COLLEGE BASKETBALL Coppin State’s upset bid falls short at Notre Dame

The contract between the Verizon Fios cable TV service and Disney expires at 5 p.m. Eastern time on New Year’s Eve, and should the two sides not reach an agreement, Fios subscribers will lose ESPN right in the middle of its broadcast of the Liberty Bowl between Missouri and Oklahoma State. If things don’t get worked out quickly, Fios subscribers also wouldn’t be able to see the Gator Bowl later that night, plus four more New Year’s Day bowl games on ESPN or ESPN2. According to NBC News, Verizon Fios has 4.5 million U.S. TV subscribers and 6 million broadband subscribers in the northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions. Disney is the majority owner of the ESPN networks along with various Disney-branded channels and ABC affiliates in New York City and Philadelphia. All of those channels would go dark on Fios lineups if an agreement is not hammered out. The two sides have begun public-relations offenses ahead of the looming deadline, with WABC in New York running a scroll along the bottom of the screen warning Fios subscribers that they could miss out on that channel’s programming. Win Win, unbeaten in two previous starts and sent off as the even-money favorite, was second, six lengths ahead of Clench in third . ... Madaket Stables and Heider Family Stables’ Please Flatter Me kept her perfect record intact by setting the pace and pulling away from her rivals for a commanding 5 ¾-length victory in the $100,000 Gin Talking. It was the second straight stakes win and third overall victory for Please Flatter Me ($5.40), favored at 8-5 in a field of 10 2-year-old fillies. She gave jockey Alex Cintron his second straight stakes win following Cordmaker in the $75,000 Jennings, hitting the wire in 1:23.81 . ... Rising Sun Racing Stables’ Colonel Sharp earned a trip back to graded-stakes company by putting away one multiple stakes winner in favored Laki and holding off another in Ohio shipper Altissimo to register a head victory in the $100,000 Dave’s Friend at Laurel Park. T.J. Gibbs scored 15 points to lead three Notre Dame players in double figures as the Irish survived 28-percent shooting in the second half and an upset bid by winless Coppin State, 63-56, on Saturday in South Bend, Ind., in men’s basketball. Cedric Council had 12 points and 17 rebounds for coach Juan Dixon's Eagles (0-15). Dejuan Clayton added 12 points for Coppin. John Mooney added 14 points and eight rebounds and Dane Goodwin had 13 points as the Irish (10-3) concluded their nonconference schedule. MORE MEN: Rasir Bolton scored 10 of his 18 points in the first half to help Penn State beat UMBC, 74-52, on Saturday. Lamar Stevens added 16 points and seven rebounds for the Nittany Lions (7-6), who finished their non-conference slate 7-4. Penn State led comfortably for the entire second half after nine lead changes over the first 12:27. WOMEN: Johns Hopkins defeated FDUFlorham, 69-62, as Lillian Scott scored 23 points and Lexie Scholtz added 20 points in the Blue Jays’ victory. —