Warriors rally from 11 down, beat Embiid, 76ers
Jordan Poole emerged as one of Golden State’s most dependable performers during the championship run last season.
He resembled that goto guy once again Friday night when the Warriors needed everything he had, with the ever-reliable Draymond Green doing his thing, too.
“Opportunity,” Poole said of his stellar fourth quarter playing all 12 minutes.
Poole scored 33 points and swished a key 3-pointer with 1:18 to play off a pretty pass by Green, Stephen Curry added 29 points and eight rebounds, and the Golden State Warriors rallied past Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia 76ers 120112 on Friday night.
“Tonight something about it felt like last year in that playoff run when Jordan was just attacking and knocking down shots but also getting to the line just giving us an entirely different dimension offensively,” coach Steve Kerr said. “That’s when he’s at his best. I thought he really competed down the stretch defensively as well. He was magnificent tonight.”
College basketball
NEW MEXICO ST. HIRES SAM
HOUSTON’S HOOTEN TO ATTEMPT REBUILD >> New Mexico State has hired longtime Sam Houston coach Jason Hooten to try to restore a program that was shut down in the middle of the season after one player was involved in a fatal shooting and another accused teammates of hazing.
Aggies athletic director Mario Moccia called Hooten, who had a 261-169 record in 13 seasons at Sam Houston, a tremendous fit and someone who can build hard-nosed, defensive-minded
teams.
“Importantly, his programs are always modeled on character and integrity,” Moccia said.
Women’s basketball
CINCINNATI HIRES FORMER
MEMPHIS COACH KATRINA MERRIWEATHER >> Cincinnati hired former Memphis coach Katrina Merriweather as its new women’s basketball coach Saturday.
Merriweather, who starred for the Bearcats from 1997-01, helped the team reach four consecutive postseason tournaments in her time at the school.
Merriweather resigned as Memphis’ coach on Friday, a day after the team was knocked out of the WNIT tournament. After the game, one of her players punched a Bowling Green player in the handshake line and was charged with assault, according to the Falcons’ athletic department.
“I’m elated to come back to the University of Cincinnati
as the head coach of the women’s basketball program,” she said. “My time as a student-athlete and as a Bearcat were some of the greatest years of my life, and I’m excited to give back with everything I have to our current players like so many did for me. This is home for me, and I’m honored to wear the CPaw once again.”
JERRY GREEN, DETROIT
SPORTS WRIER AT 56 SUPER BOWLS, DIES >> Jerry Green, a Detroit sports writer who covered 56 consecutive Super Bowls, has died at 94, The Detroit News said Friday.
Green retired as a columnist at the News in 2004 but continued to attend the Super Bowl for the newspaper until this year. His streak began with Green Bay’s 35-10 victory over Kansas City in the first Super Bowl in 1967.
“Jerry Green was synonymous with the Super Bowl. He chronicled the story of our game to millions of fans, helping bring
them closer to the action,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. “All of us in the NFL mourn his passing.”
Auto racing
PIQUET FINED FOR RACIST,
HOMOPHOBIC COMMENTS ABOUT HAMILTON >> Retired Formula One champion Nelson Piquet has been ordered to pay $950,000 in “moral damages” for making racist and homophobic comments about Lewis Hamilton.
The 70-year-old Brazilian had referred to seventime champion Hamilton as “neguinho,” a racially offensive term which means “little Black guy,” in 2021. In another interview, Piquet used racist and homophobic language.
The court in Brasilia on Friday ordered Piquet to pay 5 million Brazilian reals “in collective moral damages, to be allocated to funds for the promotion of racial equality and against discrimination of the LGBTQIA+ community.”