The busiest week of the season for high school basketball begins in limited fashion today with a couple of tournaments here and there, but the holiday tournament season begins in earnest tomorrow. Today, however, the Riverton girls tournament opens as Heyworth plays North Mac and the hosts on day one. Dwight girls face Paw Paw in the Earlville tournament while the Marseilles boys tournament opens this morning as Dwight faces Hall at 10:30, Marquette faces Woodland at 6:30 and Flanagan-Cornell takes on St. Bede in the final game of the day at 8 p.m. The State Farm Holiday Classic opens tomorrow in Bloomington-Normal, the Pekin tournament also begins tomorrow while Pontiac opens play on Thursday.
In the NFL, the Philadelphia Eagles clinched home field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs with a 19-10 win over the Oakland Raiders. The Pittsburgh Steelers blew out the Houston Texans 34-6 to clinch a first-round playoff bye.
Christmas winners in the NBA were Golden State, Philadelphia, Washington, Oklahoma City and Minnesota. The Bulls visit Milwaukee tonight.
In men’s college basketball, Number 6 Miami got a scare but beat Middle Tennessee 84-81 in the Diamond Head Classic in Hawaii.
The Associated Press men’s college basketball poll finds Villanova, Michigan State, Arizona State and Duke holding their top four spots while Texas A & M moves up three notches to Number 5. Xavier, West Virginia, Wichita State, Virginia and TCU round out the top ten.
Three college football bowl games are on the schedule for this day after Christmas. Utah faces West Virginia in the Heart of Dallas Bowl, Duke meets Northern Illinois in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit and and Kansas State takes on UCLA in the Cactus Bowl in Phoenix.
