DIAMOND HEAD FINAL CANCELED DUE TO COVID-19

The Diamond Head Classic men’s basketball championship game between Stanford and Vanderbilt was canceled Saturday in Honolulu because of COVID-19 issues in the Cardinal camp.

In a tweet, the tournament said Stanford has health and safety protocols within its program and the game “will be declared a no contest.”

Stanford, which played Liberty on Wednesday night, said on its website that team-related activities are on pause and “the status of future games” will be determined. Its next scheduled game is Jan. 2 against Cal, then Jan. 6 against UCLA, which also has paused team activities because of COVID-19.

A day earlier, Hawaii pulled out of the tournament because of injuries and COVID-19 issues. Coach Eran Ganot said in a release that the program hadn’t had a case in 21 months and that the “priority remains to protect our student-athletes as well as those we compete against.”

More college basketball

Fousseyni Traore scored 19 points as BYU narrowly beat Liberty 80-75 in the Diamond Head Classic. Trevin Knell added 15 points and Te’jon Lucas had 11 for the Cougars (11-3). Darius Mcghee had 29 points for the Flames (8-6). Shiloh Robinson added 11 points.

• Hunter Maldonado had 22 points and 10 assists, and Graham Ike added 20 points as Wyoming routed South Florida 77-57 in the Diamond Head Classic. Xavier Dusell had 11 points and Jeremiah Oden added 10 for Wyoming (11-2). Jamir Chaplin, Javon Greene and Caleb Murphy each scored 14 points for the Bulls (5-7).

Tennis

Canada’s Denis Shapovalov announced he has tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Sydney for the ATP Cup. The 22year-old is one of the first overseas players to arrive in Australia and is part of Canada’s team for the team-based tournament in Sydney from Jan. 1-9, ahead of the Australian Open at Melbourne starting on Jan. 17.

Shapovalov played last week at the World Tennis Championship exhibition event in Abu Dhabi, where he beat Rafael Nadal in the third-place playoff match. Nadal also tested positive for the coronavirus after playing at the tournament, as did Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic and Tunisian Ons Jabeur.

Former world No. 10 Shapovalov said on social media he is in isolation and experiencing only minor symptoms.

All players have to return negative tests 72 hours before flying to Australia, as well as undergo testing once in arriving in the country and isolate whilst awaiting results.

Winter sports

Kevin Bickner and Anna Hoffman won the U.S. Olympic Ski Jumping Trials at Lake Placid, N.Y., but only Bickner is ticketed for the Winter Games in February for now.

Bickner, the top American at the 2018 Olympics in 18th place, prevailed with the two best jumps on Saturday. Decker Dean, bidding for his first Olympics, finished second, 13 points behind combining scores from two jumps. Casey Larson, a 2018 Olympian, was third.

The U.S. men have two individual Olympic quota spots at this point, though that could change after next month’s international qualifying cutoff. Two would be the fewest U.S. male ski jumpers ever at an Olympics, according to Olympedia.org.

Bickner is guaranteed to be on the Olympic team if the U.S. has at least one men’s spot.

The U.S. women have zero Olympic spots at this point. If they gain a spot, it will go to the would-be, first-time Olympian Hoffman, who rallied past Logan Sankey by a half-point on the second jump.

Soccer

American midfielder Richy Ledezma signed a contract extension with PSV Eindhoven of the Dutch first division, a deal announced after he returned from a torn ACL to play his first senior team match in more than a year. PSV said that the 21-year-old’s new contract runs through the 2023-24 season.

Ledezma tore his right ACL during a Europa League match against the Cypriot club Omonia Nicosia on Dec. 10, 2020. He returned in the first minute of second-half stoppage time in Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Go Ahead Eagles in the Dutch Eredivisie.

Also

Ray Illingworth, a former England cricket captain who went on to coach the team, has died. He was 89.

Illingworth, who led England to a 2-0 series victory in Australia in the 1970-71 Ashes, had been undergoing radiotherapy for esophageal cancer. Yorkshire, the English county Illingworth played for, announced his death on Saturday.

Illingworth played 61 test matches for England between 1958 and 1973, scoring 1,836 runs at an average of 23.24 and he claimed 122 wickets.