LINCOLN—Clayton Thorson’s 37-yard touchdown pass to Dan Vitale and Jack Mitchell’s third field goal gave Northwestern an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter and the Wildcats hung on to beat Nebraska 30-28 on Saturday.The Wildcats (6-2, 2-2 Big Ten) bounced back from consecutive losses to Michigan and Iowa in which they were outscored 78-10 and handed Nebraska (3-5, 1-3) its fifth loss by five points or less.Mitchell’s 27-yard field goal put Northwestern up 30-22, but the Huskers drove 75 yards in eight plays to pull within two points. But Tommy Armstrong’s two-point pass to Stanley Morgan Jr. fell incomplete, and Northwestern’s offense was able to run out the final 4:18.Thorson passed for 177 yards and ran for a career-high 126, with 117 coming on two carries that led to scores. Armstrong passed for 291 yards and a touchdown. With the win, the Cats became Bowl eligible for the first time in two seasons.

LINCOLN—Derrick Rose made his preseason debut, playing just over 10 minutes, and Doug McDermott hit a fallaway jumper with 1 second left to give the Bulls a 103-102 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Friday night.Rose played about 5 minutes in both the first and second quarters. He had 8 points on 4-of-6 shooting. Rose had been sidelined since fracturing his left orbital bone on Sept. 29. Taj Gibson had 16 points and seven rebounds while Tony Snell and Nikola Mirotic had 14 points each.Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavs with 19 points. Dwight Powell had 14 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Zaza Pachulia had 12 points and seven rebounds. The Bulls will host Cleveland to open the regular season Tuesday. Dallas will open the regular season at Phoenix on Wednesday.

Patrick Kane and Brent Seabrook each had a goal and two assists, and the Blackhawks beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Thursday night in their first game since top defenseman Duncan Keith had right knee surgery.Artem Anisimov also scored for the Stanley Cup champions, and Corey Crawford made 16 saves while improving to 5-1 in seven career starts against Florida.Keith had a meniscal tear repaired on Tuesday, sidelining the two-time Norris Trophy winner for four to six weeks. It could be a huge blow for the Blackhawks, who were already thin on defense and play in one of the NHL’s best divisions, but they responded with a smart, measured performance on the first night of Keith’s extended absence.Jaromir Jagr and Vincent Trocheck scored for Florida, which has dropped three in a row. Roberto Luongo made 24 saves.

AFC GAMES: Buff over JAX(@ London), Pitt over KC, MIA over Hou, N.ENG over NY Jets, SD over Oak
NFC GAMES: WASH over T.Bay, NYG over Dal
INTER-LEAGUE GAMES: Atl over TENN, Cin over STL, INDY over N.Orl
PRIME TIME GAMES: Thur SF over Seat, Sun Nite CAR over Phil, Mon Nite ARIZ over Balt
NFC NORTH: Minn over DET
HOME teams in all CAPS
LAST WEEK: Les 7-7 Producers(Tony)7-7
TOTAL THROUGH 6 WEEKS: LES 56-36, Producers 56-36

If there is one player that the Blackhawks could absolutely not afford to lose at this early stage of the season, it was Duncan Keith. The reigning Conn Smythe winner, however, will be on the shelf for the next four to six weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a torn right meniscus according to the team.Keith had appeared in all six of his team’s games this season. He notched two assists and has averaged over 24 minutes of ice time a night.The team’s workhorse defenseman is going to be relied on heavily this season due to the relative shallowness of the Hawks defense. The team is also without veteran Michal Rozsival who continues progressing in recovery from an injury sustained last postseason.Over his career, the Blackhawks’ alternate captain has logged an average of 25-plus minutes of ice time. Additionally, Keith has been an incredibly durable defenseman for the club. He has never missed more than eight games in a season until now.There have been rumors that the club was already looking for defensive help on the trade market. Putting Keith on long-term injured reserve would give them some cap relief to make such a move, but that clouds the salary cap picture once Keith is ready to return. Besides, this is a time of year where making trades is next to impossible. How many teams are going to be willing to help the Blackhawks anyway? Keith has averaged nearly four more minutes of ice time than his next closest teammate so far this year, which means Brent Seabrook and Niklas Hjalmarsson should see their workloads increase significantly. Trevor Daley, who has had some early struggles early on, will also probably see his ice time feature more high-leverage situations. Young defensemen Trevor van Riemsdyk, David Rundblad and Viktor Svedberg are all going to have to step up in some way as well if the Blackhawks have to weather this storm without Keith.They certainly have enough offensive firepower to soften the blow, but the time spent without Keith in the lineup very well could impact the way the team plays. Despite the Hawk’s overall talent, Keith’s impact on everything is difficult to overstate.The Hawks managed to get by with shallow defense throughout last postseason after Rozsival’s injury. That was pretty much because Keith could play a mountain of minutes without having his play drop off. Without him, this blue line looks fairly average and the Central Division race is going to be a dogfight all year long.It will be interesting to see how the Blackhawks handle themselves during this period without Keith, especially after starting 3-3-0 with him in the lineup.

Aaron Brooks scored 22 points to lead the Bulls to a 103-94 win over the Indiana Pacers in a preseason game Tuesday night. Paul George had 26 and 13 rebounds for the Pacers.Monta Ellis and Ian Mahinmi added 14 points. . Fifteen of George’s points were in the first quarter. . Indiana shot 3 for 24 in the second quarter.Six players scored in double-digits. . First-round pick Bobby Portis didn’t play.Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said he was ”very encouraged” by Derrick Rose during a solo workout earlier Tuesday. Rose took some contact, but Hoiberg didn’t say when Rose (broken left orbital bone) would go through a full-contact practice.George gave the Pacers a 16-8 lead with 6:10 left in the first on his thunderous one-handed dunk after he rebounded his missed 3-pointer.Indiana faces Charlotte on Thursday in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Bulls play Dallas on Friday in Lincoln, Nebraska.

CHARLOTTE—Kemba Walker scored 22 points, Jeremy Lin added 18 points and eight rebounds, and the Charlotte Hornets defeated the Bulls 94-86 on Monday night to remain undefeated in the preseason.The Hornets (6-0) also got 11 points from P.J. Hairston in his first game back from a calf injury.Jimmy Butler had 18 points, but was 0 for 4 from 3-point range. … Taj Gibson had a preseason-high 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting along with nine rebounds. … The Bulls were 6 of 27 from beyond the 3-point arc. Charlotte’s Jeremy Lamb left the game with a sprained right ankle and did not return. It’s unclear how long he’ll be out. Pau Gasol had the night off for the Bulls.Joakim Noah recorded his first double-double of the preseason with 12 points and 13 rebounds. The Bulls host Indiana on Tuesday. Charlotte visits Detroit on Wednesday.

DETROIT—Matt Prater kicked a 27-yard field goal with 2:29 left in overtime, and the Detroit Lions beat the Bears 37-34 on Sunday for their first victory of the season.Matthew Stafford heaved a 57-yard pass to Calvin Johnson to set up the kick for the Lions (1-5). Johnson finished with six receptions for 166 yards.The Bears (2-4) had chances for a third straight comeback win.Robbie Gould kicked a 29-yard field goal as time expired in regulation. The tying score was set up by Darius Slay getting called for interference after Jay Cutler‘s 25- and 24-yard passes to Alshon Jeffery.Stafford threw a go-ahead, 6-yard touchdown pass to a leaping Johnson in the end zone with 21 seconds left in the fourth following consecutive penalties.

SOUTH BEND—Corey Robinson made a diving catch in the end zone midway through the fourth quarter and No. 14 Notre Dame rebounded to beat Southern California 41-31 on Saturday after squandering a two-touchdown lead. C.J. Prosise ran for 143 yards and two touchdowns, and DeShone Kizer threw two scoring passes, the second the 10-yarder to Robinson that made it 38-31.Southern California played for the first time since firing coach Steve Sarkisian, with interim coach Clay Helton directing the Trojans.The Fighting Irish (6-1) bounced back from an embarrassing 35-point loss to USC in the regular-season finale last year. The victory looked in doubt when the Trojans (3-3) scored three straight touchdowns to take a 31-24 lead. But the Irish rallied to win the Jeweled Shillelagh for the third time in four seasons.It marked the first time in seven tries the Irish beat the Trojans after losing by 30 or more the season before.Cody Kessler threw for two touchdowns and ran for another and USC but the Irish picked him off twice in the fourth quarter to put the game away.

EVANSTON—Reserve running back Akrum Wadley ran for 192 yards and tied a school record with four rushing touchdowns to carry No. 17 Iowa over No. 20 Northwestern 40-10 on Saturday.With leading rusher Jordan Canzeri sidelined in the first quarter with an ankle injury, Wadley took over for Iowa (7-0, 3-0 Big Ten). The injury occurred following a short run when NU linebacker Jaylen Prater landed on Canzeri, folding his ankle under a pile of players.Wadley, who had only eight carries coming into the game, scored his third touchdown on a 2-yard run with 6:42 remaining in the third quarter, extending Iowa’s lead to 23-10. His record-tying fourth scoring run, which followed a Northwestern fumble on the Wildcats ensuing drive, came on a 4-yard run that.Northwestern (5-2, 1-2) turned the ball over three times as the Wildcats lost for the second straight week after five consecutive victories.