h before Aroldis Chapman finished for his 15th save with the Cubs and 35th on the year. It was Chapmans first

RIO DE JANEIRO -- The battle of the last winless mens basketball teams in Group A went down to the wire as Venezuela squeaked past China 72-68 Wednesday night to take another step toward advancing.The Chinese (0-3) are now unlikely to qualify for the next round.Venezuela power forward Nestor Colmenares made the two plays of the game down the stretch. He took a charge with 38.4 seconds remaining and Venezuela holding a one-point lead. After forcing the turnover, he hit a floater over the outstretched arm of 6-foot-11 Yi Jianlian with 15.8 seconds left to seal the win.Colmenares led the team with 16 points, five rebounds and four assists.Venezuela (1-2) opened the fourth quarter with a 7-2 run, including a pair of jumpers from Anthony Perez, to take a 58-52 lead. China got within one in the final period but never led.Yi Jianlian scored a game-high 18 for China. George McAfee Jersey . The judges scored it 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 for Jones (19-1). It was the champions closest call. Despite the loss, it was a remarkable show by the confident Swedish challenger, who had the best of the early rounds and then hung on in the fourth and fifth. Nick Kwiatkoski Jersey . In Europe, top teams seem to be largely happy with their squads after spending nearly $1 billion in the off-season. And although English league clubs are unlikely to splash cash in January, Arsenal and Chelsea could be tempted to strengthen their squads with new strikers. http://www.custombearsjersey.com/custom-bronko-nagurski-jersey-large-396t.html . Pedro scored from a pass by Lionel Messi in the 33rd minute and added two more goals in the 47th and 72nd after Valdes saved his second penalty in four days following his stop in Wednesdays 4-0 over Ajax in the Champions League. Joe Stydahar Jersey . -- Lou Brocks shoulder-to-shoulder collision with Bill Freehan during the 1968 World Series and Pete Roses bruising hit on Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star game could become relics of baseball history, like the dead-ball era. Ken Kavanaugh Jersey . -- If Henry Burris has his way, he will be the starting quarterback to lead the Hamilton Tiger-Cats back to the Grey Cup next year. CHICAGO -- The loaded Chicago Cubs are going to have to make some difficult decisions when they set their postseason roster.From pitcher Jason Hammels perspective, its a matter of making it as tough on them as possible.Hammel tossed seven solid innings and Dexter Fowler hit a tiebreaking single during Chicagos three-run seventh, leading the Cubs to a 5-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Monday night.This team continues to prove as long as you hang around for a little while theyre going to put up something, Hammel said. Theyll make it exciting, so kudos to those guys (for) putting some good at-bats together late.Hammel (15-9) allowed two runs and four hits during his best outing in a month, improving to 7-0 with 0.98 ERA in his last seven home starts. The right-hander had been struggling of late, going 1-4 with an 8.61 ERA in his previous five starts overall.Hammels performance gave the franchise four pitchers with at least 15 wins for the first time since 1935. It looks as if Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks and Jake Arrieta are playoff-rotation locks for the NL Central champions and John Lackey has the pole position for the fourth spot, leaving Hammel in limbo as the season winds down.Weve got a good collective group here and their decisions are going to be really hard, Hammel said, so were just going to continue to do what we do, individually do our work and show up and play and then theyll put the best team out there whenever it is.Jason Heyward added a two-run homer in the eighth as the Cubs moved seven games ahead of Washington for the best record in the National League, lowering their magic number for clinching home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs to five. Thats the only major goal still out there during the regular season for major league-leading Chicago after it secured the division title last week.Brandon Phillips homered for last-place Cincinnati, which has lost five of six. Joey Votto went 2 for 3 with an RBI single and a walk, increasing his batting average since the All-Star break to .416.The Reds allowed three more homers to run their season total to 242, breaking the major league record of 241 belonging to the 1996 Detroit Tigers.We just have to be better in commanding the zone, manager Bryan Price said. And I make it sounnd simple; its not.ddddddddddddWe certainly have to improve the quality of the talent. Weve got to be able to get guys that can get the ball on the ground more often than we have this year.The Cubs (95-55) were coming off a lackluster series against the Brewers, dropping three of four while celebrating their division title, and manager Joe Maddon met with his hitters before facing the Reds to talk to them about making the most of the final part of the season.There was no sign of any carry-over from the meeting before Addison Russell led off the seventh with a drive to left for his 21st homer. Willson Contreras crushed another homer with one out, tying it at 2 and chasing Tim Adleman from the longest start of his rookie year.Chris Coghlan greeted Blake Wood (6-4) with a double to right. After pinch-hitter Tommy La Stella popped out, Fowler made it 3-2 with his only hit of the game.Dexter two-out knock right there is kind of spectacular, Maddon said.Hector Rondon worked the eighth before Aroldis Chapman finished for his 15th save with the Cubs and 35th on the year. It was Chapmans first career appearance against Cincinnati, which traded the hard-throwing closer to the New York Yankees last December.PACKING THEM INThe paid attendance of 39,251 ran the Cubs season total to 3,028,965 with five home games left in the regular season. Its the franchises first time drawing more than 3 million since 2011, and the ninth time at Wrigley Field overall.TRAINERS ROOMReds: RHP Homer Bailey (biceps) is scheduled for another bullpen session Wednesday. Its still possible that hell make a start or two before the year is out, Price said.Cubs: OF Jorge Soler (tightness on his right side) could be available to pinch hit on Tuesday, according to Maddon. ... Right-handed reliever Pedro Strop, who is coming back from knee and groin injuries, is on track to pitch in a simulated game soon.UP NEXTCubs LHP Jon Lester (17-4, 2.40 ERA) faces Reds RHP Josh Smith (3-1, 4.97) on Tuesday night. Lester is 8-0 with a 1.47 ERA in his last 11 starts. Smith is making his first start of the season.---Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenap ' ' '