SAINT JOHN, N. Micah Hyde Womens Jersey .B. -- The skips voice rasped and there was fatigue in her face. Rachel Homan and her Ottawa Curling Club team were ready to put their feet up for an evening and a morning at the Ford World Womens Curling Championship after three straight wins, one of them a white-knuckler. "Oh my god, so ready. I cant wait to not curl for 24 hours," Homan said Wednesday. "I feel like its midnight, so it will be nice to get a break." The Canadians arrived at a break in the schedule tied atop the standings with Switzerlands Binia Feltscher at 8-1. The Canadians reverted to their custom of both taking the lead and finishing a game early in a 10-3 win over South Koreas Ji-sun Kim, who shook hands after eight ends. But Canada went the distance in the morning draw. They stole three points over the final two ends to rescue a 7-5 win over Germanys Imogen Oona Lehmann. That was the first time Homan threw her final stone at the world championship and just the second time Canada played a 10th end in Saint John. Theyd beaten Scotland the previous evening and were back on the Harbour Station ice in the morning. "It was a long haul, three games in a row on not much sleep and a big grind this morning against Germany," Homan said. Homan, third Emma Miskew, second Alison Kreviazuk and lead Lisa Weagle headed to dinner with family members feeling confident about their position. Canada concludes the round robin Thursday against China and Sweden. "Two great teams," Miskew said. Swedens Margaretha Sigfridsson and Russias Anna Sidorova were both 7-2 followed by Chinas Liu Sijia and South Korea tied at 6-3 and Allison Pottinger of the U.S. at 5-4. Scotlands Kerry Barr and Anna Kubeskova of the Czech Republic were 2-7 with Germany, Latvias Evita Regza and Denmarks Madeleine Dupont at 1-8. The top four teams in the preliminary round advance to the Page playoff. Ties for fourth will be solved by tie-breaker games. The countries with the two best records meet in one playoff game Friday with the winner advancing directly to Sundays gold-medal game. The loser drops to Saturday afternoons semifinal to meet the winner of a morning playoff between the third and fourth seeds. "We have our fate in our own hands," Homan said. "Weve got to win out and see what happens with everybody else." The Canadians, all 28 years old or younger, couldnt hide their pleasure at the prospect of sleeping in Thursday morning. They intended to stop in at the tournament party room before bed Wednesday "because theres a band there Signal Hill that we like," Miskew said. "Theyve come to Ottawa and we usually go and watch them in Ottawa." Canada scored three points in the fourth and stole three in the eighth versus South Korea. Pyeongchang, South Korea, is the host city of the 2018 Winter Olympics. Kim is among the countrys female curlers getting fast-tracked to compete. The 26-year-old skipped South Korea to fourth at the 2012 world championship in Lethbridge, Alta. She beat Canadas Heather Nedohin in a playoff game, but lost the semifinal and lost the bronze-medal rematch to Nedohin. Kim threw third stones against Homan with Un-chi Gim, her lead in Lethbridge, throwing fourth stones. With the score tied 2-2, the South Koreans played conservatively in the fourth end by putting up guards early on a counter on the button. But Miskews well-executed draw around a guard forced them to chase. South Koreas poorly-placed draws opened the door for Canada to plant more counters around the button. Homan had an easy tap for three points and a 5-2 lead in front of 1,726 at Harbour Station. "Not good," Kim said. "We were a little nervous." Canada recovered from errors against Germany to grind out a win. The Germans led 5-4 heading into the ninth, when Homan and Lehmann shifted momentum back and forth with misses. Lehmann overthrew an attempted double takeout with hammer to leave Canada shot rock for a steal of one. Miskew put guards in front of a Kreviazuk draw to the button in 10th and German third Corinna Scholz missed an attempted hit and roll behind cover. Homan struggled with draws in the earlier ends, but she had it solved by the 10th as she drew in to stack two Canadian counters on the button. Lehmann cleared just one and Homan buried a draw behind a guard to lie two again. The German skips attempt to follow her didnt curl enough. "Youve got to be confident and believe you can steal because theres no other way, theres no other option," Homan said. "It was just tough out there. We werent quite reading things right. There were a lot of uncharacteristic misses. We just tried to figure out our rocks and our lines. We just had to keep playing a little bit better each end and hope for a few lucky breaks and we made it out in the end." Tramon Williams Packers Jersey . Rene Tosoni homered in the 10th inning and Chris Parmelee added an RBI single to give Minnesota a 6-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Sunday. Johnathan Franklin Womens Jersey . They were just glad to finally beat the Thunder. Shawn Marion scored 19 points, Vince Carter added 18 and the Mavericks rolled past Oklahoma City 109-86 on Sunday night, ending a seven-game regular-season losing streak to the Thunder.TORONTO - After falling victim to slow starts in each of the last two games, both losses, Raptors coach Dwane Casey hinted change could be on the way. "Weve got to look at our starts," said Casey, the afternoon following a 90-83 defeat to Miami, one in which his team fell behind by nine in the first quarter. "Thats the second game in a row thats happened." Toronto allowed the Heat to shoot 52 per cent in the first quarter four days after the Nets shot 60 per cent in the opening 12 minutes of Tuesdays loss. Despite a second-half push, the Raptors failed to dig themselves out of an early-game hole in both contests, prompting Casey to suggest that a change could be imminent as soon as Sundays game, at home to Denver, or in Oakland against Golden State on Tuesday. "Whether its a lineup change or a change in personality," he continued, "weve got to look at something to start the game because we cant expend that much mental and physical energy to fight against all the teams were going against, and thats what its been the last couple of weeks." The Raptors - who used 22 different starting lineups last season, sixth most in the NBA - have started the same unit in each game to begin the campaign. After experiencing some success on the floor together - specifically on the defensive end - towards the end of last season, the group of Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Rudy Gay, Amir Johnson and Jonas Valanciunas has underachieved through 15 contests this year. That unit - the Raptors most used, both this season and last - outscored opponents by 85 points when they were in the game together a year ago, starting 21 of the teams final 25 games. They ranked third in the NBA in defensive efficiency among five-man units that played a minimum of 300 minutes together (only the Spurs and Grizzlies starting fives had a better defeensive rating). A.J. Hawk Packers Jersey. This season they are a minus-35, per NBA.com/stats, and are allowing opponents to shoot 52 per cent from the field. They have shared the floor for 229 minutes while the teams second most-utilized unit - Lowry, DeRozan, Gay and Johnson with Landry Fields - has played just 34 minutes together. As a team, Toronto has been least effective in the first and third quarters, with the starters playing the bulk of the teams minutes. The Raptors are a plus-three in the opening frame and minus-39 in the third. Their best quarter has been the fourth - a period in which the starters have rarely played together - where their plus-45 mark is third best in the NBA (behind only the Pacers and Thunder). "I think you have to look at the chemistry, skill set, what they bring to the table, a little bit of everything," Casey said of a possible change. "I dont question our guys fight. Its not that were not playing hard, its just not meshing together with the first group." Two starters who could be on the hot seat are Johnson and Valanciunas. Both frontcourt players logged fewer than 18 minutes in Fridays loss and have failed to meet lofty pre-season expectations overall. Tyler Hansbrough, who played 25 minutes and helped turn the game around in the second half with his physicality, earned praise from his coach following Saturdays practice and could be a candidate to replace either Johnson or Valanciunas in the event Casey decides to make a change. "It may be just a matter of time to let it go," Casey said. "Were still searching, like a lot of teams in the league are doing. Were not panicking but weve got to make sure we understand and we get the right group together." Toronto hosts the Denver Nuggets Sunday afternoon, concluding a season-high four-game homestand before heading out west next week. ' ' '
