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KAMLOOPS, B.C. -- John Morris is now just one game away from bringing British Columbia their fifth Canadian mens curling championship, after handing Albertas Kevin Koe his second loss of the day Friday. "Hopefully we can play the same come 4:30 Sunday," said B.C. fourth stone Jim Cotter. "Ive never been in a Brier final myself so were still soaking it in right now." "We got a little fortunate this morning," added skip and third stone Morris, thanking Quebec for getting them in the 1-2 game by beating Alberta earlier in the day. "Coming out of the gate strong and being sharp like that, having the draw weight was important, and Jimmy made a couple of bonus highlight reel shots." He also liked the energy from the almost packed house, by far the biggest crowd of the week at the Interior Savings Centre. More than 4,300 filled the 5,000-seat arena and loudly cheered B.C. and Cotter, a Kamloops native. B.C. scored two in the first end with the hammer and stole another in the second when Koes draw to the button was millimetres short. With a three in the fourth set up by one of Cotters house-clearing highlight reel shots, Morris was up 6-1 and it looked like the 1-2 Page playoff game was over except for the handshake. But Koe finally picked up a deuce in five off a miss on a half-rock double by Cotter and a steal in eight kept it going through nine, when Koe conceded after B.C. picked up one to make it 9-5. "I struggled a bit, kind of the wrong side of the inch there tonight," said the Alberta skip, who won the Brier and a world championship in 2010. "Obviously they werent missing much so we were in trouble when we werent playing our best." Alberta also dropped their last round-robin game to Quebec Friday, which cost them the hammer in the evening 1-2 Page playoff game and got B.C. into the game. B.C., Manitoba and Alberta all finished at 9-2 and a tiebreaking formula was used to rank them. Had Alberta beat Quebec, they would have faced Manitoba. Alberta will now have to play the winner of the Manitoba-Quebec 3-4 game Saturday. The winner of that semifinal will face Morris Sunday in the final. "Today wasnt our day but fortunately we put ourselves in a position where we have another life," Koe said. "Weve done well in the semis at the Brier before." The last B.C. rink to win the Brier was Greg McAulay in 2000, who went on to become world champion that year. Coincidentally, Both McAulay and Morris were born in Winnipeg. Earlier Friday, within the span of a minute or two, Saskatchewan was out and Quebec was in the playoffs, and only partly because of Jean-Michel Menards 7-5 upset win over Alberta. Even with Quebecs victory, Saskatchewan skip Steve Laycock was up one with the hammer and had an open draw against three to beat New Brunswick and force Menard into a tiebreaker. Laycock was heavy with the final stone and it proved costly. "We knew that we had to win," said Laycock. "We knew it was in our control to try and get in that tiebreaker and just didnt finish that game out, a really poor last end." Saskatchewan finished at 6-5, tied with Newfoundland and Labradors Brad Gushue and New Brunswicks Jamie Grattan. Had Menard lost, there could have been a four-way tie for fourth place and a round of afternoon tiebreakers. Instead hell now get to play Manitobas Jeff Stoughton Saturday in the 3-4 Page playoff game. Stoughton took it in stride, although Albertas loss also cost him the spot in the 1-2 game. "Quebecs a great team and Kevins team just wasnt quite as sharp as they had been all week and Quebec got them, so we get to play Quebec now," said Stoughton, a three-time Brier winner and two-time world champion. "Its good though, because they beat us earlier so we can get a little revenge on them at this game." Menard, the 2006 champion whos making his fifth Brier appearance for Quebec, was 7-4, although he also beat each of the top three teams in the round robin. "Our goal was to make it to the playoffs and there you never know whats going to happen ... if theres still some magic in our bag well try to use it," he said. Menard seemed in control throughout the game and got a boost with a three-point end in the fifth. Koe, who was solid all week, finished with a 76 per cent rating and his teammates struggled as well. Prince Edward Islands Eddie MacKenzie (4-7) finished the round robin with an 11-7 win over Jamie Koe of Northwest Territories/Yukon (3-8). Ontarios Greg Balsdon (5-6) capped his Brier debut with a 9-6 win over Jamie Murphys winless Nova Scotia team (0-11). Northern Ontario was also well back at 2-9. Danny Rose England Jersey . JOHNS, N. Jack Butland England Jersey . Numbers Game examines the deal that sees Michael Del Zotto and Kevin Klein switch places. The Predators Get: D Michael Del Zotto. http://www.soccerenglandonline.com/Ross-Barkley-UE...RO-Jers ey/ . 10 VCU 85-67 on Thursday night at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. The Seminoles (4-0) have scored at least 80 points in each of their games. Joe Hart England Jersey . Ashley Youngs cross was inadvertently headed by Chester into his own net in the 66th minute, allowing United to claim a third straight league win. "We had to dig deep with our fighting spirit and weve done that," United striker Wayne Rooney said. Jonjo Shelvey Jersey .ca look back at each of the Top 10 stories of 2013. Today, we look back at Boston Strong - a citys recovery from tragedy. SAN ANTONIO -- The Houston Rockets gave away a 23-point lead, Dwight Howard was being fouled intentionally and the disdain of the San Antonio Spurs sellout crowd was roaring down on them in the final minutes of the game. It was a tense situation that Houston would have folded under last season, James Harden readily admits. The Rockets demonstrated Saturday night that they are a different team this season, even if it is early. Harden scored 31 points, Chandler Parsons had 25, and Houston overcame a furious second-half rally to beat San Antonio 112-106, handing the Spurs their first home defeat. "Its a great win for us," Harden said. "Last year we probably would have caved in; they would have beaten us by a lot. So, this year the improvement weve adjusted to has been tremendous. A back-to-back in San Antonio is always tough, but we showed resiliency and pulled out a great win." Harden had 16 points in the final quarter, going 4 for 8 from the field and 7 for 10 on free throws in leading Houston (13-5) to its fifth straight victory. Howard had 13 points and 11 rebounds, Terrence Jones added 10 points and 16 boards, and Patrick Beverly scored 11 points. Tony Parker had 27 points, Tim Duncan added 20 and Marco Belinelli scored 18 for San Antonio (14-3), which has lost two of three. San Antonio outscored Houston 39-26 to open the second half, with Belinelli scoring 13 points after halftime to set up a furious finish. Harden hit a high-arcing, off-balance 3-pointer to tie the game at 106 with a minute remaining. "That was the shot of the game," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. Parker then missed a driving layup over Howard, and Beverly tipped in Hardens miss to put Houston up 108-106 with 32 seconds remaining. Manu Ginobili missed a 3-pointer, enabling Houston to outlet to Parsons for a dunk and a 110-106 lead with 16 seconds left to seal a victory over its longtime state rival. "Its going to be a dogfight every time we see these guys," Howard said. "And thats what we want. Thats going to make us better as a team, and its going to make it fun for the fans to watch." San Antonio finished 9 for 26 on 3s, including 2 for 9 in the first half. Without the Spurs usual crisp ball movement, Parker was forced to take the offence into his own hands, going 13 for 27 from the field. "Definitely," Harden said. "If you get Tony Parker to put a lot of shots up, it takes away from all their guys knocking down 3s and getting us off balance." The Rockets responded to a late first-half spurt by the Spurs by opening the second half on a 13-2 run that Parsons and Harden opened and closed with 3-pointers. The run appearedd to fire up Duncan, who scored seven of the Spurs 13 points in one stretch, including an alley-oop-dunk in front of Howard.dddddddddddd The Spurs were energized by their stoic leader showing some fire, closing within 81-80 with 2 minutes left in the third quarter. "They battled back," Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. "It got scrappy and dirty, and they got really physical with us. They got a little lead, and our guys made some big plays and battled back down the stretch." Belinelli hit consecutive 3s to give San Antonio an 85-83 lead early in the final quarter, its first since going up 12-11 with 6:34 left in the first. He added another 3 to give the Spurs an 88-83 advantage. "Its a great lesson for us," Popovich said. "When you play a good basketball team, youve got to come with passion, an edge and aggressiveness for 48 minutes - and we did that for a half. (The Spurs) got embarrassed for a whole half. In the second half, their aggressiveness and attention to detail was very good. They got themselves back in the game." San Antonio shot 80 per cent in the opening minutes compared to 28 per cent by Houston, but the Rockets were able to stay within a basket until their offence began flowing. Early in the game Howard ran isolation plays against Duncan, performing the "Dream Shake" taught to him in the off-season by Rockets legend Hakeem Olajuwon on one possession to set up a short hook in the lane. "On every team that Dwights on it seems that focus is inside and the shooters get a lot more open looks," Duncan said. "Thats a byproduct of having him in there and the shooters shooting the ball well obviously. Its tough. They are tough and well see what happens next time." NOTES: Houston G Jeremy Lin and F Greg Smith both missed the game with sprained right knees. It was the second straight game Lin has missed. . A scene from the 2004 movie "The Alamo" was shown during the first quarter, making the Spurs the defenders of the Alamo and Texas, and the Rockets as the invading army. . "Lets go Rockets!" chants broke out during the game. ... Popovich was assessed a technical foul after screaming at official Tom Washington for allowing McHale to stand within a foot of Duncan as he attempted to inbound the ball on the final play of the first half. After stepping in front of Duncan several times to prevent Washington from handing him the ball while he argued a non-call, McHale stood an arms length beside the Spurs forward as he threw the ball three-quarters of the court to Ginobili. "I was in the coachs box," McHale said. "I probably shouldve gone and sat my big (butt) on the other side." Cheap China Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys Cheap NFL Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys From China China NFL Jerseys Cheap Jerseys Cheap Jerseys China ' ' '
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