Dominion earlier this season after trailing at halftime.

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Michael Phelps closed out the Rio Olympics in the only way imaginable.Golden.Phelps put the United States ahead to stay on the butterfly leg of the 4x100-meter medley relay and Nathan Adrian finished it off, giving the most decorated athlete in Olympic history his 23rd career gold medal Saturday night.If that was the end, and Phelps insists it is, what a way to go.He has 28 medals overall, having won five golds and a silver at these games.As Adrian touched the wall to finish off the victory, Phelps gathered the other relay swimmers, Ryan Murphy and Cody Miller, in his arms. One night after his only setback in Rio, an upset loss to Joseph Schooling in the 100 fly, Phelps was back on top.In the stands, his fiancee, Nicole Johnson, bounced along to the music with their son, 3-month-old Boomer, cradled in her arms.Phelps is eager to spend a lot more time with them. He plans to marry Johnson after the Olympics and said he wants to watch his son grow, maybe even dole out a swimming lesson or two.Most of the U.S. swim team was in the stands to watch Phelps finale, including the biggest female star of the games, Katie Ledecky.The 19-year-old Ledecky joked that she was proud to be part of Phelps final Olympics -- twice. He initially retired after the 2012 London Olympics, only to decide about a year later to return to the pool.The comeback endured a huge setback with his second drunken-driving arrest in 2014, which led to Phelps being banned from the world championships the following year. But it also sparked a turnaround in his life. He entered six weeks of inpatient therapy, where he got in touch with some of the issues that seemed to lead him astray outside the pool.He quit drinking, reconnected with his estranged father, got engaged, moved to Arizona with his longtime coach Bob Bowman, and became a father.At 31, he sounds much more adamant when he says his swimming career really is over.Standing atop the medal podium for the 23rd time, listening the The Star-Spangled Banner as hes done so many times before, Phelps teared up a bit and gave a little nod.Then he and his teammates grabbed a sign that said, Thank You Rio.Two-time gold medalist Murphy put the Americans out front with a world-record split on the backstroke -- it counts since he was leading off -- but Britain surged ahead on the breaststroke with its own world-record holder, Adam Peaty.Phelps dove into the pool in second place.He wouldnt be for long.On the return lap, Phelps powered through the water with his whirling butterfly stroke, surging ahead of James Guy to pass off a lead to the anchor Adrian.It wasnt in doubt after that. Adrian pulled away on the freestyle to win in an Olympic-record time of 3 minutes, 27.95 seconds. Britain held on for silver, with Australia nabbing bronze.The victory came just minutes after the womens medley relay gave the United States its 1,000th Olympic gold medal at the Summer Games.A thousandth gold for team USA, said Simone Manuel, who swam the anchor leg for her second gold of the games and second medal of the night. Its a nice number.Kathleen Baker, Lilly King and Dana Vollmer joined Manuel in the historic victory, which came with a time of 3:53.13.Its really special, Manuel said. Sharing that with three other women is just icing on the cake.Australia earned silver, while Denmark took bronze.Earlier in the night, Manuel took silver in the 50 free. She already became the first African-American woman to win an Olympic swimming title with her win in the 100 free.Connor Jaeger gave the U.S. another silver in the 1,500 free, leaving the American with 33 swimming medals in Rio -- matching the highest total since the boycotted Los Angeles Games in 1984.The U.S. also won 33 medals at Sydney in 2000.The final two individual golds of the games went to Pernille Blume of Denmark in the 50 freestyle, her countrys first swimming victory since 1948, and Italys Gregorio Paltrinieri in the grueling 1,500 free.The night, though, belonged to Phelps, who walked out of the arena for final time carrying an American flag handed to him by his mother from her front-row seat, right next to Johnson and little Boomer.With a gold medal around his neck.The only way imaginable.---Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963 . His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/paul-newberry . 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Irving scored 23 points, Tristan Thompson had 20 points and 10 rebounds and the Cavaliers beat the Denver Nuggets 117-109 on Friday night. BATON ROUGE, La. -- Antonio Blakeney made two field goals in the final four minutes to lift LSU a 70-66 non-conference victory over North Carolina Central on Tuesday.Two baskets following offensive rebounds by Will Ransom enabled the Eagles to tie the score at 65-65 with 4:45 remaining in the game. Blakeney made the only field goal attempts by either team the rest of the way.Blakeney sank a jumper with 3:59 left to break the tie, and after North Carolina Centrals Patrick Cole made one of two free throws, hit another with 2:42 left. Neither team scored again until the Tigers Brandon Sampson made a foul shot with nine seconds to go.Coming off a 14-day layoff, we knew we wouldnt be hitting on all cylinders, LSU coach Johnny Jones said. Our guys did a good job in the second half of playing with the effort we needed. With a few minor adjustments on the defensive end, we made it tough for them.Blakeney scored a season-high 27 points, 18 in the second half. Duop Reath added 14 points and Sampson had 13 for LSU (6-2), which trailed by 13 points on three occasions in the first half.The mentality was to play defense in the second half, Blakeney said. They were really shooting the ball in the first half. We wanted to play defense and take our offense to the next level. I was just trying to be aggressive. I wanted to draw plays out and knock the shot down.Cole scored 19 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out nine assists. Dajuan Graf had 18 points and Ransom scored 10 points for the Eagles (6-5).It was a tale of two halves, North Carolina Central coach LeVelle Morton said. We caught them rusty a little bit. They havent played in a while, so we kind of shocked them. We really executed in the first half. We diidnt finish the game down the stretch and thats on me.ddddddddddddBIG PICTURELSU: The Tigers remained unbeaten at home with their fifth victory. For the third time this season, LSU won after trailing at halftime.NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL: The Eagles came very close to knocking off their second Southeastern Conference team this season. NC Central beat Missouri 62-52 last month.SECOND HALF TEAMLSU continued to play much better after halftime. The Tigers outscored NC Central 34-23 over the final 20 minutes. LSU defeated Wofford and Old Dominion earlier this season after trailing at halftime. In the Tigers previous game against Houston, they outscored the Cougars by 18 points in the second half while going on to an 84-65 victory.NEAR QUADRUPLE-DOUBLEPatrick Cole, NC Centrals top scorer at 21 points per game, almost reached double digits in four statistical categories. Cole contributed 19 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. In addition, Cole committed 10 of the Eagles 19 turnovers. Cole had a potential game-tying 3-point shot blocked by Brandon Sampson with 12 seconds remaining in the game.SOLID POST TANDEMBoth Duop Reath and Craig Victor, LSUs two starting posts, came close to registering double-doubles. Reath, who was 7-of-9 from the field, had 14 points and eight rebounds. Victor, who missed nine of his 12 field goal attempts, accounted for eight points and a season-high 11 rebounds.UP NEXTLSU: The Tigers will play Texas Southern Saturday.NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL: The Eagles continue their two-game swing through Louisiana when they meet McNeese State in Lake Charles on Saturday. ' ' '