Sports: Red Wings, Pistons Win!

The Pistons held on for a 115-114 victory over the Charlotte Hornets Thursday night.  Detroit scored a season-high 37 points in the first quarter but gave up 66 second-half points and blew a 19-point lead.  It took a pair of Reggie Jackson free throws with 1.9 seconds left to hold off the Charlotte Hornets.  With a half-second left, Charlotte’s Marco Belinelli inbounded the ball off of Detroit's Marcus Morris’ back, caught the carom, and banked in the shot, but just after time expired.  Third-string center Boban Marjanovic came off the bench to score 15 points and a career-high 19 rebounds.  The Pistons committed 24 fouls and had 7 turnovers.  Kemba Walker had 32 for the Hornets.  Tobias Harris had 25 for the Pistons.  Reggie Jackson had 22 and Marcus Morris had 20 with 10 rebounds.  The Pistons play in Portland on Saturday night.

Red Wings

The Red Wings beat the Kings 4-0 in Los Angeles.  Thomas Vanek scored twice during a three-goal first period.  Jared Coreau stopped 34 shots for his first career shutout and stopped Tanner Pearson on a penalty shot in the first period.  Andreas Athanasiou also scored in the first period.  Anthony Mantha added a goal in the third period to help the Red Wings end a two-game skid.  Detroit finishes the three game west coast trip on Saturday night in San Jose.

Jackets Streak Ends

The Columbus Blue Jackets' 16-game winning streak has ended with a 5-0 shutout loss to the Capitals in Washington.

Junior Hockey

The U.S. beat Canada 5-4 on Thursday night to win the world junior hockey title.  Troy Terry scored the lone shootout goal and Tyler Parsons stopped all five shots he faced in the tiebreaker.   Parsons made 46 saves. The Michigan native and Calgary Flames draft pick plays for London in Ontario Hockey League.  The Americans won its fourth title and first since 2013.

Fleck to Meet with Minnesota

Western Michigan coach P.J. Fleck slept on an offer to become Minnesota’s next head coach, with a decision likely coming later today.   That’s according to the Detroit News, quoting multiple anonymous sources.  Fleck and his Chicago-based agent met Wednesday with Minnesota officials, and a formal offer was made Thursday.   Minnesota fired Coach Tracy Claeys this week.  He made $1.4 million per year, but the next coach is expected to make a lot more than that.  Fleck, 36, just finished his fourth year as Western Michigan’s head coach.

Boys Basketball

Jonesville 70, Athens 57

Climax-Scotts 71, Tekonsha 50

Concord 60, Union City 56

Quincy 49, Springport 17

Tonight's Schedule

Boys & Girls Basketball

St. Philip @ Bellevue

Galesburg-Augusta @ Delton

Reading @ Homer

Jackson Lumen Christi @ Marshall

Olivet @ Stockbridge

Lake Odessa Lakewood @ Maple Valley

Harper Creek @ Pennfield….7pm on WBCK.

 Girls Basketball

Athens @ Jonesville

Tekonsha @ Climax-Scotts

Springport @ Quincy

Union City @ Concord

 Lions/NFL

The Lions play the Seahawks in an NFC Wild Card Game on Saturday night.  Broadcast time is 7:15pm on WBCK.

Former MSU Spartan Connor Cook will make his first start in a playoff game as the Raiders travel to Houston this Saturday.

Miami plays at Pittsburgh and the Giants play at Green Bay on Sunday.

College Basketball

WMU plays at Akron tonight.

Michigan State plays Penn State on Saturday in Philadelphia.  Coach Tom Izzo notes that a lot Penn State’s team is from Philly, and will be playing in front of a lot of friends and family. We’ll have the game at 12 noon on WBCK.

Michigan hosts Maryland on Saturday.