An Indiana state lawmaker's proposal to give control of high school athletics to the state government was dropped.

Rep. David Niezgodski (D-South Bend) "withdrew from consideration House Bill 1733, which would have given control of high school athletics to the state Department of Education," The Indianapolis Star reported.

The bill also would have eliminated the Indiana High School Athletic Association.

"Niezgodski introduced the bill after the IHSAA ruled earlier this year that South Bend Washington High School basketball player Jasmine Watson was ineligible to play on the team after transferring from Elkhart Memorial, which filed a complaint with the association," the Star reported.

Dominguez (Compton, Calif.) forward Jordan Hamilton will play in the Jordan Brand Classic next month, but he's played his last regular high school game. Jordan was denied a chance to play this season for Dominguez because he is a fifth-year senior. He lost his final appeal for a hardship waiver to the California Interscholastic Federation on Tuesday. The Texas signee averaged 28 points a game last season.

His plea for a waiver was based on that his studies sufered because he has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, which was not diagnosed until after he entered the ninth grade at Dorsey High (Los Angeles).

"We knew it was a long shot, but it is what it is," Dominguez coach Duane Cooper told the Los Angeles Times. "We have to keep going. I feel sorry for the kid. I think he’s being punished wrongly. I think his parents did the right thing by having him repeat ninth grade because they wanted him to get better grades. I think the CIF kind of missed the whole boat."

St. Patrick's (Elizabeth, N.J.) 6-7 forward Mike Gilchrist, one of the top sophomores in the country, will likely miss the rest of the season with a broken foot.

Gilchrist injured his foot in practice.

"We thought it was a sprained ankle. I think he was trying to hide how much it hurt," St. Patrick's coach Kevin Boyle told the Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.). "There's no question we're going to miss him. You're talking about arguably the player of the year in New Jersey."

Renardo Sidney, one of the top basketball recruits and a McDonald's All-American, gave a verbal commitment to Southern Cal on Sunday. The 6-11 center is averaging 24 points and 10 rebounds a game for Fairfax (Los Angles), the No. 11 team in the USA TODAY Super 25 rankings. He initially appeared to be leaning toward UCLA, but instead, in an elaborate ceremony at his school, said he would choose to play for Tim Floyd's Trojans. He has not taken his SAT yet. Check out the video from the Los Angeles Times on his announcement:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/highschool/la-sp-sondheimer23-2009feb23,0,2014503.column

Detroit Country Day, ranked fourth in USA TODAY's Super 25 boys basketball ranking, travels to Indiana on Saturday to take on fifth-ranked Bloomington South.

South features Indiana recruit Jordan Hulls at guard. Country Day's Donnovan Kirk is bound for Miami.

The Herald Times (Bloomington, Ind.) and WGCL will be providing audio. Broadcast starts at 4:05 p.m. ET; tipoff at 4:30 p.m. ET.

The game is sold out.

Late in a one-sided playoff game Tuesday between Carver (Montgomery, Ala.) and Valley (Ala.), a Valley player fouled a Carver player. The Carver player shoved back. The players broke into a brawl, with some fans at courtside joining in.

Then it got worse throughout the stands.

The Montgomery Advertiser has the initial story on the fight, plus a photo gallery showing in vivid detail how the fight spread through the crowd. WSFA has raw video.

Carver led by 15 and was initially declared the winner when the game was stopped, but the result is in doubt.

No injuries have been reported.

Photo by Amanda Sowards, Montgomery Advertiser via AP

Milwaukee Madison senior Johntell Franklin, a captain on the boys' basketball team, lost his mom, Carlitha, to cancer on Feb. 7.

Madison had a game that night against DeKalb (Ill.), which traveled about 2 1/2 hours for the game.

Here is the chain of events, reported in Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel:

Madison coach Aaron Womack Jr. asked Franklin if the game should be postponed. Franklin said no. DeKalb coach Dave Rohlman offered to call the game. The game started, and Franklin arrived at the gym in the second quarter.

"A few seconds after I spotted Johntell, all the people in the stands did, too. They surrounded him. The players, his friends in the stands, the cheerleaders," Womack told the Journal Sentinel.

"Then came another surprise: Franklin didn't just want to watch. He wanted to play," the Journal Sentinel reported.

But there was a problem. Womack didn't put Franklin's name in the official scorebook. Adding a name in the scorebook after the game has started results in a technical foul. DeKalb didn't want the free throws, considering the circumstances but rules are rules. So DeKalb's Darius McNeal intentionally missed both free throws.

"I did it for the guy who lost his mom," McNeal told the paper. "It was the right thing to do."

So touched by DeKalb's compassion, Womack wrote a letter to the editor at the Daily Chronicle in DeKalb.

"I was overwhelmed with this display of almost unheard of sportsmanship and class. As I mentioned the game was close, and any opportunity for a score would be very beneficial. As a principal, school, school district staff, and community you should all feel immense pride for the remarkable job that the coaching staff is doing in not only coaching these young men, but teaching them how to be leaders," Womack wrote.

* Florida ends steroid testing for high school athletes.

* You know the high school basketball game that was decided by a 17-point play near the end of the fourth quarter? Well, the Capital Athletic League appeals committee reversed the decision and Bella Vista (Fair Oaks, Calif.) defeated Rio Americano (Sacramento) 56-51.

* Lincoln (New York) star Lance Stephenson passed Sebastian Telfair on New York state's all-time scoring list. Stephenson, one of the USA's top players, has not decided which college he will attend.

* Junior forward Tristan Thompson, who was recently kicked off the basketball team at No. 8 St. Benedict's (Newark), has enrolled at No. 2 Findlay Prep (Henderson, Nev.). Thompson sat on the bench -- but not in uniform -- for Findlay's victory Sunday and could play against Duncanville (Texas) on Friday.

In 1987, Carmel (Ind.) girls' swim team won a state title. Carmel has won the state title every year since, including the most recent one on Saturday, giving the Greyhounds their 23rd consecutive state swimming and diving title.

It is, according to The Indianapolis Star, the longest active championship streak regardless of level or sport and the most consecutive titles in a girls' high school sport.

"When I was a little girl, I figured out that if they kept this streak up, it would be 23 my senior year and we would set the record," said Jessie Hammes, who will attend Stanford. "It was so cool to know it was coming and the team is better than ever. Its such an unbelievable feeling."

Indy Star columnist Bob Kravitz tries to put Carmel's achievement into perspective.

In the 11th and 12th paragraphs for the National Federation of State High School Association's press release on football rule changes for the 2009 season, it looks like the future of the unusual A-11 offense is in jeopardy.

"The definition of a scrimmage-kick formation was clarified to differentiate formations that have been used traditionally for attempting a field goal or kick try from those used for a punt," Bob Colgate, the NFHS assistant director and liaison to the Football Rules Committee, said in a release. "In addition, the circumstances under which the numbering exception can be utilized have been changed to clarify what can be done on first, second, third and fourth downs."

Here's a basic primer of the A-11 offense: All 11 offensive players are potentially eligible on a play because they wear receiver-eligible numbers and meet the criteria for a scrimmage-kick formation. The quarterback is at least seven yards behind the line of scrimmage. A base formation includes three linemen, six receivers, a quarterback and a running back.

Without spelling the rules changes out in detail in the press release, the NFHS apparently wants to limit scrimmage-kick formations to plays where the offense is actually trying to kick a field goal or punt. In essence, it would prevent A-11 teams from lining up in a scrimmage-kick formation when there is no intent to kick a field goal or punt.

Teams were allowed to run the A-11 offense because the rulebook did not stipulate when a team could line up in a scrimmage-kick formation.

Piedmont (Calif.) assistant football coach Steve Humphries, who helped implement the A-11 in 2007, wants to find a way to keep running the offense.

"It is our first hope that the NFHS is able to change with the times and will be most willing to help create an A-11 Football sub-federation within the framework of their existing organization," Humphries wrote in a release. "If yes, then everybody wins, especially the schools like ours nationwide."

Among the other rules changes: the horse-collar tackle will result in a 15-yard penalty.

The players for the Jordan Brand Classic, scheduled for Madison Square Garden on April 18 (8 p.m., ET, ESPN2), have been named, including two players from Oak Hill Academy (Mouth of Wilson, Va.): center Keith "Tiny" Gallon and guard Lamont Jones. The rest of the players: Xavier Henry of Putnam City (Oklahoma City, Okla.), Derrick Cousins of South Atlanta (Atlanta), John Henson of Sickles (Tampa), Renardo Sidney of Fairfax (Los Angeles), Kenny Boynton of American Heritage (Plantation, Fla.), Avery Bradley of Findlay College Prep (Henderson, Nev.), Dominic Cheek of St. Anthony (Jersey City, N.J.), Abdul Gaddy of Bellarmine Prep (Tacoma, Wash.), Jordan Hamilton of Dominguez (Compton, Calif.), Wally Judge of Arlington Country Day (Jacksonville, Fla.) Tommy Mason-Griffin of Madison (Houston), Alex Oriakhi of Tilton School (Tilton, N.H.), Daniel Orton of Bishop McGuinness (Oklahoma City), Mason Plumlee of Christ School (Arden, N.C.), Durand Scott of Rice (New York City), John Wall of Word of God (Raleigh, N.D.) and Royce White of Hopkins (Minnetonka, Minn.). The Jordan Brand Classic will also include a regional game, showcasing the top prep players from the New York City metropolitan area, and an international game.

Why are these high school basketball players smiling?

It's not because they've won a championship. They're in the news for a recent game, but not a game they won. A game in which they didn't score a single point.

Dallas Academy is a small Texas school that offers small classes for children with "dyslexia, dysgraphia and other learning differences," according to its site, which also says 80-90% of its students go on to college. Despite the small size, the school offers a full athletic department -- baseball, six-man football, soccer, volleyball, softball, golf and basketball.

The girls basketball team, drawing eight players of the roughly 20 girls in the high school grades, recently faced Covenant School and lost big. 100-0.

But the team isn't hiding out in mourning. They joked about the game and talked about their team bonding for a video segment on the Dallas Morning News' site. They hope to see a Mavericks game from Mark Cuban's suite.

Covenant has issued an apology and asked to forfeit the game, saying the Dallas Academy team with its resilient attitude "clearly emerged the winner."

FOLLOWUP: Covenant coach fired after saying team played game 'as it was meant to be played'

And in the spirit of forgiveness, Dallas Morning News columnist Jacquielynn Floyd praises the "sweet, sensible, smile-and-get-on-with-it" attitude of the Dallas Academy team but says it's also time to quit piling on Covenant for failing to hit the brakes.  "Covenant surely knows they lost this one," she says. "Why keep running up the score?"

Photo by Tony Gutierrez, AP

DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.) leads St. John Neumann-Goretti (Philadelphia) 18-16 early in the second quarter at the Spalding Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass. Tennessee-bound Josh Selby is leading the Stags so far with 10 points.

4:32 p.m.

Victor Oladipo hits a layup and a trey and DeMatha leads 28-19.

4:41 p.m.

DeMatha leads 37-29 at the half. Mustaafa Jones leads the Saints with nine points, all on three-pointers while Selby leads the Stags with 11. The pace picked up toward the end of the quarter, which may help the Saints. It's been pretty sloppy as DeMatha has eight turnovers and the Saints are shooting 33%.

5 p.m.

Selby is starting to take over. He's got nine points in the quarter, 20 overall, and DeMatha leads 59-39 with 4:00 to go in the quarter. Selby had back-to-back layups to start the quarter, made a reverse layup and another inside shot in traffic.

5:10 p.m.

DeMatha is pulling away, leading 65-50 going into the fourth quarter. Selby had 11 points in the quarter.

5:20 p.m.

DeMatha leads 72-57 with 5:18 to play. Selby just slammed one down, then followed with an acrobatic layup and it's now 74-57.

5:26 p.m.

Naji Hibbert, soon to be is piling dirt on the Saints, hitting back-to-back three-pointers and DeMatha leads 85-64 with 3:09 to play. Wake Forest signee Tony Chennault has done his best to keep the Saints in it, to no avail. DeMatha wins it 88-71. Selby led the Stags with 28 points.

Gonzaga (Washington, D.C.) leads 29-28 at the half over St. Mark's School (Southborough, Mass.) at the Spalding Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass. Gonzaga's Eagles have been led by Cedrick Lindsay with 12 points and by center  Ian Hummer with 10 points. Florida recruit Erik Murphy has 13 points and seven rebounds for the Lions.

After this, we have another game with a USA TODAY Super 25 team as No. 25 DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.) takes on Philly power St. John Neumann-Marie Goretti.

3:23 p.m.

Gonzaga leads 41-36 at the end of the third quarter. Duke-bound guard Tyler Thornton got the Eagles off to a good start in the quarter with a layup and a couple of free throws and Hummer's hard drive to the basket was rewarded with two free throws at the end of the quarter to keep Gonzaga in the lead. As impressive as Murphy has been for St. Mark's, another player to watch for is his younger brother Alex, who's only a freshman.

3:33 p.m.

With 4:21 to play, Gonzaga leds 49-42. Hummer and Lindsay have been going hard to the basket for the Eagles. Hummer followed a layup with a hard dunk attempt and was fouled, hitting one free throw.

3:39 p.m.

With 2:02 to play, Lindsay hits one of two free throws to put Gonzaga up 53-44. Kamarra Freeman responds with a three-pointer and St. Mark's calls time out with 1:43 left and trailing 53-47

3:45 p.m.

After a basket by Freeman, St. Mark's cuts Gonzaga's lead to 55-49 but there's only 49 seconds left.

3:48 p.m.

Lindsay puts the Eagles up 57-49 with two free throws but Nate Lubick dunks on the other end to make it 57-51 for Gonzaga. Lindsay is back on the line with 23 seconds left and he makes two free throws to make it 59-51. Erik Murphy misses a trey and this one is about to be over. Lindsay hits one of two free throws and Gonzaga wins 60-53 after a late dunk by Murphy.

Hummer led Gonzaga with 17 points and six rebounds. Erik Murphy had 21 for St. Mark's.

It will be interesting to see if South Atlanta (14-2), No. 15 in the USA TODAY Super 25 but coming off a loss to No. 19 LeFlore (Mobile, Ala.), can hang with the depth of No. 4-ranked Oak Hill (Mouth of Wilson, Va.) (20-0). The two teams are about to tip off in the Spalding Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Mass.

South Atlanta leads 18-8 early in the second quarter as Favors is dominating early with 10 of his team's points and plenty of rebounds. He's outplaying Oak Hill's Tiny Gallon so far. Guard Nick Watkins had six in the first quarter. Favors just slammed again and the Hornets lead 20-8.

5:13 p.m.

Oak Hill's waking up a bit as Gallon hit two three-pointers and cut South Atlanta's lead to 26-18 with three minutes to go in the half.

5:17 p.m.

Gallon, demanding the ball hits another three and cuts the lead to 26-23. South Atlanta's other big man, Nick Jacobs, comes back with a layup and it's South Atlanta 28-23 at the half. Favors has 14 points and 10 rebounds to 11 points and six rebounds for Gallon.

5:35 p.m.

South Atlanta started the second half off with two alley-oop dunks to get the crowd into it, the first by Malone and the second by Favors. But Gallon hits two more three-pointers and cuts the lead to 40-37 with 1:19 to go in the quarter.

5:45 p.m.

South Atlanta leads 42-39 at the end of the third quarter. Favors has 15 points while Gallon has 17, with five three-pointers.

6 p.m.

Oak Hill just took a 50-49 lead on Doron Lamb's steal and layup. He has six points in the quarter. Gallon hits a putback and the Warriors lead 52-49 with 2:55 left.

6:04 p.m.

Gallon just hit his sixth trey and Oak Hill leads 57-52 with two minutes to go.

6:08 p.m.

Oak Hill leads 63-58 with 10 seconds left, despite two three-pointers by South Atlanta's Andre Malone. Oak Hill wins 65-58.