MINOT, ND – District 12 boys basketball is on the air tonight as Bishop Ryan will host South Prairie. The Lions are 10-1 on the season and 4-0 in district play. The Royals 3-8 overall, 0-4 in District 12. Pregame begins a little past 7 pm on 106.9 K-Heart, khrt.com, and through the Live 365 app.

 

Scores from Thursday:

 

 

Class A
#3 Mandan def. Turtle Mountain, 94-67

 

Class B
St. John def. Benson County, 69-19
North Prairie def. New Rockford-Sheyenne, 73-48

 

 

Class A
Mandan def. Turtle Mountain, 66-59

 

Class B
Surrey def. Bishop Ryan, 59-38
TGU def. Nedrose, 66-61
Bottineau def. Westhope-Newburg, 67-52
Parshall def. Mandaree, 66-59

 

High School Boys Wrestling
Bismarck Century def. Turtle Mountain, 71-12
Williston def. Bismarck St. Mary’s, 62-13

 

High School Girls Wrestling
Bismarck Century def. Turtle Mountain, 48-15

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MINOT STATE MEN’S HOCKEY

 

MINOT, N.D. (MSU) – The Beavers ran into a tough defensive foe Thursday night, but eventually Minot State broke through. Reece Henry scored the game-winner early in the second period when a shot by teammate Brayden Pawluk caromed off Henry’s skate and into the net, breaking a scoreless tie and igniting the Beavers 4-0 victory at the Maysa Arena over the visiting Waldorf Warriors. One of 61 shots that the Beavers fired on goal as Minot State kept firing away and tacked on one more in the second as Jay Buchholz scored with 6:53 left in the session, then Henry made it 3-0 with 1:59 gone in the third. Jacob Bestul capped the scoring with 3:53 left, netting his first of the season. Joey Moffatt added an assist on the Beavers first goal, Eric Soar had the assist on Buchholz’s goal, Pawluk added an assist on Henry’s second, and Buchholz assisted on Bestul’s goal for Minot State. The top-ranked Beavers now are off until next weekend when they play Friday and Saturday, Feb. 4 and 5, at Ohio.

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MINOT STATE WOMEN’S HOCKEY

 

LYNCHBURG, Va. (MSU) – The Minot State women’s hockey team’s first shot at a road upset came up short Thursday night. The third-ranked Beavers (15-7-1 overall) got a power-play goal from Sydney Spicer midway through the second period, cutting the host Flames lead in half, but two third-period goals for top-ranked Liberty lifted them to a 4-1 win over Minot State. The two teams play again in Virginia tonight in the second of a three-game series. The Flames (19-1-0) took a 1-0 lead in the first period and stretched the lead to 2-0 early in the second period before Spicer scored. The Beavers comeback came up short, though, as the host Flames netted two goals in the third to ice the win.

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MINOT STATE-HONORS

 

MINOT, N.D. (MSU) – The Minot State athletic department announced that six Beaver student-athletes have been named as NSIC Myles Brand All-Academic with Distinction Award winners, one of the most prestigious honors bestowed on student-athletes by the NSIC. Earning the honor were women’s basketball players Natasha Elliott and Kennedy Harris, baseball players Garrett Nicholson and Dominick Parkhurst, soccer player Daniela Nardelli, and softball player Jaycie Rostad.

 

Elliott is a Corporate Fitness and Wellness Management major from Brisbane, Australia, and Harris is an Elementary Education major from Mandan, North Dakota, Nicholson is a Sports Management and Management major from Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia, and Parkhurst, who is from Tucson, Arizona, is working towards his master’s in Information Systems. Nardelli is a Biology / Pre-Therapy major from Arco, Italy, and Rostad is a Corporate Fitness and Wellness Management major from Minot, North Dakota.

 

The honor, named for the late NCAA President Dr. Myles Brand, is bestowed to senior or graduate-student NSIC student-athletes who have a cumulative grade point average of 3.75 or higher, are exhausting their athletic eligibility this academic year, and are on track to graduate or have graduated with their bachelor’s degree.

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WILD-FLYERS

 

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Mats Zuccarello scored in overtime, Matt Boldy had two goals and the Minnesota Wild returned home with a 3-2 win against the Philadelphia Flyers. Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves for Minnesota which had lost three in a row and was 1-3 on a four-game road trip. Tony DeAngelo sent the game into overtime for the Flyers with his eighth goal of the season with 1:28 remaining in regulation. Noah Cates also scored for Philadelphia, which has lost five of seven. Carter Hart stopped 20 shots. Boldy, who assisted on Zuccarello’s winner, had his third multi-goal game of the season. The 21-year-old left wing has 16 goals in his second NHL season and has seven points during a four-game point streak. The Wild host Buffalo on Saturday.

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VIKINGS-D.C. INTERVIEWS

 

EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings interviewed internal candidate Mike Pettine on Wednesday for their defensive coordinator vacancy. Pettine served as assistant head coach this season under rookie coach Kevin O’Connell. The 56-year-old Pettine has 19 seasons of experience as an NFL coach, including three stints as a defensive coordinator with the New York Jets (2009-12), Buffalo (2013) and Green Bay (2018-20). Pettine was the head coach for Cleveland for two years from 2014-15. O’Connell fired Ed Donatell after the Vikings ranked second-worst in the league in yards allowed and fourth-worst in points allowed in their only season together. Two other defensive coordinator candidates have already interviewed with the Vikings: New Orleans co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach Ryan Nielsen and Seattle associate head coach for defense Sean Desai.

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OBIT-PACKER

 

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Billy Packer, an Emmy award-winning college basketball broadcaster who covered 34 Final Fours for NBC and CBS, died Thursday. He was 82. Packer’s son, Mark, told The Associated Press that his father had been hospitalized in Charlotte for the past three weeks and had several medical issues, and ultimately succumbed to kidney failure.

 

Packer’s broadcasting career coincided with the growth of college basketball. He worked as analyst or color commentator on every Final Four from 1975 to 2008. He received a Sports Emmy for Outstanding Sports Personality, Studio and Sports Analyst in 1993. Packer played three seasons at Wake Forest, and helped lead the Demon Deacons to the Final Four in 1962, but it was his work as an analyst that brought him the most acclaim. He joined NBC in 1974 and called his first Final Four in 1975. UCLA beat Kentucky in the title game that year in what was John Wooden’s final game as coach. Packer was also part of the broadcast in 1979 with Dick Enberg and Al McGuire when Magic Johnson’s Michigan State team beat Larry Bird’s Indiana State squad in the title game. That remains highest-rated game in basketball history with a 24.1 Nielsen rating, which is an estimated 35.1 million viewers.

 

Packer went to CBS in the fall of 1981, when the network acquired the rights to the NCAA Tournament. He remained the network’s main analyst until the 2008 Final Four. Sean McManus, the chairman of CBS Sports, said Packer was “synonymous with college basketball for more than three decades and set the standard of excellence as the voice of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.” “He had a tremendous impact on the growth and popularity of the sport.” McManus said. “In true Billy fashion, he analyzed the game with his own unique style, perspective and opinions, yet always kept the focus on the game. As passionate as he was about basketball, at his heart Billy was a family man. He leaves part of his legacy at CBS Sports, across college basketball and, most importantly, as a beloved husband, father and grandfather. He will be deeply missed by all.” Packer was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.