Ellis leads No. 21 USC to opening win over Kansas St. Giants quarterback Jones out for season Swiatek tops Pegula for WTA Finals title Three ACFC players nab NWSL honors
Boogie Ellis had 24 points and eight rebounds as No. 21 USC defeated Kansas State 82-69 in the season opener for both teams Monday night in Las Vegas.
Touted freshman Isaiah Collier made his Trojans debut with 18 points, including 15 in the first half. He added six assists and received a standing ovation when he went to the bench after fouling out with 4:50 to play.
Kobe Johnson finished with 16 points for USC, which shot 31 of 60 from the floor (51.7%).
Tyler Perry led Kansas State with 22 points.
• Lauren Betts, a 6-foot-7 transfer from Stanford, and Londynn Jones scored 20 points each and the No. 4 UCLA women routed visiting Purdue 92-49 in a matchup of future Big Ten opponents.
The Bruins never trailed as they opened the 50th year of women's basketball in Westwood.
UCLA star Charisma Osborne was scoreless in the first half and finished with 11 points after hitting three 3-pointers in the second half.
• Freshman JuJu Watkins scored 32 points in her college debut, lifting the No. 21 USC women over No. 7 Ohio State 83-74 in the season opener for both teams in Las Vegas.
Watkins, one of the nation's highest regarded incoming freshmen, finished 11 of 18 from the floor with six rebounds and five assists.
Rayah Marshall had 18 points and 17 rebounds for USC. Jacy Sheldon led the Buckeyes with 28 points. declined their two-year, $32 million option on righthander Michael Wacha, who then declined his oneyear, $6.5 million option and became a free agent.
Wacha went 14-4 with a 3.22 ERA over 24 starts in his 11th big league season but also missed time with a shoulder injury.
New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones has a torn ACL in his right knee and is going to miss the rest of the season.
Jones, who was returning to the lineup after missing three games with a neck injury, was hurt on the final play of the first quarter Sunday against the Raiders on a non-contact injury while looking for a receiver downfield.
Tommy DeVito, who was promoted from the practice squad last week with backup Tyrod Taylor on injured reserve with a rib cage injury, finished up.
Taylor will miss the next three games. That leaves DeVito, an undrafted rookie, and veteran Matt Barkley (USC), a recent practice squad signing who wasn't available Sunday because the Giants did not promote him for the game, to play quarterback, unless New York signs someone else.
• Minnesota Vikings running back Cam Akers has a ruptured left Achilles tendon and will be out the rest of the season.
Akers was hurt Sunday in the win at Atlanta, where he had eight carries for 25 yards. Acquired Sept. 20 in a trade with the Rams, Akers had 138 yards on 38 attempts plus 11 receptions for 70 yards in six games for the Vikings. He has one of Minnesota's two rushing touchdowns this season.
Iga Swiatek earned her first WTA Finals title and the year-end No. 1 ranking by overwhelming Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-0 in the latest in a series of dominant performances.
From 1-all at the outset, Swiatek seized complete control, collecting the next 11 games with her high-quality baseline game, rarely making an unforced error and repeatedly pressuring Pegula into mistakes.
Swiatek, a 22-year-old from Poland, went 5-0 at the tour's season-closing championship, winning all 10 sets she played and ceding a total of just 20 games. That's the fewest by the tournament's winner since 2003, when it returned to a round-robin format; the previous low in that span was the 34 games dropped by Justine Henin in 2007.
Swiatek extended her winning streak to 11 matches and improved to 68-11 with six trophies in 2023, including at the French Open in June for her fourth Grand Slam title.
This victory allows her to return to No. 1, a spot Swiatek held from April 2022 until this September, when she relinquished it to Aryna Sabalenka. Swiatek defeated Sabalenka in a semifinal that began Saturday, was suspended by rain, then finished on Sunday.
Pegula hadn't dropped a set entering Monday and eliminated her doubles partner, U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff, on Saturday.
Angel City Football Club defenders Sarah Gorden and M.A. Vignola and midfielder Savannah McCaskill earned NWSL Best XI honors for the 2023 season.
Gorden, in her first season back from an ACL injury, played every minute of every game for the Angel City and was selected to the first team.
This is the second time in her career that Gorden has earned “Ironwoman” status, by playing in every minute of every game. Gorden led the Angel City in successful passes (799) and blocks (11).
Vignola, in her first season, was selected to the NWSL's second team. Vigola, who missed the majority of 2022 with a knee injury, played in 19 games this season, recording 20 tackles and 79 possessions won. She also scored three goals with an assist in a season that saw her earn her first U.S. national team call-up.
McCaskill was also selected to the second team. The midfielder tallied four goals and three assists.
Angel City finished fifth in the NWSL, qualifying for the playoffs for the first time in the team's short two-year history.