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Memphis Grizzlies O.J. Mayo, left, drives past the Toronto Raptors’ Jose Calderon in Toronto on Wednesday. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

Rudy Gay’s timing was perfect for the Memphis Grizzlies.

Gay scored eight of his 29 points in overtime and the Grizzlies beat the Toronto Raptors 109-102 on Wednesday night to snap a five-game losing streak.

“When you feel excellent about something, you just keep going to it,” said Gay, who made four of five shots in the extra session. “I felt excellent and I made the best of it.”

Zach Randolph had 24 points and 11 rebounds, and Marc Gasol had 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Grizzlies, who had lost seven of their last eight.

O.J. Mayo scored 22 points for Memphis, and Mike Conley added 13 points and eight assists.

“It says a lot about our heart and how much resilience we have,” Conley said. “We were down late in the game and we had to come back and fight. It’s real huge for our confidence and our momentum. It’s going to be a game that we can look back on that really helped us turn it around.”

The Grizzlies kept calling Gay’s number in overtime, taking advantage of a switch that saw him guarded by the smaller Jose Calderon.

“We were running the same play,” Gay said. “We got something out of it the first time so we kept on going to it and fortunately it kept on working.

“It didn’t really matter who was in front of me. That’s just how you feel. It’s not the fact that it was Calderon, it’s the fact that I had the ball and I had to make something.”

Chris Bosh had 32 points and 10 rebounds for Toronto, which had won eight straight home games and eight of nine overall. Andrea Bargnani had 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Calderon had 12 points and nine assists, while Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems each scored 10 points for the Raptors, who topped 100 for the 18th straight game.

“It’s tough because we were playing well at home and these are the types of games we need to win,” Calderon said.

Raptors squander late lead

Randolph, who played much of the fourth and all of overtime with five fouls, had a chance to tie it on a three-point play with 5:06 left, but missed the free throw. Bosh responded by making two from the line, feeding Bargnani for a hook shot, then beating his chest after blocking a shot and scoring a layup to make it 93-86 with 2:54 remaining.

Mayo scored four points and Mike Conley added a quick-break layup after Weems landed hard out of bounds while trying to save a loose ball, making it a one-point game, 93-92.

Bargnani converted a hook shot before Bosh grabbed the rebound on Conley’s miss and drained a jumper at the other end, putting Toronto up 97-92 with 37 seconds to go.

“I reckon they were kind of relaxed and thought the game was over,” Mayo said.

Late Randolph layup ties it

It certainly wasn’t. Mayo made a quick three and, after Bargnani missed a jumper, Randolph tied it on a driving layup with 1.7 seconds left.

“We could have called timeout and set something up but I felt like we had a break so I wanted to get it up the court real quick,” Conley said. “I heard Zach calling my name from behind. I just wanted to bounce him the ball, get it to him where he could score, and he finished it.”

Toronto had a chance to win but Bosh missed a jumper from the corner, sending it to overtime.

“These are tough games because we haven’t played in a week,” Bosh said. “They played last night and they were able to shake their rust off.”

Memphis, which lost 109-95 at home to Phoenix on Tuesday, carried the momentum from its late surge into overtime.

“We’ve been struggling on the second end of back-to-backs, we’d hit a small slump,” Mayo said. “Tonight we easily could have quit. We kept believing and kept fighting and we did a fantastic job. Once we got to overtime, we felt like it was a breath of fresh air.”

The Grizzlies opened the game with a 13-0 run and made all four of their three-point attempts in the first quarter to lead 28-16 after one.

“We got off to a slow start and we were very sluggish,” Raptors coach Jay Triano said. “We had a hard time getting it going at all.”

Toronto’s Hedo Turkoglu scored just one point in 29 minutes and missed all five shots he attempted.

Canadian forwards Meghan Agosta and Cherie Piper (7) celebrate Agosta’s goal past Sweden netminder Kim Martin (30) and defenceman Jenni Asserholt (4) in Vancouver, on Wednesday. (Chris O’Meara/Associated Press)

It was supposed to be the first test the Canadian women’s hockey team faced in their quest for Olympic gold.

The Canadians passed with flying colours, and then some.

Meghan Agosta’s hat trick and two assists paced Canada to a 13-1 thrashing of Sweden on Wednesday at UBC Thunderbird Arena in Vancouver, putting an exclamation point on the final round-robin game for both teams.

Canada (3-0) now moves on to the semifinal round, with its opponent yet to be determined.

Canadian goaltender Kim St. Pierre turned away all four shots she faced through the first two periods, while backup Charline Labonte allowed the lone goal against – scored by Katarina Timglas – in the third period.

The blowout victory followed convincing wins over Slovakia (18-0) and Switzerland (10-1) at the Vancouver Games.

Agosta opened the scoring at 6:58 of the first period thanks to a nifty pass from Cherie Piper.

Piper led a 2-on-1 chance into the Swedish zone before threading a pass across the slot and onto the tape of Agosta’s stick for her sixth goal of the tournament.

Agosta helped push the lead to 2-0 midway through the first when she spotted a wide-open Marie-Philip Poulin in the slot.

Swinging to the half-boards on a 3-on-2 rush, Agosta drew the Swedish defender away from the front of the net, opening up space for Poulin, who slid in untouched and roofed a backhand top-corner on Martin for the eventual game-winning marker.

And with that gorgeous goal, the rout was on. Outshooting their Scandinavian opponents 23-2, Piper, Sarah Vaillancourt and Tessa Bonhomme scored to send the Canadians to the dressing room at the first intermission with a 5-0 lead.

Players set records

The thrashing continued in the second period – 1:06 into the middle frame, Agosta scored her second of the game, putting a loose puck past the Swedish goalie and all five Swedish skaters in the crease.

Jayna Hefford, Gillian Apps and Hayley Wickenheiser scored second-period goals 59 seconds apart for a 9-0 lead.

Wickenheiser’s tally was notable because it gave her the all-time lead for scoring in Olympic women’s hockey, passing fellow Canadian Danielle Goyette.

Agosta’s hat-trick marker made it 10-0, and was also another record-setter. The 23-year-ancient forward tied Goyette’s mark of most goals in an Olympic tournament, with her eighth.

Heading into the final period with a 12-0 lead and a robust 43-4 lead in shots, Apps added her second goal while Timglas answered on the power play.

Marianne St-Gelais takes a lap with the Canadian flag after winning silver in the women’s 500. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)

Canada’s Marianne St-Gelais celebrated her 20th birthday with a silver medal in the 500-metre small-track speedskating final on Wednesday at the Vancouver Olympics.

St-Gelais crossed the line in 43.707 seconds for Canada’s sixth medal of the 2010 Games. Defending Olympic champion Meng Wang of China was too strong throughout the four rounds of competition, taking the early lead in the final en route to a winning time of 43.048 seconds at Pacific Coliseum.

St-Gelais, of St. Felicien, Que., skated aggressively throughout the competition to earn the medal. She won her quarter-final heat and then finished second to Meng in the semis.

St-Gelais was the world junior champion in the 500 in 2009.

Canada had a shot at two medals from the final, but Calgary’s Jessica Gregg got boxed out at the start and couldn’t recover.

Arianna Fontana of Italy won bronze.

It appeared to be disaster for Canada in the first attempt to race, but Gregg and St-Gelais crashed before the first turn, necessitating a restart.

Meng won her fourth career Olympic medal and second gold.

As a result a tough semifinal heat that included Meng and St-Gelais, Kalyna Roberge of St. Etienne de Lauzon, Que., did not advance to the final.

Roberge, who won silver at the Torino Games as part of Canada’s 3,000-metre relay team, went on to end second in the B final.

Hamelins take 1st step

In the men’s 1,000, Charles Hamelin set an Olympic record to win his opening heat.

The Sainte-Julie, Que., native finished in 1:25.256. He is looking to hit the podium after having to settle for winning the B final in the 1,500 earlier in the Games.

The record was broken in a later heat by Sung Si-Bak, who skated in 1:24.245.

His brother, Francois Hamelin, won his heat in 1:25.714 to advance to the quarter-finals.

Six-time Olympic medallist Apolo Ohno of the U.S. easily advanced in his heat.

The men’s 1,000 will resume and determine medallists on Saturday evening.

Charles Hamelin came back just over an hour later to help place Canada into the men’s 5,000-metre relay final, set to take place on Feb. 26.

Canada was just edged by China in the semifinal heat. The Chinese team were timed at 6:43.601, just 9-100ths of a second ahead.

The Canadian team also includes Guillaume Bastille of Riviere-de-Loup, Que., Olivier Jean of Lachenaie, Que., and Montreal’s Francois-Louis Tremblay.

Small-track powers South Korea and the U.S. were given a boost in their semi that they probably didn’t need after skaters from Italy and France crashed just over 2 ½ minutes into the race.

South Korea won the heat over the Americans by just over two seconds.