Fever top Lynx in WNBA Finals opener

Briann January had 19 points and six assists and the Indiana Fever stole home-court advantage in the WNBA Finals with a 75-69 victory over the Minnesota Lynx in Game 1 on Sunday at Minneapolis.

Marissa Coleman added 16 points and the Fever hit all 16 of their free throws in a rematch of the 2012 finals. Indiana won Game 1 of that series as well en route to the franchise’s only championship.

Maya Moore had 27 points and 12 rebounds and Sylvia Fowles add 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Lynx. But Minnesota missed eight free throws and turned the ball over 15 times.

Game 2 in the best-of-five series is Tuesday night in Minneapolis.

Former Tennessee Lady Vols star Tamika Catchings had 12 points, six rebounds and four assists for the Fever, who never got rattled by Minnesota’s boisterous home crowd.

COLLEGES

Senior Emily Adamic scored two goals in the final 10 minutes and Memphis’ women’s soccer team stifled SMU 2-0 on Sunday at Mike Rose Soccer Complex. Goalkeeper Maryse Bard-Martel and the Memphis defense earned their sixth shutout of the season. “I thought it was one of our better performances of the season,” Memphis coach Brooks Monaghan said. “The only thing I told the team was I thought we could have had a little more hunger in the box. But it was a great team win and our back line was tremendous.”

The U of M volleyball team hit .324 in the fourth set and out-blocked host UConn 4-1 in a 3-1 win Sunday at Storrs, Connecticut. Junior right side McKenzie Hayes finished with 18 kills and hit .500 for the match on 34 attacks. Veronica Zimmerman led Memphis with 42 assists, and Lindsey Purvis had 26 digs.

Memphis’ Anki Wind lost 7-5, 6-2 to Notre Dame’s Monica Robinson on Sunday in singles in the Riviera ITA All-American at Pacific Palisades, California. The U of M’s top-seeded doubles team of Wind and Hannah Sohn will face No. 8 seeded Katarina Adamovic and Vladica Babic of Oklahoma State at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the event. At the Purdue Invitational, Memphis senior Kathryn Hughes beat Purdue’s Andjela Djokovic 6-1, 3-6, 6-3; freshman Janina Berres lost 6-1, 6-3, to Kansas’ Smith Hinton; and sophomore Tara McElroy lost 6-2, 6-3 to Purdue’s Claudia Escribens.

U of M freshman Felix Rauch won a pair of matches Sunday to advance to the round of 32 in the ITA PreQualifier in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He will play Green Bay’s Leopold Gomez-Inslinger for a qualifier spot in the ITA All-American today. Ryan Peniston will open in the qualifying side at 11:30 a.m. today against No. 9 seed Arjun Kadhe of Oklahoma State; sophomore Andrew Watson is the draw’s No. 2 seed and will start against Minnesota’s Felix Corwin at 10:30 a.m.

Chandler Klemm scored in the 106th minute to give the U of M men’s soccer team a 1-0 overtime victory over UConn on Saturday night at Storrs, Connecticut. Memphis (2-5-2, 1-0-1 American Athletic Conference) finished the match with eight shots. Klemm got on the end of a low cross from freshman midfielder Mason Morise and fired the ball into the back of the net for his first career goal for Memphis.

GOLF

Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo made a 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole Sunday to win the Web.com Tour Finalsending Web.com Tour Championship at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The 23-year-old Grillo beat Chez Reavie by a stroke in the last of the four events that replaced PGA Tour qualifying school, finishing with a 1-under 69 for a 14-under 266 total on TPC Sawgrass’ Dye’s Valley Course. Reavie had a chance to force a playoff, but missed a 15-foot birdie putt. He shot a 68.

TENNIS

Tomas Berdych and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez won their semifinals after multiple rain delays at the Shenzhen (China) Open and will meet in the final today. Berdych beat Tommy Robredo 6-1, 6-4 and fourth-seeded GarciaLopez rallied to beat second-seeded Marin Cilic 1-6, 7-5, 6-3. ... Top-seeded David Ferrer became the first Spaniard to win the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur when he defeated countryman Feliciano Lopez 7-5, 7-5 in the final. ... U.S. Open champion Flavia Pennetta struggled in her first match since winning her first Grand Slam, needing nearly 2 ½ hours to beat Chinese wild card Han Xinyun 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in the first round of the China Open in Beijing. Top-seeded Simona Halep of Romania retired from her match against Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena with a recurring Achilles injury while trailing 5-4 in the first set.

AUTO RACING

John Wes Townley won the NASCAR Camping World Truck race Saturday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, an event marred by Austin Theriault’s head-on crash into a wall. Townley won for the first time in the series, getting his Athenian Motorsports Chevrolet home on limited fuel after the other contenders ran out of gas or pitted to keep from running dry. Timothy Peters was second, followed by Red Horse Racing teammate Ben Kennedy. Theriault, driving Brad Keselowski Racing’s Ford, made contact with teammate Tyler Reddick’s truck and hit the wall on a part of the track not protected by a SAFER barrier. Theriault suffered a compression fracture of his lower back. He was released from a hospital Sunday and will return to North Carolina for further treatment.

Antron Brown remained perfect in the first three Countdown to the Championship events, winning the NHRA Keystone Nationals on Sunday at Mohton, Pennsylvania. Brown had a 3.717-second pass at 328.46 mph in his Top Fuel dragster to beat teammate Tony Schumacher. Jack Beckman won in Funny Car, Chris McGaha in Pro Stock, and Andrew Hines in Pro Stock Motorcycle.