STEWART LIFTS STORM TO GAME 1 WIN
Breanna Stewart scored 37 points, including 11 to start the fourth quarter, to help the Seattle Storm beat the Las Vegas Aces 93-80 in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Friday night in Bradenton, Fla.
Jewell Loyd added 28 points and Sue Bird had a WNBA playoff-record 16 assists. Bird had 10 assists in the first half to also break that playoff record. Game 2 of the best-of-five series is Sunday.
Stewart added 15 rebounds and four blocks. She was a point short of the WNBA Finals record set by Angel McCoughtry.
With Seattle holding a two-point lead heading into the fourth quarter after a huge Las Vegas rally, Stewart took over.
She scored the first 11 points of the period to restore a double-digit advantage. The 2018 MVP, who missed last season with a torn Achilles tendon, hit three 3-pointers in the gamechanging burst.
Golf
Keegan Bradley likes the way he’s putting. He must really like the idea that the the birdie putts he made on his way to a 7-under 65 were not terribly far from the hole. In his debut at the Country Club of Jackson (Miss.), Bradley made three straight birdies on the back nine to take the lead and closed with another short birdie putt to take a two-shot lead over J.T. Poston (67) and San Diego native Charley Hoffman (69).
Nasa Hataoka birdied two of the last three holes for a 4-under 67 and a onestroke lead in the Shoprite LPGA Classic in Galloway, N.J.
Australia’s Lucas Herbert carded seven birdies and one bogey in a 6-under 65 to lead the Scottish Open by one shot going into the weekend at North Berwick, Scotland.
College football
The Hawaii and Bahamas bowls were canceled by ESPN Events because of the pandemic and related travel restrictions.
The games are typically played in December and are two of 17 owned and operated by ESPN. The cancellation brings the total number of postseason major college football games still tentatively on for this season down to 39.
Soccer
Phoenix Rising put leading scorer Junior Flemmings on “administrative leave” until the conclusion of a league investigation into allegations that he directed a homophobic slur at San Diego Loyal midfielder Collin Martin, who is openly gay. Flemmings has denied it. Phoenix said coach Rick Schantz also is on administrative leave, although for reasons “unrelated to (the) investigation.” Schantz has been criticized for an exchange with Loyal coach Landon Donovan that was captured on a raw television feed. The Loyal’s season is over.
Liverpool forward Sadio Mane became the second player to contract the coronavirus at the English Premier League champions this week.
Neymar scored his first goals of the season to help Paris Saint-Germain make up some lost ground in the French league with a 6-1 rout of visiting Angers.
• Tottenham ended its search for a new striker when Carlos Vinicius joined the English Premier League club on loan from Benfica. Spurs will pay a loan fee of three million euros ($3.5 million) with the option of buying Vinicius for 45 million euros ($53 million) permanently at the end of the season.
Fabio Quagliarella’s penalty while beating Fiorentina 2-1 moved him past Gianluca Vialli for third on the list of Sampdoria’s alltime scorers in Serie A.
Also
“Sweet” Lou Johnson, who hit a key home run for the victorious Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7 of the 1965 World Series and scored the only run in Sandy Koufax’s perfect game the same year, died on Wednesday. He was 86.
Former UC San Diego basketball standout Christian Oshita signed a contract to begin his professional career with Team Ehingen Urspring in the German ProA Basketball League.
Honda will withdraw from Formula One at the end of the 2021 season, the Japanese engine manufacturer announced, citing “environmental initiatives.”