Monday, January 16, 2017 1BTHE TOWN TALK

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SPORTS

ARLINGTON, Texas - This timeit was a catch, and another winfor the Green Bay Packers.

Call it a “Half Mary” fromAaron Rodgers.

Rodgers threw a 36-yardpass to a toe-dragging Jared Cook on thesideline, and Mason Crosby kicked a 51-yardfield goal as time expired, sending the Pack-ers to the NFC championship game withtheir eighth straight win while thwarting ahuge Dallas rally in a 34-31 victory in the di-visional round of the playoffs Sunday.

The throw on the run from Rodgers toCook — confirmed on review — wasn’t near-ly as debatable as Dez Bryant’s famouscatch that wasn’t in the Cowboys’ divisionalround loss to Green Bay two years ago.

Cook kept both feet inbounds with a knee

NFC: PACKERS 34, COWBOYS 31

THE RIDE IS OVER

AP

Dallas' Byron Jones walks off the field after Green Bay Packers kicker Mason Crosby made the game-winning field goal during the NFL divisional playoffgame Sunday in Arlington, Texas. The Packers won 34-31.

A game-winning field goal by the Packers’ Mason Crosby endedthe Cowboys’ season just two games away from the Super BowlSCHUYLER DIXONASSOCIATED PRESS

KEVIN JAIRAJ-USA TODAY SPORTS

Green Bay Packers tight end Jared Cook (89) catches apass against Dallas along the sidleline. The catch setup the game-winning field goal from Mason Crosby.

NFL PLAYOFF GLANCE

Divisional PlayoffsSaturday, Jan. 14Atlanta 36, Seattle 20New England 34, Houston 16

Sunday, Jan. 15Green Bay 34, Dallas 31Pittsburgh at Kansas City, late

Conference ChampionshipsSunday, Jan. 22NFC: Green Bay at Atlanta, 2:05 p.m.AFC: Pittsburgh-Kansas City winner atNew England, 5:40 p.m.

Super BowlSunday, Feb. 5At HoustonTBD, 6:30 p.m. (FOX)

See RIDE, Page 4B

TYLER, Texas - LSUA used alate first half run to pull awayfrom Texas College and neverlooked back as the Generalscruised to a 102-85 win over theSteers Saturday evening at GusTaylor Gymnasium.

The Steers jumped out to afast 6-1 lead on a basket by Jay-son Saldana. But the Generalsstarted to chip away at it, tyingthe game at 8-8 when GilbertTalbot got three points the oldfashioned way just four min-utes into the contest. WhenBrandon Moss got inside and

scored with just more than 15minutes remaining in the half toput LSUA up 12-11, the Generalswouldn’t trail again.

LSUA pushed the lead up toseven points before the Steersmade a run to push the gameclose. After trailing 24-17, TexasCollege went on a 9-2 run as Na-thaniel Francis’s free throwsevened the game at 26-26. Afterthe teams traded buckets, Gil-bert Talbot’s hook shot with 7:30to go in the period gave the Gen-erals the lead for good andkicked off a 10-2 run that BrianSylvester finished with a buck-et for a 38-30 LSUA advantage.

Texas College got right backin the game though, scoring sixstraight points to pull the scoreback to 38-36 when Nicolas Cas-

LSUA MEN’S BASKETBALL

Generals roll awayfrom Texas CollegeLSUA finishesJanuary by winning 4straight at The FortLSUAGENERALS.COM

See GENERALS, Page 3B

Withdistrictplay

opening in mostof the CentralLouisiana dis-tricts and heat-ing up in others,

now is a good time to rehashan old favorite.

For the next few weeks, Iwill do my “Quick Thoughts”piece to keep track of thedistrict races and recappingsome of the action from theweek.

So, here’s what I thoughtthat was interesting for theweek of Jan. 9-15 in basket-ball and soccer.

In District 2-5A, the threeCentral Louisiana schoolskicked off their slate withtheir adversaries from theMonroe area in the first weekof district play in girls bas-ketball. After escaping with a62-59 home win against Rus-ton on Friday, AlexandriaSenior High is tied for thedistrict lead at 2-0 with Oua-chita. The Lady Trojans willnot meet the Lady Lions foranother week, but they have akey showdown with a 1-1Natchitoches Central on theroad Tuesday. Across theriver, Pineville is looking toget in win column as it hosts aWest Monroe squad also look-ing for its first win in districtplay.

After Marksville’s 53-51loss to Jena, the District 3-3Arace appears to down to twoteams — Winnfield andAvoyelles — in the earlystages. The two meet onThursday to close the firstround of district after theirJan. 6 meeting was wiped outdue to winter weather. TheTigerettes have won 19straight in the district sincejoining it last year, but mayhave their stiffest challengewith a Lady Mustang groupthat has won nine of 11.

After holding Oakdale to38 points, Rapides is at leasttwo clear in the loss columnfrom everyone else. The LadyMustangs have a makeupgame at home against Rose-pine Monday with a opportu-nity to go up two full gamesin the district.

On the boys end, Tioga’sdefense of its 2-4A title is off

COMMENTARY

See GAFFORD, Page 2B

MELINDA MARTINEZ/THE TOWN TALK

ASH and Opelousas tangled to a63-62 thriller Tuesday.

QuickThoughts fromthe hardwoodand the pitch

LAMARGAFFORD

As Louisiana College’s boysof spring are set to return tothe baseball diamond, it has toget its unofficial “First Pitch”out of the way first.

The Wildcats will hold theirannual First Pitch banquet atthe Best Western in Alexan-dria Monday prior to the startof the season in February.

“It’s just a way to kick off

LOUISIANA COLLEGE BASEBALL

Warren Morris toheadline LC banquet

AP

Alexandria native Warren Morris (left) played for three major leagueteams, including the Pittsburgh Pirates.

LC opens seasonwith 4-game serieswith Rust College LAMAR GAFFORDLGAFFORD@THETOWNTALK.COM

See MORRIS, Page 3B