Pirate Galaxy » might, be one of those times.The upcomi

FORT HOOD, Texas -- Al Freeman appreciated a second chance to play in front of the soldiers and their families at Fort Hood.The Baylor guard showed it with his best game of the season.Freeman scored a season-high 19 points and made a career-best five 3-pointers and the fourth-ranked Bears returned to the sprawling Army post about an hours drive south of their Waco campus with an 82-57 victory over Jackson State on Saturday night.A year ago, Freeman scored 12 points in a 104-59 rout of Division III Hardin-Simmons. This time he was 5 of 8 from long range in the first game featuring a pair of Division I teams at Fort Hood, one of the nations largest Army posts covering about 340 square miles and housing more than 40,000 soldiers.I know that this is the first time some of the soldiers have seen their families in 18 months, 24 months, however long they had their tours, Freeman said. Its a really cool experience to be the center focus of why they come back and the center focus of them, like, seeing their family again, to be the entertainment for them and their family for the night.The setup was similar to a year ago, with a slightly larger and near-capacity crowd at 2,400-seat Abrams Gym, which has a large American flag on the wall behind the benches opposite the only permanent set of stands.And just like a year ago, Baylor players signed autographs after the game at one end of what looks like a high school gym except for the larger space behind each basket. The Bears enjoyed last years thank you and wanted to do it again .I think everyone feels the same way, especially around the holidays when we get to go home to family and friends and so many of them dont get to see loved ones because theyre out protecting our freedom, coach Scott Drew said.Baylors Jo Lual-Acuil had a season-high 17 points with six rebounds and five blocks -- slightly better than his 4.3-block average that ranks second nationally. The Bears are 10-0 for the first time since starting 17-0 in 2011-12.Edric Dennis scored 21 points for Jackson State (3-8), which stayed close until a 24-6 Baylor run that started late in the first half and ended with the Bears up 58-38 with about 12 minutes remaining.Jackson States Sherron Wilson was ejected for flagrant foul that sent Johnathan Motley sprawling to the floor midway through second half, not long after Derek Roscoe was given a technical for saying something to Terry Maston after blocking Mastons shot.Wilsons foul was the third technical in about 5 minutes for the Tigers.This is the most frustrating part of our season because weve have three season-ending injuries to three starters, Jackson State coach Wayne Brent said. So right were just trying to scratch and claw. Even with our other guys, were still short-handed because theyve got such good talent.PUTTING ON A CLINICFor the second straight year, Drew and his staff conducted a clinic for the kids of soldiers about a week before the game. I love the clinic, coming down here and helping kids because dads that cant be here to work them out because theyre deployed, Drew said. To know that their 6-year-old, 8-year-old, had a good chance to run around with the ball and get out of moms hair for an hour is probably a good thing.SPECIAL MOMENTJackson State guard Paris Collins briefly lived at Fort Hood while his dad spent time there. He dad was in the Air Force for 22 years. It was a dream playing for my dad tonight, said Collins, the other double-figure scorer for the Tigers with 16 points. Hes done so much for me. I had `Pop coming to watch me, you know what Im saying. It was a blessing for him to be here.BIG PICTUREJackson State: The three Brent referred to that are out for the year are guard Chace Franklin (shoulder), Treshawn Bolden (broken foot) and Charles Taylor (knee). The Tigers had to feel a boost by the way they played without three starters in the first half.Baylor: The Bears were a little flat after taking a big early lead against another SWAC opponent in Southern earlier in the week. But Baylor looked like a team with three wins over Top 10 teams in a 10-minute stretch that started late in the first half.UP NEXTJackson State: Tigers visit Duquesne on Monday, take an 11-day break before playing Fisk at home Dec. 30 and open SWAC play at Alabama State on Jan. 2.Baylor: Bears have rare case of playing on consecutive days in different facilities, with a game at home Sunday against John Brown. Theres just one nonconference game left after that Wednesday at home against Texas Southern before the Big 12 opener Dec. 30 at Oklahoma.---More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 Discount Fake NBA Jerseys . White came in fourth place in the event. He was the two-time defending gold medallist. The gold medal went to Swiss snowboarder Iouri Podladtchikov. Fake Nike NBA Jerseys . Philadelphia is 2-0 against the Senators this season and scored five goals in each victory. The Flyers recorded a 5-0 win in Ottawa on Nov. 12 and then earned a 5-2 home decision on Nov. 19. The Flyers have claimed three straight and four of the last five encounters with the Sens overall and Philly has won two in a row and three of its past four tests in Canadas capital city. http://www.fakenbajerseys.com/ . The Montreal Canadiens announced on Friday that the veteran forward will return to the teams line-up on Saturday night when the Habs visit the Nashville Predators. Fake NBA Jerseys Sale . The Vancouver coach and an announced sellout crowd of 18,910 watched in dismay as the Canucks lost 7-4 to the New York Islanders on Monday night by squandering a 3-0 lead in the third period. Fake NBA Jerseys China . The giant slalom world champion slipped during her first run in the morning, landing on her back and then twisting forward before getting her leg caught in the protective material on the side of the slope. Forget the extravagant claims of greatness and fight-of-the-year talk. Last Saturdays Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev bout was boxings version of a beggars banquet -- nothing epic, just a decent meal after a steady diet of stale sandwiches and flat beer at pay-per-view prices.Wards unanimous decision victory (114-113 on all three official cards) didnt really settle much, and had it been a fight between lesser lights, its unlikely we would still be talking about it.But boxings core audience was emotionally invested in the match. It was the showdown it craved and lobbied for, a fight between a pair of undefeated light heavyweights who seemed made for each other. A relentless power puncher against a master craftsman, but with a double twist: The puncher could box, and the craftsman had a mean streak.Expectations were high, a little too high as it turned out. But thats the burden all major matches must bear during boxings seemingly never-ending winter of discontent.Ward-Kovalev had no shortage of tension and suspense, but with the possible exception of Kovalev knocking down Ward in the second round, there were few memorable highlights. Clinches were more numerous than meaningful exchanges, and neither man ever mounted an all-out attack, even though they must have known it was close.We should have learned by now that the best-fighting-the-best formula does not necessarily guarantee a great fight. Thats up to the fighters. But the odds in favor of something exceptional happening are obviously enhanced when the combatants are among the elite.During the prefight hype, Ward-Kovalev was likened to the first bout between Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya, in 2000, a superb example of a brilliant fight between exceptional fighters at the peak of their careers. Shane and Oscar held nothing back and tore into each other virtually nonstop from first bell to last. It was magnificent stuff fought at the highest level.We werent that lucky Saturday. Neither Ward nor Kovalev seemed as eager as Mosley and De La Hoya to risk all in the quest for glory, which is, of course, a prerequisite for true greatness.But these are trying times. Boxing has been sinking in a sea of mediocrity since the crushing disappointment of the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fiasco and the ensuing backlash.Ward-Kovalev didnt quite live up to expectations but provided enough of a boost to keep boxings bent nose above water. That has to count for something.Its easy to understand why a sizable number of viewers believed Kovalev deserved to have his hand raised and were ticked off when he didnt.I, too, had the Krusher ahead, 115-113. But theres a difference between a robbery and a controversial decision, and Ward-Kovalev fell into the latter category. It was that kind of fight. Neither ever gained total control.At first it looked as if Kovalev were about to dispatch Ward with the sudden violence of a man who laughs at his victim as he falls. He staggered Ward in the first round with a jab and knocked him down in the second with a right to the head. Nothing to it, right?Ward seem seconds away from oblivion, but in the face of the greatest crisiss of his career, he found the resiliency to keep going.dddddddddddd. He hung in there through the first half of the fight, taking his lumps, getting in his own share of the blows, but generally falling further behind.As things progressed, however, Wards subtle but highly effective work to the body began to sap Kovalevs strength. You could see the change in the Russians face, and Andre had the better of it most of the way down the stretch. Not by much, but apparently enough to win by a single point on each card.The promoters ambitiously named Ward-Kovalev Pound for Pound, alluding to the notion that the winner would ascend to the top of the mythical rankings. It didnt seem that big a leap of faith at the time. Going in, Kovalev and Ward were No. 3 and No. 5, respectively, in ESPN.coms P4P hierarchy. Now, not so much.Pound-for-pound is such an arbitrary and subjective concept, an argument can be made for the inclusion of any number of boxers, depending on ones criteria. For me, P4P is an arena of the mind, where all the boxers are the same size and compete against one another.Playing by those rules, nothing that took place at T-Mobile Arena last Saturday convinced me that either Ward or Kovalev should advance above Roman Chocolatito Gonzalez and Gennady Golovkin, currently No. 1 and No. 2, respectively. Others, Im sure, have different ideas.Putting too much emphasis on P4P rankings can backfire. Right now boxing is like an unfaithful spouse trying to patch things up with its partner. Its going to take a long time and a lot more than one or two good fights. Ward-Kovalev was a good start, but only a start. A rematch could be another.An occasional good fight is nowhere near enough. Continuity is vital to even a minor boxing renaissance. The hardcore audience isnt going anywhere. Theyre hooked on boxing and are in it for the duration. The sport has to round up the strays and seduce the casuals to thrive. And thats not going to be easy.The answer is the same as in any business: consistent quality at a reasonable price -- not exactly boxings governing business model. But every now and then we get lucky. The next few months might, just might, be one of those times.The upcoming schedule is PPV free and features Vasyl Lomachenko-Nicholas Walters on Nov. 26 and Terence Crawford-John Molina on Dec. 10. Molina is unlikely to last long with Crawford, but Lomachenko-Walters is intriguing.Badou Jack-James DeGale (Jan. 14), Carl Frampton-Leo Santa Cruz II and Keith Thurman-Danny Garcia (Mar. 4) await us in the new year. All have promise, and with a bit of luck, could keep things going.Its boxing were talking about, so undue confidence is foolish. Fights fall apart for countless reasons. It comes with the territory. But the upcoming schedule is promising, and if things fall into place, we could look back on Ward-Kovalev as the start of a roll.It was, at the very least, a time when arguably the two best fighters in their division chose to fight each other. Thats never a bad thing. ' ' '