Bozoljac said he was disappointed about his missed chance to w

LAHAINA, Hawaii -- The Maui Invitational is built on celebrating upsets. No. 8 Syracuse avoided one against Minnesota on Monday with a gritty early-season finish. A frenzied sequence that included three blocks and a missed dunk ended with less than two minutes left when C.J. Fair calmly hit a pull-up jumper, giving the Orange a four-point lead. That led to a 75-67 win and an inside track to the early-season tournaments title as the favourite among eight teams playing in Hawaii. Fair scored 16 points and had 10 rebounds Syracuse held off Minnesota. The reward: A game against California on Tuesday, then either No. 11 Gonzaga or No. 18 Baylor on Wednesday if both teams win later Monday. "The danger is when you get pressed for 40 minutes, its difficult to bounce back," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. "Well be ready. Well bounce back." The Orange (5-0) pushed through a late run by the Golden Gophers, who pulled within 67-65 with little more than two minutes left.But Minnesota (5-1) committed four turnovers in the final two minutes, scoring only once more when Austin Hollins hit a meaningless layup in the games final moments. Trevor Cooney scores 15 points all on 3-pointers, while Tyler Ennis and Jerami Grant scored 12 points each. "It was a good test. Going forward we can still keep getting better." Fair said. Malik Smith had 16 points for Minnesota. Andre Hollins had 14 points while Austin Hollins had 11 points. Elliott Eliason led the Golden Gophers with nine rebounds. Syracuse -- which moved up one spot in the Associated Press Top 25 poll earlier in the day -- led by only three points at halftime. But the Orange started the second half with a 13-2 run mostly led by Fair, who hit two jumpers, two free throws and a tip-in as Syracuse tallied 10 straight points. Minnesota stopped short of fully coming back from the 14-point hole, though it cut the lead to 5 points in less than four minutes and got even closer on two free throws each from Austin Hollins and Andre Hollins. "When you are building a program and you are at the early, early stages you want to show that you can compete on every single possession. Our guys did that tonight," Minnesota coach Richard Pitino said. The game was filled with big runs by both teams. Syracuse had two 7-0 runs and a 5-0 run in the first half, while Minnesota had a 12-0 run and a 7-0 run to take the lead 34-33 with just over two minutes remaining before halftime. Syracuse will play California in the winners bracket of the Maui tournament, while Minnesota will play Arkansas in the consolation bracket. The tournament began Monday with eight teams, including No. 11 Gonzaga and No. 18 Baylor. 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As the only competitor to try two quads, much less complete them, Kovtun ended the day nearly nine points ahead of Japans Tatsuki Machida, who opened with a clean quad but then stepped out of the triple toe loop that was the second jump in his combination.Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka won their singles matches on Friday to give Switzerland a convincing 2-0 lead over Serbia in their World Group first-round tie. Returning to Davis Cup tennis, Federer cruised past Ilija Bozoljac, winning 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 in less than two hours. Federer faced little challenge from Bozoljac, who served well but still was no match for his Swiss opponent. Australian Open champion Wawrinka faced a tougher task against 102-ranked Dusan Lajovic in the second match, before winning 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7). Bozoljac began his match against Federer with two aces and had a set point while leading 5-2 in the second. But Federer held serve and broke to regain control over the set. "Ilija was playing well, especially in the second set," Federer said. "It was a tough game, it could have been one set all." Federer was making his first Davis Cup appearance since 2012. Bozoljac said he was disappointed about his missed chance to win the second set. "I lost focus and Federer stepped up the game," Bozoljjac said.dddddddddddd Lajovic opened his match with a break, but Wawrinka soon broke back and went on to win the set easily. Lajovic then took advantage of several unforced errors by Wawrinka to take the second set. However, Lajovic missed two set points in the tie break of the fourth before Wawrinka closed out the match. "It was a tough game, he played well," Wawrinka said. "Its never easy when you come so late after an important tournament, but I managed to overcome that." Switzerland is an overwhelming favourite against Serbia, last years finalist and the 2010 Davis Cup champion, which is playing without Novak Djokovic and two other top players. The second-ranked Djokovic decided to rest after losing to Wawrinka in the Australian Open quarter-finals, while Janko Tipsarevic is nursing a heel injury and Viktor Troicki is serving a 12-month doping ban for failing to appear at a test. That means Lajovic is Serbias highest-ranked team member. The winner plays Belgium or Kazakhstan in the quarter-finals in April. ' ' '