Knights’ women fall to Bulls in title game
FORT WORTH, Texas — Elena Tsineke scored 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting, Sydni Harvey made six 3-pointers and finished with 22 points, and No. 20 South Florida beat UCF 64-54 Thursday night for the first American Athletic Conference Tournament championship in program history.
It was the Bulls’ fifth appearance in the title game, having lost to Connecticut in the championship from 2015-18.
Top-seeded South Florida (18-3) earned an NCAA Tournament berth for the fifth time in the last seven years.
Harvey hit two of her four first-quarter 3s in an 8-0 run that gave USF the lead for good and made it 18-11 going into the second quarter. The Bulls held UCF scoreless for five-plus minutes during a 16-2 spurt that pushed the lead to 20 points just before halftime.
Diamond Battles led the secondseeded Knights (16-4) with 18 points and Masseny Kaba scored 16.
The Knights scored the final 12 points of the third quarter and the first six of the fourth to trim their deficit to 51-45 with 6:38 to play, but they got no closer.
The Bulls outscored UCF 27-3 from 3-point range and made three more free throws (17) than the Knights attempted.
Caris LeVert will make his Pacers debut on Saturday, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
A small cancerous mass was found on his left kidney during an examination after he was traded from the Nets as part of the four-team deal involving James Harden. The guard underwent surgery to remove the mass in late January. The 26-yearold LeVert averaged 18.5 points and six assists in 12 games for Brooklyn prior to the trade.
The Pacers will take on the Suns on Saturday.
◼Rockets guard Eric Gordon will be out for four to six weeks with a strained groin, sources told ESPN. Gordon suffered the injury in a loss to the Kings on Thursday, the team’s 14th consecutive this season. He’s averaging 17.8 points for the Rockets. College football: The Nebraska athletic department acknowledged Friday that it explored the possibility of backing out of this fall’s game at Oklahoma before ultimately deciding to go ahead with it. The game is Sept. 18 in Norman, Oklahoma, and will mark the 50th anniversary of the 1971 Game of the Century, Nebraska’s 35-31 win over the Sooners in a clash of the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the nation. According to unidentified sources who spoke to Stadium, the Huskers contacted teams in the Mid-American Conference and Old Dominion about playing in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Sept. 18. The Lincoln Journal Star also reported Nebraska officials explored the feasibility of not playing the Sooners. MLB: Outfielder Nick Markakis has retired after 15-year career with the Braves and Orioles. The 37-year-old Markakis, who was a free agent, told The Athletic that he was done playing after accumulating 2,388 hits, earning his lone All-Star selection in 2018 and coming within one win of reaching the World Series in his final season. NFL: The 49ers agreed to a two-year contract with cornerback Emmanuel Moseley. Moseley will earn up to $10.1 million under the contract.