Gonzaga on target despite early start
FORT MYERS, Fla. — It’s going to take more than getting up early in the morning to beat the Gonzaga men’s basketball team this season. Drew Timme
had 28 points and 10 rebounds, Corey Kispert scored 25 points and the topranked Bulldogs cruised past Auburn 90- 67 on Friday in the Rocket Mortgage Fort Myers Tip-Off. Timme went 11-of-16 from the field before leaving with about eight minutes remaining, Kispert made four 3- pointers and Jalen Suggs, Gonzaga’s highest- rated recruit, added 12 points and six assists. Allen Flanigan
scored 20 points to lead Auburn ( 1-1), which is replacing five starters from last season. A day after beating No. 6 Kansas 102-90, the Bulldogs ( 2- 0) started strong in a game that tipped off at 11 a. m. Eastern — or 8 a. m. for the players’ body clocks. An 11- 0 run gave Gonzaga an early 16- 6 lead. The sequence featured a three- point play by Timme, a 3- pointer by Jay Ayayi, a steal and slam by Suggs and a 3-pointer by Kispert. “We had different games against high- level athletes, and we responded with a short turnaround,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few
said. “We had a meeting at 11 p. m., then got up at 7 a. m. That’s a 4 a. m. wakeup with a walk- through in the parking lot. We’re throwing a lot at these guys.” The Bulldogs led 49-35 at halftime, and their advantage grew as large as 30 points in the second half. “Mark is a brilliant offensive coach,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “Everything they run is well thought out. They absolutely can average in the high 90s.”
› The NBA released a condensed 49- game preseason schedule Friday, with each team playing from two to four games starting on Dec. 11 and continuing through Dec. 19. The league plans to reveal the 72- game regular- season schedule’s first half — games set from Dec. 22 to March 4 — in the coming days; games for the season’s second half ( March 11 to May 16), will be revealed around the midpoint of the season. The Atlanta Hawks are scheduled for four preseason games: two at home against the Orlando Magic ( Dec. 11 and 13) and two on the road against the Memphis Grizzlies ( Dec. 17 and 19), who also have two road games against the Minnesota Timberwolves ( Dec. 12 and 14). Teams begin training camps next week, less than two full months after the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat in six games to win the NBA Finals and complete the pandemic- interrupted 201920 season in the league’s Walt Disney World bubble.
FOOTBALL
› Ohio State football coach Ryan Day has tested positive for COVID- 19 and will not be with the third- ranked Buckeyes (4- 0 Big Ten) if they play at Illinois ( 2-3) today. Ohio State said Friday it had an increased number of positive COVID19 tests in the program this week. The game against the Illini was still on, but the Buckeyes were not traveling Friday as originally scheduled. Ohio State said it planned to do a second round of testing Friday before flying to Champaign this morning ahead of the game, which is scheduled for a local kickoff time of 11 a. m. Central. Day is the 19th head coach in major college football to publicly acknowledge testing positive for the virus this year. Larry Johnson, the Buckeyes’ assistant head coach and defensive line coach, will act as interim head coach with Day unavailable. Ohio State did not specify how how many cases of COVID-19 it currently has in its football program, but the school did say the team had not reached the threshold to have to cancel its game. The Buckeyes already have had one game canceled because of an outbreak at Maryland and have three left on the schedule, including at Illinois.
SOCCER ›
BREDA, Netherlands — Rose Lavelle scored against the Netherlands again, and Kristie Mewis notched a goal in her first appearance in six years for the U. S. women’s national soccer team as the Americans won a rematch of the 2019 World Cup final by the same score, 2- 0 on Friday. The older sister of starter Sam Mewis came in as a second- half substitute and scored in the 70th minute. It was Kristie Mewis’ second goal for the team, with her first in 2013; the 2,722 days between her goals was the longest stretch for a player in team history. The United States hadn’t played in 261 days because of the pandemic, but the topranked Americans have won all nine matches they’ve played this year and are now 11- 0- 0 under Vlatko Andonovski, who took over as coach after Jill Ellis stepped down last year. Lavelle also scored when the United States beat the Netherlands in Lyon, France, last year for the team’s second straight World Cup title. Nine of the 11 U.S. starters from that final were in the starting lineup Friday.