Taurasi leads Mercury to WNBA Finals
Diana Taurasi scored 14 of her 24 points in the fourth quarter, and Brittney Griner had 28 points and nine rebounds as the visiting Phoenix Mercury beat the Las Vegas Aces, 87-84, Friday night to advance to the WNBA Finals.
Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum scored 22 points each for Las Vegas, and A’ja Wilson added 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Shay Peddy made two of three free throws with 4.8 seconds left to give the Mercury an 86-84 lead, and Griner added one from the freethrow line to close the scoring. Griner also had a block on Wilson with 0.7 seconds remaining to secure the win.
Taurasi made a 3-pointer with 1:12 left to give the Mercury an 84-81 lead, and Gray responded with a 3 just 6 seconds later to tie it for the Aces.
The Mercury will face the Chicago Sky in the Finals. Game 1 is on Sunday.
The Aces went on a 14-2 run to begin the third quarter to take a 56-46 lead midway through the period.
College
The No. 2-ranked Pitt volleyball team (15-0, 5-0 ACC) picked up its fourth consecutive sweep, downing Clemson (10-6, 2-3 ACC) in straight sets at Fitzgerald Field House.
The Panthers earned the win by scores of 25-21, 25-18, 25-17. Pitt has won 30 of its past 32 sets. With the victory, the Panthers extended their best start to a season since 2018, when they earned their best start ever at 23-0.
Pitt had the advantage across the board, in hitting percentage (.351-.189), kills (44-37), assists (43-32), service aces (6-1), digs (34-31) and blocks (5.0-3.0).
Captains Kayla Lund and Chinaza Ndee had 11 kills apiece to lead the Panthers. Outside hitter Leketor Member-Meneh followed with nine and added a match-high 11 digs.
Golf
Sam Burns won the Sanderson Farms Championship five days ago and is trying to put it behind him. He is playing as though last week never ended Burns made a pair of 6-foot par putts on the only two greens he missed in regulation, ran off eight birdies for an 8 -under 63 and grabbed a twoshot lead among the early starters in the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas. Not only has Burns won twice in the past six months, he also lost in a playoff at a World Golf Championship and finished one shot out of a playoff at Riviera this year. He is comfortable at the top, and it’s showing.
• Jon Rahm had a lackluster second round at the Spanish Open in Madrid, carding a 4-under 67 to stay one shot behind leader Wil Besseling going into the weekend. Rahm, who opened with a 63, was one shot ahead of fellow Spaniard Adri Arnaus and first-round leader Ross McGowan of England. Rahm made two birdies in his first nine holes and finished with an eagle on the par-5 14th, a bogey on the par-4 16th, and a hard-fought birdie on the last hole after hooking his tee shot behind the packed grandstands near the 18th green.
• Former NBA guard J.R. Smith is set to make his debut next week as a golfer for North Carolina A&T. The school announced Smith will play his first collegiate tournament Monday and Tuesday at the Phoenix Invitational hosted by Elon. The tournament will take place at the par-71, 6,867-yard Alamance Country Club. Smith enrolled at N.C. A&T over the summer after 16 seasons in the NBA and joined the golf team as a freshman walk-on. All team golfers must qualify for each tournament in practice unless he has finished first or second in the previous tournament. Smith qualified for next week’s tournament by one stroke.
Tennis
Emma Raducanu came down to earth in her first tournament since her surprising U.S. Open victory, losing in straight sets to Aliaksandra Sasnovich at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. Raducanu lost, 6-2, 6-4, in the second round, ending her 10-match winning streak that began in New York. She received a wild-card into the combined ATP and WTA tournament in the Southern California desert.
• John Edward “Budge” Patty, a former No. 1-ranked player who won back-toback major titles at the French Championships and Wimbledon in 1950, died. He was 97.