High School Basketball

Thunder Ridge edges American Fork late Saturday night

The Cavemen went down to the wire against Thunder Ridge (8-0), ESPN's 10th-ranked team in the Southwest region, falling 48-44 in the semifinal round of the John Anderson Bracket of the Nike Tournament of Champions on Saturday evening.

The Thunder Ridge team includes Utah signee Rachel Messer, who had 10 points in the contest.

American Fork will face Tolleson, Ariz., today in the game to decide third and fourth place at 4:30 p.m.

THUNDER RIDGE (48)

Needles 16, McBain 8, Jelniker 10, Messer 10, Ludwig 4. Totals 11, 25-26, 48.

AMERICAN FORK (44)

Mason 6, Holmstead 8, Mansfield 14, Moea'i 4, Krommenhoek 6, Kalumbi 4, Farnsworth 2. Totals 15 14-16 44.

Thunder Ridge 15 8 8 17 -- 48

American Fork 11 11 6 16 -- 44

3 point goals: Thunder Ridge 1 (Messer).

• Orem 57, Wasatch 47: At St. George, Ian Harward's 13 points, 15 rebounds and 10 blocks helped lead Orem over Wasatch.

WASATCH (47)

Winegar 2, Baumgartner 15, Murdock 11, Clark 4, Thurman 4, Brown 7, Probst 4. Totals: 25, 4-5, 47.

OREM (57)

Green 14, Warner 4, Egbert 12, Tuttle 14, Harward 13. Totals: 24, 14-20, 57.

Wasatch 10 10 15 12 -- 47

Orem 19 7 18 13 -- 57

3-point goals: Wasatch 7 (Brown, Baumgartner 3, Murdock 3), Orem 5 (Tuttle, Green 4).

College Basketball

UVU men cancel game at Montana

The Utah Valley University men's basketball game scheduled for Monday, Dec. 22 at Montana has been cancelled due to inclement weather and poor travel conditions.

The Wolverines next two games will be at the 6th Man Tournament at Montana State Dec. 28 and 29.

College Football

Southern Miss beats Troy in OT

NEW ORLEANS -- Michael McGee blocked a potential game-tying field goal attempt in overtime, lifting Southern Mississippi to a 30-27 comeback victory over Troy in the New Orleans Bowl on Sunday night.

Troy held Southern Miss to Britt Barefoot's 39-yard field goal on the first posesssion of OT, but that wound up being enough for the Golden Eagles to win their third New Orleans Bowl in as many appearances.

The Trojans, winners of the Sun Belt Conference, led 27-17 after Jerrel Jernigan's 6-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter.

Southern Miss responded with Austin Davis' 35-yard touchdown to Jonathan Massey on fourth-and-2 with 7:20 left in regulation. Barefoot tied it with his 46-yard field goal with 2:50 to go.

• TCU's Henson might be out of Poinsettia Bowl: At San Diego, TCU might play without standout linebacker Robert Henson in the Poinsettia Bowl Tuesday night when No. 11 TCU faces No. 9 Boise State.

Henson did not practice on Saturday and coach Gary Patterson indicated on Sunday there's a chance Henson won't be on the field against the Broncos.

When asked if Henson would play Patterson said, "I don't know about that yet, but there isn't anything wrong with him."

Henson, a senior from Longview, Texas, was a first-team all-Mountain West Conference selection this season, part of a TCU defense that ranked second in the country in total defense. Henson finished the season with 73 tackles and two interceptions in his first full season as a starter.

NHL

Bruins down Blues

ST. LOUIS -- Blake Wheeler had to improvise when Boston teammate David Krejci headed off the ice for a line change.

Minutes after Wheeler opened the scoring, the rookie right wing used a spin-o-rama move to score a short-handed goal in Boston's 6-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues on Sunday night, the Eastern Conference-leading Bruins' fifth straight victory.

"I initially was looking to make a pass back to Krejci," Wheeler said. "He kind of abandoned me. He went off for a change and the only thing I could do was react. There was a guy coming at me and I just kind of reacted. I got lucky."

Phil Kessel, Wheeler's teammate for a season at the University of Minnesota, had two assists to extend his points streak to 18 games. Kessel's streak is Boston's longest since Adam Oates had a 20-gamer in 1997-98.

Michael Ryder had a goal and an assist, Shane Hnidy, Marc Savard and Vladimir Sobotka also scored, and Manny Fernandez made 29 saves. The Bruins are 19-3-1 in their last 23 games and 24-5-4 overall, their best 33-game start since the 1929-30 season.

"It's better when the team wins," said Krejci, who had three first-period assists. "I was just happy to get the two points. I hope we can get two points in New Jersey (Tuesday) and get a nice Christmas break."

Brad Winchester, Jay McClement and Yan Stastny scored for St. Louis, coming off a 4-2 victory over Minnesota on Saturday night that snapped a five-game losing streak.

"We work hard. We compete. We battle. We're still playing hard at the end of the hockey game, but it's still six goals we've given up," Blues coach Andy Murray said. "We need more saves. We need our better players to be better."

Boston took a 3-2 lead in the first period.

Wheeler opened the scoring at 2:27, and made it 2-0 with his short-handed goal at 4:59. Winchester made it 2-1 with a power-play goal at 6:18, and McClement scored on a short-handed breakaway with 3:09 left. Hnidy then gave the Bruins the lead again with a power-play goal with 2:16 to go.

The Blues tied it at 3 when Stastny knocked in Keith Tkachuk's centering feed at 2:46 of the second period, but Boston regained control on Ryder's power-play goal at 9:34 and Savard's tally at 16:57.

Chris Mason replaced Blues goalie Manny Legace after the second period. Legace, who beat Minnesota on Saturday, allowed five goals on 23 shots.

"Our team needs good goaltending," Murray said. "As we talked about on (Saturday) night where Manny was a big part of the win, we have to have goaltending. Twenty-nine shots and six goals ... we made some mistakes and we'll make some mistakes (but) we need saves."

• Devils 3, Flyers 2, SO: At Newark, N.J., Scott Clemmensen made 27 saves in regulation and overtime for New Jersey, then allowed only one goal in five shootout attempts.

Clemmensen, filling in while All-Star Martin Brodeur recovers from elbow surgery, improved to 11-3-1 and 2-1 in shootouts. New Jersey is 12-2-1 in its last 15 games.

Travis Zajac ended the shootout, sliding the puck past Antero Niittymaki on the Devils' fifth attempt -- after Clemmensen made his third straight save.

Jamie Langenbrunner also scored in the shootout for New Jersey, and Mike Richards had Philadelphia's lone successful attempt in the tiebreaker. Patrik Elias and Brian Rolston scored second-period goals to give New Jersey a 2-0 lead. Jeff Carter -- with his 25th of the season -- and Joffrey Lupul countered for Philadelphia.

• Panthers 3, Avalanche 0: At Sunrise, Fla., Tomas Vokoun made 23 saves for his second shutout of the season for Florida, and Brett McLean, Richard Zednik and Bryan McCabe scored goals.

The Panthers ended an eight-game home losing streak against the Avalanche franchise and beat Colorado for the first time at Bank Atlantic Center. Florida's last home victory in the series was April 22, 1995, against the Quebec Nordiques at Miami Arena.

Vokoun has 27 career shutouts.

• Hurricanes 3, Canadiens 2: At Montreal, Tuomo Ruutu scored 1:43 into overtime for Carolina, and Sergei Samsonov and Eric Staal each had a goal and an assist.

Cam Ward made 26 saves to help Carolina improve to 4-1-3 in its last eight games. Robert Lang and Matt D'Agostini scored for the Canadiens. Montreal ended a stretch of 10 of 11 at home, including a 4-3 overtime win over Buffalo on Saturday night.