Was ABA star, longtime voice
Steve (Snapper) Jones, the former ABA and NBA player who had a long career in broadcasting, died Saturday after a lengthy illness. He was 75. The Portland Trail Blazers said family members and friends confirmed that Jones died in Houston. Jones was a threetime All-Star in eight ABA seasons, averaging 16.0 points in 640 regular-season games for Oakland, New Orleans, Memphis, Dallas, Carolina, Denver and St. Louis. He finished his career with Portland in 1975-76, averaging 6.5 points in 64 games in his lone NBA season. “Steve was as positive and good-natured a broadcasting partner as I could have had,” Blazers broadcast partner Bill Schonely said. “He loved to call me ‘Pops’ as a nickname . . . He was a terrific guy.”
SPARTANS TOP UNC
Joshua Lanford hit five 3-pointers and scored 23 points and No. 4 Michigan State beat No. 9 North Carolina, 63-45, on Sunday night to win the “Victory Bracket” of the PK80 Invitational in Portland, Ore.
Tom Izzo got the best of Roy Williams for the first time in eight tries since Williams arrived in Chapel Hill. Michigan State (5-1) bullied the Tar Heels (5-1) at both ends. The Heels shot just 24.6%, the worst shooting game in school history, including 1-of-18 on 3-pointers, also the worst in history.
TORONTO WINS GREY CUP
Lirim Hajrullahu kicked a 32-yard field goal with 49 seconds left and the Toronto Argonauts stunned the Calgary Stampeders, 27-24, on Sunday in the Canadian Football League’s snowy 105th Grey Cup, played in Ottawa. Toronto tied it with 4:35 to go on Cassius Vaughn’s Grey Cup-record 109-yard fumble return and Ricky Ray’s 2-point conversion pass to Declan Cross. After Hajrullahu’s field goal, Matt Black picked off Bo Levi Mitchell’s pass in the end zone.
Ray hit DeVier Posey for a Grey Cup-record 100-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the second half.
SHIFFRIN WINS
American Mikaela Shiffrin picked up her first win of the skiing season, winning both runs of the women’s World Cup slalom on Sunday in Killington, Vt. Shiffrin, who won the slalom at Killington last year, finished with a combined two-run time of 1 minute, 40.91 seconds. She was 1.64 seconds ahead of Petra Vlhova of Slovakia, who won the last two slaloms.
Shiffrin was the runner-up to Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg in Saturday’s giant slalom and now leads the World Cup standings with 305 points.
SPIETH 8TH IN AUSSIE OPEN
Cameron Davis of Australia came from six shots behind going into the final round to win the Australian Open in Sydney by one stroke, shooting a 7-under 64—273 that included a birdie on the 18th and an eagle after holing a 100-yard approach shot. American Jordan Spieth (67), attempting to win his third Australian title in four years, finished eighth, five strokes behind Davis.