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OTTAWA -- Dont panic, its just pre-season. That was the message from the Ottawa Senators, even if a 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders in their final pre-season game showed they still have work to do. "Obviously we were bad, especially in the first two (periods)," said defenceman Marc Methot on Sunday. "The one upside I thought was that we actually turned it up in the third period and played a lot better, but its pre-season, half our squad is missing so you can only take so much from that." It was a rough night all around for the Senators as the other half of the team was beat 5-2 by the Islanders in Barrie, Ont. Riley Wetmore, Ryan Strome, Ryan Pulock and Brock Nelson scored for the Islanders. Evgeni Nabokov allowed one goal on 15 shots through two periods and Ken Reiter faced 11 shots in the third. Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored the lone Ottawa goal as Craig Anderson faced 23 shots. Head coach Paul MacLean was far from impressed by his teams performance and said it "left a sour taste in our mouth." While there was little to take from the game MacLean felt there was a valuable lesson to be learned. "This is a hard league and if you dont come prepared to play and work any team in this league can beat you," said MacLean. "That team that played us flat outworked us in every area of the game and deserved to win and that should give us a real good wake-up call going into next week." While players didnt want to make excuses, they admitted knowing it was the last game of the pre-season may have played a part in their poor showing. "You want to end pre-season on a good note and feel good about yourselves and you certainly cant after that performance and the way the 20 guys played out there, but at the end of the day it didnt cost us any points," said Bobby Ryan. "(Friday) cant come soon enough. Its a long camp." The Senators seemed to struggle right from the start. Wetmore opened the scoring 16:48 into the first period. Anderson made the stop on Kirill Kabanovs wraparound, but Wetmore buried the rebound. Less than a minute later Strome put the Isles ahead 2-0. The Islanders made it 3-0 in the second on Pulocks power-play goal as he beat a screened Anderson. Nelsons goal just over three minutes later left MacLean fuming as he lit into his team during a commercial break. Shortly after the Senators showed some life as Pageau took a great pass from Cody Ceci to get on the board. Ottawa finally managed to create some chances in the third, but Reiter was solid in relief of Nabokov. The Senators will take Monday off and hit the ice Tuesday with the 22 or 23 players they expect to start the season with on Friday when they visit on the Buffalo Sabres. Notes: Ottawa captain Jason Spezza remains sidelined with a mild groin sprain. D Eric Gryba played his first game of the pre-season. Miguel Layun Jersey . Tyrell appeared in seven games with the Lightning this year, he had no points in those appearances. The 24-year-old has seven goals and 17 assists in 132 career NHL games, all coming with the Lightning. He was selected in the second round, 47th overall, of the 2007 draft. Hugo Ayala Jersey . Thats exactly what happened. And they enjoyed every moment. Durant remained sizzling with 33 points, Serge Ibaka added 22 and the Thunder roared back from an abysmal start -- they trailed 22-4 early -- to embarrass the Miami Heat 112-95 on Wednesday night, erasing that big deficit out of the gate by outscoring the two-time defending champions by 43 points over a 33-minute span. http://www.nationalsoccermexico.com/hect...o-jersey/.Bacca took advantage of Cristian Alvarezs hesitation to head a lobbed pass over the goalkeeper and then used his feet to roll the ball into an empty net in the eighth minute. The Colombia strikers 10th goal pulled him level with Lionel Messi as the leagues third-leading scorers, far behind Cristiano Ronaldos runaway tally of 23 goals. Jose de Jesus Corona Mexico Jersey . The Opening Day starter played 53 games this season hitting .192 with nine home runs and 25 RBI. Red Sox manager John Farrell has decided to start Jose Iglesias at third base as of late instead of Middlebrooks. Guillermo Ochoa Jersey . But the young forward is more than willing to shed a little blood if thats what it takes to make the team this season. "It caught me pretty good, dazed me for that shift, but I didnt want to be off the ice for too long," he said after practice, his lip still bleeding a little despite the plastic stitches holding it together. KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Georges Niang walked off the floor in the closing minutes with a bloody towel pressed tightly to his forehead, pumping his fist and riling up the Iowa State fans in the Sprint Center. Turns out he was just jumpstarting the celebration. Niang scored 25 points before leaving with that gash above his right eye, and the No. 16 Cyclones held on down the stretch to beat No. 10 Kansas 94-83 Friday night and reach their first Big 12 tournament title game since 2000. "We love competing for championships," Niang said later, a bandage over his wound. "Coach says take it one day at a time, but the Big 12 championship is one day away from us." DeAndre Kane had five 3-pointers and scored 20 points, and Big 12 player of the year Melvin Ejim added 19 points for the fourth-seeded Cyclones (25-8), who will play for just their second tournament title Saturday night against the winner of Texas-Baylor. The victory for Iowa State represented its first in four tries against Kansas in the Big 12 tournament, and its first over the Jayhawks in Kansas City since March 10, 1996, when the schools were still part of the Big Eight. It also allowed Iowa State to match its 2001 team for the second-most wins in school history, trailing only the 32 wins piled up by the 2000 team. Incidentally, it was that team that won the Cyclones only Big 12 tournament title. "Its a great win for us, for the fact it gives us confidence we can compete with anyone in the nation," Cyclones coach Fred Hoiberg said. "It was good to finally get one of these after struggling to close out games against Kansas the past few years." Relying on some hot outside shooting, Iowa State took charge in the second half, and then held on as the top-seeded Jayhawks (24-9) tried to make a late run to get back into the game. Perry Ellis led Kansas with 30 points. Andrew Wiggins finished with 22. The Jayhawks again were playing without 7-footer Joel Embiid, the leagues defensive player of the year, and his rim-protecting presence was sorely missed. The freshman has a stress fracture in his back and is likely out until at least the second weekend of the NCAA tournament. "Joel not being in there, he could probably guard Niang better," Kaansas coach Bill Self said, "but I think it was more a collection of everybody rather than just one individual.dddddddddddd" The Sprint Center was packed to the rafters with fans eager to see whether Iowa State could finally end its five-game losing streak against the Jayhawks, or whether Kansas could burnish what it hoped would be a resume worthy of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. The teams got after it right from the tip, racing up and down the floor in what amounted to a series of 94-foot wind sprints. Iowa State got the better of it early, forging a 23-16 lead, but the Jayhawks countered with a brutally efficient 20-3 charge to take control. Things got so intense that the normally placid Hoiberg was rung up with a technical foul after Kane appeared to be hammered on the way to the basket and no foul was called. "I used a bad word," Hoiberg said sheepishly. "Im not going to say I didnt." The Jayhawks lead was also short-lived. Kane started the comeback by converting a three-point play, Ejim and Niang went to work inside, and the Cyclones tied it 46-all in the closing minutes of the first half when Kane knocked down another shot from the corner. Their hot perimeter shooting continued in the second half, when the Cyclones turned a 48-46 deficit into a 66-57 lead, the last points in the run on a deep ball from Naz Long. By that point, Iowa State was 11 of 16 from the 3-point line. "We were on our heels defensively throughout the game," Ellis said. "I felt in the first half we did a lot better. In the second half, we let too many straight-line drives to the basket." The Jayhawks eventually extended their defence to the perimeter, and thats when Iowa State started going to the basket again. Niang scored four straight baskets for Iowa State during one stretch that made it 81-72, and scored on three straight trips to make it 86-74. The lead never got much smaller, even after Niang was whacked in the face during a scrum under the basket, prompting him to start the party for the Iowa State fans in attendance. "We felt like we had these guys in the second half," Niang said. "We came out and threw the first punch and from there it was clear skies." ' ' '