Quick Hitters
Cardinals sign 2 corners, guard Pugh goes on IR
TEMPE — The Arizona Cardinals have signed cornerbacks David Amerson and Leonard Johnson.
Wednesday’s move came a day after the team placed starting right guard Justin Pugh on injured reserve with a knee injury and released safety Eddie Pleasant.
Pugh was injured in Sunday’s loss at Kansas City. Oday Aboushi, who signed with Arizona on Oct. 23 after spending training camp with Oakland, is expected to start in Pugh’s place against the Raiders this Sunday.
Amerson is in his fifth NFL season, appearing in 68 games for Washington (2013-15) and Oakland (2015-17).
Johnson, also in his sixth season, has played in 77 NFL games for Tampa Bay, New England, Carolina and Buffalo.
Michigan routs Villanova in championship rematch
VILLANOVA, Pa. — Charles Matthews scored 19 points, Ignas Brazdeikis had 18 and No. 18 Michigan beat No. 8 Villanova 73-46 in a national championship game rematch Wednesday night.
Villanova captured its second title in three years with a 79-62 victory over Michigan in April but was completely overmatched in the second game at its newly renovated Pavilion.
Eric Paschall scored 10 points and Phil Booth had nine for the Wildcats (2-1).
The Wolverines (3-0) jumped ahead early and never let up. They led 10-2 less than five minutes in and expanded the lead to 22-8 on Matthews’ jumper midway through the opening half. A 17-3 run followed, giving Michigan a 39-13 lead. Matthews’ dunk and consecutive 3-pointers from Isaiah Livers and Jordan Poole highlighted the run.
Matthews capped the impressive first half with a steal and layup to send Michigan to the locker room with a 44-17 lead.
Villanova’s frustration was evident after Michigan’s Zavier Simpson’s flagrant foul led to a brief scuffle with Dhamir CosbyRoundtree near midcourt with 13 minutes remaining and Michigan leading 52-24.
The Wildcats couldn’t make any push in the second half, and fans hit the road early.
Neither team looked like the two squads who met in San Antonio seven months ago.
Villanova lost four players who were drafted in the first 33 picks of the NBA draft.
Michigan lost three of its top four scorers. Moe Wagner, the star big man, was drafted by the Lakers in the first round and is playing in Germany. Duncan Robinson and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman graduated.
FOLEY, Ala. — The Arizona Western women’s soccer team saw its season come to an abrupt end on Wednesday night at the end of group play in the NJCAA Division I tournament.
The No. 4 Mats, who needed to win by at least three goals Wednesday to keep the season alive after falling 3-1 to Laramie County on Monday, fell to No. 5 Eastern Florida State in a 6-1 rout.
The teams dueled in cold and wet conditions as the temperature flirted around the freezing point.
“It was overall a good season and I’m proud of the girls,” AWC coach Nicole Acosta said. “They played hard. It was just unfortunate how it ended.”
AWC (21-3 overall) was able to keep pace for the first 15 minutes of the game, but EFSC forward Cristina Garriga had a hat trick take place in a six-minute span. She scored her first goal in the 17th minute on a soft header in the box, the second only a minute later on a floater over the reach of AWC goalie Cyan Scott, and the third five minutes later when she outran the entire Mats’ backline on a counter.
“As soon as we had one goal scored on us we kind of put our heads down,” Acosta said. “That didn’t help. They were just good shots.”
After Garriga’s surge in the game, the scoreline was out of reach. EFSC (16-2-1 overall) scored once more before half to go up 4-0.
The second half offered more opportunities for AWC as forward Christiana Boateng began to find some space. In the 65th minute she had a header bounce off of the post and less than a minute later another header was saved.
Boateng finally scored in the 80th minute on a hustle play where she slashed to the net in front of goal and finished with a defender trailing her. She scored both AWC goals in the tournament and she finished the season with 29 goals to lead the team.
“We started connecting with the ball a bit more like we did at the beginning of the season,” Acosta said. “At least we finished doing that.”
That was the only chance that AWC could cash in on as the field conditions worsened throughout the game.
AWC was outshot 16 to 9; Scott finished with six saves in the game as she was busy in goal all night.
“I am proud of the girls because they did fight until the end,” Acosta said.