Diana Taurasi passes former Comet Tina Thompson as league’s career scoring leader.
LOS ANGELES — Diana Taurasi became the WNBA’s career scorer leader, passing former Houston Comets star Tina Thompson’s mark of 7,488 on Sunday.
Taurasi needed 14 points going into the Phoenix Mercury’s 90-59 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks and broke Thompson’s record late in the first half on a layup.
The game was stopped, and the crowd, which included former Lakers star Kobe Bryant, gave Taurasi a warm ovation.
It took the Mercury’s star 13 seasons to become the league’s top scorer. Thompson needed 17 seasons to achieve her total.
Larson benefits from late restart
Kyle Larson took control on a restart with five laps remaining and raced to his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season, holding off Chase Elliott on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.
It was the third Cup win of Larson’s career — and second in a row at Michigan. Larson and Elliott also finished 1-2 at MIS in August. Elliott was second in both Michigan races last year and again this time. In other news: • Clay Millican raced to his first career Top Fuel victory Sunday, beating Leah Pritchett in the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals final in Bristol, Tenn.
Fleury, Vatanen, Neal unprotected
Three-time Stanley Cup champion goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, Nashville forward James Neal and Anaheim defenseman Sami Vatanen were among the high-profile players made available Sunday for the Vegas Golden Knights to select in the NHL expansion draft.
Now it’s on Golden Knights general manager George McPhee to pore over the list of unprotected players and select one from each of the NHL’s 30 teams by Wednesday.
Henderson wins 4th LPGA crown
Brooke Henderson won the Meijer LPGA Classic for her fourth LPGA Tour title, holding off Michelle Wie and Lexi Thompson by two strokes at Grand Rapids, Mich.
The 19-year-old Henderson closed with a 66 on the Blythefield layout that was reduced to a par of 69 — the fifth hole was played as a par 3 instead of a par 5 — for the final two rounds because of flooding.
Wie finished with a 65, and Thompson had a 69. In other news: • Zander Lozano of Fair Oaks Ranch pulled away on the back nine to win the 108th Texas Amateur at Lakewood Country Club in Dallas by four shots.
Lozano shot a 4-under 67 in the final round for a total of 274 over four days. The trio of Friendswood’s Brady Purdom, San Antonio’s Levi Valdez and Jacksonville’s Hunter Shattuck finished at 278 to tie for second.
Pouille defeats Lopez at Stuttgart
Lucas Pouille of France defeated Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 to win the Stuttgart Open in Germany.
The No. 4-seeded Pouille, who was given a wild card to play at the grass-court tournament, hit 29 aces and saved six of the seven break points he faced before claiming his third title in two hours and five minutes.
Kiwis leading America’s Cup
Peter Burling and Emirates Team New Zealand are threatening to sail away with the America’s Cup.
The 26-year-old Burling calmly steered the Kiwis’ fast 50-foot catamaran to two more dominating victories against Jimmy Spithill and two-time defending champion Oracle Team USA on Sunday to remain undefeated in the showdown in Hamilton, Bermuda
Although they’ve won four races, the Kiwis lead Oracle 3-0. Because Oracle won the qualifiers, the challenger started the 35th America’s Cup match with a negative point.
Kovalev plans protest after loss
After leaving no doubt who was the best light heavyweight around, Andre Ward talked about securing his place as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world and perhaps even one day moving up to heavyweight.
The talk in Sergey Kovalev’s camp, meanwhile, was about protesting the outcome of Saturday night’s fight because the referee did nothing about borderline low blows that helped bring the fight to an end in the eighth round.
Kovalev’s promoter, Kathy Duva, said she would protest to the Nevada Athletic Commission on Monday to try to erase the second straight loss Kovalev suffered at the hands of Ward. Duva admitted, however, that she has little hope a protest would succeed.