8A • Daily Corinthian
Local Schedule Thursday, Jan. 3 Basketball ACT @ Crossroads Arena (JVB) Biggersville-Corinth, 5 (G) BHS-KHS, 6:15 (WXRZ) (B) KHS-CHS, 7:30 (WXRZ)
Friday, Jan. 4 Basketball ACT @ Crossroads Arena (JVG) Central-Corinth, 4 (JVB) Central-Kossuth, 5:15 (G) AC-CHS, 6:30 (WXRZ) (B) BHS-AC, 7:45 (WXRZ)
Saturday, Jan. 5 Basketball ACT @ Crossroads Arena JVG-Championship, 4 JVB-Championship, 5:15 G-Championship, 6:30 (WXRZ) B-Championship, 7:45 (WXRZ)
Shorts ACT floor seats Reserved floor seats for the annual Alcorn County Tournament, set for Jan. 3-5 at the Crossroads Arena, are available for purchase. Cost is $40, which covers all three nights. Call Sam Tull at 287-4477.
New Site Baseball Banquet Former Mississippi State head baseball coach Ron Polk will be the featured speaker for the New Site Royals Fourth Annual 1st Pitch Banquet and Silent Auction on Monday, Feb. 4, at 7 p.m. on the campus of New Site High School. Seating is limited to the first 150 tickets sold and must be purchased in advance. Tickets are $15 and include meal, access to silent auction, and seating for speaker presentation. For more information or to purchase a ticket, please call 662-322-7389 or 662728-5205.
Corinth falls to Desoto in tourney final BY DONICA PHIFER dphifer@dailycorinthian.com
DYERSBURG — Desoto Central earned a bit of revenge, handing Corinth an 82-63 defeat in the championship game of the Dyersburg Christmas Tournament on Saturday. The Jaguars (13-2) were handed their second loss of the 2012 season by the Warriors on Dec. 15 during the Biggersville Christmas Classic in a 6963 final. Their first loss, a 55-53 defeat by Grenada, came on Nov. 27. The Warriors (10-4) made a run to the final game with defeats of New Madrid (Mo.) and host team Dyersburg on the first and second day of the tournament. Desoto gained 40 points in the first half, carrying a lead of nine at the break. The team would follow it up with 42 points in the second half to the Warriors 32. Desmin Harris led the Warriors with 25 points, with Raheem Sorrell following up with 14. Charlie Palmer led for the Jaguars at 25, while Mark Partee also broke the 20-mark at 21 points. Keith Bullock and Quinton Thompson also entered double digits with 14 and 11 points. Desoto Central 82, Corinth 63 CHS 11 20 11 21 — 63 DCHS 22 18 23 19 — 82 CORINTH (63): Desmin Harris 25, Raheem Sorrell 14, Kendrick Williams 6, Darius Gaines 6, Terrel Payton 4, Darius Herman 2. DESOTO CENTRAL (82): Charlie Palmer 25, Mark Partee 21, Keith Bullock 14, Quinton Thompson 11, Nathan Turner 9, Tyler Turner 2. 3-POINTERS: (C) Desmin Harris 6, (DC) Charlie Palmer 5, Nathan Turner, Mark Partee. RECORDS: Corinth 10-4, Desoto Central 13-2.
No. 2 UConn women rout No. 1 Stanford Associated Press
STANFORD, Calif. — Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and second-ranked Connecticut played spoiler and streakbuster this time, snapping No. 1 Stanford’s nation-leading 82-game home unbeaten run with a surprisingly easy 61-35 rout Saturday. Mosqueda-Lewis scored 19 points as UConn (11-0) thoroughly outplayed Stanford (11-1) on both ends of the floor.
Sports
Sunday, December 30, 2012
County squads skid as tournament closes BY DONICA PHIFER dphifer@dailycorinthian.com
GLEN — The final day of the Peggy Bain Memorial Tournament proved difficult for Alcorn County teams as three of the four struggled on the court with losses. Of the four teams, only Corinth secured a victory in Day 3, sending Tupelo Christian Preparatory home winless in the tournament. Both Kossuth clubs fell to Hardin County in early games, while Alcorn Central fell in two come from behind wins by Lewisburg and S.V. Marshall. Biggersville also came up short in the closing match, dropping a heated game against Cordova.
(B) Cordova 70, Biggersville 63 Though the Lions led in the opening minutes, turnovers would keep Biggersville out of the game as the squad racked up 26 over four quarters of play. Cordova built up a 20-point lead to end the third quarter, but four starting players — including leading scorer Mike Wickliff and leading rebounder Lorenzen Wright — ended the game on the bench after fouling out. Another starter, Chester Hooker, would be ejected during the fourth quarter after gaining two of the Tennessee team’s five technical fouls. The Lions would cut the lead to seven points with three minutes to go, but find themselves unable to find shots in the final minutes. Daniel Simmons led Biggersville with 24 points, followed by Jaylon Gaines with 14. CHS 16 14 25 15 — 70 BHS 11 12 17 23 — 63 CORDOVA (70): Mike Wickliff 17, James Kilpatrick 14, Jadarion Brown 12, Okeeth Barker 9, Lorenzen Wright 6, Chester Hooker 5, Noah Hahn 4, Tyler Whitaker 2. BIGGERSVILLE (63): Daniel Simmons 24, Jaylon Gaines 14, Emmanuel Simmons 9, Tyran Davis 4, Shawn Watson 3, Blake Stacy 2. 3-POINTERS: (C) Chester Hooker, Noah Hahn, James Kilpatrick, (B) Daniel Simmons 3, Jaylon Gaines 2.
(G) Corinth 58, Tupelo Christian 21 The Lady Warriors closed their tournament appearance with a 37-point win over the Tupelo Christian Eagles. Please see TOURNAMENT | 9A
Photo by Donica Phifer
Biggersville’s Emmanuel Simmons goes for a layup in the final game of the Peggy Bain Memorial Tournament. The Lions fell to Cordova 70-63.
No. 4 Louisville holds off Kentucky BY GARY GRAVES Associated Press
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Russ Smith scored 21 points and Chane Behanan had 20 and No. 4 Louisville ended a fourgame losing streak against rival Kentucky with an upand-down 80-77 victory on Saturday. Peyton Siva added 19 points as the Cardinals (12-1) won a hard-fought Battle of the Bluegrass. Though the Cardinals trail the series 30-15, their victory followed last spring’s 69-61 national semifinal loss to the Wildcats, who went on to win their eighth national championship. But Louisville had to withstand several charges from Kentucky to do so. The Wildcats trailed 51-34 but outscored the Cardinals 28-14 to get within 65-62 before Smith’s two baskets keyed an 8-5 run to give Louisville
some space. Behanan sealed Louisville’s win with late two dunks, the final one following his steal of a pass by Archie Goodwin with 18 seconds remaining. Goodwin scored 19 of his 22 points in the second half for Kentucky (8-4) and Ryan Harrow added 17 points. Poor foul shooting doomed the Wildcats’ comeback. They shot just 11 of 23 (48 percent) from the line, matching their percentage from the field. Louisville also shot 48 percent from the field but made 17 of 25 from the free throw line to win its seventh straight. As might be expected from bitter in-state rivals, the early minutes were physical and intense with six ties and five lead changes. There were lineup changes for both teams. Kentucky started 7-foot freshman Willie Cauley-Stein
alongside 6-10 Nerlens Noel for the first time in an effort to establish a post game against the Cardinals. The Wildcats’ move might have been a preemptive one with Louisville expected to start 6-11 center Gorgui Dieng, who returned from a seven-game absence with a broken left wrist. The Cardinals instead started 6-10 Zach Price but Dieng entered the game just 1:43 in and quickly made his presence felt with three rebounds, a block and a dunk that helped give Louisville a 12-10 lead. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the junior soon picked up his second foul that appeared to be committed by Montrezl Harrell. Dieng pointed that fact out to an official with no success as Alex Poythress made one of two free throws to put the Wildcats up 13-12. By then Kentucky was start-
ing an 8-0 run helped by Harrow’s careful ballhandling that forced the action inside. Poythress and Kyle Wiltjer added 3-pointers as the Wildcats were 7 of 15 from the field at the 10:13 mark. Louisville was just 6 of 16 at that point but quickly made up for that initial inaccuracy to wipe out an 18-12 deficit. Siva’s layup began a 13-2 run led by Behanan, who had a thunderous transition dunk off a steal by Smith, a baseline jumper and another as he fell to the court. A follow dunk by Noel and Harrow’s 3-pointer tied the game at 25 with 4:02 remaining in the first half, but those were Kentucky’s last field goals before intermission. Louisville closed with an 11-4 run for a 36-28 lead in a half in which it shot 15 of 31 (48 percent) and scored 22 points in the paint.
Syracuse plows through WVU, snow at Pinstripe BY RALPH D. RUSSO Associated Press
NEW YORK — Prince-Tyson Gulley ran for a careerbest 208 yards and had three touchdowns, Syracuse scored twice on safeties and the Orange bid a snow-covered farewell to the Big East with a 38-14 victory over West Virginia in the Pinstripe Bowl on Saturday. Syracuse (8-5) will enter the Atlantic Coast Conference on a roll after finishing this season with six wins in its last seven games, capped by its second postseason victory at Yankee Stadium in the last three years. In a bowl game played in a baseball stadium with weather better suited for a playoff game in Green Bay, the team
that plays in a dome ended up being better equipped to handle the elements. The Orange leaned on their running game to plow through former Big East rival West Virginia (7-6) and the snow. Jerome Smith added 157 yards rushing, and Syracuse finished with a seasonhigh 369 yards. Geno Smith connected with Stedman Bailey for two touchdown passes, but the Mountaineers’ quarterback also was sacked in the end zone in the first half and called for intentional grounding in the end zone in the second half as he tried to avoid another sack. Smith, who was an early Heisman Trophy front-runner as the Mountaineers got off to a 5-0 start this season,
was 16 for 26 for 197 yards in the final game of his recordbreaking career. The NFL awaits. Same goes for Ryan Nassib, though Syracuse didn’t ask much of its talented senior quarterback. He threw two touchdown passes and an interception. His most impressive feat on this day was surviving being driven into the frozen turf by Terence Garvin on a sack in the first half. Nassib missed only one play. A goal-line stand by West Virginia in the second quarter kept Syracuse out of the end zone, but set up the Orange for a scoring run. Left at their own 1, the Mountaineers tried to pass out of their end zone, but Smith was smothered by
blitzing linebackers Cameron Lynch and Siriki Diabate for a safety to make it 5-0 — a baseball score, of course. The Orange followed that up with a 33-yard touchdown run by Gulley to make it 12-0 with 6:07 left in the second. The Mountaineers responded with their first sustained drive and Bailey took a quick pass, darted and broke tackles, and scooted 32 yards to the end zone to make it 12-7. The Orange extended the lead to 12 points with a touchdown drive to start the second half when the Orange caught a break — and touchdown pass. Nassib’s throw was tipped around the goal line, but floated safely into the waiting arms of intended receiver Beckett Wales for a 10-yard score.