Wednesday, Jan. 2, briefs

PREP SOCCER TEAMS RETURN TO ACTION THURSDAY

Bossier Parish high school soccer teams return to action Thursday.

In District 1-I boys and girls games, Airline faces Southwood and Haughton plays Caddo Magnet. The boys games are at 6 p.m. and the girls games are at 7:45. All of the games are at Tinsley except for the Airline-Southwood girls games, which is at Cargill.

The Airline boys, 18-2 overall, are in second place in District 1-I with a 5-1 mark. Caddo Magnet leads at 5-0. The Airline girls (8-10, 3-3) are in fourth place.

The Haughton boys are 4-6 overall and 2-3 in district. The girls are 2-5 and 1-3. Parkway and Haughton play boys and girls games Friday night at Tinsley. The Parkway boys are 9-5-2 overall and 3-3 in district. The girls are 7-7-2 and 3-2.

The Benton girls lead District 1-II with a 3-0 mark. They return to action Monday at Minden.

LSU FALLS TO CLEMSON ON LAST-SECOND FG

ATLANTA — The LSU Tigers looked on the verge of a knockout entering the final five minutes of the third quarter but couldn’t stop the Clemson Tigers on three fourth quarter drives, including a late drive that resulted in a game-ending 37-yard field goal as time expired that gave 14th-ranked Clemson a 25-24 decision over 8th-ranked LSU Monday night in the Chick-fil-A bowl at the Georgia Dome.

The game winner, a 37-yard field goal by Chandler Catanzaro as the game clock ran out, was atonement for Catanzaro who earlier had an extra point blocked that put Clemson behind the eight ball in scoring until the final field goal.

The late heroics by the ACC team put a damper on a night when freshman LSU running back Jeremy Hill scored two touchdowns for LSU, including a 57-yard run on the first play from scrimmage in the third quarter that gave him the school single season freshman rushing record of 12 touchdowns, topping the mark her tied earlier in the first quarter of 11 set originally by Dalton Hillard in 1982.

Clemson ran 100 plays to LSU’s 48 and had 32 first downs to LSU’s nine. Clemson closed the season 11-2. LSU finished 10-3. The Tigers’ three losses were by a combined 13 points.

PERRY SCORES 11 IN TECHSTERS’ LOSS

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Louisiana Tech freshmen guard Lulu Perry, a former Benton standout, scored 11 points in the Lady Techsters’ 71-67 WAC loss to New Mexico State Monday night.

Perry hit a pair of 3-pointers to get Tech (5-7, 1-1) within 37-35 with 17:35 to play in the game. The Techsters then went cold over the next five minutes, hitting only 1-of-11 field goals as the Aggies used an 11-2 run to push the lead out to 48-37 with just under 12 minutes to play.

WEST HELPS NSU CRUSH LETOURNEAU

NATCHITOCHES — Northwest-ern State freshmen guard Jalan West, a former Bossier star, scored 13 points in the Demons’ 102-52 rout of Division III LeTourneau Monday in NSU’s final tuneup before starting Southland Conference play at home Thursday night.

Northwestern (6-4) padded its 83.4 scoring average, matching that with 9:15 remaining, and generally played at a more deliberate pace in the final eight minutes against the outmatched Yellow Jackets (4-8).

Only three Demons played at least half the 40 minutes led by 21 minutes from senior guard Shamir Davis as NSU matched a 50-point rout, 123-73, on Dec. 2, 1991 over Grambling.