Sports News-November 26, 2012
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Two years before the playoffs start in college football, the Southeastern Conference is staging a semifinal to determine who plays Notre Dame in the Bowl Championship Series title game. Alabama was second and Georgia third in the BCS standings released yesterday. The Crimson Tide and Bulldogs play Saturday in Atlanta for the SEC championship. The winner will advance to the National Championship game in Miami on Jan. 7 against the Fighting Irish, who locked up their spot Saturday with a 22-13 victory against Southern California. Florida, at 11-1, is fourth in the standings, but with no games left, looks stuck behind their SEC rivals. One way or another, the SEC will get a shot at its seventh straight BCS championship. The Bowl Championship Series is in its second-to-last season. It will be replaced by a four-team playoff in 2014.
The Auburn Tigers are looking for a new head football coach. Gene Chizik has been fired following a 3-9 season that included an 0-8 record in the Southeastern Conference. The move comes less than two years after Chizik led the Tigers to the national championship. It marked the worst slide within two years of winning a national title of any team since the Associated Press poll started in 1936. Auburn hasn't lost this many games since going 0-10 in 1950. The Tigers lost its last three games by a combined 150-21, including a season-ending 49-0 loss to rival Alabama.
Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema says he understands why a lot of people believe his Badgers don't deserve to be playing in the Big Ten championship Game. With Ohio State and Penn State ineligible because of NCAA sanctions, the Badgers will represent the Leaders Division against Legends champion Nebraska on Saturday in Indianapolis at 7:00. Wisconsin finished third in their division. Bielema said yesterday that when the Badgers and Cornhuskers take the field, "no one will care how the other team got there." Nebraska coach Bo Pelini says he doesn't care if people think the game loses luster because teams ahead of Wisconsin aren't in Indianapolis. The Badgers lost 30-27 in Lincoln on Sept. 29 after blowing a 17-point lead in the third quarter. The Huskers move up from 14th to twelfth in the BCS Standings. They are 10-2 overall and 7-1 in the Big Ten Legends Division after a 13-7 win at Iowa last Friday. The game is televised on FOX TV. The Badgers are 7-5 overall and 4-4 in the Leaders Division. Nebraska is also 14th in the Associated Press Top 25 & 13th in the USA Today poll.
The Nebraska volleyball team is seeded fourth and will spend the opening weekend of the postseason at home for the ninth straight season after being named host of first and second-round matches in the NCAA Tournament. The 21-8 Kansas State Wildcats will play 24-9 Northern Iowa at 4:30 on Thursday with 23-6 Nebraska playing 28-5 Maryland-Eastern Shore at 7:00, or 30 minutes after the first match. Thursday's winners play Friday at 7:00 for the right to move to the Omaha Regional the following weekend. Kansas State and the Huskers met in the second round in Lincoln a year ago, with the Wildcats upsetting the N-U in a five-set thriller. The 28-3 Creighton volleyball team will play 27-6 Marquette on Friday at 4:30 in Minneapolis to open the NCAA Tournament with 25-7 Liberty and 24-7 Minnesota meeting Friday at 7:00. Winners play at 6:00 on Saturday for the right to advance to the West Lafayette, Indiana regional the following weekend. The Bluejays has had its best season in program history, winning the Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and postseason tournament titles for the first time. The Bluejays have won a school-record 16 straight matches and enter the NCAA Tournament with a 21 national ranking, the program's highest ever.
Monica Engelman and Carolyn Davis had twelve points a piece and 22nd ranked Kansas defeated Creighton 58-48 yesterday. The Jayhawks led 30-18 at halftime and by as many as 19 points in the second half. McKenzie Fujan, Carli Tritz and Sarah Nelson all scored eleven points for Creighton. The Bluejays drop to 2-2 on the season.
The tenth ranked Wayne State women’s basketball team improved to 3-0 on the season and extended their home winning streak to 49 straight games with an 82-47 victory over St. Ambrose University yesterday. Jordan Spencer led the team in scoring for a second straight game with 19 points and Shantel Lehmann recorded her first double-double of the season with ten points and 15 rebounds. WSC is now 3-0 overall while St. Ambrose falls to 5-3 on the season.
Local Schedule: Mt. Marty JV at NECC (W&M BB-6:00).
Local Scores: (8) Creighton 1 (1) Akron 1 (Creighton wins on penalty kicks 5-4 (NCAA M. Socc. Tourn.); (22) Kansas 58 Creighton 48 (WBB); Nebraska-Omaha 63 SW Minnesota St. 37 (WBB); (10) WSC 82 St. Ambrose 47 (WBB).
NFL Scoreboard: Atlanta 24 Tampa Bay 23; Indianapolis 20 Buffalo 13; Denver 17 Kansas City 9; Chicago 28 Minnesota 10; Cincinnati 34 Oakland 10; Cleveland 20 Pittsburgh 14; Miami 24 Seattle 21; Jacksonville 24 Tennessee 19; Baltimore 16 San Diego 13 (OT); San Francisco 31 New Orleans 21; St. Louis 31 Arizona 17; N.Y. Giants 38 Green Bay 10.
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Final New York 121 Detroit 100
Final 2OT San Antonio 111 Toronto 106
Final Brooklyn 98 Portland 85
Final OT Boston 116 Orlando 110
Final Philadelphia 104 Phoenix 101
Final Denver 102 New Orleans 84
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Final ( 1) Indiana 101 Ball St. 53
Final ( 6) Syracuse 87 Colgate 51
Final Cal Poly 70 (11) UCLA 68
Final (15) Michigan St. 63 Louisiana-Lafayette 60
Final (17) Gonzaga 81 Davidson 67
Final (20) Oklahoma St. 81 Portland St. 58
Final (21) UConn 73 Stony Brook 62
Final (23) Colorado 89 Air Force 74
Final (25) San Diego St. 66 Southern Cal 60
TOP-25 WOMEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Final ( 1) Stanford 77 Long Beach St. 41
Final ( 4) Duke 82 Xavier 59
Final ( 9) Kentucky 100 SC-Upstate 34
Final Iowa 79 (12) West Virginia 70
Final (13) Oklahoma 74 Hawaii 49
Final (16) Ohio St. 82 Wright St. 52
Final (18) St. John's 66 Hartford 54
Final (19) UCLA 65 Princeton 52
Final (20) Tennessee 90 Alcorn St. 37
Final (22) Kansas 58 Creighton 48
Final (24) Dayton 105 E. Illinois 42
Final (25) North Carolina 101 UNC Asheville 42
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