Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting
03/07/2010 - St. Louis, MO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Kwadzo Ahelegbe poured in a game-high 24 points to go along with five rebounds, as the top-seeded Northern Iowa Panthers punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament by taking down the second-seeded Wichita State Shockers, 67-52, in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship game.
Jake Koch added 13 points for the Panthers (28-4), who beat Illinois State in last year's MVC title game. Jordan Eglseder ended with 10 points for Northern Iowa, which improved to 3-1 in conference title bouts.
Clevin Hannah finished with 12 points and six rebounds for the Shockers (25-9), who were trying to win their first MVC crown since 1987. Garrett Stutz chipped in 11 points and six boards in defeat.
Trailing 39-33 a few minutes into the second half, the Panthers put together a 23-3 run to essentially seal the victory. Ahelegbe had nine points during the stretch, which Johnny Moran ended with a trey for a 56-42 lead with five minutes to play.
The Shockers never got closer than nine the rest of the way.
The Panthers used a 7-0 spurt in the early stages of the first half to take a 12-5 lead with less than 12 minutes to go. Wichita State then made a trio of three-pointers during an ensuing 11-0 burst, which Demetric Williams ended with a trey to give the Shockers a 16-12 edge with about nine minutes remaining.
The remainder of the frame was a tight battle that saw Wichita State take a 31-28 margin into the locker room.
Game Notes
The Shockers have two MVC crowns...The Panthers became the first school to repeat as MVC champs since Creighton in 2002-03....UNI leads the all-time series with Wichita State, 23-18...Northern Iowa shot 43.5 percent from the field, while the Shockers made just 32.7 percent of their shots...UNI outscored Wichita State, 39-21, in the second half.
<< Duke downs N.C. State for ACC title
Greensboro, NC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jasmine Thomas scored a team-high 18 points
and added six rebounds and six assists as ninth-ranked Duke defeated N.C.
State for the ACC women's title.
Karima Christmas chipped in 13 points, while J
<< Irish reach Big East semis with win over St. John's
Hartford, CT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Skylar Diggins scored 21 points to help
sixth-ranked Notre Dame defeat No. 16 St. John's, 75-67, in the quarterfinals
of the Big East Tournament.
Devereaux Peters had 13 points and Lindsay Schrader
<< Israel stays alive against Chile in Davis Cup
Coquimbo, Chile (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Israeli doubles specialists Jonathan
Erlich and Andy Ram posted a big victory on Sunday, as the Israelis pulled
within 1-2 of the host Chileans in their best-of-five first-round Davis Cup
matchup
<< Second period blitz helps Wings down Chicago
Chicago, IL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Pavel Datsyuk's breakaway tally capped a five-
goal eruption in the second period and proved to be the game-winner, as
Detroit overcame an Andrew Ladd hat trick and held on to beat the Chicago
Blackha
Mallorca moves level with Sevilla in La Liga >>
Mallorca, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Julio Alvarez, Victor Casadesus and Pierre
Webo scored and Mallorca topped Sporting Gijon 3-0 on Sunday at the ONO Estadi
to move level with fourth-place Sevilla in Spain's La Liga.
Mallorca won for the 11
Mid-American Conference Tournament Recaps >>
Buffalo, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Max Boudreau scored 18 points off the bench to
lead the fifth-seeded Buffalo Bulls to a 72-54 victory over the 12th-seeded
Toledo Rockets in the first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
Calvin
Pate wins in Bogota >>
Bogota, Colombia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Former PGA Tour winner Steve Pate parred
the second playoff hole Sunday to defeat Aaron Watkins and win the inaugural
Bogota Open.
Pate, the third-round leader, only managed an even-par 71 in the final rou
Inter held to scoreless draw by Genoa >>
Milan, Italy (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Inter Milan was held to a 0-0 draw at San Siro
by Genoa on Sunday, the third time in its last four Serie A matches is has not
scored.
Inter has tied four of its last five matches in Italy's top flight, with th
Michael Vick is back, Brett Favre isn't and the NFC East remains the best division in the NFC, maybe in all of football.
As players start to gather for the start of another season, some things change and some stay the same in the world of the NFL.
The NFC East has been the dominant division in the National Conference for a while, despite limited playoff success, save for the New York Giants surprise Super Bowl win two seasons ago.
Hell, there's a generation of kids in Texas who have never seen the Cowboys win a playoff game (last win was in 1996).
But collectively, the Giants, Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins (well, maybe not so much the Redskins) are as good as a division gets in an NFC conference that has struggled to stay competitive with the AFC side.
Sports bettors have both acknowledged the NFC East's dominance, as one glance at the NFL future odds menu will show.
Looking over the NFL betting odds at online sports book MySportsbook.com we see the top three teams listed to win the NFC Championship are all from the NFC East:
Dallas Cowboys - 7 - 1
Philadelphia Eagles - 13 - 2
New York Giants - 9 - 2
Slotting in behind these three are two teams from the NFC North: the Minnesota Vikings (15-2) and the Chicago Bears (10-1).
Again, despite the lack of recent playoff success, the Dallas Cowboys are popular with the sports betting community, as they hold 14% of all the money wagered on who will win the NFC Championship.
So far, the New York Giants are the bettors' favorite to represent their conference in the Super Bowl, as they have 24% of the overall NFC Championship betting volume.
And what about the Philadelphia Eagles? For the most part, the Eagles had a very productive offseason, the kind that could bring them back to the top.
They had a good draft adding the likes of WR Jeremy Maclin and RB LeSean McCoy.
Unfortunately, the team received a blow when long-time defensive coordinator Jim Johnson passed away on Tuesday.
But this team will make a real run at the division title this year. Going into the regular season, Philly is listed at +240 to win the division.
Last season the Eagles were 9-6-1 SU and 10-6 ATS.
Teams from the NFC East will play teams from the AFC West in the regular season and the Eagles haven't really been a good bet in the last 20 games against the likes of San Diego, Oakland, K.C. and Denver, only going 8-12 ATS.
Two seasons removed from that Super Bowl title, the New York Giants see themselves listed as the odds-on favorite in NFC East championship futures at +162.
Plaxico Burress is gone and with him all the bad publicity surrounding the gun in the sweatpants incident, but can they replace him in the offense?
Last season the Giants were a very reliable bet going 12-4 ATS.
In the Giants' last 20 games against fellow teams from the NFC East; they are 13-7 ATS.
Dallas is listed at +240 to win the division.
Dallas went 9-7 SU and 7-9 ATS last season and with the amount of talent the Cowboys have, a similar performance won't do.
The Cowboys have been atrocious against divisional rivals, going 6-14 ATS in their last 20.
The Washington Redskins are longshots to win the division at +550.
Visit MySportsbook.com for free sportsbook odds RSS feeds go to MySportsbook.com for all your betting football needs.
Sports Betting News: NFL Team History | NFL Football Betting | College Football Betting | Baseball Betting | Basketball Betting | College Basketball Betting | Hockey Betting | Golf Betting | Tennis Betting | Auto Racing Betting | Horse Racing Betting | Soccer Betting