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Midwest Sports Headlines: 12/10/19

Sports

December 10th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Sophomore Joe Wieskamp scored a season-high 23 points and Iowa blew past Minnesota 72-52 in its Big Ten home opener. Luka Garza had 21 points with 10 rebounds for the Hawkeyes, who hit 8 of their first 16 3s in cruising to their second win in three tries. Wieskamp opened the second half with a 3 to give Iowa its first double-digit lead, 40-29, and Wieskamp pushed it to 49-34 on a layup. Garza followed with an inside bucket that made it a 17-point game.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The offensive-minded Kansas City Chiefs leaned on their rapidly improving defense to beat the New England Patriots on Sunday. They held Tom Brady to 169 yards passing and the Patriots to 278 yards. They also made the crucial fourth-down stop as the Patriots were trying for the tying touchdown in the closing seconds, something they failed to do during last year’s AFC title game loss at Arrowhead Stadium. The result was clinching a fourth straight AFC West title and keeping alive their hopes for a first-round playoff bye.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Major League Baseball plans to hold its amateur draft in Omaha, Nebraska, ahead of the College World Series, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. The draft will be held from June 10-12, and the College World Series is slated to start June 13. Baseball’s draft was long held by conference call at the commissioner’s office in New York. It was moved to Lake Buena Vista, Florida, for 2007 and 2008. Since 2009 the first round has been held at MLB Network studios in Secaucus, New Jersey.

UNDATED (AP) — The New England Patriots are having a bad week. First, it was bad luck with a series of questionable calls that proved costly in a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs that ended their 21-game home winning streak. Now, the Patriots acknowledge that a video crew working for the team filmed the Cincinnati sideline during the Bengals’ game at Cleveland in violation of NFL rules. This blunder comes 12 years after the videotape scandal dubbed Spygate that tainted a storied franchise that’s won six Super Bowl championships.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Bashaud Breeland knocked away Tom Brady’s fourth-down pass to Julian Edelman in the end zone and the Kansas City Chiefs survived a series of mistakes and questionable calls by the officials to hold off the New England Patriots 23-16. Combined with Oakland’s loss to Tennessee the Chiefs clinched the AFC West title. The loss ends the Patriots’ 21-game home win streak in the regular season and playoffs, was tied for the longest in team history. It was the third-longest string in NFL history.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Ted Simmons can thank WAR, on-base percentage and other modern measures of baseball players for helping him reach the Hall of Fame 31 years after he retired. The eight-time All-Star catcher was elected to the Hall of Fame by a veterans committee after falling one vote short two years ago. Simmons received 13 of 16 votes when the modern era committee gathered ahead of the winter meetings. Also elected was former players union chief Marvin Miller. Simmons was primarily a catcher in a 21-year big league career spent with St. Louis, Milwaukee and Atlanta.

UNDATED (AP) — In case you missed it in Week 14 of the NFL regular season: Jimmy Garoppolo turned in a confidence-building, career-burnishing performance to help the San Francisco 49ers come back to edge Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints 48-46 in a thrill-a-minute game. And Jimmy G. seems to be heating up just as Tom Terrific appears to be slowing down. Another top topic after Sunday’s games was the way Tom Brady and the rest of New England’s offense looked in a 23-16 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Patriots were hurt by three bad officiating calls.