Newcastle denies Spurs return to top four • Saints fight back to beat Burnley UCLA played perfect game against Gonzaga, but done in by perfect shot

Tottenham Hotspur missed the chance to move up to provisional fourth place in the Premier League after relegation-threatened Newcastle United held them to a 2-2 draw with a late equalizer from substitute Joe Willock at St James’ Park on Sunday.

The result leaves Spurs in fifth with 49 points, two points behind fourth-place Chelsea, but West Ham United can go above both of its London rival into the Champions League spots if it beats Wolverhampton Wanderers away on Monday.

It also marked the sixth time Spurs have

INDIANAPOLIS – The lore of Villanova’s upset over Georgetown in the 1985 national championship game has reverberated for 36 years worth of underdogs in the NCAA Tournament, not just because of the result that night but because of how it happened.

To beat an unbeatable opponent, Villanova had to play what has been called the perfect game, a notion that seems impossible to understand until you see it with your own eyes.

For 44 minutes and 57 seconds, UCLA played the perfect game against unbeaten and barely tested Gonzaga on Saturday night in the semifinals.

UCLA, a No. 11 seed that barely got in the tournament and barely stayed in it at various failed to win a league game this season when they were leading at halftime.

The result left Newcastle three points above third-bottom Fulham, which lost 3-1 at Aston Villa and has played a game more.

Earlier, Southampton fought back from two goals down to beat Burnley 3-2 and increase its comfort above the relegation zone.

Burnley took a 12th minute lead through a Chris Wood penalty and then doubled the advantage with a fine strike from Czech forward Matej Vydra.

But the Saints got back into the game with a well-struck effort from Stuart Armstrong before a fine Danny Ings solo goal against his former club sent the teams in level at the break.

The winner came in the 66th minute when an Ings drive was saved by Nick Pope, but Theo Walcott latched on to the loose ball and picked out Nathan Redmond at the back post who volleyed home.

On Saturday, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta points, had gone blow-for-blow through 40 minutes of regulation and beyond with a Gonzaga team that had spent the past four months making basketball look like an easy sport.

And until the buzzer sounded at the end of overtime, UCLA’s perfect game looked like it might just end Gonzaga’s perfect season.

Instead, Jalen Suggs – the superstar freshman for Gonzaga – added to the lore of this tournament with a buzzer-beating three that banked in from just past halfcourt to beat UCLA 93-90 and advance the Zags into Monday’s championship game against Baylor.

The shot itself will live in history as one of the great moments in tournament history.

It also shows what it took to beat this UCLA team.And for that, we owe the Bruins a huge debt of gratitude.

Without UCLA and the effort it put forward to stay in this game, we wouldn’t have had that kind of ending. Without the Bruins and their relentless will to scrap and claw and hit clutch shouts, we wouldn’t have seen one of the most thrilling tournament games in recent memory. Without UCLA playing out of its mind for 45 minutes, we wouldn’t have seen how deep Gonzaga could dig into its own soul as it tries to become the first unbeaten national champion since 1976.

As we saw from the beginning of the tournament when it escaped Michigan State in overtime, then launched its run to the Final Four, it simply was not in the DNA of this UCLA team to go away. Not when Gonzaga was gliding to the admitted he was “in shock” after his side was outclassed in a 3-0 home defeat by Liverpool.

Arteta’s side barely laid a glove on the visitors and was undone by two second-half goals by Diogo Jota and one by Mo Salah, although the margin of defeat could have been bigger.

It left Arsenal down in ninth spot and Arteta with much to ponder after his 50th league game in charge produced a display he described as one of the worst in his tenure.

“We completely deserved to lose the game. They were better in every department and deserved to win the game with the margin they had, or even more,” the Spaniard said.

“I accept responsibility for the way we played today. It is my fault. I have to set the team up to perform in a different way and that is it. At the moment I am in shock. “We want to apologize, to our people and our fans. This is nowhere near what we want and we have to do better.”

Also, Manchester City moved closer to the championship with Saturday’s 2-0 win at rim with ease early, not when the Bruins saw the fouls pile up and their lead go away at the end of the first half, and not when they committed a flagrant foul with 12 minutes remaining that left the game teetering on the edge of getting away from them.

UCLA just kept the pressure on, all the way until the Bruins had the ball in Johnny Juzang’s hands in a tied game at the end of the regulation, ready to attack the rim for the final shot.

Juzang, who seemingly hadn’t missed a shot in three weeks, got where he wanted to go. The only problem was that Gonzaga’s Drew Timme was there first, feet set, perfectly positioned to take a charge. Despite the complaints from the UCLA bench, it was a correct call.

Then in OT, even when the Bruins fell behind 90-85 in the final minute, they made one last push with Jaime Jaquez Jr. hitting a three-pointer, getting a stop and then tying it again on a second-effort play by Juzang for his 29th point.

As it turned out, the three seconds left by the Bruins were enough to break their hearts.

UCLA may regret those moments, but it would be hard to imagine how it could have played a better game. The Bruins shot 58 percent from the field, made 8-of-17 threes and survived the onslaught of easy baskets the Zags were able to generate because that’s how good they are.

For nearly 45 minutes, UCLA had what it took to match them. And with one more play, the Bruins might have taken their place alongside 1985 Villanova as the creators of a perfect game.

Instead, they got beat by a perfect shot.

Leicester City highlighting once more the options available to manager Pep Guardiola.

Returning from the international break, the Spaniard left out players who had been heavily involved in World Cup qualifying, but it was barely noticeable as his team dominated thirdplace Leicester.

England trio Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden and John Stones started on the bench, along with in-form German Ilkay Gundogan, Portuguese pair Bernardo Silva and Joao Cancelo and Spain’s Ferran Torres.

Guardiola was delighted as Benjamin Mendy, who has fallen down the pecking order to become third-choice left-back, broke the deadlock before Gabriel Jesus added the second.

City needs 11 points from its final seven matches to be sure of its third Premier League title in four years.

“It is our fifth season together” said Guardiola. You saw the commitment. We are close, we are closer.” (Reuters)

Baylor primed for first men’s title as depth overpowers Houston

You might have wondered what all the buzz around Baylor was about if you only tuned into the end of the men’s college basketball season and the NCAA Tournament.

Unbeaten until COVID-19 restrictions kept them off the court for most of February, the Bears were not their normal selves in losses to Kansas and then Oklahoma State.

Baylor didn’t play poorly in four victories to get to the Final Four, but there were bouts of inconsistency and hesitation.

What Baylor displayed Saturday was a team hitting on all cylinders when it routed Houston 78-59 to earn its first trip to the championship game since 1948.

The Cougars entered the game ranked second in scoring defense (57.6 points) and first in field-goal percentage defense (37.3%).

The Bears appeared to take the challenge personally by blitzing the Cougars from the start.

The nation’s leaders in three-point field goal percentage were 8-for-15 from behind the arc in the first half, led by four from Jared Butler.

When they went to the locker room, the score was 45-20, and the game was effectively over. The dismantling was so impressive it was easy to forget Houston had won 28 of its 31 games and been ranked in the top 10 for most of the season.

Perhaps we should have seen this coming. In their first four victories, Baylor broke the adage that you need your best players to play their best to win in the NCAA Tournament.

Their two standout guards – Butler and Davion Mitchell – who were first- and third-team All Americans, respectively, didn’t lead the team in scoring in any of those games. It was MaCio Teague in the opener, bench players Adam Flagler and Michael Mayer in the next two and then Teague again in the Elite Eight.

So, while the early wins weren’t as impressive as their semifinal victory, they did also showcase what makes the Bears so good: Their depth.

The 45 points were the most given up by Houston in the first half all season, and Teague, the team’s second-leading scorer, had none of them.

Butler didn’t score and only attempted one shot in the second half. Teague picked up the offensive slack (11 points) and was one of five double-figure scorers, which included Tchamwa Tchatchoua (11 points), who had his most points in a game since Dec. 29. Mitchell led the Bears with 11 of the team’s 23 assists in that game.

Butler’s breakout with agame-high 17 points came after he was just 18 of 52 in the first four games, which bodes well when looking ahead to a matchup with Gonzaga in the title game.

The unbeaten Bulldogs – who knocked off UCLA in an overtime thriller – will be the ultimate test, which is what the final obstacle on the road to a national championship should be. And while Baylor was able to make do before the Final Four without its best effort, the Bears will need to play as well as they did in the semifinals to cut down the nets Monday night.

(USA Today/TNS)