Afternoon State News Briefs: Marquette begins tourney vs. Xavier tonight

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CLEVELAND - The Big Dance begins tonight for Marquette. The 11th-seeded Golden Eagles will play Number-six Xavier in an NCAA East Regional game at Cleveland. The winner will play either Syracuse or Indiana State on Sunday.

Marquette forward Jae Crowder has plenty of national tournament experience, but at much smaller levels. He helped Howard of Texas win the national Division-One junior college championship a year ago – and he won the national junior college player-of-the-year award, averaging 19 points and nine rebounds a game. The year before that, Crowder led South Georgia Tech to its first national junior college tournament appearance. This season at Marquette, Crowder is averaging 12 points and seven boards with 40 three-pointers. The Eagles are 20-14, and they have not played since last Thursday in the Big East Tournament. Xavier is 24-7, after winning the regular season title in the Atlantic-10 Conference.

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The Milwaukee Bucks will try to end a three-game losing streak tonight when they host New Jersey. The Bucks are 15 games below .500, but they’re still in the hunt for the playoffs. They trail Indiana by just two-and-a-half games for the eighth-and-final Eastern Conference spot with 15 games left. Milwaukee is in the second game of a four-game home-stand. And forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute says winning the next three home contests is critical in order for the Bucks to stay in the running for their second straight post-season. The Bucks are coming off a four-point overtime loss to Orlando on Wednesday night. They’ll play a New Jersey team that’s 22-and-44. The Nets are coming off an 11-point home loss to Chicago last night. All-Star guard Deron Williams made only 1-of-12 shots against the Bulls, as he comes off a wrist injury.

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The Milwaukee Admirals will try to hang onto their American Hockey League division lead tonight when they play at San Antonio for a second straight game. The Admirals lost to the Rampage in a 2-1 shoot-out on Wednesday. But they still gained a point in the standings to take over sole possession of first-place over Houston in the West Division. The Admirals have lost four-of-their-last-five games, but they still gained four points in their last three outings. Milwaukee is 36-18-5-8. San Antonio is sixth in the West at 37-25-3-1. Milwaukee will host Lake Erie tomorrow night.

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The National Collegiate Roller Hockey Association will hold its national championships in Middleton next month. Fifty-eight teams in four divisions will compete from April sixth-through-10th at the Capitol Ice Arena. Each team will play three round-robin games. Single elimination games will then be played the rest of the way.

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The Saint Norbert College men’s hockey team will play Norwich of Vermont tonight in the semi-finals at their NCAA Frozen Four in Minneapolis. The Green Knights are going for their second national title in four years, after winning the championship in 2008. Saint Norbert is 23-4-1 after shutting out Hamline in last weekend’s quarter-finals. Norwich is 22-5-3, after advancing with a 3-2 overtime win over Plattsburgh State last weekend. Tonight’s winner will play either Oswego State of New York or Adrian of Michigan for the national title tomorrow night.

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