Jackson defeats Christi

SPORTS
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A comeback?
Agent says Magglio
Ordonez is almost ready
for return to baseball. B2
JEFF BLEILER 768-4984 JBLEILER@CITPAT.COM
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2012
JACKSON CITIZEN PATRIOT
MSU BASKETBALL
Spartans lose by 1
Green injured, Appling misses late shot in loss at Illinois
By Graham Couch
MLive.com
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — What
the flu
Illinois 42
didn’t
take from
MSU 41
Draymond
Green physically, foul trouble
did Tuesday night.
Anything that was left was
ruined by an apparent knee
injury with less than 4 minutes remaining.
On the road, against an
Illinois club staring at the
collapse of its season and
perhaps a coaching tenure,
Michigan State couldn’t quite
overcome a night mostly minus its star and leader.
Keith Appling missed a
driving layup short and to
the right with a few seconds
remaining.
By the time Austin Thornton forced a jump ball on the
rebound, time had expired
with Illinois on top 42-41.
Appling finished 1-for-10
from the floor, his second
straight one-field goal game.
Michigan State scored nine
straight points to take a 38-35
lead with 4:09 remaining.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
But on the next possession,
Michigan
State’s
Adreian
Payne
tries
to
block
the shot
Green came up hobbled, fallof Illinois guard Brandon Paul in the first half of TuesSee MSU, on B2 day’s game in Champaign, Ill.
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS — JACKSON VS. LUMEN CHRISTI
SUPER BOWL
Ochocinco
demure in
spotlight
SEAN PROCTOR | MLIVE.COM
Jackson’s Alyse Hines dribbles past Lumen Christi’s Chelsea Perez on Tuesday night at Jackson High School.
Jackson defeats Christi
Girls basketball team beats their crosstown rival 58-41
By Eric Hammis
MLive.com
The Jackson High School girls
basketball team lost to rival Lumen Christi once this season.
The Vikings looked determined Tuesday night not to
make it twice.
Looking to avenge a fourpoint loss
Jackson 58
to Lumen
Lum. Christi 41 Christi
earlier this
season,
Jackson led the entire way of a
58-41 victory.
“A big difference in (Tuesday’s) game compared to our
first matchup was that we came
out with four different starters,”
Jackson coach Jerry Malone
said. “It was kind of a work in
progress, but I knew where
we needed to be by the end of
the year and our team is really
starting to gel.”
The Vikings (10-3) scored the
SEAN PROCTOR | MLIVE.COM
Lumen Christi’s Paige Pryson reaches for the ball as it rolls
out of bounds against Jackson on Tuesday night at Jackson
High School.
game’s first seven points and
built a 16-8 lead after the first
quarter.
In a back-and-forth second
quarter, Lumen Christi was
able to make up two points and
trailed 25-19 at the half.
Cierra Pryor was all over the
floor in the first half for Jackson,
scoring 10 points, and finished
with 16 points, seven rebounds,
five steals and four assists for
the game.
The Vikings came out strong
again in the second half, thanks
to a tough press and fast-break
points. Jackson headed into
the fourth quarter with a commanding 44-29 lead.
Jackson scored the first six
points of the fourth to put the
game away.
The Vikings forced Lumen
Christi into 28 turnovers.
“Last time we played we were
able to force the turnovers but
we missed probably 20 layups,”
Malone said. “This time around,
we were able to capitalize and
finish.”
Chelsea Hall had 13 points
and four assists while Ashleigh
Spencer finished with seven
points and eight rebounds for
Jackson.
Angela Hubert led Lumen
Christi (11-4) with 13 points
while
Rachel
McDonald
chipped in with 11 points, nine
from the free-throw line.
ONL I N E: PH OTO GA LLE RY FRO M T H I S G A M E AT ML I V E.CO M/S P O RTS/JACKSO N
INS I D E: MORE BOYS A ND G I R LS H I G H SC H O O L BA SK ET BA LL R ESU LTS PAG E B5
HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
Lumen Christi boys beat Western
By Rich McGowan
MLive.com
It may not have been the prettiest win the
Lumen Christi
Lum. Christi 60 High School
Western 57
boys basketball team will
have all season, but the Titans will
take it.
After a slow start, the Titans
needed an extra period to get past
a pesky Western squad in a 60-57
victory on Tuesday at Western.
“We got off to a slow start; why
I don’t really know,” said Lumen
Christi coach Rich Karasek. “I was
proud of the kids, the way they
played in the second half and in
the overtime.”
Lumen outrebounded Western
8-3 in the extra session while taking 12 free throws to the Panthers’
zero.
“We played a lot of basketball
together, and we’ve played some
overtime games so we’ve been
through that before,” Karasek
said.
Khari Willis led the Titans (7-7)
with 14 points, while Matt Bullinger added 10 while grabbing
seven rebounds and four assists.
Western coach Lee Ingles said
the loss was a disappointing end
to a game that began with a promising start.
“Before the game we talked
about how hard we had to play,
and I thought we did,” Ingles said.
“I thought we played extremely
hard. In the third quarter we hit
a lull and only got six points. We
just didn’t move the way we did in
the first half.”
Sophomore Isaiah Ingles led
Western (4-9) with 19 points.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Chad
Ochocinco was the last Patriot to walk
across the field and wade into the pack
of reporters and photographers waiting near the sideline. He felt no need
to rush the moment he’d longed for
nearly his whole life.
This was his Super Bowl media day.
Ochocinco finally got to be on the
receiving end of questions Tuesday at
Lucas Oil Stadium for an annual event
that he attended several times as a
microphone-toting correspondent for
his social media Ochocinco News Network.
Now, the microphones were aimed
at him.
“Aw, man, I’ve dreamed of it,” Ochocinco said, wearing
his blue No. 85 jersey, blue Super Bowl
cap and irrepressible
smile. “I’ve been playing this game a long
time — started out at
4 years old. And this is
what you dream of, to
OCHOCINCO come to this stage and
enjoy it. So that’s what
I’m going to do.”
And he’s doing it the New England
way.
Instead of driving the conversation
by talking about himself, Ochocinco
was along for the ride. He didn’t seem
to mind that he didn’t get one of the 14
podiums set up on the field for coach
Bill Belichick and players.
Instead, he stood at the 13-yard
line between podiums reserved for
tight end Aaron Hernandez and receiver Matthew Slater, his soft tone
often drowned out by his teammates’
speaker-amplified comments.
Didn’t matter.
“This is my podium,” Ochocinco
said, referring to his small section of
artificial turf encircled by reporters
and photographers. “If I was up there,
you couldn’t get to me. You couldn’t
smell the cologne I have on now.”
During the nearly hour-long session,
Ochocinco provided hardly a whiff of
his old look-at-me ways. After 10 years
of commanding the spotlight and losing games in Cincinnati, the social
media mogul had to pull off one of his
most difficult changes.
Ochocinco had to use the words
“I’’ and “me” much more sparingly
in order to co-exist with Belichick in
New England. He had to learn, he says,
throwing in an obscenity, to shut up.
There was no remorse in his tone on
Tuesday. He knew when the Patriots
traded for him that his self-promoting
ways would have to end. If he lapsed
back into look-at-me, he’d be looking
at the end of his stay in New England.
So, he did away with his lists of cornerbacks who couldn’t cover him, his
touchdown skits and victory guarantees. Ochocinco, who legally changed
his name from Johnson to get more attention, would have to drop the “diva”
from his job description.
“I could have talked,” he said, ‘but
then I’d be sitting at home today.
“I think I’ve had a great career in
general. The year wasn’t what I expected, what everyone else expected.
But I did everything I was supposed
to do — work, stay quiet. I don’t know
if being on this stage is a reward, but
there’s nothing else I can do. I’m part
of a team and I’ve done everything
asked of me.”
Especially the “stay quiet” part,
which went against his nature.
He repeatedly bumped egos in Cincinnati with coach Marvin Lewis, who
referred to him once as “Ocho Psycho.”
Ochocinco miffed teammates with his
See OCHOCINCO, on B2