TALKING POINTS

Stanford-Southern Cal basketball game postponed

Southern California has postponed its home men’s basketball game against Stanford because of a confirmed case of COVID-19.

A team spokesman says the individual who tested positive was identified before contact with anyone that had been expected to participate in Sunday night’s game. The individual is in isolation.

The Trojans are halting team activities while contact tracing is conducted. They are scheduled to host San Francisco on Wednesday and travel to Oregon State on Dec. 20. Decisions on those games will be announced later.

The Pac-12 will work with both USC and Stanford to try to find a mutually agreeable date to reschedule the game.

Stanford has already had three nonconference home games set for this month canceled.

Onyenwere, Osborne lead No. 11 UCLA women past USC 73-52

LOS ANGELES — Michaela Onyenwere scored 19 points and Charisma Osborne added 18, each dominating a quarter, as No. 11 UCLA rolled to a 73-52 win over crosstown rival USC on Sunday.

Osborne hit three 3-pointers and scored 13 points in the first quarter as the Bruins opened a 27-18 lead. Onyenwere went 5 of 7, making both of her 3s, and scored 14 points in the third quarter when UCLA outscored the Trojans 20-5 to open a 27-point lead.

Natlie Chou scored 10 points for the Bruins (4-1, 2-1 Pac-12 Conference).

Jordan Sanders, a graduate transfer from UC Irvine and the only senior for the Trojans (13, 0-3) scored 12 points and Desiree Caldwell added 11.

Emily Bessoir, a 6-foot-4 freshman, hit a 3-pointer midway through the first quarter to cap a 12-0 run that put UCLA up 18-4. USC scored the last five points of the first quarter to trail by nine but that was the last time the deficit was less than double figures when Osborne opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer.

Onyenwere had five points in a 7-0 burst to open the second half and scored nine-straight UCLA points in the third quarter to make it 60-33.

With Chantel Horvat grabbing nine rebounds, UCLA had a 44-29 advantage on the boards, 18-5 on the offensive end. USC went 4 of 17 from 3-point range and shot 37% with 18 turnovers.

Pac-12 announces final weekend of games in football season

SAN FRANCISCO — The Pac-12 Conference has set the schedule for its final weekend of football games.

The conference announced Sunday its teams will play six games,

including Washington at No. 16 Southern California in the Pac-12 championship game on Friday.

Oregon will face No. 21 Colorado at Memorial Coliseum in Southern California on Saturday. The winner of that game could slide into a rescheduled title game if the Trojans or Huskies are unable to play due to COVID-19 issues.

Saturday’s games also include Washington State at Utah, Stanford at UCLA, and Arizona State at Oregon State.

Arizona was scheduled to play California at a site and time to be determined, but the game was canceled by the Pac-12 because neither team had enough available scholarship players.

The Wildcats fired coach Kevin Sumlin on Saturday following a blowout loss to Arizona State that dropped them to 0-5. The Bears had four games canceled due to COVID-19 issues and finished 1-3.

The Pac-12 left the schedule for the final weekend of the season open to have flexibility in a year when the coronavirus pandemic has led to cancellations and postponements across the country.

USC earned a spot in the Pac-12 title game for the first time since 2017 by rallying to beat rival UCLA 43-38 on Saturday.

Washington earned its third Pac-12 North title in five years with a 38-21 win over Colorado.

The conference went to a home-hosted model for the championship game this season.

Sarah Fuller 1st woman to score in Power Five football game

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Sarah Fuller became the first woman to score in a Power Five conference football game, cleanly kicking a pair of extra points for Vanderbilt in a 42-17 loss to Tennessee on Saturday.

The goalkeeper for Vanderbilt’s Southeastern Conference women’s soccer champs made both of her kicks, to the cheers of her teammates and family.

“This whole time has been if

I can do it, if I’m good enough to do it,” Fuller said after the game. “It wasn’t if I was a girl or not. So that’s something I’ve really appreciated. At the end of the day, they treated me like an athlete and that’s the best I could ask for.”

Fuller got her historic chance with 1:50 left in the first quarter.

Listed second out of three available kickers on the depth chart, Fuller came out to try the extra point. The 6-foot-2 senior put the ball through the uprights to tie the game at 7 and celebrated by pulling her fist in before slapping high-fives with teammates.

Fuller off the field with a big smile with her family in the stands all with their arms up in the air.

Center judge Chris Garner made sure to give Fuller the ball, the official bringing it to her at the sideline.

Vanderbilt gave Fuller another chance with 7:22 left in the game. Ken Seals hit Ben Bresnahan with a 16-yard TD pass, and Fuller went back out. She kicked the extra point through as the Commodores closed to 35-17.

Fuller made history as the first female to play in a Power Five conference game on Nov. 28 with a squib kickoff to open the second half at Missouri. She has remained on the roster even as Vanderbilt’s other kickers came out of quarantine and rejoined the team.

Tennessee coach Jeremy Pruitt, who had a daughter earlier this year, said it was awesome.

“She’s obviously a winner,” Pruitt said about Fuller. “And she walked up there and kicked it right through. So I just think it says a whole lot about her and really, kind of her fortitude to be brave enough to go do this.”

Auburn fires football coach Gus Malzahn after 8 seasons

Auburn has fired coach Gus Malzahn, who led the Tigers to the national championship game in his first season but could never replicate that success.

Athletic director Allen Greene announced the firing on Sunday, a day after the Tigers finished the regular season with a 24-10 victory over Mississippi State. They’re 6-4 in a pandemic-shortened season of all Southeastern Conference opponents, getting blown out by highly ranked teams Alabama, Georgia and Texas A&M.

They were also upset by a struggling South Carolina, which wound up firing coach Will Muschamp during the season.

“After evaluating the state of the Auburn football program, we’ve decided that it was time to make a change in leadership,” Greene said in a statement. “We appreciate everything that Gus did for the program over the last eight seasons. We will begin a search immediately for a coach that can help the Auburn program consistently compete at the highest level.””

Defensive coordinator Kevin Steele will be interim coach. Auburn will owe Malzahn a $21.45 million buyout for the remaining four years of a seven-year, $49 million deal.

The school must pay half of that within 30 days.

Malzahn went 68-35 in eight seasons and was 39-27 against SEC opponents. He led the Tigers to an SEC title in 2013, his first season, losing to Florida State in the national championship game.

Kuchar, English break records in QBE Shootout runaway

NAPLES, Fla. — Matt Kuchar and Harris English broke a bunch of their own QBE Shootout records in a runaway victory Sunday at Tiburon Golf Club.

Kuchar and English became the first team to win the event three times, finished at 37-under 179 to break the mark of 34 under they set in 2013, and won by nine strokes to top their 2013 record of seven.

“That is laughable,” Kuchar said. “It’s hard to fathom just how good of golf that was. It’s funny, as a player you stay in the moment pretty well and don’t think too much about it.”

Five strokes ahead after an 11-under 61 on Saturday in modified alternate-shot play, Kuchar and English shot a 60 in better-ball play. English closed birdie-eagle-birdie.

“I didn’t want to put too much thought into us having a five-shot lead coming in today,” English said. “I kind of wanted to put more into seeing what we could do, trying to break the record.”

Also the 2016 winners, they had the eagle and 10 birdies in the final round.

“The show Harris put on on the back nine was just awesome,” Kuchar said. “I think he pulled me aside after 14 and said, `I think we need two shots to set the new mark.’ I said, `We’ve got four chances.’ And he went ahead and went birdie-eagle-birdie to close it out. It was fun to watch.”

Defending champions Rory Sabbatini and Kevin Tway tied for second at 28 under with the all-rookie team of Lanto Griffin and Mackenzie Hughes and first-round leaders Kevin Na and Sean O’Hair.

Sabbatini and Tway shot 61, Griffin and Hughes 62, and Na and O’Hair 64.

Five other players have won the event three times: Fred Couples, Steve Elkington, Brad Faxon, Scott McCarron and Kenny Perry.

Virginia chooses to end season without playing in bowl game

Virginia is not going to a bowl game this season.

A week before bowl announcements are due, on Dec. 20, the Cavaliers announced Sunday that their football season is over and they will not be entertaining an invitation to a postseason game. The school said the decision came after the program’s captains and other leaders met with the team to discuss the postseason.

The NCAA waived bowl eligibility requirements this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Virginia (5-5, 4-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) had its regular season end Saturday in a 33-15 loss at Virginia Tech. Virginia fell short of the ACC’s desire that all schools play 11 games, including 10 in conference, when its game at Florida State was postponed because of COVID-19 concerns on game day. The Cavaliers declined a subsequent rescheduling.