Tuesday January 3rd Local Sports

DES MOINES — Mason City native Megan Meyer’s season has come to an end with the Drake women’s basketball team after an anterior cruciate ligament injury. The Drake women’s basketball team announced on Monday that an MRI taken last week revealed a torn ACL and that Meyer will have surgery at a to-be-determined date and miss the remainder of the season. Meyer, a senior, was the Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Year last year and a pre-season All-MVC honoree this season. She averaged just under 13 points, three assists and three rebounds per game while shooting 43% from the field and 33% from three-point range in eight games this season.

— Monday night girls basketball
Mason City vs. Ottumwa at Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines — postponed
St. Ansgar 77, Charles City 47
Garner-Hayfield-Ventura 44, Lake Mills 39
Clarksville 43, North Butler 25

— Monday night boys basketball
Mason City vs. Ottumwa at Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines — postponed
Lake Mills 77, Garner-Hayfield-Ventura 54
North Butler 43, Clarksville 35

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Anthony Edwards scored 29 points, including 15 in the third quarter to help Minnesota withstand a push by Denver, and the Timberwolves held on for a 124-111 win against the Nuggets. Jaden McDaniels had 21 points and Kyle Anderson added 19 for Minnesota, which snapped a six-game losing streak and won its fourth in a row against Denver. Nikola Jokic finished with 24 points, seven rebounds and nine assists, and Jamal Murray added 14 points after a scoreless first-half. Aaron Gordon missed his first 10 shots, but finished with 12 points and 16 rebounds.

OSAGE — Osage finished third and Mason City finished fourth in the Osage girls wrestling tournament held on Monday. The Green Devils ended with 215 points, two points shy of second-place Cedar Falls and 22 points behind team champion East Buchanan. Champions for Osage were Gable Hemann at 100, Jaylnn Goodale at 115, and Emma Schipper at 235; while finishing as runners-up were Zoey Johnson at 120 and Melanie Bruesewitz at 125. Mason City finished fourth with 135 ½ points. Layla Phillips was the only Riverhawk champion at 105 pounds while Alexis Hoeft was runner-up at 130. Clear Lake finished 13th with 38 points while West Fork was 16th with 20 points.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Vikings have outscored their opponents this season during the fourth quarter and overtime by 78 points, the best total in the league.

Those first 45 minutes of the game matter, too. This problem the Vikings have of falling behind — by a lot, sometimes — can’t be dismissed as they prepare for the playoffs.

The Vikings (12-4) clinched the NFC North with four games to go thanks to their crunch-time performances, setting a single-season NFL record with 11 wins by eight or fewer points.

They’ve more than made up for sloppy, sluggish or substandard starts with strong finishes.

Over the past four games, though, the Vikings have outscored their opponents in one first quarter, no second quarters and one third quarter.

Coach Kevin O’Connell pointed first to the lack of sustained drives by his team’s potent offense, but broadened the blame to implore the defense, special teams and coaching staff to step up as well and help stop the “avalanche” that has happened to these Vikings too often.

They’ve fallen behind by 33 or more points in three of their past seven games, a rare occurrence for the worst of teams — let alone a division winner.

The Vikings are only the second NFL club in the past 10 years and the ninth since the salary cap was installed in 1994 to face a 33-plus-point deficit three times in the same season, according to Sportradar data.