Minnesota: Three Stars for Sunday

Saturday's scores and standouts, as the failure of others remains funny...

Need to Know: MIAC Football: Bethel 17, St. John's 14 - 10,000 people made their way to Arden Hills for this one, the showdown of two MIAC powers, both 7-0 in the conference. And it was the home Royals prevailing, with running back Logan Flannery plunging over from a yard out with only 24 seconds left in the game, to cap a nine-play, 73-yard drive that won the conference title for Bethel. The home team held the high-powered Johnnie offense to only 241 yards, and with the game on the line in the second half, St. John's could manage only three punts. The win gives Bethel an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament, and the school its fourth MIAC title in its history.

CFB: Iowa 21, Gophers 16 - Iowa's putrid offense may be the only thing that can possibly make the Gopher defense look good. Minnesota held the Hawkeyes to only 296 yards, somethinig we suspected the defense was not physically capable of, and actually allowed zero points and only three first downs in the entire second half. Unfortunately, the Gopher offense picked up the slack and managed to score only 16 points. However, after weeks of Minnesota failures on both sides of the ball, it was nice to see the maroon and gold fail only in one facet of the game.

Meanwhile... MHKY: Gophers 5, MSU-Mankato 3 NBA: Sacramento 100, Timberwolves 93 MBB: Gophers 84, Army 52 CVB: Gophers def. Purdue, 30-24, 24-30, 31-29, 30-26 MSHSL Football Eden Prairie 42, Andover 7 Adrian 25, Mankato Loyola 14 College Men's Cross-Country: Gophers 2nd at NCAA Midwest Region Championships, qualify for NCAA Championships College Women's Cross Country: Gophers win NCAA Midwest Region Championships (first time in school history), qualify for NCAA Championships MIAC Football Gustavus 37, Carleton 14 St. Olaf 54, St. Thomas 28 Augsburg 45, Hamline 14 NCC Football UM-Duluth 23, St. Cloud State 13 MSU-Mankato 48, Western Washington 24 NSIC Football Winona State 49, Wayne State 34 MSU-Moorhead 41, Southwest Minnesota State 27 Macalester 37, Lawrence 30

Three Stars: 3. Logan Flannery - RB, Bethel Flannery, a freshman from Lakeville South, rushed 27 times for 118 yards and the game-winning touchdown in Bethel's win over St. John's. 2. Kyle Okposo The Gopher sophomore scored twice in less than two minutes in the second period, leading Minnesota from 2-1 down to 3-2 up just that quickly. Okposo ended up scoring on the only two shots he got on net, and the Gophers cruised to a 5-3 victory. 1. Damian Johnson All Gopher basketball pre-season previews questioned whether Johnson could be effective for Minnesota. On Saturday, he showed that he was going to start out as he meant to go this year, scoring 12 points and doing it all for Minnesota. Johnson had a follow-up dunk, he hit two of three three-pointers, he led the team with eight rebounds, he blocked four shots, he had four steals... it was an impressive performance, all in 20 minutes of floor time.

What's On Tap: 12:00 - NFL - Vikings at Green Bay - TV: FOX 7:00 - NHL - Wild at Colorado - TV: FSN North