Jeff Hart

The Flowery Branch football team finished the regular season in strong fashion taking a 41-7 win over West Hall Friday night. The win improved the Falcons to 9-1, 4-0 in Region 7B-AAA and wrapped up the No. 2 seed from the region and a first round home game in next week's Class AAA playoffs.

Jim Jackson notched a goal and a pair of assists while Dirk Southern pushed his point scoring streak to eight games, helping the Gladiators to a 6-4 win over the Mississippi Sea Wolves on Friday night at the Arena at Gwinnett Center.

Jeff Gordon, who trails Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson by 30 points in the Nextel Cup standings, qualified third under overcast conditions in the desert for Sunday's Nextel Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway.

Rookie goalie Ondrej Pavelec stopped 36 shots, Ilya Kovalchuk scored his eighth goal in his last four games and the Atlanta Thrashers beat the Florida Panthers 4-1 on Friday night.

Kevin Garnett had 27 points and 19 rebounds, Paul Pierce scored 23 and the Boston Celtics beat the Atlanta Hawks 106-83 Friday night, their third blowout win of a season in which they're off to their best start in 20 years.

North Hall put the finishing touches on just its second-ever undefeated regular season with an eye-opening 53-6 win over Chestatee Friday at War Eagle Stadium. The Class AAA third-ranked Trojans will carry the No. 1 seed from Region 7-AAA into the playoffs.

Ashley Houts scored 17 points and No. 9 Georgia used a big run starting the second half to win its season opener, 81-53 over Richmond on Friday night. Gainesville native Tasha Humphrey, a third-team All-America each of the last two years, had 13 points and nine rebounds for Georgia.

UNC-Greensboro handed another major-conference school a stunning loss, getting 25 points from Kyle Hines in an 83-74 victory over Georgia Tech on Friday night.

About this time a year ago, Matthew Stafford was a mess of a freshman quarterback. He wasn't always sure where to throw the ball. He was winging it with the play-calling. And his passes kept going to the wrong team. Then suddenly it all clicked.