CINCINNATI (AP) — Justin Martin had 19 points and a career-high 16 rebounds on Saturday, and Xavier led most of the way during a 75-69 victory over No. 9 Creighton in front of the largest crowd in the 14-year history of the Musketeers’ arena.
It was a long-awaited rematch for Xavier, (20-9, 10-6), which lost one of the Big East’s most wide-open games at Creighton in January.
Martin led the way. The junior guard helped Xavier control the tempo and build a 13-point lead early in the second half that was more than enough.
Creighton (23-5, 13-3) couldn’t catch up despite 27 points by Doug McDermott, who leads the nation in scoring.
McDermott had 35 points during the Bluejays’ 95-89 win at home on Jan. 12, a game that showed the reconfigured Big East was a whole different conference. Xavier had more going for it in the rematch.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Shavon Shields had 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead Nebraska, which took a 10-point lead with 7 minutes left and held on to defeat Northwestern 54-47 Saturday.
With the win, Nebraska (17-11, 9-7 Big Ten) is guaranteed a .500 conference record, a Big Ten first for the Huskers, now in their third season in the conference. Nebraska won nine conference games for the first time since 1998-99 and only the 10th time since World War II.
Northwestern (12-17, 5-11) has now lost six straight games, a streak that began with a 53-49 loss to Nebraska on Feb. 8.
Nebraska took the lead 3½ minutes into the game and never trailed thereafter. Northwestern cut the lead to 31-30 on Drew Crawford’s 3-pointer with 11:46 remaining.
A 3-point play by Shields triggered a 13-4 Nebraska run that made the score 44-34 with 7 minutes left.
Sterling, CO – The No. 15 North Platte Community College men’s basketball team (26-4, 12-4 South Sub-Region) survived and advanced Saturday afternoon in the opening game of the Region IX Tournament defeating the Central Wyoming College Rustlers (12-17, 6-10 North Sub-Region) 71-69 on lay-up by Marco Pascolo out of a baseline out of bounds play with 2.1 seconds remaining.
“It’s that time of year where all that matters is winning and advancing,” said assistant coach Nathan Wieseler. “We took their punch early and were able to get back in the game possession by possession. We are very excited to continue our season Monday.”
The Knights started off the game slow as the Rustlers scored the first nine points of the game to take the early lead. Two free throws by Ethan Montalvo finally got the Knights on the board. The Rustlers continued their hot play as they would gain as much as 16-30 lead in the second half. The Knights would not go quietly and battled back to only trail 27-34 at intermission behind nine points from Montalvo and seven from Tim Simmons.
The Knights got right on track at the start of the second half as Marco Pascolo hit back-to-back threes to immediately cut into the Rustlers lead. The Knights completed their battle back to take a lead as Simmons started to take over with drives to the basket and assists to teammates for easy buckets. The Knights would stretch their lead to as many as nine points, but were never able to close the door on the Rustlers.
The Rustlers were able to hang around behind the hot shooting of Bryce Canda who went 7 of 7 from the 3-point line on his way to 26 points. After a couple free throw misses, the Ruslters had the ball down two with 34 seconds left. A foul was called on the Knights in the back court and Elmer Lopez knocked down both free throws to tie the game at 69 points. The Knights took a timeout with eight seconds left to set up a final play. After the ball was deflected out of bounds with 3.5 seconds left the Knights took another timeout setting up Pascolo’s heroics.
On the ensuing inbounds play Pascolo slipped to the basket and was rewarded with a pass from Simmons that he finished with 2.1 seconds remaining to give the Knights the winning basket. The Rustlers attempted a full court pass that was intercepted by the Knights to end the game.
“It was a tough game,” said Tim Simmons. “We got back in it on defense and we were fortunate to pull it out in the end and play again Monday.”
Simmons led the Knights with 16 points. Montalvo finished with 15, Pascolo finished with 14 and Cameron Williams finished with 11 points to round out the scorers in double-figures for the Knights. Aireon Porter contributed eight points and nine rebounds.
Canda finished with 26 points, while Isaiah Tademy had 14 and Elmer Lopez had 12 to pace the Rustlers.
The Knights advance to the Quarterfinals of the Region IX Tournament and will face the winner of No. 3 seed Casper College (18-12, 11-5 North Sub-Region) and No. 6 seed Lamar Community College (11-19, 7-9 South Sub-Region) on Monday March 3 at 2 p.m. CST. The game will be live streamed at www.ihigh.com/gonjc/ and will be broadcast live be ESPN Radio 1410.
The 2014 Nebraska School Activities Association Girls State Tournament Brackets were released Saturday morning and the two area schools competing in D1 will face each other in the first round.
The Sutherland Lady Sailors (20-5) and the St. Patrick’s Lady Irish (20-4) will meet at 9:00 am on Thursday, March 6 at Lincoln North Star High School. The Lady Sailors, which won the district, are the No. 6 seed and the Lady Irish are the No. 3 seed. The seeding for all NSAA events are based upon the NSAA points system. St. Pat’s has the higher point total with 45.5000, while Sutherland has 45.1200.
The two teams met three times this season with the Lady Irish winning the first two contests, 34-30 at SPHS and 45-31 in the SPVA Tournament. The third time proved to be a charm for the Lady Sailors as they upset top-seeded St. Pat’s 43-28 in the D1-11 Subdistrict finals. Only four players scored in the game for Sutherland, but they were all in double-figures with Sam Staggs scoring 12 points to lead the way.
The girls state tournament will be held in Lincoln and run from Thursday, March 6 through Saturday, March 8. The first round for Class D1 is being played at Lincoln North Star High School. The second round is at the Bob Devany Sports Center and the finals will be played at Pinnacle Bank Arena.
The bracket for Class D1 can be seen below along with the brackets for all classifications.
DENVER (AP) — Paul Pierce scored 18 points and the Brooklyn Nets rebounded from their worst loss in 11 years by routing the slumping Denver Nuggets 112-89 on Thursday night.
Joe Johnson, Marcus Thornton, and Mason Plumlee each added 10 points for the Nets, who snapped a six-game losing streak in Denver. The Nets hadn’t won in the Mile High City since a 112-102 victory on Jan. 27, 2007.
Randy Foye had 15 points to lead Denver, which has lost four in a row and nine of 10.
Brooklyn’s 7-foot center Jason Collins, the NBA’s first openly gay player appearing in his third game since being signed to a 10-day contract, was given a round of applause from the crowd when he entered the game for the first time with 8:02 left. Collins finished with three points.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Jordan Hooper, a Nebraska native and lone senior on the roster, scored 29 points on Senior Night as the No. 16 Cornhuskers held off Illinois 72-65 Thursday for their ninth-straight win.
Tear’a Laudermill added 15 points, Emily Cady had 10 points with 12 rebounds and Rachel Theriot had 10 assists for the Cornhuskers (22-5, 12-3 Big Ten).
Amber Moore had 19 points for Illinois (9-19, 2-13). Ivory Crawford added 13 points and 10 rebounds and Taylor Gleason had 13.
Nebraska, which led 38-31 at the half, had a tough time shaking Illinois, though after the Illini tied it at 40 the Huskers built a 60-51 lead.
After Moore’s 3-pointer pulled Illinois within two with 3:03 left, Sarah Livingston missed two free throws. After Laudermill made two, Crawford missed two more. Illinois was 3-10 from the line but made 10 3’s. Nebraska also had 10 but was 14-17 from the line.
North Platte – The North Platte Community College Lady Knights basketball team (15-12, 3-1 Region IX Division II) will host the Central Community Lady Raiders (19-12, 2-2 Region IX Division II) on Monday, March 3 at 6 p.m. for the Region IX Division II title. The winner will advance to the District F Playoff on March 9 to qualify for the Division II National Tournament.
The Lady Raiders advanced to the championship game by defeating the Southeast Community College Lady Storm (17-14, 1-3 Region IX Division II) last night 79-68 behind five players in double figures. Javona Wynne, Caitlin Fehringer and Adrianna Beck each scored 12 points, while Alyssa Foltz and Eleishia Bibbs each added 11 points. Wynne had a double-double as she added 12 rebounds.
The Lady Knights and Lady Raiders have split their two contests so far this year, with both teams defending their home court. The Lady Raiders won first 67-74 before the Knights returned the favor with a 57-50 victory of their own.
DaVontaye Merritt led the Knights in the loss with 21 points and 10 rebounds while Courtney Widick added 14 and April Stull scored 12. In the victory, Jordan Dickerson and Aliyah Brown led the Knights with 11 points each while Stull scored 10. Merritt only scored nine points, but racked up 18 rebounds.
For Central, Sophia Yarger led the Lady Raiders in victory with 16 points while Alyssa Foltz had 15 and Javona Wynne had 10. In defeat, Yarger was the only Lady Raider in double-figures with 17 points.
North Platte – Ethan Montalvo, Cameron Williams and Tim Simmons of North Platte Community College (25-4, 12-4 South Sub-Region) were all named to the 2013-14 Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference (NCCAC) All-Conference Team on Thursday. Head coach Kevin O’Connor was also named the NCCAC Coach-of-the-Year.
Ethan Montalvo of Omaha was named All-NCCAC First Team and was the leading vote getter. The sophomore is the Knights leading scorer at 19.0 points per game. Montalvo leads the team in steals (2.2 spg) and is tied for first in assists (2.7 apg). He averages 2.3 three-pointers a game, making a team high 67 while shooting 39 percent behind the arc. Montalvo also leads the team in free throw percentage at 82 percent from the charity stripe.
Montalvo currently sits 6th All-Time on the Knights career scoring list with 1,116 points in his career. Montalvo is 30 points from cracking the top five and passing Jason McDonald. Montalvo was named All-NCCAC First Team for the second consecutive year.
Cameron Williams of Omaha was also named All-NCCAC First Team. The freshman is the Knights second leading scorer at 13.7 points per game. Williams is tied for first on the team in assists (2.7 apg) and is second in steals (1.5 spg). Williams shoots 45 percent from the field and 73 percent from the free throw line. In his last outing, Williams scored a career-high 33 points in only 19 minutes of action to go along with six rebounds and three assists.
Tim Simmons of Stamford, Conn. was named All-NCCAC Second-Team after leading the Knights to the NCCAC Championship for the second consecutive season. The sophomore is third on the team in scoring at 11.8 points per game and has been at his best in the biggest moments during his career at North Platte. Simmons is third on the team in rebounds at 4.5 per game. Simmons leads the Knights in field goal percentage at 54 percent from the field, 37 percent from the 3-point line and 72 percent from the free throw line.
Simmons currently sit 49th All-Time on the Knights career scoring list with 660 career points. Simmons can move up the scoring list rapidly as the next 10 spots have scored under 700 career points.
Kevin O’Connor
Kevin O’Connor was named the NCCAC Coach-of-the-Year after leading the Knights to their third consecutive NCCAC Championship and ninth in the last ten years. Coach O’Connor has won 15 conference championships in his 29 year career at North Platte Community College. He guided the Knights to a 25-4 regular season record and a 5-1 record in conference play. The 25 regular season wins is the second consecutive year of 25 wins and ties for third in program history with last year for a regular season trailing only the 1989-90 O’Connor coached team which finished the regular season 27-3 and the 1972-73 Doug Schakel coached team which finished the regular season 26-8.
NCCAC First-TeamNCCAC Second-Team
Ethan Montalvo- North Platte CC Tim Simmons- North Platte CC
Tyron Criswell- Central CC Riak Bol- Central CC
Tony Dobbinson- McCook CC David Plain- Central CC
Dominic Williams- McCook CC Tyrell Corlew- Southeast CC
Cameron Williams- North Platte CC (tie)
Josh Roberts- Southeast CC (tie)
NCCAC Honorable Mention
D’Andre Downey- McCook CC
Jarrod Gamble- Southeast CC
NCCAC Coach-of-the-Year
Kevin O’Connor- North Platte CC
North Platte – Ethan Montalvo, Cameron Williams and Tim Simmons of North Platte Community College (25-4, 12-4 South Sub-Region) were all named to the 2013-14 Nebraska Community College Athletic Conference (NCCAC) All-Conference Team on Thursday. Head coach Kevin O’Connor was also named the NCCAC Coach-of-the-Year. Ethan Montalvo of Omaha was named All-NCCAC First Team and was the leading vote getter. The sophomore is the Knights leading scorer at 19.0 points per game. Montalvo leads the team in steals (2.2 spg) and is tied for first in assists (2.7 apg). He averages 2.3 three pointers a game while make a team high 67 while shooting 39 percent behind the arc. Montalvo also leads the team in free throw percentage at 82 percent from the charity stripe. Montalvo currently sits 6th All-Time on the Knights career scoring list with 1,116 points in his career. Montalvo is 30 points from cracking the top five and passing Jason McDonald. Montalvo was named All-NCCAC First Team for the second consecutive year. Cameron Williams of Omaha was also named All-NCCAA First Team. The freshman is the Knights second leading scorer at 13.7 points per game. Williams is tied for first on the team in assists (2.7 apg) and is second in steals (1.5 spg). Williams shoots 45 percent from the field and 73 percent from the free throw line. In his last outing, Williams scored a career-high 33 points in only 19 minutes of action to go along with six rebounds and three assists. Tim Simmons of Stamford, Conn. was named All-NCCAC Second-Team after leading the Knights to the NCCAC Championship for the second consecutive season. The sophomore is third on the team in scoring at 11.8 points per game and has been at his best in the biggest moments during his career at North Platte. Simmons is third on the team in rebounds at 4.5 per game. Simmons leads the Knights in field goal percentage at 54 percent from the field, 37 percent from the 3-point line and 72 percent from the free throw line. Simmons currently sit 49th All-Time on the Knights career scoring list with 660 career points. Simmons can move up the scoring list rapidly as the next 10 spots have scored under 700 career points. Kevin O’Connor was named the NCCAC Coach-of-the-Year after leading the Knights to their third consecutive NCCAC Championship and nine in the last ten years. Coach O’Connor has won 15 conference championships in his 29 year career at North Platte Community College. He guided the Knights to a 25-4 regular season record and a 5-1 record in conference play. The 25 regular season wins is the second consecutive year of 25 wins and ties for third in program history with last year for a regular season trailing only the 1989-90 O’Connor coached team which finished the regular season 27-3 and the 1972-73 Doug Schakel coached team which finished the regular season 26-8. NCCAC First-TeamNCCAC Second-Team Ethan Montalvo– North Platte CC Tim Simmons– North Platte CC Tyron Criswell- Central CC Riak Bol- Central CC Tony Dobbinson- McCook CC David Plain- Central CC Dominic Williams- McCook CC Tyrell Corlew- Southeast CC Cameron Williams– North Platte CC (tie) Josh Roberts- Southeast CC (tie) NCCAC Honorable Mention D’Andre Downey- McCook CC Jarrod Gamble- Southeast CC NCCAC Coach-of-the-Year Kevin O’Connor– North Platte CC
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Illinois freshmen Kendrick Nunn and Malcolm Hill combined for 23 points and the Illini ended Nebraska’s five-game win streak on Wednesday night, 60-49.
Nunn scored 13 on 4-of-6 shooting for the Illini (16-12, 5-10 Big Ten). He was 3 of 4 from 3-point range. Hill added 10 points and five rebounds.
Nebraska (16-11, 8-7) came into the game as one of the Big Ten’s hottest teams. The Cornhuskers had won seven of their last eight.
But Nebraska turned the ball over 15 times and was 0-8 from 3-poingt range in the first half before finishing 3-13.
Only one Cornhusker, Terran Petteway, finished in double figures. He had 13 points.
Rayvonte Rice added 10 point and nine rebounds for the Illini.
The victory gives Illinois back-to-back wins for the first time since the first two games of the conference season. They had lost 10 of 12.
The North Platte Bulldogs boys basketball team are the No. 3 seed in the A-1 District tournament going in to postseason play.
The district assignments for classes A and B were released on Tuesday by the NSAA. North Platte was the 15th-ranked team in the NSAA points system and as a result is the top No. 3 seed. The Dawgs will play the last No. 2 seed, Lincoln High, in the first round of the A-1 District tournament. The host school is the No. 1 overall seed, Omaha Benson, which plays Bellevue East in the first round.
The first round of the district tournament is Saturday, March 1 at Omaha Benson High School. No. 1 Benson (21-3) and No. 4 Bellevue East (0-22) play at 1:00 pm followed by a 3:00 pm tip-off between No. 2 Lincoln High (10-13) and No. 3 North Platte (11–13). The district championship game will be played Monday, March 3 at 5:30 pm at Omaha Benson High School.
The Bulldogs and the Links of Lincoln High have already faced each other once this season. North Platte was dominant in the game with a 67-48 win over Lincoln on January 24 at the Dawg House at North Platte High School. Kade Erickson led the way in that game for the Dawgs with 21 points and five assists. Drew Callaghan added 16 points, seven rebounds and five blocks, and Shane Mauch was also in double-figures with 13 points.
The bracket for the A-1 District Tournament can be seen below.
CINCINNATI (AP) — Justin Martin had 19 points and a career-high 16 rebounds on Saturday, and Xavier led most of the way during a 75-69 victory over No. 9 Creighton in front of the largest crowd in the 14-year history of the Musketeers’ arena.
