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SAINTS WIN SUPER BOWL

The New Orleans Saints overcame a 10-nothing deficit to win Super Bowl-44 last night, 31-to-17. Beloit native Jim Caldwell was denied the chance to become the first rookie head coach to win a Super Bowl since George Seifert of San Francisco in 1990. Caldwell said he was disappointed. But he said the Colts admired what the Saints have done – and they understand the rough time New Orleans has gone through in the four-and-a-half years since Hurricane Katrina. Ex-Wisconsin Badger Jonathan Casillas (cuh-see’-iss) helped turn the Saints’ fortunes around by recovering an on-side kick to open the second half. And New Orleans went on to score a touchdown in that drive to go up by three. It was the first on-side kick in a Super Bowl that was not in the fourth quarter. Former Packer Darren Sharper had three tackles, and won his first Super Bowl after losing one with Green Bay 12 years ago. He said all the training and hard work paid off. Ex-Packers’ defensive tackle Daniel Muir had one tackle for Indianapolis – which failed to win its second championship in four years. Drew Brees was the game’s M-V-P, and he hit Jeremy Shockey on a two-yard pass for the go-ahead touchdown with 5:42 left. Two-and-a-half minutes later, Tracy Porter sealed the win by intercepting a Peyton Manning pass and returning it 74 yards for a score. Both quarterbacks combined for a Super Bowl-record 63 pass completions, and Brees tied a Super Bowl mark with 32 completions. The Colts dominated most of the offensive stats despite having the ball just eight times. They out-gained the Saints 432 yards to 332. Time-of-possession was about equal, with New Orleans holding the ball just 22 seconds longer.

STRICKER WINS PGA EVENT

Steve Stricker of Madison won the P-G-A’s Northern Trust Open near Los Angeles yesterday. He beat Luke Donald by two strokes. But Stricker was up by seven late in the third round, and six going into the final round. And if Donald would have made three close birdie putts in his final 18, Stricker could have tied a P-G-A record for blowing the biggest lead. But he hung on for his eight career victory on the Tour, finishing at 16-under-par-268. Stricker moved up one spot to second in the World Golf Rankings behind Tiger Woods – and he took over the lead in the year-long Fed-Ex Cup standings by 226 points over second-place Bill Haas. It was Stricker’s fourth victory in his last 15 starts. It netted him almost one-point-two million dollars, and it put him over the 25-million mark for his career. Also, Stricker was the fifth player to win the Northern Trust Open after placing second the previous year. Dustin Johnson and J-B Holmes tied for third. Pewaukee native Mark Wilson tied for 54th at one-over-285. Wilson shot a two-under-69 in his final round.

BADGER WOMEN FALL TO BOILERMAKERS

The Wisconsin women's basketball team led for all but the final three seconds yesterday at Purdue. Chelsea Jones hit the game-winning shot as the Boilermakers edged the Badgers 58-to-56. Wisconsin led by nine at the half, but Purdue closed the game on a 17-6 run as the Badgers dropped their 22nd straight in West Lafayette. Wisconsin out-shot the Boilermakers 48-to-39 percent, and the Badgers had a 42-39 rebounding edge. But Purdue made 14-of-23 from the free-throw line, while the Badgers made just 3-of-8 from the charity stripe. Wisconsin also committed 21 turnovers to Purdue's 15. Alyssa Karel was the only Badger to score in double figures with 13. Brittany Rayburn led Purdue with 19. And senior FahKara Malone broke a Purdue record for career steals with 329. And she scored her one-thousandth career point with a break-away lay-up which tied the game at 53 in the closing minutes. Purdue improved to 7-and-0 at home against Big Ten opponents, and they moved into second place at 8-and-5. The Boilermakers are 13-and-11 overall. Wisconsin fell to 7-and-6 in the league and 17-and-7 overall, and they fell into a tie for third with Penn State. The Badgers will host Indiana next Sunday.

BADGER HOCKEY FALLS TO BEMIDJI STATE

The Wisconsin women’s hockey team lost to Bemidji State 2-to-nothing yesterday, as the teams split their two-game series in Madison. They were back indoors at the Kohl Center, after playing outdoors on Saturday in the Camp Randall Hockey Classic. Montana Vichorek and Erin Cody scored power-play goals for Bemidji, which improved to 8-9-and-7 in the W-C-H-A and 9-14-and-7 overall. Alana McElhinney turned back all 17 of Wisconsin’s shot attempts. The ninth-ranked Badgers were shut out for the first time since last October 10th, when Bemidji State also did the honors. Wisconsin fell to 13-10-and-1 in the conference and 16-11-and-3 overall. They’ll host Minnesota State on Friday and Sunday.