the Bulldogs can win this tournament for the third time, i

The Los Angeles Sparks snapped a two-game losing streak with a win over the dismal San Antonio Stars on Thursday. But it wasnt easy, and the uneven performance adds to the concerns facing the Sparks heading into the final seven games of the season.Los Angeles will try to complete a Texas two-step in two nights on Friday, when the Sparks take on the struggling Dallas Wings at College Park Center. The Sparks have clinched a playoff spot.Los Angeles (22-5) lost its first two games after returning from the Olympic break and had a tough time putting away the Stars on Thursday. They trailed midway through the fourth quarter, until Kristi Toliver and Candace Parker fueled a late push to put away San Antonio, owner of the worst record in the WNBA, in a low-scoring 70-61 victory.The Wings (9-19) havent been much better and have dropped nine straight games, the longest current losing streak in the WNBA. But the Sparks, who spent the majority of the season with the best record in the league, havent been playing well, either.The Wings are surrendering a league-worst 88.2 points per game. Odyssey Sims is averaging 14.3 points per game, and star forward Glory Johnson is averaging 11.7 points and 9.1 rebounds for Dallas.The Sparks have failed to score 80 points in any of their three games since the month-long Olympic break. Forward Nneka Ogwumike leads the team in points (19.7) and rebounds (9.1), and Parker is having another big all-around season, averaging 16.4 points, 7.5 rebounds and 5.2 assists.The Sparks won both previous meetings this season, most recently a close 89-84 home victory over the Wings on June 28. Parker had 31 points and 13 points in the win. It was an emotional performance for Parker, in her first game since losing her beloved college coach at Tennessee, the late Pat Summitt.The Wings led by 22 in the third quarter, but had no answers for the Sparks down the stretch. Dallas has won only twice since blowing that big lead to the Sparks. Fake Black Friday Shoes . It was hard for Luck to pull off another comeback, or even get into the end zone, while standing on the sideline. Rivers threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to rookie Keenan Allen and Nick Novak kicked four field goals to give the Chargers a 19-9 victory against the Colts on Monday night. Black Friday Shoes Free Shipping . -- Jimmy Walkers first PGA Tour trophy came with a special gift tucked inside. https://www.shoesblackfriday.com/ . Once again Jordan Cieciwa (@FitCityJordan) and I (@LynchOnSports) go head to head in our picks. Last weekend at UFC Fight Night 32 my #TeamLynch got the best of #TeamJC by a score of 9-6. Let us know which side youre on for UFC 167 use the hashtag #TeamLynch or #TeamJC on Twitter. Cheap Black Friday Shoes . -- Playing time has been limited for Maxim Tissot this season, so the Montreal Impact defender made the most of his first scoring opportunity on Saturday. Wholesale Black Friday Shoes . -- Matt Rupert scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the London Knights extended their win streak to nine games by defeating the Owen Sound Attack 4-3 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League action. LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Gonzagas fourth straight lopsided victory didnt come as easy as the final score would suggest.Jonathan Williams and Zach Collins led a balanced offense with 13 points apiece, helping the 11th-ranked Bulldogs shrug off a slow start and pull away to an 82-62 win over Quinnipiac in the first round of the AdvoCare Invitational at Disney World on Thursday night.The Bulldogs (4-0) also got 10 points each from Jordan Mathews and Josh Perkins to advance to the semifinals of the eight-team tournament.Like I told the guys, were not going to be up by 30 every game at half. Its Division I basketball, Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. Youve got to scratch and claw, and find your way through it, and I thought we did a nice job of doing that.Gonzaga used a 12-2 spurt to open a 37-25 lead late in the first half. Silas Nelsons basket put the Bulldogs up 48-35 with just under 15 minutes to go, and the closest Quinnipiac (0-3) got after that was 10. Mathews made 3-pointers on successive trips down the floor, sparking a run that enabled the Bulldogs to build the margin to 23.Not every game is going to be an easy game. Quinnipiac, they came out fighting but we fought back. We didnt let the first half dictate what was going to happen in the second half, said Collins, a 7-foot freshman forward. We executed much better in the second half. We played much better defense. ... We just fought, stayed together, didnt let it get us down and just kept rolling.Peter Kiss led Quinnipiac with 18 points and Daniel Harris added 10. The Bobcats limited Gonzagas leading scorer, 7-foot-1 Przemek Karnowski, to eight points on 4-for-10 shooting despite not having a player on the roster taller than 6-foot-9 forward Chaise Daniels.Im proud of our effort, proud of our togetherness. We have a very inexperienced group, a young group, QQuinnipiac coach Tom Moore said.ddddddddddddWe come into this game, obviously, against a program like Gonzaga with a different agenda than they had to have. Were trying to find ourselves, he added. Overall, tonight was a step forward for us. We have a long way to go, a lot of things to get better at. This is a blue-blood program that we played tonight. Im really proud of our effort from start to finish.BIG PICTUREThe Bulldogs figure to get a better idea of where they are over the next two days, when they could face a ranked opponent as well as another on the verge of cracking the Top 25. Quinnipiac stayed close for 15 minutes, but mainly because Gonzaga shot 41 percent in the opening half and missed nine of 11 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc. The teams remaining in the winners bracket pose a much bigger challenge.POLL IMPLICATIONSIf the Bulldogs can win this tournament for the third time, it would bolster their argument to crack the Top 10. At the very least, picking up two quality wins would help their position as they move toward a Dec. 3 trip to No. 9 Arizona.STILL PERFECTGonzaga improved to 7-0 in the Thanksgiving tournament at Disney formerly known as the Old Spice Classic. The Bulldogs won the event in 2008 and 2012.Its been great for us. Its always given us a great barometer where were at, Few said. To get out here on the road as a group at Thanksgiving, I think it does nothing but kind of draw us even closer, and weve been working on that all year.UP NEXTGonzaga plays Florida (5-0) in the tournament semifinals Friday night.Quinnipiac faces Seton Hall (3-1) in the losers bracket.---More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25. ' ' '