Wednesday, Jan. 9, briefs

ARBY’S CLASSIC MIDDLE SCHOOL TOURNEY BEGINS TODAY

Four Bossier Parish boys teams will tune up for district play in the Arby’s Middle School Tip-Off Classic tournament which begins today.

The Rusheon seventh- and eighth-grade teams, Greenacres and Plain Dealing are competing.

Today’s first-round games will be played at Bossier High and Rusheon Middle School. All games Thursday and Saturday will be played at Bossier.

The Rusheon seventh-grade team opens play against Calvary at 4 p.m., and the eighth-grade team faces St. Joseph’s at 5:15. Both games are at Rusheon. Greenacres plays Plain Dealing at 6:30 p.m. at Bossier.

Other teams competing are Booker T. Washington, Evangel seventh and eighth, Calvary and Caddo Middle Magnet.
The championship game is set for 6 p.m. Saturday. The third-place game is at 3:30 p.m. That will be followed by the consolation finals at 4:15.

The annual Bossier Parish boys jamboree is Saturday at Benton.

BOSSIER FRESHMEN, JV TEAMS WIN

The Bossier Bearkats swept the Natchitoches Central Chiefs in freshmen and junior varsity games Monday. The freshmen won 51-36 and the JV won 49-45.

Keldrick Owens led the freshmen with 16 points. Travis Manning and Dontavious Washington scored 12 apiece, and Brandon Wells had eight.

LSU RANKED OUT OF TOP 10 IN FINAL FOOTBALL POLLS

The LSU Tigers were ranked No. 14 in the final AP Top 25 football poll and No. 12 in the final USA Today coaches’ poll.

The Tigers finished 10-3 after a 25-24 loss to Clemson in the Chick-fil-A Bowl on New Year’s Eve. LSU had wins over AP No. 5 Texas A&M and No. 8 South Carolina. The Tigers’ losses were to No. 1 Alabama, No. 9 Florida and No. 11 Clemson by a combined 13 points.

Alabama was a unanimous No. 1 in both polls after a 42-14 rout of Notre Dame in the BCS National Championship Game Monday night in Miami.

WEST HELPS DEMONS RALLY PAST SAM HOUSTON STATE

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Northwestern State freshman Jalan West, a former Bossier star, had 10 points, four assists and two steals as the Demons rallied in the closing minutes for a 73-64 victory over Sam Houston State Monday night.

DeQuan Hicks scored 24 points and snatched 13 rebounds to lead the Demons (9-3, 3-0 Southland), who closed the game on a 20-4 run.

James Hulbin added 14 points and eight rebounds, all the boards in the second half. Shamir Davis scored 12 and posted seven assists, one off his career high.

TECH RB DIXON NAMED FRESHMAN ALL-AMERICA

RUSTON — Louisiana Tech running back Kenneth Dixon has been named Freshman All-America by the Football Writers Association of America.

Already named the Western Athletic Conference’s Freshman of the Year and receiving Freshman All-America honors from CBS Sports and Scout’s websites, Dixon led the nation in scoring with 28 total touchdowns (27 rushing), breaking Marshall Faulk’s NCAA records for most touchdowns scored, most rushing touchdowns scored and most points, all for a freshman.

Dixon had 200 rushes for 1,194 yards, just missing averaging 100 yards a game at 99.5. Dixon set the WAC record for most rushing touchdowns at any class level.