Afternoon State Sports Briefs: UWRF goes for 15th straight win tonight

• Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

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RIVER FALLS - The UW-River Falls men's basketball team will go for their 15th straight victory tonight when they play at UW-Eau Claire at Zorn Areana. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. The No. 9 Falcons lead the WIAC at 11-0, two games ahead of Stevens Point.

The 10th-ranked Pointers are at home against Stout. Oshkosh is at Platteville. And UW-Whitewater’s game at La Crosse has been postponed to tomorrow night due to the weather. On the women’s side, sixth-ranked Stevens Point will go for its 12th straight victory tonight when it plays at Stout. The Pointer women lead the WIAC at 11-0, two-and-a-half games up on second-place Whitewater. The 11th-ranked Warhawks were supposed to host La Crosse tonight, but the game has been moved up to tomorrow night because of the weather. Elsewhere, Eau Claire is at River Falls, and Platteville travels to Oshkosh. In the Midwest Conference, Beloit will play at Carroll in a men’s-and-women’s double-header that was postponed from last night. And in the CCIW, Carthage is moving its home double-header against Wheaton from tonight until tomorrow night.

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Four small college conferences are banding together to create a single group of football officials. The WIAC, the Midwest Conference, the Northern Athletics Conference, and the College Conference of Wisconsin-and-Illinois have all joined with the Midwest Football Officials’ Alliance. It’s the first alliance of its kind in the NCAA’s Division-Three – and the goals are expand the recruitment and education of small college officials, and provide more flexibility with a greater pool of officials. Former NFL official Bill Carollo will oversee the officiating operations starting this fall. And he’ll be joined by assistant coordinators Tom Fiedler and Jim Lapetina. The four conferences cover all Division-Three football programs in Wisconsin. They four leagues have over 150 football games each year, with over a-thousand officials assigned to those contests. WIAC Commissioner Gary Karner says the group will recruit and train officials at levels far beyond what any D-Three league can do on its own.

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Milwaukee Bucks’ point guard Brandon Jennings will play in the Rookie-Sophomore game during the NBA’s All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles on February 18th. Jennings was supposed to compete in the Slam Dunk Contest – but he withdrew while recovering from a broken left foot. Jennings is back, however. And he’ll be in the same All-Star event as a year ago, in which he had 22 points, eight rebounds, six assists, and four steals for the All-Star freshmen. He helped that team beat the second-year players 140-128. Also, former Marquette guard Wesley Matthews of Portland is on the sophomore team for this month’s event.

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The Milwaukee Bucks will play at Phoenix tonight. And point guard Brandon Jennings is being eased back into the lineup, after having surgery in late December for a broken left foot. Jennings was limited to 17 minutes on Monday night – and he said it was hard to watch the final seven minutes from the bench as the Bucks lost by seven to the Clippers in Los Angeles. Jennings had 12 points and three assists during his limited time. Coach Scott Skiles said he takes the advice of the team’s medical staff on how long a returning player should be on the floor – and Jennings was given an 18-minute limit against the Clippers. Tonight, he hopes to play almost a full game against the Suns. The Bucks will try to end a 22-game losing streak on the Suns’ home floor which began in 1988.

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The Marquette University men’s basketball team is scheduled to play at Villanova tonight. The Golden Eagles are 14-8 overall, but they still managed to receive votes in this week’s AP media poll. They’re seven places below the Top-25, and they’re 51st in the RPI Rankings – which carry a lot of weight when the NCAA Tournament field is set. Marquette is 5-4 in Big East play, and they’ll face a 12th-ranked Villanova team that’s 5-3 in the conference and 17-4 overall. ‘Nova lost a pair of Big East games last week to Providence and Georgetown. Marquette is coming off a six-point victory over ninth-ranked Syracuse last Saturday, in which senior Jimmy Butler hit a pair of clutch three-pointers in the final four minutes and scored 19 points. Also, Butler needs three rebounds tonight to reach the 500 mark for his career.

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The Marquette women topped Villanova 62-57 in Milwaukee. The game was moved up by two hours to beat the blizzard which hit the city last evening. It was tied at 48 with just over four minutes left when the 23rd-ranked Golden Eagles managed to pull away. Marquette stayed in the game with an 11-0 run late in the first half and early in the second. Katherine Plouffe led the Eagles with 15 points. Devon Kane had 15 points and seven rebounds off the bench for Villanova, which fell to 0-8 in the Big East and 8-13 overall. ‘Nova’s coach Harry Perretta was out with the flu, so assistant Joe Mullaney filled in. The Wildcats’ charter flight back to Philadelphia was delayed until today, when the weather is supposed to improve.

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A brother-and-sister combo from UW-Milwaukee has swept the Horizon League’s swimming awards for the week. Jordan Diel, a junior, won the men’s honor. And his freshman sister Diana took the women’s award. Jordan Diel won all of his individual events against Western Illinois. He was victorious in the 100-and-200-yard butterfly events, and he helped the 200-medley relay team to a first-place finish. Diana Diel also won every event she competed in – the 100-backstroke, 100-freestyle, 200-individual medley, and the 200-medley relay. Also, Green Bay junior Daniel Pogue was named the Horizon League men’s diver-of-the-week for the sixth time this season. He had the league’s second-highest score in the one-meter dive, with 313-point-five-five points. Kacey Cummings of Cleveland State is the league’s top female diver.

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Jerrel Harris and Britta Petersen, both of UW-Stevens Point, have been named the WIAC men’s-and-women’s basketball players-of-the-week. Harris, a sophomore guard, scored a career-high 25 points against Whitewater. And he shot 45-percent against Superior with 12 points. Harris had a combined five steals in both contests. Petersen, a senior post player, had 17 points and 12 rebounds against Whitewater – and she made all eight of her shots from the floor against Superior with an 18-point performance. The WIAC also recognized Scott Lewan of River Falls in men’s hockey – Colton Gilmore of Whitewater and Katelyn Hartung of La Crosse in swimming – Andrew Janny of La Crosse and Molly McElligott of Whitewater in diving – Bebeto Yewah of La Crosse in wrestling – Patrick Klein of Platteville and Kailey Charlton of La Crosse in indoor track – Tony Sigrist of Eau Claire and Jecel Gerner of Oshkosh in indoor field events – and Naomi DeLara of Stout and Morgan Shene of La Crosse in women’s gymnastics.

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Derek Carrier of Beloit College and Lexie Schaffer of Ripon have been named the men’s-and-women’s field athletes-of-the-week in the Midwest Conference. Carrier, a junior, took third place in the long jump and triple jump at the University of Chicago Duals last weekend. Schaffer, a freshman, won the high jump at the Tadd Metzger Invitational with a season-high leap of five-feet, one-and-three-quarter inches.

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SCORES

Wisconsin high school boys' basketball scores...

Altoona 85, Cadott 58

Auburndale 50, Wisconsin Rapids Assumption 28

Bay Port 68, Ashwaubenon 58

Butternut 42, South Shore 40

Cameron 75, Prairie Farm 48

Chippewa Falls McDonell 67, Fall Creek 56

Clayton 58, St. Croix Falls 42

Clear Lake 63, Minong Northwood 41

Colby 64, Greenwood 57

Colfax 44, Barron 34

Drummond 48, Hurley 28

Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran 55, Independence 33

Elk Mound 53, Elmwood 49

Frederic 59, Birchwood 36

Gilman 42, Loyal 41

Green Bay NEW Lutheran 78, Coleman 41

Laona 47, Crivitz 27

Marathon 77, Edgar 54

Marion 58, Manawa 44

Marshfield 67, Wausau West 44

Mondovi 50, St. Croix Central 49

Oshkosh North 58, Neenah 46

Pembine 52, Niagara 36

Pittsville 77, Wausau Newman 72

Plum City 52, Boyceville 48

Prentice 69, Abbotsford 56

Rosholt 40, Iola-Scandinavia 33

Shell Lake 54, Turtle Lake 41

Spooner 63, Somerset 45

Spring Valley 64, Glenwood City 56

Stevens Point 54, Wausau East 46

Superior 70, Proctor, Minn. 33

Thorp 51, Stanley-Boyd 29

Unity 33, Webster 31

Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln 53, Merrill 46

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Wisconsin high school girls' basketball scores...

Alma Center Lincoln 34, Cochrane-Fountain City 33

Amery 43, Osceola 31

Baldwin-Woodville 52, Ellsworth 39

Blair-Taylor 68, Alma-Pepin 60

Chippewa Falls 61, Rice Lake 37

Crandon 35, Three Lakes 14

De Pere 74, Green Bay East 24

Durand 45, New Richmond 26

Eau Claire Memorial 52, Menomonie 35

Florence 32, Goodman-Pembine 27

Frederic 67, Birchwood 31

Freedom 63, Clintonville 36

Gillett 52, Weyauwega-Fremont 42

Greenwood 58, Athens 33

Hayward 37, Barron 28

Hudson 40, River Falls 33

Independence 53, Whitehall 46

Ironwood, Mich. 46, Mercer 40

La Crosse Logan 52, La Crosse Aquinas 41

Lake Holcombe 56, Gilman 34

Lakeland 54, Northland Pines 36

Maple Northwestern 45, Spooner 36

Marion 51, Manawa 32

Marshfield 52, Wausau West 33

Minong Northwood 60, Luck 32

Mosinee 69, Antigo 67, OT

New Lisbon 64, Bangor 35

New London 49, Hortonville 22

Owen-Withee 51, Stanley-Boyd 32

Prentice 51, Butternut 9

Rosholt 32, Iola-Scandinavia 20

Sevastopol 37, Gibraltar 25

Southern Door 43, Sturgeon Bay 40, OT

St. Croix Falls 40, PACT Charter, Minn. 32

Turtle Lake 54, Shell Lake 48

Unity 44, Webster 42

Wabeno 44, Laona 32

Watersmeet, Mich. 61, Phelps 34

Wausaukee 66, Peshtigo 46

Wisconsin Rapids 49, Merrill 32

Wittenberg-Birnamwood 61, Shawano 36

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