Minnesota-Duluth senior forward Jack Connolly picked up 4 points in a weekend sweep of Alabama-Huntsville this past weekend, bringing his total on the season to 40 points through 24 games, and bringing his career point total to 177 points.

That means Connolly is on/close to the pace needed to reach the pretty significant 200 career point plateau. The last player to do so was Michigan’s TJ Hensick in 2006-2007, who finished with 222 points in his four year Michigan career. Nebraska-Omaha’s Scott Parse finished with 197 points that same year. Since then, not many players have come close. St. Cloud’s Garrett Roe had a chance last year, needing 58 points in his final campaign, but only tallied a career-low 36 points for the Huskies. Carter Camper finished his four-year Miami career with 183 points last year.

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A 13-point victory is nothing to sneeze at, and coach Joe Scott and the Denver Pioneers weren’t showing any disdain at stretching their Sun Belt Conference record to 4-1 Sunday at Magness Arena.

But junior guard Chase Hallam did say that a 78-65 victory over Western Kentucky also provided a learning experience as the 14-4 Pioneers continued the best Division I start in DU basketball history.

The learning experience came after Western Kentucky (5-14, 1-5) came back from a 27-point deficit at halftime to at least give the Pioneers something to think about.

The Hilltoppers cut DU’s lead to 67-54 with 5:39 left.

“I think we’ve gotten a little too comfortable in the past with big leads, and that’s why we have to learn from this experience,” Hallam said.

“It never got to within single digits, so we always felt comfortable with the lead, but we have to turn 27-point leads into 30-point victories.”

For a time, it seemed the Pioneers might win by 30 points.

Led by sophomore Chris Udofia, who finished with a strong 20-point, 11-rebound performance, the Pioneers put one of their best performances of the season together in the first half.

Western Kentucky didn’t break into the scoring column until Teeng Akol made a field goal 6:22 into the game.

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Here are the latest CIF-SS Division 1 rankings.

1. Aliso Niguel

2. Corona del Mar

3. San Clemente

4. Foothill

5. Harvard-Westlake

6. Mission Viejo

7. Villa Park

8. Dana Hills

9. Flintridge Sacred Heart

T10. Canyon

T10. Los Alamitos

T10. Mater Dei

T10. Saugus

T10. Chaminade

To view other divisional rankings, please click the following:

Division 2

Division 3

Division 4

Division 5

Division 6

Division 7

The two teams that have combined to win the last three 4A state girls basketball championships went to battle in Region 8 action on Tuesday night.

Springville and Mountain View have been building a storied rivalry for years and took each other on in each team’s first Region 8 contest of the 2011-2012 season. The Springville Red Devils came out on top in this version of the rivalry with the 48-40 victory in Mountain View’s gym.

The Red Devils are trying to build a new team to reach championship heights of the past two years, and the Bruins are also building a formidable squad, trying to regain their championship form of three seasons ago.

Both teams are a little up-and-down on the season so far with identical 4-4 records after the battle Tuesday night. The Red Devils, however, find themselves with the advantage in the Region 8 race with a 1-0 record, while the Bruins started the season 0-1.

Springville jumped out to a 12-8 lead in the first period behind solid play from Hannah Packard and Savannah Park, who each picked up four points in the opening stanza.

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After a second violation of team rules, Nebraska-Omaha has dismissed senior forward Alex Hudson from their team. Hudson came into this season as UNO’s leading returning scorer and the captain of the Mavericks, but he missed the first four games of the season due to a suspension for a violation of team rules, which cost him the captaincy.

UNO should be able to absorb the loss, but it does make an already young team even younger, with just 3 seniors and 3 juniors on the UNO roster.

NEW YORK—Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky said he never spoke with Joe Paterno about any suspected misconduct with minors, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Sandusky has been charged with 40 counts of molesting eight boys over 15 years and is free on bail while awaiting a preliminary hearing Dec. 13. A grand jury investigating Sandusky said in a report that some of the allegations occurred in the team showers, including a 2002 allegation in which a graduate assistant testified he saw Sandusky assaulting a young boy.

University trustees fired Paterno on Nov. 9, four days after charges were filed against Sandusky, amid mounting pressure that school leaders should have done more to prevent alleged abuse.

During a lengthy interview at his lawyer’s home, Sandusky in an interview with the Times painted a picture of chaotic but friendly scenes involving children he described as extended family at his State College, Pa., home. The descriptions sharply contrast the shocking allegations involving children outlined in a grand jury report. <

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