ERST LESEN! » bench. . The Cowboys set season highs with 35 f

TORONTO -- My favorite part of this job is sitting in empty stadiums and arenas. We get to arrive early, and we get to stay late. Bookending a big event with two different kinds of silence -- the calms before and after the storm -- gives you a fuller feeling for the game. Those silences, how they are broken and how they are restored, can tell you so much about what might happen and what did.Tuesday night was the first time I saw Canada and Team USA play hockey in person.Ive watched them battle on TV however many times, and each time Ive wished I were there. Ive had more than my share of fortunate experiences, but I still wanted so badly to watch my country, which happens to be hockey-obsessed Canada, take on the U.S., which happens to be better than us at every other sport.Its hard to explain to Americans why these games matter so much to us. Imagine our countries were brothers, one big and one little. The big one has everything he might want but a single beautiful, perfect toy that the little brother loves with all his heart. He thinks of it when hes awake, and he dreams of it when hes asleep.And then his big brother comes into his room and tries to take his most sacred thing away.I was excited, even nervous, in the quiet before the game. Sweden and Finland had played in the afternoon, and the Air Canada Centre had emptied and been cleaned like a plane readied for its next flight. It was close to silent, just a few workers performing their pregame rituals.It was also pretty dark. It felt as though the entire building were asleep somehow. It wasnt hard to imagine it breathing softly.Then I heard a shout. It was, if Im being honest, a very loud F-bomb. It was startling and out of place in the dim and the quiet. I thought one of the workers had hurt himself somehow.Then I realized it had come from Canadas Joe Thornton.It isnt always easy to see it through his beard, but Thorntons default expression, at least this week, has been a wide smile. He has radiated kid joy.Now he was swearing really, really loudly. This couldnt be good.Closer investigation revealed -- with no small amount of relief -- that he was swearing because he had let a soccer ball drop in a game of keepie-uppie that he and his teammates were playing in one of the tunnels leading to the empty, waiting ice.Maybe an hour before their big game against the Americans, they were laughing and joking with each other and kicking around a ball, and Joe Thornton was yelling terrible things with a smile.I decided right then that they were going to win, and they were going to win big.Im going to try to be gentle here so that I dont sound like Im gloating. This American team has been terrible, an embarrassment, badly built and badly coached and deserving of every bad thing anyone ever says about them.I really am being gentle.They have been miserable and gutless. They lost their opener to lightly regarded Team Europe without scoring a goal. They took to the ice against Canada looking as though they were lining up for the dentist. They snatched the early lead and then gave up two goals in 14 seconds and never looked for an instant as though they might recover.This is our championship game, John Tortorella had said before it. His team had supposedly been custom-made to beat Canada at its own sport, to hit and then get hit and then hit back even harder.I wish they had been half as hard as they thought they were. I also wish they had remembered that grit is useless without goals.Whenever I imagined finally going to see Canada play Team USA, I imagined watching a blinding, deafening, electrifying three periods of hockey, and maybe more.Instead I watched an absolute dismantling.One of the loudest cheers came with a little more than five minutes left in the second period. Canada pinned Team USA in their zone. They shot the puck and retrieved it, shot it again and took it back, shot it again and followed it.They did to the puck what these Americans were supposed to do to Canada. They owned it, and when the Americans finally managed to hold the puck long enough to clear it, the crowd applauded.The fans were cheering Canada for their effort, and to be fair, this team is as beautiful and perfect as the toy in that little brothers dreams.But they might as well have been cheering the Americans for getting their first touch in what felt like forever. They almost needed to feel as though their big brother still wants what they have.Thats how unbalanced this game was. Applause could be mistaken for pity. A minute into the third period, Team USAs Max Pacioretty took a dumb boarding penalty against Logan Couture in the Canadian zone, and thats all that remained of the grand American plan: Hit from behind, because thats the only place they are anymore.The rest of the game was meaningless, and now so is the rest of this tournament for Team USA.For one of the few times in my professional life, and on a night when I never imagined I might, I didnt have to wait until after the game for the second, concluding round of silence. It came well before the end of it, when I listened for Americas hockey heart, and I didnt hear a thing. Sebastian Lletget USA Jersey . -- Ty Montgomery had 290 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns, and fifth-ranked Stanford held on to beat No. Omar Gonzalez USA Jersey . -- Catcher Brett Hayes has agreed to a $630,000, one-year contract with the Kansas City Royals, avoiding salary arbitration. http://www.usasoccerauthority.com/clint-dempsey-usa-jersey/ . Louis Cardinals. Victorino is batting sixth and playing right field after missing two games because of back tightness. Chris Pontius USA Jersey . Inter president Erick Thohir says in a club statement on Wednesday that Vidic is "one of the worlds best defenders and his qualities, international pedigree, and charisma will be an asset. DaMarcus Beasley USA Jersey . Goals from Jerome Boateng, Franck Ribery and Thomas Mueller extended Bayerns unbeaten run to a record 37 matches. "This record is incredible," Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said. STILLWATER, Okla. -- Jawun Evans scored 25 points, along with five steals, four assists and four rebounds to lead Oklahoma State to a 101-85 victory over Rogers State Wednesday night.Averaging 98.5 points per game entering the contest, ranking second in the nation, Oklahoma State (6-1) surpassed the 100-point mark for the fourth time this season and went over 95 for the sixth.In a game that was much closer than the final score might indicate, seven Oklahoma State players scored at least 10 points, including Jeffrey Carroll, who had 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds. Freshman Brandon Averette added a career-high 15 points.Awfully glad to escape, and thats what we did tonight, said Cowboys coach Brad Underwood. A lot of credit to Rogers State. I knew that was a good basketball team. It was basically about their commitment to win and our lack of. Just tremendous credit to them and the fight that they had. We were fortunate tonight.Jeylyn Sharpe scored 18 points and added eight rebounds to lead Rogers State (4-2), a Division II school that did not look outmatched and remained within striking distance most of the night. The Hillcats shot 56.9 percent.I thought we did an excellent job competing, said Rogers State coach Justin Barkley. When we play Division I guys, we get pretty amped up, and I thought we competed for 40 minutes, and yes we lost the game, but there were some positives. I thought our guys responded. This is something build on and go forward.When Travis Hester swished a 3-pointer with 7:43 remaining, the Hillcats pulled to within 77-73, but Oklahoma State went on a 17-3 run over the next 4:13 to put the game away.We just had to pick it up on defense and our defensive intensity got us ahead as much as we could, Evans said.BIG PICTURERogers State: The Hillcats, the defending Heartland Conference champions, played well, hanging with Oklahoma State until the final few minutes. Rogers State controlled the action for much of the games first 12 to 15 minutes, going up 6-2 and 11-7, and was tied 25-25 with 7:34 to go in the first half before Oklahoma State reeled off a 12-1 run to build up a big lead. After that, despite falling behind by as many as 11 on multiplle occasions in the first half and early in the second, Rogers State continued to battle back.ddddddddddddOklahoma State: After a strong showing against Power 5 Conference teams, defeating Connecticut and Georgetown to finish third at the Maui Invitational last week, the Cowboys looked a bit sluggish in this one. They didnt take their first lead until 7:24 had elapsed in the game, going up 14-13 on Carrolls free throw, and even after finally opening up a big lead, allowed Rogers State to remain within striking distance much of the night.TIP-INSAll of Evans five steals came in the first half, just one shy of the school record for one half of play. . Oklahoma State entered the contest averaging 20.5 turnovers forced per game, ranking third in the nation, and forced Rogers State into 22 in this one, while committing just 10 to outscore the Hillcats 32-13 off turnovers. . Rogers States Hester scored 14 points, shooting 4 of 5 from 3-point range, increasing his season percentage to 53.2 (25 of 47). . OSUs Mitchell Solomon tied a career-high with 10 points -- all in the second half -- and added five rebounds, in just 15 minutes off the bench. . The Cowboys set season highs with 35 free throws made and 44 attempts.HE SAID ITThey controlled the whole tempo of the game with their effort, Underwood said of Rogers State. You can overcome a lot of things with effort. And you saw what happens tonight when you dont have that and you dont have energy. To grow as a basketball team, it doesnt matter who you play, we have to continue to work. Will we get better? Absolutely. But we cant afford to take a day off in practice. We have to grow in that. That is this teams challenge right now.UP NEXTRogers State: After traveling the short trip home, 95 miles east to Claremore, Oklahoma, the Hillcats are right back in action Thursday night against Dallas Christian.Oklahoma State: The Cowboys will have a much tougher test on Saturday when they go on the road to face Maryland. The 7-1 Terrapins will be coming off their first loss of the season, on Tuesday to Pittsburgh. ' ' '