Palo Alto’s Zhou looks to smooth out his big jumps
Vincent Zhou of Palo Alto will head to the figure skating World Championships next month knowing judges are watching his jumps closely after the teen won the bronze medal at the Four Continents competition in Anaheim.
Zhou, 18, got marked down late Saturday night on two of three quadruple jumps as well as a triple axel in a free skate performance that dropped the skater in the overall standings after he had won the short program.
Judges this season have reviewed most of Zhou’s big jumps because of a reputation for under-rotating them. Although Zhou completed all 11 of his jumps in the long program he finished fifth in the 4-minute competition because of technical downgrades from the judging panel.
Olympic silver medalist Shoma Uno of Japan won the free skate and the title with a total score of 289.12 points. Olympian Boyang Jin of China was second (273.51 points) and Zhou third (272.22.)
“I think it’s a good thing that I wasn’t perfect at this competition because if I were perfect then I wouldn’t have anywhere to go for worlds,” Zhou told reporters in Anaheim.
Zhou will face most of the same competitors at the year’s major competition March 18-24 in Saitama, Japan, but also defending world and U.S. champion Nathan Chen and Olympic gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, who didn’t perform in Anaheim.
Zhou lost grade of execution points on a quadruple flip, quadruple toe and triple axel-double toe combination jump to sabotage an otherwise positive weekend for the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based skater. Still, it was a season-best free skate score.
College women’s basketball
ANIGWE BREAKS REBOUNDING MARK IN LOSS >> Cal’s tough stretch of four consecutive games against top-10 opponents came to a difficult end, as the Bears fell to No. 7 Oregon State 82-74 at Haas Pavilion.
Kristine Anigwe, who broke Cal’s career scoring record on Friday night, also broke the school’s rebound record on Sunday, passing the previous mark of 1,219 held by Gennifer Brandon. Anigwe had game highs of 31 points and 18 rebounds, extending her double-double
streak to 24.
Asha Thomas also broke a Cal career record, connecting on five 3-pointers to give her 212 overall and eclipse the all-time school mark of Alexis-Gray Lawson.
Thomas finished with 15 points and four assists in the loss.
College men’s basketball
CARDINAL FALLS TO OREGON >> Coming off an impressive win at Oregon State three nights earlier, Stanford matched a season-low for points in a 69-46 loss at Oregon.
Bryce Willis scored 13 points to lead the Cardinal (12-11, 5-6 Pac-12). Stanford didn’t score for the first 7:02 of the game and at one point trailed 16-2 to the Ducks (15-9, 6-5), but the Cardinal cut the deficit to 38-31 on a 3-pointer by KZ Okpala with 15:21 to play. Stanford managed one field goal over the next 11:36 while the Ducks ran off to a 62-41 lead.
NFL
RAMS DB FINED FOR LATEST HIT >> Los Angeles cornerback Nickell RobeyColeman has been smacked with a hefty fine for a hit in a second straight playoff game.
Robey-Coleman was fined $26,739 by the NFL for a helmet-to-helmet hit on a prone New England Patriots running back Rex Burkhead in the first quarter of Super Bowl LIII, according to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. The Patriots won 13-3.
The hit drew a 15-yard penalty, unlike the controversial play in the NFC championship game win over New Orleans that saw him fined the same amount two weeks earlier. BENGALS NAB ANOTHER RAIDERS ASSISTANT >> Cincinnati has hired Jemal Singleton as their new running backs coach, according to multiple reports, giving the team two new assistant coaches who were recently lured from the Raiders. The Bengals hired former Raiders quarterbacks coach Brian Callahan on Thursday as their new offensive coordinator.
NNL
BLACKHAWKS WIN SEVENTH IN A ROW >> Dominik Kahun had two goals and an assist and Chicago extended its winning streak to seven games by topping the visiting Detroit Red Wings 5-2.
NBA
MAVS’ ROOKIE DOES IT AGAIN >> Rookie sensation Luka Doncic is gaining the reputation as one of the league’s best clutch performers and he did it again with 28 points, five coming in the decisive final 2:27 to give the Dallas Mavericks a 102-101 comeback win against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Doncic scored 13 points in the fourth quarter, a stanza in which Dallas trailed 96-81 with 10:43 to go in the game. Portland built that lead on Damian Lillard’s incredible 21-point third quarter.
Tennis
U.S. BEATEN IN FED CUP >> Ashleigh Barty won a pair of matches — first in singles and then in doubles — to help Australia knock off the United States and move into the Fed Cup World Group semifinals for the first time since 2014.
Barty, who is ranked 13th in the world and boasts the No. 1 Australian ranking for the Fed Cup, helped her country secure a 3-2 win over Team USA. She rolled past Madison Keys 6-4, 6-1, and partnered with Priscille Hon to win their decisive doubles match 6-4, 7-5 over Danielle Collins and Nicole Melichar.