LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Kansas spent most of the first half Monday night chasing Iowa State all over the court, unable to keep up with the Cyclones’ crisp ball movement and their resulting open shots.
Jayhawks coach Bill Self made a subtle tweak that changed everything.

Kansas began switching five on defense, and the stops fueled a 14-0 second-half charge that gave Self’s team the lead. And unlike last weekend at West Virginia, the ninth-ranked Jayhawks made it stick down the stretch, holding on for an 80-76 victory over the No. 24 Cyclones.

Dedric Lawson led the way for Kansas (16-3, 5-2 Big 12) with 29 points and 15 rebounds. Marcus Garrett added 16 points, Lagerald Vick had 14 and Dotson finished with 10, including the clinching free throws with 5.9 seconds left that effectively put the game away.

Talen Horten-Tucker finished with 16 for the Cyclones. Michael Jacobson had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Iowa State’s hot shooting staked the Cyclones to an early lead, but a series of timeouts by Coach Steve Prohm did little to slow down the Jayhawks during their big second-half run. And when Iowa State had chances to stop it at the foul line, a series of misses cost dearly.
UP NEXT
Iowa State visits Mississippi on Saturday in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge.

BOYS BASKETBALL

Des Moines, Lincoln 71, Atlantic 44
AC/GC 79, Southwest Valley 54
Ar-We-Va 74, Red Oak 49
Bedford 67, Fremont Mills 43
Madrid 110, West Central Valley, Stuart 38
Missouri Valley 43, Westwood, Sloan 32
Omaha Roncalli, Neb. 77, Glenwood 50
Panorama, Panora 64, Nodaway Valley 49
Sergeant Bluff-Luton 54, Lewis Central 51
Stanton 67, Heartland Christian 31
Tri-Center 66, Griswold 33
Underwood 58, AHSTW 38
Winterset 64, Creston 52
Woodbine 48, Boyer Valley 40

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Treynor 69, Atlantic 29
AC/GC 71, Southwest Valley 42
AHSTW 56, Underwood 39
Bedford 53, Fremont Mills 26
Boyer Valley 46, Woodbine 42
Glenwood 62, Shenandoah 53
Kuemper Catholic 61, Greene County 30
Lenox 38, Southeast Warren 25
Lewis Central 53, Sergeant Bluff-Luton 38
Madrid 49, West Central Valley, Stuart 42
Panorama 68, Nodaway Valley 42
Paton-Churdan 47, St. Edmond 38
Red Oak 70, Ar-We-Va 35
Stanton 52, Heartland Christian 26
Tri-Center 51, Griswold 36
Westwood, Sloan 72, Missouri Valley 26

Sunday night’s game between the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs was the second-most watched and rated AFC championship game in 42 years.

The overtime thriller on CBS averaged 53.919 million viewers, just shy of the 54.850 million that viewed Pittsburgh’s victory over the New York Jets in 2011. The 27.5 household rating fell short of the 2016 matchup between New England and Denver that had a 29.3 rating.

Sunday’s game is also a 22 percent increase over last year’s game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and New England Patriots, which averaged 44.145 million.

Fox’s telecast of the NFC championship game between the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints had a 24.6 rating. The game averaged 44.218 million, which is up 14 percent over last year’s game which saw the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Minnesota Vikings (42.408 million).

Both games had 13 percent rating increases over last year. This year’s 10 playoff games have averaged a 19.1 rating and 34.584 million viewers. The rating is up 11 percent over last year while the average audience has increased 12 percent.

The rating is the percentage of television households tuned in. The share refers to a percentage of the audience viewing it at the time.

The Griswold Tigers will host the Tri-Center Trojans in a match-up of former Western Iowa Conference mates tonight and we’ll have coverage on KJAN.

The girls games will match the 10-5 Tigers against the 5-9 Trojans. The boys game will see the 2-11 Tigers take on a 7-7 Trojans squad.

Chris Parks will have the call from Griswold. Tune in on AM1220, FM101.1, and online at kjan.com.

NEW YORK (AP) — The NFL will play four games in London next season but did not say which would be at Tottenham’s delayed new stadium and which would be at Wembley.

The league also said Monday one game will be in Mexico City — Kansas City vs. the Los Angeles Chargers at Azteca Stadium, which hosted games in 2016 and 2017. The Rams and Kansas City were to have played there Nov. 19 but the game was moved to Los Angeles because of poor field conditions.

In London, the NFC champion Los Angeles Rams will play Cincinnati. The other games are Houston-Jacksonville, Carolina-Tampa Bay and Chicago-Oakland. Jacksonville is owned by Shahid Khan, who also owns the Premier League club Fulham.

Two games will be at Wembley and two at Tottenham’s new stadium, which was to have opened last summer but faced construction delays. The stadium’s opening has been delayed six times. A game between Oakland and Seattle was to have been at Tottenham last Oct. 14 but was moved to Wembley.

The NFL has played annually in London since 2007 — 21 games at Wembley, three at Twickenham.

Major League Baseball plays its first games in London on June 29-30, when the World Series champion Boston Red Sox host the New York Yankees in a two-game series at London’s Olympic Stadium.

The NBA played two games at London’s O2 Arena in 2011 and has had one there each January since 2013. The NHL played two regular-season games at O2 Arena in September 2007.

AMES, Iowa – Iowa State redshirt senior guard Marial Shayok has been honored as the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week after leading the Cyclones to wins over Texas Tech and Oklahoma State. Baylor’s King McClure and Kansas State’s Dean Wade were co-players of the week.

The Ottawa, Ontario native scored 20 points in each win and hit 50 percent (7-14) of his three-pointers for the Cyclones. In ISU’s win against No. 8 Texas Tech, Shayok was 6-for-13 from the field, including 3-of-6 3-pointers. He followed that connecting on 4-of-8 three-pointers and leading ISU in scoring with 20 points as the Cyclones earned the season sweep of the Cowboys.

Shayok, who leads the Big 12 in scoring at 19.4 points per game, and Iowa State face Kansas tonight in Lawrence, Kan. The game tips off at 8 p.m. on ESPN.

Bryan York receiving 4th place ribbon in 500 yard Freestyle.

The Atlantic boys swim team finished 8th out of 10 teams with a score of 137 at the LC Invite on Saturday. The Trojans were just 7 points behind the 7th place team. All of the Atlantic swimmers competing set personal bests in at least one event and most in all their events. Here’s the Atlantic results.

Event #2 200yd Medley Relay Cole Sampson, Drew Engler, Alec Muff, Brayden Atkinson 9th place 2:00.45

Event #4 200yd Freestyle 8th place. Bryan York 1:59.36 13th place. Alex Sampson 2:07.96 24th place. Avery Andersen 2:31.51

Event #6 200yd Individual Medley 10th place. Tyson Parker 2:27.71 14th place. Drew Engler 2:31.55

Event #8 50yd Freestyle 21st place Alec Muff 26.24 67th place. Bryce Schmidtke 33.65

Event #10 100yd Butterfly 17th place Tyson Parker 1:09.29 DQ Alec Muff

Event #12 100yd Freestyle 14th place Avery Andersen 57.08 18th place tie Brayden Atkinson 58.30 61st place. Bryce Schmidtke 1:15.59

Event #14 500yd Freestyle 4th place Bryan York 5:19.66 12th place Cole Sampson 5:50.01

Event #16 200yd Freestyle Relay 8th place. 1:43.04 Brayden Atkinson, Alec Muff, Tyson Parker, Alex Sampson 16th place. 1:54.76 Drew Engler, Bryce Schmidtke, Bryan York, Cole Sampson

Event #18 100yd Backstroke 13th place Cole Sampson 1:10.08

Event #20 100yd Breaststroke 9th place Drew Engler 1:12.42 15th place. Alex Sampson 1:18.26

Event #22 400yd Freestyle Relay 7th place. 3:49.16 Brayden Atkinson, Tyson Parker, Bryan York, Alex Sampson 15th place. 4:17.41 Avery Andersen, Drew Engler, Bryce Schmidtke, Cole Sampson

The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast with Chris Parks.

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — It’s the dead of winter, meaning the weather in New England can be brutal. And that the Patriots are headed to the Super Bowl.

It took them overtime and more of Tom Brady’s brilliance to get there — for the third straight year. While the folks back home dealt with a frigid storm, Brady blew through Kansas City’s exhausted defense on a 75-yard drive to Rex Burkhead’s 2-yard touchdown run in a 37-31 victory Sunday for the AFC championship.

The drive, during which New England (13-5) had three third-down conversions, was reminiscent of when the Patriots beat Atlanta in the only Super Bowl to go to OT two years ago.

“Overtime, on the road against a great team,” Brady said. “They had no quit. Neither did we. We played our best football at the end. I don’t know, man, I’m tired. That was a hell of a game.”

Awaiting them in Atlanta are the Los Angeles Rams, who won 26-23 in overtime in New Orleans for the NFC championship. The Rams (15-3) last made the Super Bowl in 2002 while based in St. Louis, losing to the Patriots.

New England benefited from two critical replay reviews and made its ninth Super Bowl with Brady at quarterback and Bill Belichick as coach.

It’s the first time both conference title games went to OT. The last time both visitors won conference championship matches was 2012; New England was 3-5 on the road this season.

Several times, the Patriots appeared to have it won, only to see Kansas City (13-5) come back in spectacular fashion.

Brady, at 41 already the oldest quarterback to have played in a Super Bowl, drove New England 65 yards in 1:24 to Burkhead’s go-ahead 4-yard touchdown with 39 seconds left in regulation. That was enough, though, for his far younger counterpart, the 23-year-old All-Pro Mahomes, to take the Chiefs 48 yards to Harrison Butker’s 39-yard field goal with 8 seconds left to force overtime.

It was a sizzling offensive showing in the fourth quarter after defense had been in charge most of the way. Indeed, the Chiefs were blanked in the opening half for the first time all season.

And they never saw the ball in overtime, which along with the two replay decisions might call into play NFL rules and officiating.

“I thought if we got the chance,” Mahomes said, “we’d score.”

Mahomes finished 16 of 31 for 295 yards and three touchdowns.

New England became the third franchise to reach three Super Bowls in a row. And Belichick now has 30 postseason victories, more than Bill Walsh and Don Shula combined. That Hall of Fame coaching duo also won five Super Bowls; Belichick shoots for No. 6 in two weeks.

An apparent muff by the usually reliable Julian Edelman on a fourth-quarter punt return was overturned by a lengthy video review, prompting raucous booing and some demonstrative arguing from the usually laid-back Andy Reid. Edelman definitely touched his next try when Brady’s pass deflected off his hands directly to safety Daniel Sorensen. His 22-yard return set up Kansas City at the Patriots 23, and Damien Williams, who scored three times, had no defender near him down the left sideline for the score that made it 21-17, KC’s first lead.

Back came Brady, engineering a 75-yard march on which Chris Hogan’s diving one-handed catch on third down appeared to touch the ground. Reid challenged — and lost.

Minutes later, rookie Sony Michel scored from the 10, his second TD of the night.

With 3½ minutes remaining, there was plenty of time for more points. Williams’ 2-yard run gave the Chiefs a 28-24 edge that New England took up most of the remaining time overcoming. The Patriots were helped by an offside call on linebacker Dee Ford that negated an interception which would have clinched a KC victory.

Butker’s field goal sent it to overtime.

“We put ourselves in position to win the game, that’s what makes it so tough,” Reid said. “If it’s a rout, you chalk it up to experience. But this one right here, where you’re in it to win it, that’s a tough deal. We gave ourselves every opportunity to do it, and they got us in overtime.”

The Chiefs hadn’t been blanked in any half this season, but they barely were a presence in the first 30 minutes, when they had the ball for 8:53. Mahomes was sacked three times for 43 yards; Kansas City’s record-setting attack ran only 16 plays and gained a mere 32 yards.

The zero disappeared quickly in the third quarter. Finally given solid protection, Mahomes unleashed a 54-yard completion to Sammy Watkins over All-Pro cornerback Stephon Gilmore. He then hit another All-Pro, tight end Travis Kelce, on a slant to make it 14-7 — and awaken the slumbering crowd.

But one of several bad decisions further damaged Kansas City when Tyreek Hill, the All-Pro flex player, retreated deep in Chiefs territory returning a punt. Eventually, KC had to punt and the Patriots had excellent field position, setting up a 47-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski.

Not one to be shy about innovation, Mahomes completely sidearmed a throw to Watkins for 10 yards on a third down, then a dump-off to Williams covered 33. Kelce drew a pass interference call on J.C. Jackson in the end zone, and Mahomes threw a strike to Williams for the score.

Although the Chiefs were on their heels much of the night, they were down only 17-14.

UP NEXT

The Patriots head to Atlanta to play the Rams in the Super Bowl.

Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Tom Brady and the New England Patriots did what they’ve been doing for the better part of two decades Sunday night, making crucial plays when they mattered in a 37-31 overtime win over the Kansas City Chiefs. Now, they’re headed back to the Super Bowl with another chance to win the Lombardi Trophy, while the Chiefs are headed into the offseason.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Chiefs’ defense collapsed in the fourth quarter and overtime as the New England Patriots escaped with a 37-31 victory in the AFC title game. Tom Brady led the Patriots downfield in the extra session, and Rex Burkhead’s short TD plunge gave them their third straight trip to the Super Bowl without allowing Kansas City another shot with the ball.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes struggled in the first half and dazzled in the second, but nobody knows how he might have fared in overtime. The Chiefs’ star quarterback was forced to watch from the bench as the Patriots scored on the only possession of the extra session to give New England a 37-31 victory in the AFC championship game.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The St. Louis Cardinals had plenty of opinions this weekend after Cubs star Kris Bryant called their city ‘boring’ at a fan event in Chicago. Cardinals pitcher John Brebbia said the back-and-forth was a good winter warmup to the upcoming baseball season.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Freshman Joe Wieskamp matched a career high with 24 points and No. 23 Iowa routed Illinois 95-71 for its fifth straight victory. Isaiah Moss scored a season-high 21 points and Luka Garza added 20 for the Hawkeyes. They hit 12 of their first 14 3-point attempts and 15 overall to blow past the young but talented Fighting Illini. Ayo Dosunmu scored 15 points for Illinois.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Brady Ellingson made a career-high seven 3-pointers in matching his personal best of 25 points and Drake defeated Missouri State 74-63. Ellingson, a senior, made all but one of his shots from the arc and was 9-of-10 shooting overall for the Bulldogs (14-5, 3-3 Missouri Valley), who improved to 8-1 at home with their second straight win.