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8A SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY DECEMBER 8, 2009
BASKETBALL Henry earns recognition for rookie performance
Xavier Henry became the first freshman to win the Big 12 Rookie of the Week award in the 2009-2010 season. He averaged 17 points and four rebounds while shooting more than 50 percent from three-point range in clinching the award in its fourth week.
a spark in the Jayhawks' 73-61 victory against UCLA, knocking down a trio of threes in the second half. Earlier in the week, Henry lit up Alcorn State for 18 points on five threes and was a defensive nuisance, picking up four steals on the game.
Henry tallied 16 points and five rebounds while providing
Henry, a 6-foot-6 swingman, is the top freshman scorer in the Big 12 and second among freshmen nationally, averaging 16.9 points per game.
—Tim Dwyer
NHL
Kings' goalie carries team against Flames
BY GREG BEACHAM
LOS ANGELES — Scott Pare and Jarret Stoll scored early goals, and the Los Angeles Kings beat the road-weary Calgary Flames 2-1 Monday night for their fifth victory in seven games.
Associated Press
Jonathan Quick made 26 saves, carrying the Kings with a series of outstanding stops during the scoreless final 35 minutes. Los Angeles again struggled offensively, yet still handed the NHI's best team just its third regulation defeat away from Calgary.
Curtis Glencross scored and Miikha Kiprusoff stopped 15 shots for the Flames, who finished a successful six-game road trip with their second visit in 16 days to the Staples Center. Calgary lost its Northwest Division lead to Colorado, which beat St. Louis earlier, but the Flames have three games in hand on the Avalanche.
The Kings snapped a threegame home losing streak to the Flames with just their second win in 13 meetings. Kiprusoff has lost to Los Angeles just once in his previous 11 outings against the Kings.
road games in their last 10 outings. The Flames still were competitive in Los Angeles despite playing without key defensemen Cory Sarich and Robyn Regehr, out with undisclosed injuries.
The Kings are finding other ways to score with top-line forward Ryan Smyth sidelined by a long-term upper-body injury. Although former NHL scoring leader Anze Kopitar hasn't scored a goal in 13 games and captain Dustin Brown hasn't found the net in 14 games, Los Angeles has stayed among the Western Conference's top teams.
Calgary beat NHL-leading San Jose 2-1 at the Shark Tank on Saturday night in the highlight of a difficult stretch featuring nine
Los Angeles opened the scoring midway through the first period when Parse turned the corner on defenseman Adam Pardy, kept the puck away from Kiprusoff and scored while falling to the ice. Glencross evening it late in the period with a backhand from the slot, splitting two defenders for his seventh goal on a slick pass from Craig Conroy.
Stoll put the Kings back ahead in the second with a redirection of Justin Williams' pass in front of Kiprusoff during a power play.
Neither team scored again, but the Flames repeatedly put pressure on Quick. The goalie swatted a rebound out of midair and off the post for his most dramatic save in the third period.
NFL
Cassel's leadership solid after loss
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Brodie Croyle is knocked down and his pass goes incomplete as he's hit by Denver Broncos defensive tackle Ronald Fields (91) and Denver Broncos linebacker Mario Haggan (57) in the second half of Sunday's game in Kansas City, Mo.
BY DOUG TUCKER
Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Matt Cassel will be right back under center when the reeling Kansas City Chiefs host Buffalo on Sunday. But what effect will getting benched during a blowout loss to Denver have on the young quarterback?
A positive one, coach Todd Haley insists. Haley also said Monday he's not worried that the leadership he counts on Cassel to provide will be affected by teammates seeing him jerked out of the game.
"No, not in my opinion," Haley said. "Others may have different opinions, but not in my opinion. I think that's a head coach's decision to make, of where the game's at and circumstances surrounding it. Yesterday at that time I thought the best thing for us as a team was to put Brodie in the game and let him play a little bit."
Cassel, who signed a lucrative contract last summer that guarantees him about $28 million, had been struggling along with everyone else on the offense. He was 10 for 29 for 84 yards, with two interceptions and two sacks and a horrendous quarterback rating of 14.6.
Croyle, who was the starter last year under Herm Edwards until he was shelled for the season by a knee injury, did not fare much better, hitting six of 14 for 134 yards as the Chiefs (3-9) suffered their second lopsided loss in a row.
Near the end of a disastrous third quarter of a 44-13 loss to the Broncos, Haley replaced Cassel with backup Brodie Croyle. Cassel spent the rest of Sunday's game watching Croyle.
It was also Cassel's second straight poor performance. In his defense, several of his receivers dropped passes. But he also made some poor throws.
"I thought Matt did some really good things that should have had us in a better position than we were in," said Haley. "I thought that's how he had played in the first half. He avoided a couple
of sacks and made positive plays out of it.
"In the third quarter ... our team as a whole unraveled more offensively. And Matt's his own worst critic. He's disappointed with a couple of plays he made in that stretch, as are the other guys on the offense."
game might actually be good for Cassel, Haley said.
Getting benched during the
"In my opinion, the experience he had to go through in coming out of the game and watching his backup play is more important than actually being in there for that last quarter."
Without any reliable receivers and working behind an offensive
line that's never been consistent,
Cassel has had a rough first year
with the Chiefs. He's 188 for 349
with 13 touchdowns and nine
interceptions.
The 37 sacks do not count the number of times Cassel's been hit after unloading the ball. But game after game, he's jumped right back up.