Coleman lifts Texas to Maui title
Matt Coleman III hit a stepback jumper with 0.1 seconds left to help No. 17 Texas beat No. 14 North Carolina 69-67 on Wednesday to win the relocated Maui Invitational.
The tournament was played in the Asheville, North Carolina mountains instead of its traditional Hawaii setting due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Coleman finished with 22 points and was the tournament’s MVP for the Longhorns (4-0), who blew a 16-point lead late in the first half and fell behind with about 21⁄ minutes left. Coleman and Kai
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Jones both came up big in the critical moments for Texas, securing the Longhorns’ first Maui title in their fifth appearance in the tournament.
Jones had 12 points, including a tying jumper with 2:19 left and then a transition dunk with 41.2 seconds remaining that pushed Texas to a 67-65 lead. Leaky Black answered for UNC (3-1) with two free throws with 25.6 seconds left, only to see Coleman make a tough shot.
Baseball: The Yankees planned to tender a contract to former All-Star C Gary Sanchez, ESPN reported. Wednesday was the deadline for teams to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players for next season. Sanchez, 28, was replaced by Kyle Higashioka as the Yankees’ primary catcher in the playoffs after hitting just .147 in the regular season with 10 HRs and 24 RBIs. ... The Mets reached agreement on a two-year, $15.5 million contract with RHP Trevor May, ESPN reported. May, 31, was 1-0 with a 3.86 ERA and two saves in 24 appearances for the Twins last season.
College football: Houston’s upcoming game with SMU was postponed for a second time because of COVID-19 issues, ESPN reported. The game, which was originally to be played Nov. 21, was postponed to Saturday when COVID-19 issues within Houston’s program caused the game to be delayed. This time, it’s COVID-19 issues within SMU’s program that are preventing the game from being played. SMU didn’t have any positive tests on the team, but contact tracing knocked out entire position groups with more than 20 players sidelined. ... Southern Mississippi hired Tulane offensive coordinator Will Hall as its next coach. Hall, 40, spent the last two seasons with the Green Wave after previous assistant coaching stops at Memphis and Louisiana. He served as head coach at both Division II West Georgia and West Alabama. Southern Miss parted ways with Jay Hopson following an opening loss to South Alabama. Scotty Walden took over as interim coach before leaving for the top job at FCS Austin Peay.
NFL: The Broncos fined their four QBs an undisclosed amount for violations of COVOD-19 protocols, including not wearing masks. Two of the QBs, Drew Lock and Brett Rypien, returned to practice Wednesday. Lock, Rypien and Blake Bortles, who’s on the practice squad, weren’t eligible to play in Sunday’s 31-3 loss to the Saints after being deemed high-risk close contacts of QB Jeff Driskel, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Thanksgiving.
Soccer: Borussia Dortmund qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League despite being held to a 1-1 draw in a group-play match with Lazio.