Severna Park grad helps Salisbury run to victory
On the brink of playoff elimination, the Washington Mystics went through another practice without all-star forward Elena Delle Donne, who spent Saturday morning receiving treatment on her sore left knee in hopes of being able to play in Sunday’s Game 4 of the WNBA semifinals. With Delle Donne in uniform but available only to offer support from the bench Friday night, the No. 3 seed Mystics lost to the second-seeded Atlanta Dream, 81-76, at Smith Center to go down two games to one in the best-of-five series. The prognosis for the 2015 WNBA MVP remains uncertain, although teammates hinted Delle Donne would play with Washington facing the prospect of having its season end one round short of the finals in consecutive years. “Yeah, I think she’s going to thug it out, especially with an elimination game,” guard Natasha Cloud said. “She’s a soldier. She’s going to try. We’ll see how it goes, but that’s up to her, a game-time decision.” The Mystics had been clinging to the faint chance Delle Donne would be able to play in Game 3, but the bone bruise she suffered in Tuesday night’s Game 2 loss at McCamish Pavilion forced out first-team all-WNBA selection. Without Delle Donne for Washington’s first home game of the semifinals, Washington fell behind by double figures in the fourth quarter and didn’t have the firepower down the stretch to complete a comeback. Delle Donne is averaging 26 points and 13 rebounds in the playoffs this year. “You can either feel sorry for yourself and just show up,” coach Mike Thibault said of his message to the team, “or you can build on the good stuff from last night and shoot the ball a little better and get a win and go back [to Atlanta] Salisbury freshman Catie Cambon (Severna Park) made the most of her first collegiate run, taking second place with a time of 23 minutes, 31 seconds to help the Sea Gulls women’s team open the season with a victory in the Salisbury University Fall Classic at Winter Place Park on Saturday. The Sea Gulls placed five runners in the top eight. Salisbury’s men’s finished third in its competition. MEN’S COLLEGE SOCCER: Navy dropped its third-straight match to start the season with a 2-0 defeat to Air Force on Friday night at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium . ... Khalid Balogun scored for St. Mary’s in a 1-1, season-opening draw with Moravian at the Elmer Lord Memorial Classic at Salisbury . ... Thirteenth-ranked Johns Hopkins posted a 3-0 win over North Carolina Wesleyan at the Mary Washington Soccer Classic on Saturday. NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE: The Washington Capitals signed forward Sergei Shumakov toa one-year, two-way entry-level contract that will carry an average annual value of $925,000. Shumakov, 25, tied for first on CSKA Moscow with 40 points (17 goals, 23 assists) in 47 games in the Kontinental Hockey League during the 2017-18 season and tied for 19th in points in the KHL. MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER: D.C. United will play Club Deportivo Olimpia, commonly known as Olimpia, of the Honduran top-tier in an exhibition match on Sept. 19 at 7:15 p.m. at Audi Field. —