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By Sonny Jones

Mark your calendar for Friday, Jan. 6 and Monday, Jan. 30. Those are the dates the two Bladen County high schools will meet on the basketball court. It should be a doozy.

Any game in any sport between the rivals always is intense regardless of the outcome or whether it’s a close game.

Following conference-opening victories Friday night by the boys and girls varsity basketball teams at both schools, the combined record for the four squads is 28-2. That’s 28 wins against 2 losses thus far this season. The East Bladen girls (8-0) and West Bladen boys (7-0) are unbeaten. Has there been a better combined start? I can’t think of it if there has been and I moved here in March 1978.

Of course, let’s not put the cart before the horse, as the saying goes. There’s still games to be played prior to the first meetings Jan. 6 at East Bladen. The West Bladen boys and girls will host South Columbus on Tuesday, then the Knights boys will host the three-day Bladen Offroad Christmas Tournament Dec. 28-30. The East Bladen boys and girls will participate in the Wilmington Hoggard Holiday Classic Dec. 28-29. Each team also has a game scheduled Jan. 3 with East Bladen hosting Southeastern Athletic Conference foe Clinton and West Bladen playing non-conference contests at Whiteville.

Still, as a fan, it’s hard not to look ahead to Jan. 6 at East Bladen and Jan. 30 at West Bladen. A word of advice: arrive early because the gym figures to fill up quickly.

TWO BOWLS DOWN, 41 TO GO

Friday began a seemingly unending stretch of college football bowl games. It will be difficult to find two more competitive games that, unfortunately, were played during the workday.

BAHAMAS BOWL: Alabama-Birmingham 24, Miami (Ohio) 20 — Jermaine Brown Jr. scored with 1:33 remaining to give the Blazers the lead, then the UAB defense stopped Miami’s Jalen Walker at the 2 as time expired to preserve the win. The lead changed four times in the second half. The nation’s leading rusher, UAB’s DeWayne McBride with 1,713 yards, opted not to play game and to prepare for the NFL draft, but was on the sideline supporting the team.

CURE BOWL: Troy 18, Texas-San Antonio 12 — A pair of nationally ranked teams (Troy 24, UTSA 25) each having won 10 straight met in a hard-hitting, defensive struggle. It wasn’t the best played game with seven turnovers, five by UTSA, and the first score came when the Troy center snapped the ball out of the end zone on a punt attempt for a UTSA safety, but it definitely was a “slobberknocker.” UTSA led 12-0 with a minute to go in the first half before Troy scored a touchdown. The Trojans added another TD, a two-point conversion and a field goal in the second half to complete the rally.

Six more bowl games Saturday. Each has a tough act to follow after Friday’s two games.

TODAY IN SPORTS HISTORY

• 1933 — The Chicago Bears win the first NFL championship with a 23-21 victory over the New York Giants. The Bears score the winning touchdown on a 36-yard play that starts with a short pass from Bronko Nagurski to Bill Hewitt, who then laterals to Bill Kerr for the score.

POTATO PICKS TO WATCH TODAY

• WORLD CUP: 3rd place match, Croatia vs. Morocco, 10 a.m., FOX

• FENWAY BOWL: Cincinnati vs. Louisville, 11 a.m., ESPN

• CELEBRATION BOWL: Jackson State vs. N.C. Central, noon, ABC

• BASKETBALL: Wake Forest at Rutgers, noon, BTN

• BASKETBALL: Indiana at Kansas, noon, ESPN2

• NFL: Indianapolis at Minnesota, 1 p.m., NFLN

• FOOTBALL: Division II championship, Colorado Mines vs. Ferris State, 1 p.m., ESPNU

• NHL: Columbus at Boston, 1 p.m., NHLN

• BASKETBALL: Houston at Virginia, 2 p.m., ESPN2

• GOLF: PNC Championship, 2 p.m., NBC

• LAS VEGAS BOWL: Florida vs. Oregon State, 2:30 p.m., ESPN