Jeff Hart

The Class AAA fifth-ranked Gainesville girls basketball team showed Friday night it can play a little defense. The Lady Elephants held Flowery Branch to single digits in every quarter en route to a 41-26 Region 7B-AAA win at the Gainesville gym. The ninth-ranked Flowery Branch boys held off a late charge to beat Gainesville 75-71 in the second game.

North Hall boys basketball coach Benjie Wood watched Tuesday night as his Trojans may have finally grown up. The Trojans overcame a 10-point second half deficit to knock off Class AAA No. 5 East Hall 61-59 at the East Hall gym and in the process took over sole possession of first place in the Region 7A-AAA subregion. The East Hall girls made it a split with a 56-48 win over the Lady Trojans.

DeWanna Bonner and Auburn responded to a humbling loss with a resounding blowout of Georgia. Bonner had 21 points and 13 rebounds in an 82-52 win over No. 10 Georgia on Sunday, nearly reversing the score from a humiliating defeat at No. 2 Tennessee three days earlier.

Tom Brady was almost perfect. The Patriots still are. Their poised and prolific quarterback knocked another mark out of the books in their record-breaking season, completing all but two of his 28 passes to lead New England to its second straight AFC championship game with a 31-20 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday night.

With Lambeau Field looking like a snow globe, Favre frolicked in the flurries, throwing three touchdown passes as the Packers beat Seattle 42-20 Saturday, the highest-scoring postseason game in Green Bay history.

North Georgia trailed by eight points with under a minute to play, but pulled off a miracle to send the game to overtime and then came away with a 77-75 win as the fans stormed the court for a picture-perfect ending to Homecoming 2008.

The 20th-ranked North Georgia women's basketball team utilized a huge first half scoring run, and held on in the second half for a 74-66 win over the UNC Pembroke here Saturday night on Homecoming.

Louis Graham scored 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting to lead Georgia Southern to a 73-52 win over The Citadel on Saturday.

Ben Smith hit a 15-foot jumper as time expired and Jacksonville held off a late rally to beat Mercer 72-70 on Saturday. The Dolphins (7-8, 4-0 Atlantic Sun Conference) took a 16-point lead with 7:25 left in the second half on a 3-pointer by Evan Jefferson, who finished with 10 points.

Oakland Athletics veteran Mark Kotsay may be the Atlanta Braves' starting center fielder in 2008, but only if his surgically repaired back first passes inspection. The Braves may be prepared to send young reliever Joey Devine, a 2005 first-round pick, to Oakland for Kotsay. Kotsay first must pass a physical exam.