Quick Hitters
San Pasqual girls basketball loses close one
The San Pasqual girls basketball team put up a fight against the No. 6-ranked team in 1A on Monday at home, but ultimately fell 34-33 to Immaculate Heart.
Mary Amador had 17 points for the Warriors (6-2 AIA), while Keija Koteen chipped in 12.
Villanova returns to No. 1 in reshuffled AP Top 25 poll
Villanova needed just a week to reclaim its lost No. 1 ranking in the AP Top 25. West Virginia waited a lot longer — nearly six decades, in fact — to get back to its position at No. 2.
Villanova returned to the top spot in Monday’s new poll after an upset-filled week that included losses by No. 1 Michigan State and No. 2 Duke. The Wildcats got 52 of 65 first-place votes to move up from third to No. 1, where it spent three weeks in December.
The Mountaineers were next to capitalize on a big win, along with the chaos of a week that saw four top-5 teams lose to unranked opponents and six top-10 teams lose overall.
West Virginia — which beat then-No. 7 Oklahoma last week — earned 12 first-place votes and secured the program’s highest ranking since December 1959 during Jerry West’s senior season. Virginia climbed five spots to No. 3 and got the remaining first-place vote, followed by Michigan State after the Spartans’ loss at Ohio State.
Purdue and Wichita State tied for No. 5. Duke, the preseason No. 1-ranked team, fell five spots to No. 7 after losing at North Carolina State. Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Xavier rounded out the top 10.
Villanova (14-1) lost at Butler on Dec. 30, then had to wait a week before beating Marquette on Saturday.
“We try to learn from our wins and losses,” coach Jay Wright said afterward. “We don’t really judge ourselves on whether we won or lost, we judge ourselves on how well we played Villanova basketball. Sometimes we win and we still didn’t play great Villanova basketball. When you lose, that’s when it’s really obvious.”
ATLANTA — To add another championship to the greatest dynasty college football has ever seen, Alabama turned to its quarterback of the future, and Tua Tagovailoa proved that his time is now.
The freshman quarterback, who had played mostly mop-up duty this season, came off the bench to spark a comeback and threw a 41yard touchdown to DeVonta Smith that gave No. 4 Alabama a 26-23 overtime victory against No. 3 Georgia on Monday night for the College Football Playoff national championship.
Tagovailoa entered the game at halftime, replacing a struggling Jalen Hurts, and threw three touchdown passes to give the Crimson Tide its fifth national championship since 2009 under coach Nick Saban.
“He just stepped in and did his thing,” Hurts said. “He’s built for stuff like this. I’m so happy for him.” The Tide might have a quarterback controversy ahead of them, but first Alabama will celebrate another national title.
For the third straight season, Alabama played in a classic CFP final. The Tide split two with Clemson, losing last season on touchdown with a second left.
What was Saban thinking as the winning pass soared?
“I could not believe it,” he said. “There’s lots of highs and lows. Last year we lost on the last play of the game and this year we won on the last play of the game. These kids really responded the right way. We said last year, ‘Don’t waste the feeling.’ They sure didn’t, the way they played tonight.”
Smith streaked into the end zone and moments later confetti rained and even Saban seemed almost giddy after watching maybe the most improbably victory of his unmatched career.
After Alabama kicker Andy Pappanastos missed a 36-yard field goal that would have won it for the Tide (13-1) in the final seconds of regulation, Georgia (13-2) took the lead with a 51-yard field goal from Rodrigo Blankenship in overtime.
Tagovailoa took a terrible sack on Alabama’s first play of overtime, losing 16 yards. On the next play he found Smith, another freshman, and hit him in stride for the national championship.
This game will be remembered for Saban’s decision to change quarterbacks trailing 13-0.
“I just thought we had to throw the ball, and I felt he could do it better, and he did,” Saban said. “He did a good job, made some plays in the passing game. Just a great win. I’m so happy for Alabama fans. Great for our players. Unbelievable.”
Saban now has six major poll national championships, including one at LSU, matching the record set by the man who led Alabama’s last dynasty, coach Paul Bear Bryant.
This one was nothing like the others.
The all-Southeastern Conference matchup was all Georgia in the first half before Saban pulled Hurts and went with the five-star recruit from Hawaii.
The Tide trailed 20-7 in the third quarter after Georgia’s freshman quarterback Jake Fromm, hit Mecole Hardman for an 80-yard touchdown pass that had the Georgia fans feeling good about ending a