Sunday State Sports Briefs: Homefield advantage at stake for Pack

• Green Bay Packers

Green Bay Packers

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KANSAS CITY - A win today against the Kansas City Chiefs would clinch home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs for the Green Bay Packers.

It would also extend the team’s best start ever and longest winning streak in the history of the most-storied franchise in the NFL.

It’s not going to be anything close to easy for the Chiefs. Their starting quarterback wasn’t on the team a month ago and the head coach is leading Kansas City onto the field for his first game as the head man. Romeo Crennel was elevated to the position of interim coach when Todd Haley was fired Monday. All Crennel has to do is turn the momentum around for a Kansas City team which has lost five of the last six games – and do it against the undefeated Packers. He’ll rely on starting quarterback Kyle Orton to help get that accomplished. And, Orton has played only one down for the Chiefs so far.

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Tony Meier’s 19 points led the way as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee routed Nebraska-Omaha Saturday night. The Panthers improved their record to 9-3, leading by 44 points once in the second half of an 86-50 victory. Kaylon Williams had 17 points for the winners who scored the first nine points of the game, then added a 23-4 run later in the first half. The Panthers knocked down 15 shots from beyond the arc.

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Shani Davis and Heather Richardson were the big winners yesterday in the 15 hundred meter races at the U.S. Speedskating long track championships in West Allis. Both skaters had also won the five hundred and thousand meter events. Davis has won two Olympic silver medals at 15 hundred meters. He missed setting the Pettit National Ice Center track record by a little over a half-second. Championships conclude today with the women’s five thousand meter and men’s 10 thousand meter competitions.

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Several sources are reporting the Milwaukee Brewers have won the bid to negotiate with three-time Japanese batting champion Norichika Aoki. The bid was reported to be two and a half million dollars. That has not been confirmed yet. The Brewers would have 30 days to negotiate a contract with the left-handed hitter who had four home runs and hit .292 for the Yakult Swallows of the Japanese Central League. Aoki hit a career-best .358 in the 2010 season.

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SCORES

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

--Division III Men

Carroll 81, Concordia-Mequon 65

Carthage 79, Cardinal Stritch 76

Dubuque 85, Marian 76

Knox 63, Milwaukee School of Engineering 58

Lake Forest 59, St. Norbert 52

Lakeland 87, Silver Lake 59

UW-Platteville 91, UW-Oshkosh 80

UW-River Falls 98, North Central (MN) 65

UW-Superior 82, St. Scholastica 65

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--Division III Women

(7) UW-Stevens Point 74, Lawrence 38

(14) UW-River Falls 75, Simpson 59

Eureka 76, Silver Lake 34

Maranatha Baptist 69, Grace Bible (MI) 59

St. Norbert 61, Lake Forest 53

UW-Platteville 78, UW-Oshkosh 66

UW-Superior 82, St. Scholastica 68

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AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE

Rockford 4, Milwaukee 2

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