MILAN - Defending champion Juventus took advantage of Romas loss at Napoli to move three points clear at the top of Serie A with a 2-0 win at Empoli on Saturday. Adam Larsson Jersey .Andrea Pirlo broke the deadlock with a trademark free kick on the hour mark and Alvaro Morata sealed the result on the day Juventus celebrated the 117th anniversary of its foundation.It was the 35-year-old Pirlos first goal of the season following a spell on the sidelines with injury.Im improving, Im working hard during the week and I feel better every match, Pirlo said. It was a difficult match but we risked little, we grew in the second half and closed the match.Empoli also had Lorenzo Tonelli sent off in stoppage time for bringing down Carlos Tevez as the Juventus striker was clear on goal.Earlier, Gonzalo Higuain scored again to help Napoli beat title hopeful Roma 2-0 amid high tension at the Stadio San Paolo.I think that today everyone pushed hard to get this result, playing with a really high tempo, Napoli coach Rafa Benitez said. Today we could have done even better, but creating so many great chances against such a strong opponent shows that we really performed well. We still need to be a bit more clinical. Its a question of time and confidence. This victory will certainly help.Higuain, who hadnt scored in the opening seven rounds, netted his fifth goal in six days as Napoli got off to a blistering start.The Argentine turned provider to help Jose Callejon seal the result late on.Napoli moved provisionally third ahead of the rest of the weekends fixtures.We went behind in the opening minutes and the deficit could have been worse at halftime, Roma coach Rudi Garcia said. We had very few chances after the break but that means Napoli was stronger than us in this match and the best team won.Elsewhere, Paolo De Ceglie scored his first career brace to hand bottom club Parma a surprise 2-0 win against Inter Milan, which will increase the pressure on Nerazzurri coach Walter Mazzarri.Parma had lost its previous six matches to equal its worst ever run in the top flight.Juventus knew it had a chance to restore its three-point advantage after being caught by Roma midweek when it lost 1-0 at Genoa in its first defeat of the season.With that in mind, Juventus was surprisingly sluggish in the first half although Sebastian Giovinco — who spent a season on loan at Empoli — had two decent opportunities blocked in the opening 10 minutes.Juventus stepped up a gear after the restart and had a series of chances before free kick specialist Pirlo broke the deadlock with a precise effort over the wall and into the bottom left corner.It was Pirlos 26th free-kick goal in Serie A and sees him close in on Sinisa Mihajlovics record of 27.Empoli almost levelled immediately but Gianluigi Buffon pulled off a one-handed save to deny Manuel Pucciarelli.Juventus should have doubled its lead but Tevezs effort was parried by Bassi and Claudio Marchisio turned the follow-up onto the right upright.It did score a second moments later when Morata curled an unstoppable shot under the crossbar and into the top left corner.The match between Napoli and Roma was considered high-risk as it was the first time the two teams had met since clashes that led to a fans death from a shooting before the Italian Cup final in May.Napoli fan Ciro Esposito died 50 days after he was allegedly shot by a Roma fan. An investigation over the shooting is ongoing.Roma fans were barred from travelling to Naples for the game but there were still concerns of reprisal attacks and there were tight security measures put in place.Napoli, which could have been 3-0 up inside the opening 12 minutes, took the lead in the third minute when Higuain acrobatically volleyed it in Lorenzo Insignes deflected effort with a scissor kick.Inisgne then drilled the ball just wide of the left upright before unleashing a curler which Roma goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis did well to fingertip around the base of his post.Moments later, Callejons fierce strike crashed off the crossbar.Marek Hamsik also hit the crossbar shortly before halftime after De Sanctis had denied Higuain.Napoli doubled its lead six minutes from time as a delightful diagonal pass from Higuain allowed Callejon to slot past De Sanctis. Edmonton Oilers Gear . Smith has spent the last three seasons with the Rockies, playing both left and right field, and has a .275 batting average with 51 homers and 181 RBIs in 487 major league games. Andy Moog Jersey . -- Arizona coach Bruce Arians says there "were obviously very, very many problems" with the officiating in the Cardinals 24-21 loss at Philadelphia. https://www.cheapoilers.com/985s-pat-hughes-jersey-oilers.html . Pedroia reached the milestone with a little panache, hitting a grand slam in the sixth inning and propelling the Boston Red Sox to a 7-1 win over the Oakland Athletics on Friday night.RALEIGH, N.C. -- George Washington kept hanging around, refusing to let Memphis pull too far ahead. The Colonials just couldnt come up with the one shot they needed to prolong their first NCAA tournament visit in seven years. Isaiah Armwood scored a season-high 21 points in ninth-seeded GWs 71-66 loss to eighth-seeded Memphis in the second round of the East Regional. Armwood picked up his fourth foul with 12:02 remaining for GW (24-9), which was just 2 of 12 from 3-point range yet never fell behind by more than 10 points. "It definitely changed my defence, because when Im on defence, Im usually active. I couldnt foul," Armwood said. "It definitely hurt us because I gave up some layups that I dont usually give up." Leading scorer Maurice Creek -- who averages 14 points -- finished with nine on 2-of-13 shooting for GW, but he airballed a 3-pointer in the final seconds that would have tied it. Michael Dixon Jr., the top sixth man in the American Athletic Conference, scored 19 points and hit four free throws in the final 10 seconds for Memphis, which never trailed. Joe Jackson added 15 points for the eighth-seeded Tigers (24-9), who are halfway to Geron Johnsons post-AAC tournament guarantee of two wins in the first weekend of the NCAAs. "As long as we think big and we play hard, the skys the limit," Jackson said. "Weve just got to continue to think that we can get there. Weve got to know we can get there." They entered the tournament having lost three of five to fall out of the national rankings, and shot 49 per cent in this one but struggled to put GW away until the final seconds. Patricio Garino added 10 points for the Colonials, who were making their first NCAA tournament appearance since 2007 and hung around all game before making a final late push. They had the ball down 67-64 after Jackson threw the ball away with 1:16 left. But Creeks jumper in the lane was short and so was Nemanja Mikics 3-point attempt from the right wing with lesss than a minute remaining. Paul Coffey Jersey. "I think if we would have tied it, the momentum was sort of shifting and maybe we would have tied it, had some time outs and things wouldve been different," GW coach Mike Lonergan said. Crawford missed a 3 for Memphis with about 30 seconds left and the rebound went out of bounds off Jackson with 26.6 seconds left. Joe McDonald beat Crawford off the dribble for a layup to make it 67-66 with 13.6 seconds left, and the Colonials fouled Dixon with 9.6 seconds left. Dixon hit both free throws and the Colonials called a timeout to set up their final possession. McDonald dribbled a few seconds off the clock before passing to Creek, whose final 3-pointer with about 3 seconds left left failed to draw iron. "A shot I usually hit," said Creek, a 41 per cent shooter from 3-point range. Dixon added two more free throws with 0.4 of a second remaining for Memphis, which could never push its lead past 10. Its last big lead came on Dixons jumper from the corner with 9 1/2 minutes left. Creek hit a 3-pointer -- GWs second, and last, of the game -- before GWs 1-3-1 zone forced a turnover and Garino made a layup to make it a 64-62 game with 2 1/2 minutes left. Out of a timeout, Memphis worked the ball to Dixon -- who buried an open 3-pointer from the right wing and kept his shooting hand aloft for an extra moment. At the time, that seemed like the dagger -- but the Colonials kept scrapping. "They made a run at the end," Dixon said, "but we never got flustered or rattled." Both teams werent especially good behind either line on the court: Memphis was 11 of 16 from the free throw line and hit just 27 per cent of its 3-point attempts, while GW was 14 of 24 from the free throw line in addition to its poor 3-point shooting. "Theyve got a good inside-out punch," Jackson said. "Fortunately, we kind of stopped them from shooting 3s because it probably would have been a long night for us." ' ' '