Sacred Heart beats Southern for 1st NCAA tourney victory
STANFORD, CALIF. >> Kelsey Wood had her second double-double of the season, Ny'Ceara Pryor added 11 points, eight rebounds and a career-high 10 assists and Sacred Heart won its first NCAA Tournament game with a 57-47 victory over Southern on Wednesday night in the First Four.
Sacred Heart (19-13), which has won six games in a row, plays fifth-ranked and top-seeded Stanford in the first round Friday.
Wood finished with 10 points and a season-high tying 11 rebounds, and Olivia Tucker added 13 points on 5-of-18 shooting, 1 of 10 from 3-point range, for the Pioneers.
Genovea Johnson, the only Southern player to score in double figures, finished with 13 points.
The Jaguars (18-15) had won five games in a row and nine of their last 10. MISSISSIPPI STATE 70, ILLINOIS 56 >> 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 in a First Four game.
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 and Genesis Bryant added 17 for Illinois (22-10), which had one of the best turnarounds in the country after finishing last season with a record of 7-20.
Pro basketball
NBA SUSPENDS MORANT 8 GAMES >>
The NBA suspended Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant eight games without pay after determining that his displaying a firearm at a club in suburban Denver earlier this month was “conduct detrimental to the league.”
Morant will be eligible to return on Monday when Memphis plays Dallas. The games he already missed will count toward the suspension, and Morant will forfeit about $669,000 in salary.
Baseball
BAUER SIGNING MET WITH LITTLE REACTION IN JAPAN >> The signing of Trevor Bauer to a one-year contract by the Yokohama DeNA BayStars generated little reaction in the Japanese media.
The 2020 NL Cy Young Award winner was released by the Los Angeles Dodgers
on Jan. 12, three weeks after an arbitrator reduced his suspension imposed by Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred from 324 to 194 games. The penalty followed an investigation into domestic violence, which the pitcher has denied.
Since his release, Bauer has been shunned by big league teams in the United States.
NASCAR
NASCAR ISSUES LARGEST TEAM FINE IN HISTORY AGAINST HENDRICK >>
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 four-race suspensions for the quartet — and docked the drivers 100 regular-season points and 10 playoffs points each. Although NASCAR has issued larger monetary fines and suspensions, the Hendrick penalties are the largest combined punishment for one organization.
NASCAR's winningest team said it would appeal. ARIZONA STATE'S BIG FIRST HALF BURIES NEVADA >> DJ Horne had 20 points and Arizona State raced to a big halftime lead and scored the most points ever in a First Four game, burying Nevada 98-73.
Arizona State advances to face TCU in a first-round game on Friday.
Tennis
TIAFOE, MEDVEDEV REACH INDIAN WELLS SEMIFINALS; GAUFF OUT >>
Frances Tiafoe defeated 10th-seeded Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-4 Wednesday to reach the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open.
The 14th-seeded American ended the 2021 champion's eight-match winning streak to earn his first semi berth in a Masters 1000 tournament.
Tiafoe hit 22 winners and had just nine unforced errors. He punctuated the victory, which was briefly interrupted by rain, by serving a love game.
Tiafoe hasn't dropped a set in four matches during the tournament. Next, he'll play No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, who beat Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-3, 7-5.
Medvedev won his 18th consecutive match and improved to 23-2 this year. He hurt his right ankle in a three-set win over Alexander Zverev a day earlier.
Medvedev broke Davidovich Fokina at love to go up 6-5 before serving out the victory. Medvedev won 12 of the last 14 points.
On the women's side, No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka won the final seven games of the match in defeating sixthseeded Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-0 in the quarterfinals.
No. 7 Maria Sakkari outlasted 15th-seeded Petra Kvitova 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Sabalenka improved to 16-1 this year, including her run to the Australian Open title. She said it took four days to come down from the high of winning her first major.
Gauff earned just nine return points and had no break points against Sabalenka.
Iditarod
GRANDSON OF RACE COFOUNDER WINS THE IDITAROD SLED DOG RACE >> Ryan Redington won the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, bringing his six dogs off the Bering Sea ice to the finish line on Nome's main street.
Redington, 40, is the grandson of Joe Redington Sr., known as the “Father of the Iditarod.” He helped co-found the arduous race across Alaska that was first held in 1973.
Ryan Redington previously won the Junior Iditarod in 1999 and 2000. His father, Raymie, is a 10-time Iditarod finisher.
Soccer
REAL MADRID BEATS LIVERPOOL TO REACH CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QF >>
There was no historic comeback for Liverpool. Real Madrid's title defense in the Champions League rolls into the quarterfinals.
Liverpool never really came close to overcoming its three-goal deficit from the first leg against the titleholders at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on Wednesday, losing 1-0 to end its hopes of another run to the final.
Karim Benzema scored late and Madrid advanced to the last eight for the third straight season with a 6-2 aggregate score following a 5-2 win from the first leg in England, when it rallied from two goals down early in the first half.