COLUMBUS—Jonathan Toews scored twice in the third period and added an assist as the Blackhawks rallied to sweep a home-and-home series against the Columbus Blue Jackets with a 6-5 victory on Saturday.Andrew Ladd, Marian Hossa and Troy Brower each had a goal and an assist, and Ben Eager also scored for the Hawks, who entered tied for the most points in the league with 68.Patrick Kane added three assists and Patrick Sharp two assists for the Blackhawks, playing the first of a season-high 8-game, 15-day road trip. Cristobal Huet made 21 saves.Columbus captain Rick Nash scored twice to snap a career-tying 11-game goal scoring skid, Kristian Huselius had a goal and two assists, and Kris Russell and Raffi Torres also scored for Columbus.Antoine Vermette and R.J. Umberger each had two assists for Columbus, which has lost 24 of its last 30. Steve Mason had 25 stops for the Blue Jackets.After blowing a 3-1 lead and facing a 4-3 deficit heading into the third period, the Blackhawks scored three times in the final period to skate away with their fifth win when trailing after two periods.Columbus has lost seven times when leading after two periods.With the Hawks on the power play, Toews tied it from the slot with this 15th 4:07 into the third period with big Dustin Byfuglien setting a screen. The Hawks continued to pressure with Eager scoring past Mason into a virtually wide-open net for his fourth, four minutes later on a nice feed from Colin Fraser.Toews scored again on the power play with a tough-angle wrist shot from the right circle at 15:03 for his 16th.It looked like the Blackhawks would break the game wide-open after easily jumping to a 3-1 lead near the midway point of the first period.Ladd opened the scoring with his ninth just 2:29 in, slotting home an easy rebound Mason didn’t control.Just after Kane zipped a shot off the post, he centered to an unmarked Brower in the slot and he slid a low shot past Mason at 7:36.Byfuglien blasted another Blackhawks shot off the iron, but the long rebound sent the Blue Jackets the other way on an odd-man rush. Jake Voracek fed Huselius, who beat Huet for his 20th at 11:44 to cut the Blackhawks lead to 2-1.Hossa scored 24 seconds later, gathering his own whiffed shot and scoring from the right circle with his 12th.Seemingly down and out, Columbus roared back with three straight scores to take a 4-3 lead.Late in the period, the rebound of a jam shot by Umberger, squirted to Nash in the slot. He snapped a one-timer over Huet for his 20th goal but first goal since Dec. 23. Early in the second period, Russell, a defenseman, jumped into the play and scored on a wrist shot from the left circle, his fifth at 3:25, to tie it.Shortly after an interference penalty expired, Nash scored on a wrist shot from the right wing inside the far post for his 21st at 7:12. Huet broke his stick in half over the goal post in frustration.Torres scored his 14th at 17:38 of the third to make it 6-5.

NOTES—

The Blackhawks trip eventually takes them through Western Canada and California before ending in North Carolina. … Columbus is 2-6-4 against its Central-Division opponents. …The Hawks are 11-3-0 and have eight consecutive wins in the division. … It was only the third time in 23 home games Columbus has scored four or more goals. …Cam Barker returned after missing the last five games with an injury.

Derrick Rose scored a career-high 37 points and hit the go-ahead basket with 5.4 seconds left in the second overtime Friday night as the Bulls overcame an inspired effort by the Washington Wizards for a 121-119 victory.Just hours after teammate and suspended star Gilbert Arenas pleaded guilty back in D.C. to a felony gun charge, the Wizards put everything they had into getting a victory before falling short.Antawn Jamison had a season-high 34 points and 18 rebounds, Caron Butler added 27 points, Randy Foye had 22 points and Brendan Haywood grabbed a career-best 20 rebounds and scored 16.Rose used a spinning move in the lane to make a shot over Foye with 5.4 seconds left in the second overtime to give the Bulls a 121-119 lead. After a timeout, Foye missed a shot from the baseline and Haywood got the offensive rebound just as the clock ran out. Kirk Hinrich scored 19 points and Joakim Noah had 17 points and 15 rebounds for the Bulls.Foye put the Wizards up in the second overtime with a jumper but after a Washington turnover with 1:19 left, Luol Deng’s basket tied it and Noah’s free throw – he was fouled on the play – put the Bulls up one with 1:11 to go.After a Rose miss and foul on Noah, Haywood made 1 of 2 at the line to tie it again with 27 seconds left.In the first overtime, Foye’s driving shot gave the Wizards a 112-110 lead with 41 seconds left. Rose lost the ball in the lane with 30 seconds to go and officials initially ruled it was Washington’s ball before deciding to look at a video replay. They reversed the call, giving possession to the Bulls. And after the ball went out of bounds again off the Wizards, John Salmons drove for a basket to tie it with 14 seconds left.Foye missed a jumper with nine-tenths of a second to go and following a timeout, a pass to Rose under the basket was batted away by Jamison as the game headed to a second overtime.In regulation, Butler’s jumper with 33 seconds left gave the Wizards a 104-102 lead but Rose got the ball back after his initial shot was blocked and hit a tying jumper with 26 seconds remaining.After two timeouts, the Wizards inbounded, and after Foye held the ball while the shot clock ran down, he drove to the middle and lost it with Hinrich recovering and calling a timeout with five seconds left.Rose’s last-second jumper then went in the basket and came out, forcing overtime.If the Wizards were distracted by Arenas’ plight, it didn’t show in their play on the floor.They moved the ball with crisp passes and used balanced scoring behind Jamison and Butler. Jamison had 17 first-half points and Butler 15, and the Wizards had a 29-22 rebounding edge as Washington took a 48-47 lead at the break. Nick Young’s 3-pointer at the third quarter buzzer kept the Wizards in front 77-74.Hinrich hit a 3-pointer and Rose made a jumper after an offensive rebound to give the Bulls a 100-99 lead with 1:29 left. DeShawn Stevenson’s 3-pointer with just over a minute left gave Washington a two-point lead before Noah hit a pair of free throws to tie it with 54 seconds remaining.

NOTES—The Wizards, who have lost four straight, now play six straight at home. … The Bulls have won four straight and 8 of 11. … Butler and Jamison each logged more than 55 minutes.

Geoff McCammon scored 26 points, going 6 of 7 from 3-point range, to lead Loyola to a 55-50 victory Friday night in its crosstown rivalry with UIC.McCammon won a shootout with Robo Kreps, who led UIC with 20 points. No other player on either team hit double figures.Courtney Stanley had seven assists for the Ramblers (12-5, 3-4 Horizon League), who broke a three-game losing streak. Brad Birton grabbed 10 rebounds for the Flames (5-12, 1-6), who lost their fourth in a row.The Ramblers held edges of 42.9 percent to 30.5 percent in shooting and 41-31 in rebounding.Loyola led 42-34 with 13:03 left. UIC tied it 46-46 on Kreps’ 3-pointer with 8:41 to go.But the Flames went scoreless over the next 5:57, with eight missed shots and two turnovers, while the Ramblers went ahead 52-46 and never trailed again.

***All four NFL Divisional Round playoff games have a chance to be interesting this weekend. The Saints host the Cardinals and Baltimore will be at Indianapolis Saturday. Then on Sunday,the Chargers entertain the Jets and the Cowboys visit the Vikings.That should be very much a much watch as Brett Favre has never done well against Dallas,in either the post season or regular season.

***The Beas still do not have an offensive or defensive Coordinator. The fact that Lovie Smith is very stubborn about his “Cover Two” defense and said he would not hire anyone who is not comitted to what Smith wants to run.

***Whom ever put together the NHL schedule must have been on crack. The Blackhawks have eight games,going through all four time zones. They start in Columbus and Detroit before heading north of the border to Ottawa. Next it’s to Western Canada with games in Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton. Then south to San Jose, and across the Country to Raleigh to face the Carolina Hurricanes.

***All of a sudden,things are going better for the Bulls. They have been hot of late,and their win in Boston Thursday night came with Kevin Garnett and Rashied Wallace both out the the Celtics lineup. The Bulls have never beaten the C’s with Garnett playing. The only times the Bulls have defeated Garnett,he was still a Minnesota Timberwolve.

***It’s Cub Convention weekend. And there are rumors(nothing more)that the Cubs are interested in former Brewer(and longtime Cub killer)Ben Sheets as well as former White Sox RF Jermaine Dye. General Manager Jim Hendry should have plenty of questions to answer as will Sox GM Kenny Williams next week when Soxfest takes place.

LES

The Blackhawks said good bye to the United Center for almost the next three weeks,and they did it with style by snapping a mini two game skid with a 3-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Brian Campbell put the Hawks in front just sixty one seconds into the game with a slap shot that beat Jackets goalie Mathieu Garon. The Hawks scored a goal in each period as Dustin Byfuglien added one in the second stanza and Duncan Keith put the forsting on the cherry on the cake in the final period. Cristobal Huet stopped all 24 shots that Columbus sent his way for his fourth shutout of the season,tying him with teammate Antti Niemi.The victory,coupled with Boston’s 2-1 shootout win at San Jose,allowed the Hawks to move back into a tie with the Sharks for the most points in the NHL.The Blackhawks have an eight game road trip that will see them travel across four time zones, starting with Saturday afternoon’s rematch with the Jackets in Nation Wide Arena.

NOTES—The crowd of 21,884 was a season high at the U.C……It was Troy Murray Haritage Night.

LES

BOSTON—Luol Deng knew the Boston Celtics were finishing a tiring stretch of four games in five nights. So he and the Bulls took advantage.Deng scored 25 points and the Bulls played aggressively from the start in their third straight victory, 96-83 on Thursday night.The Bulls led 47-39 at halftime and the Celtics scored the first basket of the second half, a layup by Ray Allen. But the Bulls held off several Boston spurts in the third quarter and took a 70-63 lead into the fourth. The lead never dipped below four points after that as the Celtics played without their two best big men, Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace.The Bulls have never beaten the Celtics with Garnett in uniform.The Bulls held a 50-39 advantage on the boards.The Celtics, whose only lead was 2-0, trailed 86-80 after Paul Pierce hit a 3-pointer with 3:50 left. But the Bulls scored eight of the next nine points, six by Joakim Noah, to build the lead to 94-81.Pierce scored 20 points and Rajon Rondo added 15 for the Celtics. The loss dropped them to 11-6 at home after they went 35-6 there in each of the past two seasons.The Bulls won for only the second time in their last 12 road contests as they began a stretch of 10 of 12 games away from home.Derrick Rose scored 17 points for the Bulls, while Noah had his 19th double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds.The Celtics seemed sluggish and lacked their full complement of players. Garnett missed his eighth game with a hyper-extended right knee and Wallace sat out his third straight with a sore left foot. Rivers said Wallace may return for Boston’s next game Monday at home against Dallas, while there’s an “outside chance” Garnett could play next Friday at home against Portland.The Celtics were coming off a 111-87 win Wednesday night over New Jersey in which none of their starters played more than 30 minutes. But they got off to a slow start Thursday. They did threaten several times in the second half, coming as close as 75-71 with 8:06 left in the game on a layup by Perkins.Then the Bulls regained the momentum on consecutive baskets by Deng, Rose and Noah that gave them a 10-point lead.The Bulls last three victories have all been by double figures, but Thursday’s was the first against a good team. The Bulls beat Minnesota 110-96 on Saturday and Detroit 120-87 on Monday, both in the United Center.Deng scored 16 points in the first half to help the Bulls to a 47-39 lead at the break. The Bulls biggest lead of the game, 33-20, came on a 3-pointer by John Salmons early in the second quarter.The Celtics scored the next nine points, cutting the lead to 33-29 midway through the period, but the Bulls regained control by scoring the next six.

NOTES—The Celtics hit only 15 of their 28 attempts from the free-throw line (53.6 percent)…..Noah had four of the Bulls 10 blocks.

ROSEMONT—Marshon Brooks scored 17 points and Jamine Peterson added 16 as Providence defeated DePaul 79-62 on Thursday night, ruining Tracy Webster’s coaching debut.Providence (11-6, 3-2 Big East) has won six of its last seven games against the Blue Demons (7-9, 0-4), who have lost 23 consecutive regular-season conference games.Mike Stovall scored 30 points for DePaul, which fired Jerry Wainwright on Monday and promoted Webster to interim coach.

EVANSTON—Trevon Hughes’ teammates told him to keep shooting. Luckily for No. 13 Wisconsin he did just that.Hughes missed his five 3-point attempts during a ragged offensive night but in the final seven minutes he hit 4 of 5 and led the Badgers to a 60-50 victory over Northwestern.And his late game surge, along with some ferocious offensive rebounding by the Badgers — 15 for the game — ended Northwestern’s upset bid.Whether it was good defense or poor offense, both teams had a long drought of nearly eight minutes without a field goal during the second half. Wisconsin shot 28.6 percent in the second half and Northwestern 33 percent.Hughes finished with 16 points, 15 in the second half, while shooting 5 for 15. As a team, the Badgers were only 7 for 26 on 3-pointers.Jason Bohannon led Wisconsin (14-3, 4-1 Big Ten) with 19 points, 10 in the first half.John Shurna had 15 points and Jeremy Nash 13 for Northwestern (12-4, 1-3).Without injured forward Jon Leuer, the Badgers started a three-guard offense with sophomore Jordan Taylor making his first start. Taylor scored a career-high 23 points in Wisconsin’s victory over Purdue last Saturday. He had 10 points, no turnovers and seven assists against NU.The 6-10 Leuer, the Badgers’ second-leading scorer (15.4 ppg) and leading rebounder (6.2), broke his left wrist in a fall during the win over the Boilermakers.Hughes’ first 3-pointer, ending the nearly an eight-minute field goal drought for the Badgers, tied the game at 42 with 6:52 to go.Luka Mirkovic’s free throw put the Wildcats up by one but two more by Keaton Nankivil after an offensive rebound gave the Badgers the lead right back.Shurna got the Wildcats’ first basket since the 14:37 mark by driving for a score with 6:13 to go. Drew Crawford’s 3-pointer gave the Wildcats a 48-46 lead. But Hughes’ 3-pointer put the Badgers back up 49-48 and they never trailed again. After Jordan chased down an offensive rebound, Hughes hit another 3-pointer, giving Wisconsin a 52-48 lead with just under four minutes to go.When the Wildcats missed a free throw — they were only 9 for 16 for the game — Hughes again connected from beyond the 3-point line.The slow-moving first half featured more timeouts than fast breaks and ended up tied at 27. Bohannon had 10 points on 5 of 7 shooting for Wisconsin and Nash scored nine for the Wildcats.

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NORMAL—Lloyd Phillips’ 18 points led four Illinois State players in double figures and the Redbirds pulled away from Evansville in the second half for a 70-56 victory Wednesday night.Dinma Odiakosa had 13 points and 11 rebounds for Illinois State (13-4, 4-2 Missouri Valley). Austin Hill scored 14 points and Alex Rubin matched his career high with 13 for the Redbirds, whose top scorer this season, Osiris Eldridge, was held to two points in 29 minutes.Colt Ryan scored 22 to lead Evansville (6-10, 0-6) and Denver Holmes had 10. The Aces outscored the Redbirds 30-18 in the paint but Illinois State was 20-for-23 from the free-throw line, led by Hill’s 8-for-8. Evansville was 7-for-8 at the line.The Redbirds led 33-31 at halftime, and the Aces trailed 47-46 with just under 12 minutes remaining. A 9-2 run later in the half gave ISU a 64-54 lead.

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OMAHA—Antoine Young’s driving basket with 1.3 seconds left gave Creighton a 71-69 win over Southern Illinois on Wednesday night.The shot over two Saluki defenders saved the Bluejays (8-9, 3-3 Missouri Valley) from a late collapse on their home floor. Justin Carter led Creighton with 19 points.Gene Teague scored 14 points to lead Southern Illinois (9-6, 2-4).Tony Freeman hit a 3-pointer with 1:19 to play to pull the Salukis within 69-67, and Kevin Dillard tied the game with 35 seconds left after Justin Bocot blocked a shot by Carter at the other end.Creighton held the ball from there, and Young dribbled down the right side of the lane and put up a shot as time ran down.The win was the 400th at the Division I level for Creighton coach Dana Altman. Altman has coached 21 combined seasons at Marshall, Kansas State and Creighton.

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DE KALB—Mike DiNunno had 21 points and 10 assists, and Northern Illinois made 60 percent of its 3-point attempts in defeating Western Michigan 87-77 Wednesday night.Sean Kowal had 18 points and seven rebounds, Xavier Silas scored 15 points and Darion Anderson 12 for Northern Illinois (6-8, 2-0 Mid-American), which overcame an early 26-12 deficit with hot outside shooting. DiNunno made six of the Huskies’ 12 3-pointers.NIU shot 50 percent from the field in the second half, including 5-for-7 from behind the arc, and finished the game at 46 percent overall.David Kool led all scorers with 26 points for Western Michigan (9-6, 1-1).Martelle McLemore scored 16 points and Donald Lawson had 12 points and seven rebounds for the Broncos.

CHAMPAIGN—Demetri McCamey returned to the starting lineup for the first time in two games and scored 25 points to lead Illinois to a 54-53 comeback victory over Penn State on Tuesday night.McCamey hit a jump shot with 1:02 to play to give the Illini (12-5, 4-0 Big Ten) a 53-52 lead that stood up. Penn State’s Talor Battle missed a jump shot as the game ended.The Illini trailed 48-40 with 8:46 to play after a 16-5 Penn State run.Chris Babb led Penn State (8-8, 0-4) with 15 points. He scored 12 points from behind the 3-point line. Battle added nine points on cold 4-for-19 shooting.Mike Tisdale added 16 for the Illini.McCamey hadn’t started since a loss to Gonzaga on Jan. 2.

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CEDAR FALLS—Ali Farokhmanesh scored 14 points, Jordan Eglseder added 11 and 10 rebounds and Northern Iowa edged Bradley 52-50 Tuesday night, tying the school record with its 14th consecutive victory.The Panthers (15-1) are off to their best start since going 19-1 to open the 1963-64 season and are in 6-0 Missouri Valley Conference play for the first time.Sam Maniscalco scored 15 points to lead the Braves (7-9, 2-4).UNI last won 14 straight when it won the final four games of the 1962-63 season and opened the next season with 10 straight victories. Only No. 2 Kentucky (17) and No. 1 Texas (15) have longer active winning streaks. Northern Iowa trailed 27-26 at halftime. It opened the second half on a 12-5 run and led the rest of the way but never comfortably. Bradley twice pulled to within one, including 51-50 on Maniscalco’s layup with 21 seconds to play.