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HOUSTON -- Dwight Howard knows the best way to stop teams from using the "Hack-a-Howard" defence is to make his free throws. On Saturday night, the normally free throw-challenged centre did just that. Howard scored 18 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, including 13 of 19 free throws in a 2 1/2-minute stretch, and the Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets 122-111. "I just kept telling myself go up there and knock them down, make them pay," Howard said. Chandler Parsons added 20 points for Houston and James Harden had 17 for the Rockets, who never trailed and led by as many as 23. It was a welcome change from several of their recent games when they built big leads only to see them evaporate in the second half. The Nuggets tried to get back in it with about 5 1/2 minutes left by intentionally fouling the centre every time Houston had the ball. The plan backfired and Howard, who entered the game shooting 49 per cent from the line, finished 17 of 24 on free throws. Howards 24 free throw attempts were the most by a Rocket since Sleepy Floyd went 22 of 27 in February of 1991. Nuggets coach Brian Shaw lamented using the tactic after the game. "That goes against everything Im about," Shaw said. "I dont believe in that and I dont think its in the spirit of the game. So that is exactly what I get for doing that. Im glad he made his free throws and it shows me to just be true to who you are." They were too slow in fouling him one time and Parsons dunked on a fast break on the other end. The play was reviewed and Houston got the basket and a foul shot by Howard. Denver finally scrapped the defence with about 3 minutes left, to wild applause from the home crowd. Harden took advantage of the change to immediately knock down a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 118-101. Howard was surprised when they stopped fouling him, standing with the ball for the couple of seconds waiting for them to do it. He said he doesnt get irked when hes intentionally fouled, but he knows its not very popular with the crowd. "Its annoying to the fans," Howard said. "I know they dont want to see that. We dont want to have to go through that. But its a part of the game." Ty Lawson had 28 points and a career-high 17 assists to lead Denver. "We just didnt come out ready to play," Lawson said. "It was our defence and our effort. We just didnt play any defence in the first half." Lawson started despite sustaining a corneal abrasion to his right eye on Friday night after taking a hand to the eye. Lawsons eye was almost swollen shut after Fridays game, but Shaw said before the game that only a little swelling remained. Terrence Jones tied career highs with 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Rockets. The Nuggets outscored Houston 11-0 during a 2 1/2-minute stretch early in the third quarter to cut the lead to 66-59 with about 8 minutes remaining. Lawson got things going, hitting the first two baskets and Randy Foye added a 3-pointer during the run. Howard went to the bench near the end of that run when he picked up his fourth foul on an offensive charge. The Rockets rediscovered their offence after that, and used a 14-2 spurt to push the lead to 80-61 a couple of minutes later. Jones was great in those minutes, with two dunks and six points. Houston led by 15 entering the fourth quarter. Howard, who sat out the last eight minutes of the third, was back on the floor for the start of the final period and immediately went to work. He was fouled when he made a nifty reverse layup and made the free throw to push the lead to 93-75. The Rockets led by 10 points with 10 minutes left in the second quarter before scoring 12 straight points to push the lead to 50-28 with about 5 1/2 minutes left in the half. Donatas Motiejunas scored seven points in that stretch and Harden capped it with a 3-pointer. The Nuggets used a 13-7 run at the end of the first half to whittle the lead to 63-46 at halftime. NOTES: Former Rockets star Yao Ming watched the game from a courtside seat. He received a standing ovation when he was shown on the video boards during a timeout in the first quarter. ... Houston C Omer Asik, who has been the subject of recent trade rumours, was not in uniform for the game. Coach Kevin McHale said it was because he was "under the weather" but he didnt elaborate. Vapormax Australia Cheap . Nix is a career .218 hitter in 425 games over six seasons. The 31-year-old right-handed hitter batted .270 with a homer this spring for Tampa Bay. Nike Vapormax Australia . She was a pioneer. She did things on skis that made the birds take notice. http://www.australiavapormaxcheap.com/ . A person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press the Steelers will part ways with the former Pro Bowler, a move that hardly serves as a surprise after fifth-year linebacker Jason Worilds agreed to accept a "transition player" tag last week. Vapormax Shoes Cheap . -- The Kelowna Rockets earned their 16th straight win with a 7-2 rout of the Portland Winterhawks in Western Hockey League action Thursday. Vapormax Shoes On Sale .Airport spokeswoman Heather Lissner said that all departing flights were back on schedule. However, arriving flights were still trying to catch up.Super Bowl Sunday got off to an inconvenient start for hundreds of passengers trying to get to Phoenix for the game.Nassau, Bahamas (SportsNetwork.com) - Brandon Doughty threw for 486 yards and five first-half touchdowns as Western Kentucky rolled out to a huge lead then shook off a shocking final series of plays to a 49-48 victory over Central Michigan in the inaugural Bahamas Bowl. Doughty completed 31 of his 42 tries for the Hilltoppers (8-5), with Anthony Wales and Leon Allen adding a rushing score apiece. Willie McNeal led his club with 155 yards and a touchdown on five receptions, while Jared Dangerfield, Mitchell Henry, Antwane Grant and Joel German each contributed a TD grab for Western Kentucky, which was outscored 34-0 in the final quarter. Cooper Rush tossed seven TDs -- four of them to Titus Davis, including an improbable score with no time left -- and 493 yards on 28-of-45 attempts for the Chippewas (7-6). Davis ended up with six catches for a game-high 142 yards, Courtney Williams recorded touchdowns on two of his three receptions and Anthony Garland added a scoring grab. Martez Walker totaled 68 yards on nine carries. Western Kentucky failed to move the ball beyond its opponents 41-yard line with seconds to go, and the subsequent punt pinned Central Michigan at its own 20. An illegal procedure penalty pushed the ball up five yards before bedlam ensued. Rush let a pass fly from his own 25. Jesse Kroll made the initial catch, and rumbled to the WKU 30 before losing control. Deon Butler advanced the ball two more yards, then lateraled to Williams for eight more. Davis finally received the ball at the 20 and managed to outrace several tacklers before diving for the right pylon to pull CMU within 49-48. However, the two-point conversion pass to Kroll in the back-right corner of the end zone fell incomplete and the Hilltoppers could breathe a massive sigh of relief. Its the Nassau City Miracle, almost, Central Michigan coach Dan Enos said. Our team is never going to quit while Im the head football coach. Weve got blue collar guys. They work. Theyve got great character. Football mirrors life. Theres adversity. Theres ups and downs. You get your butt kicked and you got to bounce back. Thats what these guys did. They battled back. Enos said at first his team was going to just kick the extra point and force overtime. We sent the PAT field goal team out and then somebody said something about going for two and it clicked, Enos said. I went Whoa. Good. And then I looked at the players and said what do you got? And they said Lets do it.dddddddddddd Lets win the game. We had Courtney Williams on one side and Jesse Kroll on the other side, and weve got little read routes that we run. Both of those guys are great fade runners and slant runners. Cooper had thrown seven touchdown passes already so he was pretty hot. We didnt want to go overtime because we had trouble stopping them all day. Titus was hurt too. We just thought we had momentum and we were going to try and win the game. A spirited opening quarter saw Western Kentucky emerge with a 21-7 edge thanks to TD passes from Doughty to Dangerfield, German and Grant around a 22-yard connection from Rush to Davis. Doughty found Henry for 16 yards and WKU led 28-7 early in the second, but CMU responded on a 30-yard strike from Rush to Williams. A fifth touchdown pass from Doughty went to McNeal for 55 yards and a 35-14 game inside of two minutes left in the first half. Allen capped the opening 30 minutes on a one-yard run to make it 42-14. Anthony Wales burst through for a 21-yard rushing score and Western Kentucky was up by 35 in the early stages of the third quarter. I thought we kind of got a little conservative and got relaxed on offense in the second half, Doughty admitted. They did a really good job of hitting our run game up, and it was just one of those grind-out halves. And weve got to fix that going into the future because we let a few go earlier in the season doing that. Im just excited that we got the win. Central Michigan began its comeback when Davis posted his second touchdown of the contest roughly 3 1/2 minutes into the fourth -- a 12-yard strike from Rush -- then his 23-yard TD catch-and-run pulled the Chippewas to 49-28 with 8:03 to play. Williams capped a 64-yard series on the seventh play by hauling in a 10-yard pass with 3:04 to play and CMU pulled within two scores. The Chippewas defense then held Western Kentucky to a three-and-out, and a fair catch from Davis on a short punt set them up on their own 45. Four plays later, Rush and Garland combined for a 7-yard strike to make it a seven-point contest. Game Notes Wednesdays contest was the first FBS postseason game played outside of the US and Canada since the 1937 Bacardi Bowl in Havana ... The schools combined for 1,254 yards of total offense, 647 by Western Kentucky ... Wales picked up 95 yards on 14 carries ... Kroll totaled 107 yards on four catches. ' ' '