Shackelford leads ’Bama over Vandy

Lindley scores 4 goals for Loyola in defeat

Alabama’s frequently launched 3-pointers weren’t falling with their normal regularity, and Vanderbilt just wouldn’t go away.

The result was familiar, if not the methodology: another Crimson Tide win.

Jaden Shackelford scored a seasonhigh 27 points and No. 8 Alabama came from behind to beat Vanderbilt 82-78 Saturday and move a step closer to a Southeastern Conference championship.

“That’s what our team is about,” Tide guard John Petty Jr. said. “We’re about pulling wins out even though we’re not shooting well or doing what we do best.

“It was an ugly win, but no matter how ugly it was, it is a win. So we’re proud of our team.”

The Tide (18-5, 13-1 SEC) moved within a win of clinching at least a share of their first regular-season title in 19 years despite an off 3-point shooting performance.

Jahvon Quinerly made a late 3-pointer and a clinching free throw with 2 seconds left to help Alabama quell the upset bid by the Commodores (6-12, 2-10).

Kentucky keeps climbing: Kentucky coach John Calipari saw Saturday’s game as a signpost for his team.

“Let’s see where we are …,” he said Friday. “Let’s see what we’ve got to do to keep this climb going.”

Kentucky looked much closer to the summit than the base camp in handling Tennessee 70-55 in Knoxville, Tenn. UK won its third straight game, its longest winning streak since Jan. 2-9. The Wildcats improved to 8-13 overall and 7-7 in the Southeastern Conference.

Jayhawks push winning streak: A rejuvenated Kansas men’s basketball team has rattled off five consecutive victories since losing five of seven games and temporarily dropping out of the AP poll.

David McCormack scored 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while Ochai Agbaji added 14 points and Jalen Wilson 11 points and 11 rebounds as No. 23 KU, which exited the rankings on Feb. 8 only to return a week later, clipped No. 15 Texas Tech 67-61 on Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse.

Marcus Garrett contributed 10 points, while Christian Braun had 10 points, three off a huge 3-pointer that extended a 64-61 lead to six points with 24 seconds left, as KU (17-7, 11-5) swept the regular-season series against Tech (14-7, 6-6).

TIlmon returns for Missouri: Missouri set itself up for another second-half collapse on the road Saturday at South Carolina, surging to a 19-point lead before halftime at Colonial Life Arena. This time, though, the Tigers had Jeremiah Tilmon.

Mizzou showed early signs of splintering in the second half but quickly restored order and snapped its three-game losing streak with a 93-78 victory to complete an SEC regular-season sweep for the first time since 2014. The Tigers (14-6, 7-6 Southeastern Conference) got a lift from Tilmon’s return after the senior center missed the last two games because a death in his family. He finished with 17 points and didn’t miss a single shot or commit a foul in 21 minutes.

West Virginia rallies vs. Texas: Sean McNeil and No. 13 West Virginia erased a 19-point deficit in the second half, then withstood a flurry of last-second misses to hold off No. 12 Texas 84-82 on Saturday. Trailing by two, Matt Coleman III missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw situation with eight seconds left. The Longhorns got the ball back, but Andrew Jones’ 3-point attempt rimmed out with four seconds left.

Arizona snaps USC’s win streak: James Akinjo scored 20 points and Arizona snapped No. 17 Southern California’s seven-game winning streak with an 81-72 win Saturday.

Tiger Woods arrived at Riviera on Saturday just in time for the Genesis Invitational to be delayed by high wind.

Woods, the tournament host, is not playing this year as he recovers from a fifth back surgery. He spent most of the late morning visiting with Dustin Johnson, Xander Schauffele and other players who had time on their hands.

The wind was gusting to 35 mph, strong enough in such dry conditions that golf balls wouldn’t stay on the green. And then a piece of communications equipment was toppled near the 14th tee, and officials halted play.

It was supposed to resume after a delay of just over three hours. But as players were warming up, play was stopped again. Sam Burns, who had a five-shot lead going into the third round, was poised over his opening tee shot when the horn sounded.

“We had some balls move around on the putting greens, which we were able to deal with under the rules,” said Steve Rintoul, the PGA Tour’s tournament director this week. “However, ultimately I think we got into a situation of player safety, safety of our volunteers and everybody else out there on the golf course was our primary reason for shutting things down.”

There would not be enough daylight to finish the third round if play ever resumed.

MLB: When Joe Musgrove reported to spring training to start his sixth big league season, a brown and gold No. 44 Padres jersey was hanging in his locker. The No. 44 is a nod to Jake Peavy, the fiery right-hander Musgrove grew up cheering for. Musgrove continued to follow his hometown Padres even as his big league career unfolded elsewhere, and now he’ll get to pitch at Petco Park as part of a powerhouse rotation the Padres are counting on to take them deep into October. “Putting on that jersey for the first time the other day was pretty special,” Musgrove said.

NBA: The Nets’ Kevin Durant will miss his fourth straight game on Sunday, as he continues to work on a strained left hamstring. Coach Steve Nash said Saturday that Durant would do strength exercises while being monitored for inflammation. The Nets take a five-game winning streak into Sunday’s matchup against the Clippers.

NHL: The setting was spectacular but the ice conditions were far from it, leading to an extended delay between the first and second period of the outdoor game between the Golden Knights and Avalanche at Lake Tahoe. The NHL decided to halt the game for more than eight hours on Saturday after bright sun and temperatures hovering around freezing led to poor ice conditions that had players and officials repeatedly falling because of holes on the ice . ... The Sabres got an early goal from defenseman Colin Miller and two more from Sam Reinhart in posting a much-needed 3-2 win over the Devils on Saturday, snapping a four-game losing streak.

Soccer: American forward Jordan Morris left the field on a stretcher with what could be a significant leg injury suffered during Swansea’s 4-2 loss to Huddersfield on Saturday in England’s League Championship. The 26-year-old, on loan from Major League Soccer’s Sounders, entered at the start of the second half and was taken off about 20 minutes later.

As far as members of the No. 11 Loyola Maryland men’s lacrosse team are concerned, the final score of Saturday evening’s 15-12 loss to No. 3 Virginia did not accurately reflect how quickly the outcome might have changed in their favor.

The Greyhounds scored three of the first four goals to trail by just one midway through the fourth quarter before the Cavaliers scored the final two goals to put the game out of reach. Unlike an 8-7 overtime win at No. 16 Richmond on Feb. 13 in which Loyola scored the game’s final three goals, the team could not get over the hump in the last frame Saturday, and that was the most disappointing part.

“I’m proud of their effort and I told them that. The end result needs to be a win, though,” Greyhounds coach Charley Toomey said. “We’ve got to learn from this and grow, and I thought we took a big step from Richmond this week, and I’m proud of that effort. But this one stings because I thought our guys were emotionally invested, I thought they prepared to win a game, and we came out and played with great energy.”

Facing its largest deficit of the game, 12-9, at the end of the third quarter, Loyola (1-1) got two goals within the first 49 seconds of the final period. Senior attackman Kevin Lindley collected a loose ball off the opening faceoff and beat freshman goalkeeper Bobby Gavin on a one-on-one just eight seconds into the period.

That goal was Lindley’s fourth of the game and gave him 123 for his career, helping him overtake Gewas Schindler (120 goals from 1996-99) for fifth all-time in program history.

Forty-one seconds later, senior attackman Aidan Olmstead (one goal and two assists) spotted sophomore attackman Evan James (three goals and one assist) behind the Virginia defense in transition and hit him with a long pass, which James converted.

But the Cavaliers (3-0) regained a two-goal cushion at 13-11 thanks to a little luck. Redshirt freshman midfielder Connor Shellenberger’s shot from the left alley did not seem to have much velocity, but it deflected off the stick of a Greyhounds defenseman and popped into the top right corner of the net with 11:18 left in the quarter.

Graduate student midfielder Peter Swindell cut the deficit in half with a laser from the right point with 7:38 left. But Virginia got goals from senior attackman Matt Moore and sophomore attackman Payton Cormier in a 47-second span to extend its advantage to 15-12 with 4:34 remaining, and the Cavaliers killed off a one-minute slashing penalty on senior defenseman Kyle Kology to thwart any hope of a Loyola comeback in the final minutes.

“We had the momentum,” Lindley said. “If we [rode] that momentum train, we could have easily won. Credit to UVA. They took it right back from us.”

Added Toomey, whose team was outscored 11-5 in the second and third quarters: “Even though they made those runs, we were in the fourth quarter and we were in the game. So you can say that they were up on us 11-5 in two quarters, but we had an opportunity to win that game in the fourth quarter. To their credit, they made a few more plays than us and pulled away.”

The Greyhounds could not match the firepower of the Cavaliers, the 2019 NCAA Division I champion. Senior attackman Matt Moore scored a game-high five goals, redshirt freshman midfielder Connor Shellenberger racked up five points on two goals and three assists, and Cormier scored three times.

“I think it’s just the 1-v-1 matchups,” Loyola senior defenseman Matt Hughes said of the challenge in trying to contain Virginia’s offense. “They’ve got some really strong guys that can win their own matchups, and we’ve got to have our guys win their own matchups. All six of their guys on the field are really dangerous. We’ve just got to be able to contain that.”