Sports: Spartans Win; Red Wings Lose

Sports Across Michigan

College Basketball

Michigan State beat Rutgers, 71-51.   Bryn Forbes led the Spartans with 18 points, Branden Dawson scored 17 and had 11 rebounds and Travis Trice had 10 points.  With the win, MSU is 14-7 overall and 5-3 in the Big Ten.  Michigan is at Michigan State on Sunday.  Broadcast time is 12 noon on WBCK.

On Saturday, Western visits Eastern.

Ohio is at CMU.

Red Wings

The Red Wings’six game win streak ended last night in Tampa, as the Lightning beat Detroit 5-1.  Darren Helm scored the lone goal for the Wings in the first period.

Tampa rookie Cedric Paquette had his first career hat trick.  Petr Mrazek was pulled after the second period after he allowed five goals on 15 shots.   Tom McCollum stopped all 17 shots he faced in the third. With the loss, Detroit slips to second place in the Atlantic Division, one point behind Tampa Bay.  The Red Wings host the Islanders on Saturday.

Pistons

The Pistons host the Houston Rockets Saturday night, as they try to break a 4-game losing streak.  Former Piston Josh Smith will play his first game against Detroit, since the team decided to release him and eat his $36 million dollar contract last month.  Detroit, hasn't won a game since their starting point guard Brandon Jennings went down with a season ending Achilles injury.  They’re 17-and-30 on the year and are in fourth-place in the Central Division, 12.5 games behind the first-place Chicago Bulls.

Local High School Sports

In Swimming.....

Lakeview 150, Battle Creek Central 35.

Girls Basketball

St. Philip 21, Hillsdale Academy 14. St. Phillip is now 11-2.  Adrian Hibbard scored 8.

Concord 51, Athens 37

Camden-Frontier 68, Tekonsha 8

Springport 40, Union City 37.

Boys Basketball Tonight

Lakeview at Battle Creek Central (L 1-8, BCC 6-6) Broadcast time is 7:06 on WBCK.

Harper Creek at Jackson Northwest (HC 9-1)

Parma Western at Pennfield (P 7-4)

Marshall at Coldwater (Ma 6-3)

Rudolph Steiner at Calhoun Christian (CC 1-7)

St. Philip at Hillsdale Academy (St. P 8-3)

Athens at Concord (At 3-5)

Bellevue at Pittsford (Be 6-4)

Climax-Scotts at Waldron (C-S 9-2)

Galesburg-Augusta at Kalamazoo Hackett (G-A 3-9)

Gull Lake at Mattawan (GL 1-9)

Homer at Jonesville (Ho 6-4)

Olivet at Maple Valley (O 5-5, MV 1-9)

Quincy at Reading (Q 8-0)

Tekonsha at Camden-Frontier (T 2-8)

Springport at Union City (UC 9-1)

Girls Basketball Tonight

Lakeview at Battle Creek Central (L 5-5, BCC 4-8)

Harper Creek at Jackson Northwest (HC 6-5)

Parma Western at Pennfield (P 5-6)

Rudolph Steiner at Calhoun Christian (CC 5-6)

Bronson at Cassopolis (Br 7-2)

Climax-Scotts at Waldron (C-S 8-3)

Galesburg-Augusta at Kalamazoo Hackett (G-A 9-4)

Gull Lake at Mattawan (GL 7-5)

Homer at Jonesville (Ho 9-3)

Olivet at Maple Valley (O 7-4, MV 2-10)

Marshall at Coldwater (Ma 10-1)

Quincy at Reading (Q 1-10)

National Sports

Golf

Ryan Palmer is alone atop the leader board at the Waste Management Phoenix Open as play was suspended due to darkness.  Tiger Woods posted a plus-two 73 in the first round of his first official event since last year's PGA Championship.

Superbowl 49

Tom Brady's cold continues to be big news in Phoenix as the Patriots and Seahawks gear up for Sunday's Super Bowl. The Patriots quarterback still sounded congested when he said Thursday "I expect to be 100 percent on Sunday. I'll be ready to go."  He participated fully in practice on Wednesday and said he felt a lot better today.  On the Seattle side of things, running back Marshawn Lynch actually made some comments to reporters. In short he simply said he's got nothing to talk about. He left after his mandatory five minutes.

Australian Open

Novak Djokovic was stretched to five sets again against Stan Wawrinka before beating the defending champion to reach his fifth Australian Open final. Djokovic will face No. 6 Andy Murray.

Serena Williams will be aiming for her 19th Grand Slam singles title when she takes on Maria Sharapova on Saturday.

Tigers Spring Training

Just 22 days until pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training in Lakeland.