Williamsville South ventured into Timon high school Tuesday night brimming with confidence. Ranked third in the latest Buffalo News large school poll, the Billies expected to handle the Tigers, even without star guard Mark Coppola, who injured his knee in Glen Falls last weekend.
They left the gym humbled, on the wrong end of a 64-50 loss in a game not nearly as close as the final score indicated. Timon (2-0) entered the locker room with a three point lead at the half and by the time the horn sounded to end the third, the game was essentially over and the upset officially on.
Terrell Owens appeared on Fox Sports Jay Glazer’s “After Party” yesterday. During the interview, which also happened to be on his 36th birthday (party was in New York City), Owens talked about a variety of things. Among them, he plans on playing another two to three years, and he certainly didn’t dismiss a return to Buffalo next year, although his only concern for now is finishing the season strong.
Jonny Flynn never thought the day would come when he was celebrating his third win of a season over two months into a basketball season. Flynn, the former Western New York standout in his rookie year in the NBA, while talking to a reporter from the Buffalo News, estimated he’s already lost more games with the Minnesota Timberwolves than he lost with Niagara Falls High School and Syracuse University combined.
Yet after a horrible 15-game Timberwolves losing streak, the team has put together wins within days of each other. If last Saturday’s game against the Utah Jazz at the Target Center was any indication of how the month of December will go, a turnabout may not be so far off.
Flynn and the Timberwolves stepped onto the Target Center floor ready to play against the Jazz. In 34 minutes of action Flynn posted 16 points, 4 assists and most importantly turned the ball over only once. In large part to better ball protecting, Flynn helped lead Timberwolves to their 108-101 victory.
The Buffalo Bills are back to work on the practice field today, but with news scant and the team not very interesting to begin with, it’s still, unfortunately, more intriguing to ponder future iterations of the Bills than the current outfit. Naturally, we’re going to be taking a brief field trip from talking about the Bills this afternoon – these Bills, anyway – and instead focus on the bigger news of the day.
Notre Dame quarterback Jimmy Clausen has announced his intentions to enter the 2010 NFL Draft.
Playing quarterback for the New York Yankees of college football, Clausen is one of the most highly-debated prospects in the nation simply because of the golden helmet he wore at Notre Dame. The 6′3″, 226-pound junior was college football’s second-highest rated passer in 2009, and given the fact that his head coach, Charlie Weis, was recently fired by ND, his declaration for next April’s draft is not anywhere near surprising.
The Buffalo Sabres have been riding a roller coaster of streaks since starting the season 8-1-1. After tonight, they’re clearly heading back to the downward portion of the ride.
Buffalo was lifeless offensively Saturday in their 2-1 loss to the Rangers, but that was nothing compared to tonight. Forget offensively challenged, the Sabres were punch drunk in their 3-0 home loss to New Jersey.
Buffalo softball received National Letters of Intent from five standout student-athletes during the early signing period for the 2010-2011 academic year. Current high school seniors Tori Speckman (Alvin, TX/Alvin), Tori Pettine (Schwenksville, PA/Spring-Ford), Sammie Gallardo (Chula Vista, CA/Otay Ranch), and Holly Luciano (Toms River, NJ/Toms River), as well as Haylee Land (Palm City, FL/Indian River CC) will be joining the Bulls next fall.
“This is one of the most talented classes that I have ever been a part of,” said second-year head coach Jennifer Teague. “We look forward to their contribution in the classroom and on the field as we strive to win MAC championships.”
Fresh off its 61-43 win against Marist on Sunday, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball received a vote in the most recent Associated Press (AP) Top 25 Poll released on Monday.
It marks the second time in the 37-year history of the program that the Bonnies earned votes in the AP Poll. Last year, the Bonnies earned two votes after the upset of then-#21/24 Michigan State.
St. Bonaventure’s recent exposure into the national spotlight is aided by its fantastic 8-0 start and a double-digit win against Marist at the Reilly Center on Sunday. The eight game-winning streak is the longest in program history, besting the last streak by two victories.
While the Buffalo Sabres (16-8-2) have had a pretty good first quarter of the season, they’ve been prone to several peaks and valleys. A three game winning streak in November quickly turned into a four game slump, which turned back around into four victories in a row. Now the Sabres have another loss and, with a hard week ahead, need to avoid the routine fall back down.
A loss here and there is more than just acceptable, it’s expected. However, if every time Buffalo loses it morphs into three or four and a bad overall week, it’s a problem. These mood swings turn into big problems later on, especially when they are battling for a playoff spot and need to string together a few good weeks at season’s end.
Big things in both a literal and figurative sense were supposedly on the horizon when the Buffalo Bills drafted James Hardy in the second round (41st overall) of the 2008 NFL draft. Red zone woes were the primary reason the Bills tabbed the six foot-five goliath over smallish receivers Eddie Royal, who went to Denver with the next selection and DeSean Jackson, going to Philadelphia eight picks later.
While Hardy was hardly a big play machine his rookie season, he did show glimpses of becoming the go-to guy near the end zone. He only had nine receptions in 2008, but two went for touchdowns, including the game winner late at Jacksonville in week two. Unfortunately his season ended prematurely with a nasty ACL knee injury late in the season against the New York Jets.
Manhattan College shot 50.8 percent from the field and junior Rico Pickett scored a career-high 21 points as the visiting Jaspers defeated Canisius College 71-57 Sunday afternoon in the Koessler Athletic Center. Manhattan moves to 5-3 overall and 1-1 in MAAC action, while the Golden Griffins slipped to 4-3 overall and 1-1 in league play.
Pickett was one of three Manhattan players to post double figures on the final stat sheet after he went 9-for-16 from the field, 2-for-5 from 3-point range and 1-for-2 from the free-throw line. Darryl Crawford came off the bench to add 19 points and six rebounds for Manhattan, while Andrew Gabriel posted 13 points and five boards in the winning effort.
Senior forward Dana Mitchell notched her seventh career double-double to help St. Bonaventure women’s basketball to 61-43 win against MAAC preseason favorite Marist on Sunday afternoon in the Reilly Center.
Mitchell led the Bonnies in scoring for the third time this season with 22 points and pulled down a season-high 10 rebounds. Mitchell moves into fourth place on the all-time scoring list with 1,584 points.
St. Bonaventure shot 44 percent from the field (22-of-49) and an impressive 12-of-13 from the line to improve to 8-0 on the season. The win adds to the program’s longest winning-streak.
The Niagara men’s basketball team finished its MAAC opening weekend with a convincing 77-57 win over the Loyola Greyhounds on Sunday afternoon at the ‘Taps’ Gallagher Center. Four Purple Eagles scored in double-figures, including Tyrone Lewis (Levittown, Pa.) with a game-high 21 points.
“I am so proud of this team,” Niagara head coach Joe Mihalich said. “When they found out that Loyola changed it’s lineup to play its best five guys right way, our guys were even more excited to play.”
Lewis was one of four seniors to connect on three 3-pointers, as the Purple Eagles made 13-of-30 from behind the arc in the win. Lewis and classmate Rob Garrison (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) made all three of theirs in the second half, as NU shot 8-for-14 from 3-point range after intermission. Bilal Benn (Philadelphia, Pa.) went 3-for-4 in the first half, and Demetrius Williamson (Chicago, Ill.) finished the contest 3-for-5 from long distance.
After an 11 game stretch where the Portland Pirates hadn’t lost a game in regulation, the Providence Bruins changed that by handing Portland a 4-3 defeat in front 4,095 at the Cumberland County Civic Center on Saturday night.
The Pirates last regulation loss came in a game back on Nov. 11, a 6-1 defeat to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins at Wachovia Arena.
At the time, the Pirates were 5-10-0 and sitting in the basement of the American Hockey League.
The University at Buffalo men’s basketball team fell to fourth-ranked Purdue, 101-65, in front of 14,123 fans at Mackey Arena on Saturday night. The Boilermakers shot 52 percent from the field and hit 11 of their 12 three-pointers in the second half to pull away for the victory.
Buffalo (3-3) was led by Rodney Pierce who led all scorers with a season-high 20 points. The senior guard shot 4-for-6 from beyond the arc. The Bulls also got a spirited effort from Calvin Betts who also scored a season high with 17 points. Betts shot 8-for-11 from the free throw line. He added six rebounds and three steals.
According to a report from CBSsports.com, UB head football coach Turner Gill will interview with Kansas for the same position.
Following last season’s improbable Bulls run to the MAC Championship, Gill interviewed for head coaching vacancies with Auburn and Syracuse.
The Jayhawks are in the hunt for a new coach following the resignation of Mark Mangino this past Thursday, after allegations of verbal player abuse surfaced.
Under Gill this year, UB lost four games by less than six points en route to a disappointing 5-7 record. Still, Gill is regarded as a hot coaching prospect in the college coaching community.
Canisius senior Frank Turner scored a team-high 20 points, while juniors Julius Coles and Greg Logins added 18 and 12 points to the winning effort as the Golden Griffins defeated Loyola 70-65 Friday night in the MAAC opener for both teams. The win improves Canisius to 4-2 overall and 1-0 in the MAAC for the first time since the 2002-03 season, while the Greyhounds slipped to 4-3 on the year and 0-1 in league play.
Turner, who scored in double figures for the 25th-straight game, ended the night by going 5-for-12 from the field, 1-for-2 from 3-point range and 9-for-10 from the foul line to lead the Blue and Gold. Coles was 6-for-10 from the floor and 5-for-6 from the line, while Logins posted his 12 points to go along with nine rebounds. Fellow junior Tomas Vazquez-Simmons came off the bench and added nine points and nine rebounds for Canisius, which shot 44.2 percent from the field and 70.4 percent from the charity stripe in the victory.
The Niagara coaches had been hoping for a strong second half effort from the men’s basketball team (5-3, 1-0 MAAC). On Friday, the Purple Eagles delivered in a hard-fought, physical 88-64 victory over Manhattan (4-3, 0-1 MAAC) to open up conference play.
In the second half, the Purple Eagles, who led 37-30 at the break, shot 50 percent from the floor, 40 percent from behind the arc and scored 51 points to pull away from the Jaspers.
The Niagara volleyball team’s historic season came to an end in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Niagara fell to the No. 13 seed Michigan Wolverines, 25-4, 25-12, 25-15, on Friday night at the Keen Arena on the campus of the University of Michigan.
“We were just excited to be a part of the NCAA Tournament,” Niagara head coach Susan Clements. “Hats off to Michigan, they are an exceptional team. We hope to learn from this and be back next year.”
The Purple Eagles scored the first point of the match with a kill from freshman middle Amanda Wilken (Cincinnati, Ohio). The Wolverines then dominated the rest of the opening set, adding 15 kills without a hitting error.
The Niagara men’s hockey team (2-9-1, 1-2-1 CHA) continues to play a challenging schedule, dropping its fifth game to a ranked foe, falling 8-2 to CHA rival No. 5 Bemidji State (12-2-1, 7-0-0 CHA) at the John Glas Fieldhouse on Friday night.
“Bemidji is a good team with the lead, especially at home when they can smell blood,” head coach Dave Burkholder said. Consecutive even-strength goals in the second period put us in a bad spot.”
The game remained scoreless until late in the first period, where Ian Lowe would score the first of his two goals against junior netminder Adam Avramenko (Strathmore, Alb.). The Purple Eagles would head to the locker room down by the slimmest of margins, 1-0.
The Canisius College hockey team rallied from an early two-goal deficit but Bentley responded with two goals in the final five minutes to earn a 5-4 victory on Friday. The loss is the third-straight for the Griffs as the team now stands 7-9-1 and 6-6-1 in Atlantic Hockey play.
“I thought we showed more mental toughness today, we just made too many mistakes defensively,” said Canisius head coach Dave Smith. “We have to be more committed to defense if we want to be successful. Bentley is a good team. I thought they outworked us early. We got it going but some mistakes just killed us tonight.”
Fredonia (2-3/1-0) overcame a 15-point second-half deficit to defeat visiting Buffalo State (1-2/0-1), 62-59, in the SUNYAC season-opener Friday night at Steele Hall.
Glenroy Carr (Amherst/Sweet Home) led Buffalo State with a game-high 19 points. Jake Simmons (Rochester/School of the Arts) was the only other Bengal in double-figures with 17 points.
Buffalo State led by 15 points with a 57-42 lead with 8:02 remaining, but Fredonia came roaring back, closing the game with a 20-2 run. The Blue Devils took their first lead of the second half at 60-59 with a jumper with 21 seconds remaining. The Bengals missed a jumper for the win at the buzzer and Fredonia added the final two points of the game from the free-throw line following a technical foul.
Buffalo State will host NAIA Point Park next Wednesday at 6 p.m
The University at Buffalo wrestling team completed day one of the 28th Annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational at the Star of the Desert Arena on Friday. Among the 42 teams competing in the event, the Bulls currently occupy 17th place with 34.5 points. John-Martin Cannon, Jimmy Hamel and Kevin Smith reached the quarterfinals of their respective weight classes.
Entering the event unseeded, Cannon opened with consecutive victories over seeded wrestlers. The sophomore opened the day with one of the best wins of his career as he defeated sixth-seed Eren Civan of Columbia, 5-3. Cannon continued on his path of upsets by defeating 11th-seed Oscar Huntley of Navy in a dominating 9-3 decision. In the quarterfinals, Cannon dropped a 10-2 major decision to eighth nationally-ranked Colt Sponseller of Ohio State. With one second remaining in his lone wrestleback bout of the day, Cannon managed to pull off a pin at 6:59 over Te Edwards of Arizona State. Cannon will begin his quest to place against sixth nationally-ranked and 2009 NCAA All-American Andy Rendos of Bucknell on Saturday.
Run and stop the run. It’s an old football cliche, and it’s cliche because it works. Successful NFL teams, by and large, are able to run the football effectively, and they’re able to prevent their opponents from doing so.
The Buffalo Bills can’t stop the run this season. Through 12 games, the Bills have surrendered 2,065 rushing yards, or about 172 rushing yards per game. The New York Jets – victors over Buffalo last night – have been particularly effective running against Buffalo, racking up 567 yards (283.5 per game) in two games against the Bills’ porous run front this season. The Bills are ranked dead last in the league defending the run, giving up 11 more yards per game than the second-worst team – Oakland.
While uncertainty swirls around the future of the 106 year old Harvard Cup Football League representing the Buffalo Public Schools, one thing is for certain. Art Serotte, the most successful coach in League history and Hall of Fame member, certainly knows talent when he sees it.
Each week as analyst on the Harvard Cup’s Intense Milk Game of the Week radio broadcasts, Serotte tells it “like it is” on 1440 AM WJJL and on the internet at WJJL.com.
After looking like a return to the form of the past two seasons was imminent, the Buffalo Sabres have shown a resiliency unknown from 2007 to early 2009. After ending a four game skid with a four two victory over the Flyers the Sabres have rattled off three more victories, with the latest win coming Thursday against the rival Canadiens at HSBC Arena. From the drop of the puck the Sabres were the better team, outshooting the Habs twenty nine to eight in the first two periods and outscoring them three to one in that span. Thomas Vanek lead the team in scoring with three assists while Andrej Sekera, Derek Roy, Jason Pominville and Mike Grier all had a goal and an assist each. In the third period Ryan Miller stymied a late surge by Montreal to ensure the W for the home team.
Williamsville South ventured into Timon high school Tuesday night brimming with confidence. Ranked third in the latest Buffalo News large school poll, the Billies expected to handle the Tigers, even without star guard Mark Coppola, who injured his knee in Glen Falls last weekend.
Jonny Flynn never thought the day would come when he was celebrating his third win of a season over two months into a basketball season. Flynn, the former Western New York standout in his rookie year in the NBA, while talking to a reporter from the Buffalo News, estimated he’s already lost more games with the Minnesota Timberwolves than he lost with Niagara Falls High School and Syracuse University combined.
The Buffalo Sabres have been riding a roller coaster of streaks since starting the season 8-1-1. After tonight, they’re clearly heading back to the downward portion of the ride.
Buffalo softball received National Letters of Intent from five standout student-athletes during the early signing period for the 2010-2011 academic year. Current high school seniors Tori Speckman (Alvin, TX/Alvin), Tori Pettine (Schwenksville, PA/Spring-Ford), Sammie Gallardo (Chula Vista, CA/Otay Ranch), and Holly Luciano (Toms River, NJ/Toms River), as well as Haylee Land (Palm City, FL/Indian River CC) will be joining the Bulls next fall.
Fresh off its 61-43 win against Marist on Sunday, the St. Bonaventure women’s basketball received a vote in the most recent Associated Press (AP) Top 25 Poll released on Monday.
While the Buffalo Sabres (16-8-2) have had a pretty good first quarter of the season, they’ve been prone to several peaks and valleys. A three game winning streak in November quickly turned into a four game slump, which turned back around into four victories in a row. Now the Sabres have another loss and, with a hard week ahead, need to avoid the routine fall back down.
Manhattan College shot 50.8 percent from the field and junior Rico Pickett scored a career-high 21 points as the visiting Jaspers defeated Canisius College 71-57 Sunday afternoon in the Koessler Athletic Center. Manhattan moves to 5-3 overall and 1-1 in MAAC action, while the Golden Griffins slipped to 4-3 overall and 1-1 in league play.
Senior forward Dana Mitchell notched her seventh career double-double to help St. Bonaventure women’s basketball to 61-43 win against MAAC preseason favorite Marist on Sunday afternoon in the Reilly Center.
The Niagara men’s basketball team finished its MAAC opening weekend with a convincing 77-57 win over the Loyola Greyhounds on Sunday afternoon at the ‘Taps’ Gallagher Center. Four Purple Eagles scored in double-figures, including Tyrone Lewis (Levittown, Pa.) with a game-high 21 points.
After an 11 game stretch where the Portland Pirates hadn’t lost a game in regulation, the Providence Bruins changed that by handing Portland a 4-3 defeat in front 4,095 at the Cumberland County Civic Center on Saturday night.
The University at Buffalo men’s basketball team fell to fourth-ranked Purdue, 101-65, in front of 14,123 fans at Mackey Arena on Saturday night. The Boilermakers shot 52 percent from the field and hit 11 of their 12 three-pointers in the second half to pull away for the victory.
According to a report from CBSsports.com, UB head football coach Turner Gill will interview with Kansas for the same position.
Canisius senior Frank Turner scored a team-high 20 points, while juniors Julius Coles and Greg Logins added 18 and 12 points to the winning effort as the Golden Griffins defeated Loyola 70-65 Friday night in the MAAC opener for both teams. The win improves Canisius to 4-2 overall and 1-0 in the MAAC for the first time since the 2002-03 season, while the Greyhounds slipped to 4-3 on the year and 0-1 in league play.
The Niagara coaches had been hoping for a strong second half effort from the men’s basketball team (5-3, 1-0 MAAC). On Friday, the Purple Eagles delivered in a hard-fought, physical 88-64 victory over Manhattan (4-3, 0-1 MAAC) to open up conference play.
The Niagara volleyball team’s historic season came to an end in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Niagara fell to the No. 13 seed Michigan Wolverines, 25-4, 25-12, 25-15, on Friday night at the Keen Arena on the campus of the University of Michigan.
The Niagara men’s hockey team (2-9-1, 1-2-1 CHA) continues to play a challenging schedule, dropping its fifth game to a ranked foe, falling 8-2 to CHA rival No. 5 Bemidji State (12-2-1, 7-0-0 CHA) at the John Glas Fieldhouse on Friday night.
The Canisius College hockey team rallied from an early two-goal deficit but Bentley responded with two goals in the final five minutes to earn a 5-4 victory on Friday. The loss is the third-straight for the Griffs as the team now stands 7-9-1 and 6-6-1 in Atlantic Hockey play.
Fredonia (2-3/1-0) overcame a 15-point second-half deficit to defeat visiting Buffalo State (1-2/0-1), 62-59, in the SUNYAC season-opener Friday night at Steele Hall.
The University at Buffalo wrestling team completed day one of the 28th Annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational at the Star of the Desert Arena on Friday. Among the 42 teams competing in the event, the Bulls currently occupy 17th place with 34.5 points. John-Martin Cannon, Jimmy Hamel and Kevin Smith reached the quarterfinals of their respective weight classes.
Run and stop the run. It’s an old football cliche, and it’s cliche because it works. Successful NFL teams, by and large, are able to run the football effectively, and they’re able to prevent their opponents from doing so.
While uncertainty swirls around the future of the 106 year old Harvard Cup Football League representing the Buffalo Public Schools, one thing is for certain. Art Serotte, the most successful coach in League history and Hall of Fame member, certainly knows talent when he sees it.
After looking like a return to the form of the past two seasons was imminent, the Buffalo Sabres have shown a resiliency unknown from 2007 to early 2009. After ending a four game skid with a four two victory over the Flyers the Sabres have rattled off three more victories, with the latest win coming Thursday against the rival Canadiens at HSBC Arena. From the drop of the puck the Sabres were the better team, outshooting the Habs twenty nine to eight in the first two periods and outscoring them three to one in that span. Thomas Vanek lead the team in scoring with three assists while Andrej Sekera, Derek Roy, Jason Pominville and Mike Grier all had a goal and an assist each. In the third period Ryan Miller stymied a late surge by Montreal to ensure the W for the home team.
