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Sports Shorts

HOOPS: Lakers, Howard fall to Magic

Arron Afflalo scored 30 points, Glen Davis added 23 points and 12 rebounds, and the Magic beat Dwight Howard in their first game against their longtime center, stunning the Lakers 113-103 last night in Los Angeles.

Howard had 21 points and 15 rebounds against his former team, but the rebuilding Magic rallied impressively for a 40-point fourth quarter for just their fourth win in 14 games.

Isaiah Armwood scored a career-high 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and George Washington (4-3) overcame 23 turnovers to beat Manhattan 67-55 yesterday in the opening game of the BB&T Classic in Washington, D.C. RaShawn Stores had 11 points and six rebounds for the Jaspers (2-4).

The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference school went 1-2 in a three-game stretch against Atlantic 10 opponents.

* Langston Hall and Travis Smith each sank a pair of free throws in the final 23 seconds to lift Mercer (4-4) to a 61-56 upset over Florida State’s (4-3) defending Atlantic Coast Conference champions.

GRID: Skip Holtz reportedly axed at S. Fla.

Skip Holtz has been fired as South Florida’s football coach following the worst season in the program’s 16-year history, a person familiar with the decision said. The person spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the firing would not be announced until a late afternoon news conference.

The son of former Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz went 16-21 at the Big East school, concluding a three-year run by losing nine of 10 to finish a school-worst 3-9.

* Northern Illinois promoted offensive coordinator Rod Carey to head coach, replacing the departed Dave Doeren, who was hired Saturday by North Carolina State.

ETC.: McDowell holds on at World Challenge

Graeme McDowell closed with a 4-under 68 and won the World Challenge in Thousand Oaks, Calif., for his first title in two years. McDowell held off Keegan Bradley with a couple of key short-game shots on the back nine and finished with one last birdie he didn’t need. Bradley, two shots behind with five holes to play, never got any closer.

He wound up with a 69. Tiger Woods, the host and defending champion, didn’t make birdie until the 13th hole and closed with a 71 to tie for fourth.

* Martin Kaymer of Germany held on for a 2-shot victory at the Nedbank Golf Challenge at a rainy Sun City, earning his first title of 2012. Kaymer finished with an 8-under 280 ahead of Charl Schwartzel of South Africa.

* Former Met Edgardo Alfonzo ended his 20-year professional baseball career.

“It’s the right time to do it,” said Alfonzo, a 39-year-old second and third baseman, speaking after playing his last game for los Navegantes, one of the most popular teams of Venezuela’s professional winter league.