Mississippi St. beats Illinois in women’s First Four
Jessika Carter had 22 points, nine rebounds and four blocks, Anastasia Hayes added 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists and Mississippi State beat Illinois 70-56 on Wednesday night to begin the NCAA Tournament in a First Four game at South Bend, Ind.
Mississippi State (21-10) advances to the field of 64 to take on No. 6 seed Creighton. The Bulldogs improved to 14-3 in the NCAA Tournament since the 2016-17 season.
Makira Cook scored 21 points for Illinois (22-10).
In another First Four game at Stanford, Calif., Kelsey Wood had her second doubledouble of the season, Ny’Ceara Pryor had 11 points, eight rebounds and a career-high 10 assists and Sacred Heart claimed its first win by beating Southern 57-47.
Sacred Heart (19-13), which has won six games in a row, plays top-seeded Stanford in the first round Friday.
Boston a 3-time honoree: Aliyah Boston is now a member of the elite three-timers club.
The South Carolina star was honored for the third straight year as an All-American by the Associated Press, the 10th player recognized three times.
Boston was joined on the first team by Iowa's Caitlin Clark, Villanova's Maddy Siegrist, LSU's Angel Reese and Indiana's Mackenzie Holmes. Boston and Clark were unanimous choices.
South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson, Baylor’s Brittney Griner, Tennessee’s Chamique Holdsclaw, Kentucky’s Rhyne Howard, Duke’s Alana Beard, Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris, Oregon's Sabrina Ionescu and Connecticut’s Breanna Stewart and Maya Moore are the only other players to earn firstteam honors at least three times. Paris and Moore did it four times.
Tiafoe reaches semis at Indian Wells
Frances Tiafoe defeated 10th-seeded Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-4 to reach the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, Calif.
The 14th-seeded American will play No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, who beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 7-5.
On the women's side, No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka defeated sixth-seeded Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-0 in the quarterfinals. Sabalenka improved to 16-1 this year.
No. 7 Maria Sakkari outlasted 15th-seeded Petra Kvitova 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 in the other women’s quarterfinal.
Hendrick team hit with record fine
NASCAR levied the largest combined fine on one team in series history, hammering Hendrick Motorsports for modifying air-deflecting pieces last weekend at Phoenix Raceway.
Hendrick was issued a combined $400,000 in fines — $100,000 to each of its four crew chiefs, along with fourrace suspensions for the quartet — and docked the drivers 100 regular-season points and 10 playoffs points each.
NASCAR's winningest team said it would appeal.
Reyna on U.S. roster: Gio Reyna, whose parents tried to oust U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter after the 20-year-old midfielder was sparingly used at the World Cup, was selected by interim coach Anthony Hudson for CONCACAF Nations League matches against Grenada and El Salvador.