their playoff chances with a 30-21 win over the Texans in Buffalo. Tyrod Taylor threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Charles Clay with 1:53 left for the winning TD.

— Randy Bullock kicked a 31-yard field goal on the first possession of overtime to give the Jets a 23-20 win over the Giants, who have lost three straight.

— The Miami Dolphins intercepted a pair of deflected passes from Ravens quarterback Matt Schaub to score two touchdowns 20 seconds apart late in the first half in a 15-13 win.

— Marcus Mariota helped the Titans snap an 11-game home losing streak at the expense of the Jacksonville Jaguars, 42-39. Mariota scored the go-ahead touchdown on an 87-yard run midway through a wild fourth quarter.

— Blaine Gabbert threw a 71-yard touchdown pass to Torrey Smith in overtime after running for the tying TD late in regulation as the San Francisco 49ers beat the Chicago Bears, 26-20.

— Jameis Winston threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Mike Evans with 1:39 remaining to give the Buccaneers a 23-19 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

— Brock Osweiler threw for one touchdown and Danny Trevathan intercepted Philip Rivers and returned it 25 yards for a score, leading the Denver Broncos to a 17-3 victory against the hapless San Diego Chargers. Osweiler is 3-0 while filling in for injured Peyton Manning.

— In the Sunday night game, the Pittsburgh Steelers whacked Indianapolis 45-10. Ben Roethlisberger threw for 364 yards and four touchdowns. Antonio Brown caught two TD passes and returned a punt 74 yards for a TD. The bloom came off of 40-year-old Colts backup QB Matt Hasselbeck, who threw two interceptions, fumbled once and was generally ineffective in relief of injured starter Andrew Luck.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF

Clemson vs. Oklahoma and Alabama vs. Michigan State in semifinals

GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) — The field is set for the second College Football Playoff. As expected, Clemson, the top team in the final Associated Press regular-season poll, was given the top seed with Alabama second, Michigan State third and Oklahoma fourth.

Clemson will face Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl while in the Cotton Bowl Alabama will go against Michigan State in the national semifinals on New Year's Eve.

The national championship game is set for Monday, Jan. 11 in Glendale, Arizona.

As promised, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney hosted a pizza party at the football stadium for 20,000 fans. Each received a free slice of pizza to celebrate being the top-seed.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL-BOWLS

Bowl field taking shape

UNDATED (AP) — Along with the two national semifinal bowl games, the Cotton and Orange Bowls, being set, the rest of the games are now taking shape. For example it has been announced that Iowa will face Stanford in the Rose Bowl while the Sugar Bowl will match Mississippi against Oklahoma State and the Fiesta Bowl has Notre Dame against Ohio State.

T25-AP POLL

AP poll released

UNDATED (AP) — Clemson is the top team in the last regular-season poll from The Associated Press. The 13-0 Tigers, winners of the Atlantic Coast Conference championship, received 59 first-place votes with second-ranked Alabama getting nine and third-ranked Michigan State one.

Completing the first five are Oklahoma and Stanford.

The second five consists of Iowa, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Florida State and North Carolina.

The last regular-season rankings were released before the College Football Playoff selection committee revealed the field for the national semifinals.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL-COACHES

Bulldogs get Smart

ATLANTA (AP) — As expected, Georgia has hired Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart as its new head coach. He replaces Mark Richt (rihkt), who parted company with Georgia and then took over as head coach at Miami of Florida.

Smart played at Georgia in the 1990s and has been Nick Saban's defensive coordinator at Alabama since 2008.

In other coaching news:

— South Carolina has found its new head football coach. He's former Florida coach Will Muschamp. The 44-year-old Muschamp spent this past season as Auburn's defensive coordinator after being fired after four seasons as coach of the Gators. He is the second straight Florida coach to hold South Carolina's permanent job, following Steve Spurrier, who retired in mid-October after 10-plus seasons in Columbia.

— Southern California coach Clay Helton fired four of the Trojans' assistant coaches, including defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox. Helton made the moves six days after the interim tag was removed from his title.

NBA-SCHEDULE

Warriors now 22-0...Triple-double for Westbrook

UNDATED (AP) — The NBA champion Golden State Warriors are now 22-0 with a 26-game winning streak dating back to last season. The Warriors drubbed Brooklyn 114-98, dropping the Nets to 5-15.

Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 24. Draymond Green added 22 with Klay Thompson chipping in with 21.

The Warriors go for a 23-0 start at Indiana Tuesday.

In other NBA:

— Russell Westbrook had his third triple-double of the season with 19 points, 10 assists and 11 rebounds and the Oklahoma City Thunder rallied late to beat the Sacramento Kings 98-95.

— Jeff Green's dunk on an alley-oop inbound pass from Courtney Lee with five-tenths of a second left gave the Memphis Grizzlies a 95-93 victory over the Phoenix Suns. Marc Gasol led the Grizzlies with 22.

— Wesley Matthews scored 28 of his season-high 36 points in the second half and the Dallas Mavericks beat the Washington Wizards 116-104. Matthews made 12 3-pointers.

— Detroit routed the L.A. Lakers 111-91. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope led the Pistons with 22. In his final game in Detroit, Kobe Bryant missed his first nine shots and finished with five points on 2-of-15 shooting.

NHL-SCHEDULE

Kane breaks Bobby Hull's Chicago record

UNDATED (AP) — Teuvo Teravainen scored from a sharp angle 21 seconds into the third period to snap a tie, and Marian Hossa (HOH'-sah) had a goal and an assist as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Winnipeg Jets 3-1 to end a three-game losing streak.

Chicago right wing Patrick Kane assisted on Artemi Panarin's empty-net goal with 1:46 left. That extends his point streak to 22 games, breaking Bobby Hull's team record. Kane has a goal or assist in 25 of the Blackhawks' 27 games this season.

In other hockey:

— Justin Faulk scored a power-play goal with 17 seconds left to give the Carolina Hurricanes a 5-4 victory over the Arizona Coyotes. That's back-to-back wins for the 'Canes, who beat Montreal Saturday night.

— The New York Rangers routed Ottawa 4-1. Derick Brassard scored twice and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 23 shots as the Rangers ended a two-game slide.

— New Jersey doubled up Florida 4-2. Lee Stempniak and Kyle Palmieri scored first-period goals and Cory Schneider made 34 saves.

— Chris Stewart had the go-ahead goal in the second period, Corey Perry also scored and the Anaheim Ducks overcame a disallowed goal to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1.

— Edmonton doubled up Buffalo 4-2. Hall and Teddy Purcell each had a goal and an assist in the Oilers third straight victory.

—The L.A. Kings beat Tampa Bay 3-1. Milan Lucic scored his 10th goal for the Kings.

NHL-BLUES

Blues lose Ott

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Forward Steve Ott of the St. Louis Blues will be sidelined for three months with a hamstring injury. The forward was hurt in the first period of a loss to Toronto on Saturday. The team said on its website that Ott would undergo surgery on both hamstrings next week.

T25 MEN'S BASKETBALL-SCHEDULE

Cincinnati rebounds

UNDATED (AP) — Gary Clark had a career-high 14 rebounds as part of his first double-double of the season, and 17th-ranked Cincinnati recovered from its first loss of the season by drubbing Morgan State 87-66.

The 8-1 Bearcats were coming off a 78-76 loss to Butler at home on Wednesday.

In other AP Top-25:

— Nate Britt matched his career high with 17 points and No. 9 North Carolina rolled to a huge first-half lead to beat Davidson 98-65. The 7-1 Tar Heels shot 51 percent.

— Number 22 Baylor got past 16th-ranked Vanderbilt 69-67. Taurean Prince scored a career-high 30 points and Lester Medford had 15, including the winning 3-pointer.

MLB-HOT STOVE LEAGUE

Madson to A's...Mets say no to Cespedes

UNDATED (AP) — A person with direct knowledge of the deal says free agent pitcher Ryan Madson has agreed to a three-year, $22 million contract with the Athletics. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because a physical was still needed to finalize the deal.

Madson went 1-2 with a 2.13 ERA in 68 outings and 63 1-3 innings for the World Series champion Kansas City Royals this past season.

In other baseball doings:

— It looks like the Mets and Yoenis Cespedes are parting ways. Assistant Mets GM John Ricco says it's "unlikely" the Mets will pursue the free agent outfielder who helped the Mets make their first World Series appearance since 2000.

— Free-agent pitcher Mike Pelfrey has finalized a $16 million, two-year contract with the Detroit Tigers, who also added catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia for the major league minimum of $507,500.

GOLF-HERO WORLD CHALLENGE

Watson wins

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — Bubba Watson won the PGA's Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas by three shots over Patrick Reed. Each man shot a 6-under-66 in the final round but Watson completed play at 25-under-par. Rickie Fowler was third at minus-21 with Jordan Spieth, the defending champ finishing play at 20-under.

SPEEDSKATING

Another good day for American women

INZELL, Germany (AP) — It was another 1-2 finish for Americans in a women's 1,500 meter speedskating World Cup event. In Germany, Brittany Bowe beat Heather Richardson-Bergsma to win the race in a time of 1 minute, 54.68 seconds.

Bowe also won the 1,000 meters race on Saturday. Overall, she leads Richardson-Bergsma by 20 points in the standings after three races.

FIFA-SCANDAL

BBC says FBI investigating Blatter's role in bribery case

LONDON (AP) — The FBI is investigating Sepp Blatter's role in a kickbacks scandal that involved his predecessor as FIFA president, Joao Havelange. That's what the BBC reported Sunday.

The BBC said it will air a program Monday with evidence that indicates Blatter knew about millions of dollars in bribes being paid out to senior FIFA officials in the 1990s by sports marketing company ISL in return for television and marketing rights.

MLS-CUP

Timbers win first title

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Diego Valeri scored at the 27-second mark for the fastest goal in MLS Cup history and the Portland Timbers won the league title for the first time, beating the Columbus Crew 2-1.

Rodney Wallace made it 2-0 in the seventh minute. The Crew's Kei Kamara scored in the 18th minute to finish the scoring.