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Thursday Girls Hoops — Las Plumas at Red Bluff, 7:30 p.m. Soccer — Corning vs. West Valley at Redding, 6 p.m. Soccer — Hamilton at Mercy, 3:30 p.m. NBA—Heat at Knicks, 5 p.m., TNT NBA— Celtics at Trail Blazers, 7:30 p.m., TNT Winter X Games — 9 a.m., ESPN, 6 p.m., ESPN2 Sports 1B Thursday January 27, 2011 Red Bluff tames Tigers Tehama Tracker BOYS HOOPS Corning 34 Anderson 46 The Cardinals fell 46-34 on the road, Tuesday night, at Anderson. Corning started Northern Athletic League play with a 12- 4 overall record, but have dropped their first three league games. Mercy 82 Maxwell 83 2OT The Mercy Warriors played another thrilling game, Tues- day, but ultimately fell in double-overtime at Maxwell 83- 82. Mercy trailed 22-6 after the first period, but climbed back the next three quarters and won the fourth period 24-12 to force overtime. Jeremie Jones had 23 points, 11 rebounds, five steals and three assists to lead the Warriors. Steven Rodriguez continues to gain confidence and fin- ished with 19 points. Mitchell Lopez had 18 and Michael Wang finished with 14 points for the 10-9 Warriors, who are 3-3 in league play. GIRLS HOOPS Red Bluff 43 Oroville 52 Red Bluff couldn’t get over the hump and fell 52-43 at Oroville. The Lady Spartans have dropped six straight and 10 of their last 11 games. Corning 34 Anderson 46 Daily News photo by Rich Greene Red Bluff’s Carlos Tapia tries to split a pair of Oroville defenders during Wednesday’s game. BOYS HOOPS Oroville 51 Red Bluff 59 By RICH GREENE DN Sports Editor The Spartans did what they had to do, Wednesday night, taking care of business in a 59-51 victory over the visiting Oroville Tigers. As the ball was tipped, coach Stan Twitchell told his Spartans to “attack this thing” — and they lis- tened. No Tiger recorded a point or even a rebound until more than seven minutes into the game. By then Red Bluff had built up Torrey Pines a 13-0 cushion and cruised from there. The Spartans’ defense forced turnovers, shot clock violations, jump balls, 3-second in the paint calls, steals, airballs and inbound violations as they controlled the first period of the game. Red Bluff held a 30-11 halftime advantage. Storm Lewis with 16 points and Jonah McInnis with 12 points once again gave Red Bluff a strong inside presence. Balanced from the perimeter were 14 points from Ian Hill and nine from Carlos Tapia. Oroville’s Kyle Harrigan tried to make it interesting in the final SAN DIEGO (AP) — Tiger Woods at Torrey Pines felt like the start of any other season on the PGA Tour, except when he awoke at 3:30 a.m. Wednes- day and realized he had plenty of time on his hands. Gone was the crack-of- dawn tee time in the pro-am that had belonged to him for so many years, a product of being the No. 1 player. He was 68th on the money list last year and no longer gets first pick of the best tee times. ‘‘I get to sleep in a little bit,’’ Woods said. ‘‘Got up at 3:30 this morning not knowing what to do.’’ He isn’t the defending champion, even though Woods hasn’t lost at Torrey Pines since 2004. Then again, he hasn’t played since 2008 because of knee surgery, followed by an imploding personal life last year. Woods said he is looking forward to the Farmers Insurance Open, which can be interpreted so many ways. It’s a new year, and he would just as soon forget about the last one. Woods failed to win anywhere in the world for the first time in his pro career while going through a divorce brought on by his extramar- ital affairs. He also feels that he has restored a sense of balance to his life, and he’s eager to see how that will translate to golf. ‘‘I think in order to play this game at a high level, it helps to have a clear mind,’’ Woods said before going out for his 11 a.m. pro-am time on the South Course. ‘‘I’ve played at the high lev- els before in the past with- out a clear mind, but it helps to be consistent. It helps having your life in balance. Certainly, my life is much more balanced than it was in the past. That’s exciting for me. I think it’s exciting for my kids, and we’re real- ly looking forward to it.’’ Woods and Phil Mickel- son are the top attractions, as always, even though it’s odd to promote them as No. 3 and No. 5 in the world. Mickelson’s distractions last year weren’t self- inflicted. He had to cope with arthritis the second half of the season, and now can resume is workouts and other preparations. ‘‘I’ve been antsy to get back and play,’’ Mickelson said. ‘‘I didn’t finish the year the way I wanted to, and I wanted to try to make 2011 the year that I thought 2010 was going to be.’’ He also expects a differ- ent look from Woods. Mickelson played with him in the final round in Chica- go last year, and noticed the speed in his swing starting to return. ‘‘I expect that he’ll be period. He scored 14 of his game- high 24 points down the stretch and the Tigers trimmed a 20-point deficit down to eight with 44 sec- onds. The Spartans, who struggled at the line through the first three quarters, made enough free throws down the stretch to seal it. Red Bluff improved to 6-12 on the season with their second con- secutive victory. It was also a big win within the Eastern Athletic League — South. Oroville dropped to 2-16. Red Bluff travels to Las Plumas on Friday night. They return home Feb. 2 to host Foothill pain and recovering from something,’’ Woods said. ‘‘I’ve had so many darn surgeries and everything. Granted, I had a cortisone shot, but I was fine in a week. I haven’t had an off- season like this. It’s always been trying to somehow, ’Can I get myself to start up again?’ This was nice to actually practice and build.’’ Now it’s time to evaluate his game. And there’s no better to measure the progress than Torrey Pines. His seventh win as a pro on this public course along the Pacific Bluffs was per- haps the most famous, the 2008 U.S. Open. He made a 12-foot birdie on the 72nd hole to force a playoff with Rocco Mediate, and beat him in 19 holes the next day. Not by coincidence, Woods will be playing with Mediate (along with Antho- ny Kim) the first two rounds. The PGA Tour this year is moving around some of the pairings to cre- ate story lines. Mediate expects to see the Tiger that we’ve known for over a decade, unfortu- nately,’’ Mickelson said with a grin. Woods said he’s fresh going into a new season for the first time in about six years, although his two- month break was not pain- free. He had a cortisone shot in his right ankle two days after the Chevron World Challenge, which he said kept him out for a week. Even so, there wasn’t much else on his mind besides golf. ‘‘It’s nice to have an off- season where I wasn’t in the Woods he did that day at Torrey. ‘‘My opinion, if he gets it and starts driving his ball where he’s looking, the game is over,’’ Mediate said. ‘‘It doesn’t matter who is there. Call it what you want. I’ve seen it. I’ve been around it. I’ve studied it. If you put him in the fairway, as good as he putts, as good as his short game is, good luck. If he can get the ball back on the fairway, Tiger will become Tiger again.’’ More than hitting fair- ways is making putts, and Woods had his worst year on the greens last year. He still might not have won, but he probably would have at least come close, and he didn’t do that last year until his final tournament at the Chevron World Challenge. Woods blew a four-shot lead — the first time he had lost a lead that large — and was beaten in a playoff by U.S. Open champion Graeme McDowell. But what Woods recalls most about that day was being tied for the lead on the last hole and hitting an 8-iron to inside 3 feet for a birdie. He just wasn’t counting on McDowell rolling in a 20- foot birdie of his own. ‘‘The whole year last Like the Corning boys, the Lady Cardinals are off to an 0-3 start in NAL play after falling 47-38 to Anderson, Tues- day. Los Molinos 51 Biggs 53 OT Los Molinos came back to force overtime, but couldn’t quite get the road win at Biggs, Tuesday night, in a 53-51 loss. The Lady Bulldogs outscored Biggs 20-11 in the fourth quarter. Jessey Qurike led Los Molinos with 18 points and Fran- cis Ocampo chipped in with 10 points. Mercy 46 Maxwell 41 OT The Lady Warriors also went to overtime in Maxwell, but came away with a 46-41 road victory for their first Tri-Cities League win. Morgan Hampton-Glines came off the bench to lead Woods looks for fresh start at Torrey Pines NASCAR changes points system Mercy with 20 points. Diana Van Ert had 15 points, five assists and five steals and Maggie Keller had 12 rebounds.\ NASCAR CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR is replacing the complicated scoring system it has used since 1975 with a more straightforward format. year, golf-wise, came down to one shot, and that’s what I’m so proud of,’’ Woods said. ‘‘I needed to hit the 8- iron with that kind of shot, and I pulled it off. That one shot was it. That was cool.’’ As for the putting? Woods said he was too distracted to work on his short game. The divorce took some four months of his season, and practice was devoted to a swing gone awry. He tried to fix it him- self before hiring swing coach Sean Foley in August. Where he goes from here remains the mystery. He remains at 14 majors, still four short of the record held by Jack Nicklaus. That pursuit looks a lot harder than it did a year ago. Woods did not take the bait on whether he was out to prove the cynics wrong. ‘‘I’ve heard it before,’’ Woods said. ‘‘I’ve gone through stretches where I haven’t won. I’ve had it happen in my career before, and I’ve been through this before. All I have to do is keep working and stick to the game plan, just like I have in the past. I think my record kind of speaks to that.’’ None of the changes for the 2011 season announced by chairman Brian France at the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Wednesday came as much of a surprise. NASCAR officials had been briefing teams for almost two weeks on the changes in an effort to give competi- tors feedback on the direction being taken. A race win- ner will receive 43 points under the new system, and the points will decrease down to 1 for the 43rd-place driver. There will be three bonus points for the winner, one bonus point for every driver who leads a lap, and one bonus point to the driver that leads the most laps. NASCAR also tweaked the eligibility requirements for the 12-driver Chase for the Sprint Cup champi- onship field. The top 10 in points after the 26th race of the season will make the Chase field, while the final two spots will be ‘‘wild cards’’ designated for the high- est race winners not already eligible. The wild cards will only go to drivers ranked inside the top-20 in points. If no driver outside the top 10 has any victories, the spots will go to the drivers ranked 11th and 12th in the standings. Scoreboard NBA Wednesday’s results New Orleans at Golden State, late Charlotte 114, Phoenix 107 Denver 109, Detroit 100 Houston 96, L.A. Clippers 83 Milwaukee 98, Atlanta 90 New Jersey 93, Memphis 88 Oklahoma City 118, Minnesota 117, OT Orlando 111, Indiana 96 Philadelphia 107, Toronto 94 San Antonio 112, Utah 105 Today’s games Miami at New York, 5 p.m., TNT Houston at Dallas, 5:30 p.m. Boston at Portland, 7:30 p.m., TNT Tuesday’s late results Charlotte 94, Sacramento 89 L.A. Lakers 120, Utah 91 NCAA Wednesday’s Top 25 results No. 9 BYU 71, No. 4 San Diego State 58 No. 7 Texas 61, Oklahoma State 46 Providence 83, No. 8 Villanova 68 No. 16 Minnesota 81, Northwestern 70 No. 21 Georgetown 77, St. John's 52 Today’s games No games scheduled Tuesday’s late results Edmonton 4, Phoenix 3 NHL Wednesday’s results San Jose at Los Angeles, late Atlanta 1, Washington 0 Boston 2, Florida 1 Carolina 4, N.Y. Islanders 2 Dallas 3, Edmonton 1 Detroit 3, New Jersey 1 Phoenix 5, Colorado 2 St. Louis at Calgary, late Nashville at Vancouver, late No. 23 Louisville 55, West Virginia 54 Today’s Top 25 games No. 3 Duke vs. Boston College, 5 p.m. No.19 Vanderbilt at Miss.St., 4 p.m., ESPN2 No. 20 Illinois at Indiana, 6 p.m. No.25 Michigan St.vs.Michigan, 4 p.m., ESPN Today’s other televised games UCLA at Arizona, 6 p.m., ESPN2 UCRiverside at UC Davis, 7 p.m., CSNC Saint Mary’s at Gonzaga, 8 p.m., ESPN2 Oregon St. at California, 8 p.m., CSNB