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Midwest Sports Headlines: 1/18/20

Sports

January 18th, 2020 by Ric Hanson

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

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Luka Garza scored 33 points and four Iowa players scored in double figures as the Hawkeyes beat No. 19 Michigan 90-83. CJ Fredrick had 21 points, Joe Wieskamp 20, and Ryan Kriener came off the bench to score 14 for the Hawkeyes. Eli Brooks broke out of a shooting slump to lead Michigan with 25 points.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs will host the Tennessee Titans in the AFC championship game. For Chiefs coach Andy Reid it’s one more opportunity to return to the Super Bowl. That’s something he’s accomplished only once in his long career. For Titans counterpart Mike Vrabel it’s an opportunity to make it back as a coach after winning three Lombardi Trophies as a player in New England. The game features the power running of the Titans’ Derrick Henry and the aerial assault of the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes in an intriguing matchup for a spot in Miami.

UNDATED (AP) — Of the coaches in the NFL’s Final Four, Andy Reid is the outlier. Only Kansas City’s coach has been the head man in a Super Bowl. Only Reid is close to having a Hall of Fame-worthy resume. Only Reid has been around for a couple of decades. So while Tennessee’s Mike Vrabel, Green Bay’s Matt LaFleur and San Francisco’s Kyle Shanahan might look up to Reid and his career achievements, they also recognize that whichever of them wins the NFL title will be doing so for the first time as a coach.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes has been among the best bargains in professional sports, leading his team to back-to-back AFC title games on his rookie contract. He’s largely flown under the radar this season, too, thanks to a series of injuries and the ascendance of Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson. But with the end of the season drawing near, all that is about to change. Mahomes is lining himself up for a payday unlike anything the NFL has ever seen.

UNDATED (AP) — Pro Picks is surprised. Consider that the NFC title game is a matchup of the conferences’s top two seeds. The spread favors host San Francisco over Green Bay by 7 1-2 points. In the AFC, it’s the sixth-seeded Titans at No. 2 seed Kansas City, which would seem to be more of a mismatch. Yet the spread is also 7 1-2.

UNDATED (AP) — Sunday’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tennessee Titans is the first AFC championship since 2002 that doesn’t feature Tom Brady or Peyton Manning or Ben Roethlisberger. Brady and the New England Patriots are missing from the conference championship weekend for the first time since 2010. Brady has been to 13 AFC title games and won nine of them. John Elway’s Denver Broncos defeated the Cleveland Browns in two of the most famous AFC title game showdowns and the Cincinnati Bengals beat the San Diego Chargers in 1982 in minus-59 degrees wind chill that left Dan Fouts with icicles hanging from his beard.

CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) — Gabby Walker took a bounce pass at the baseline and, as the clock was winding down, put up a left-handed layup and Southern Illinois shocked No. 19 Missouri State women 70-68. The loss ended Missouri State’s five-game win streak, and also ended the Bears’ 13-game Missouri Valley Conference road winning streak, a school record. Kristen Nelson led the Salukis with 14 points and three steals. Alexa Willard scored 27 points for Missouri State on 11-for-21 shooting but was blanked in four tries from beyond the 3-point arc. The Bears made 1-of-9 from distance and committed 17 turnovers.