BASKETBALL
The Maine Red Claws lost their third straight game, 113-92 Wednesday morning to the Delaware Blue Cats in Wilmington, Delaware.
Marial Shayok and Jared Brownridge scored 26 points apiece for the Blue Coats.
Maine was outscored 52-31 in the second and third quarters and has lost four of the last five games.
Yante Maten led the Claws with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Justin Bibbs had 17 points and Tacko Fall has his 18th double-double of the season with 12 points and 14 rebounds.
The Red Claws are home at 7 p.m. Friday againts Raptors 905.
HOCKEY
NHL: After a three-week stint in rehab, former Dallas Stars coach Jim Montgomery, a former UMaine player, is back home with his family in Frisco.
In his first comments since releasing a statement on Jan. 3, Montgomery and his wife, Emily, spoke with a Sportsnet reporter about what it was like dealing with Jim’s firing initially and how his acclimation has been now that he’s out of rehab.
Jim would not discuss the incident that ultimately led to his firing, but he did tell Sportsnet that he’s “feeling great” and is at peace with himself right now. He said that even though he made bad mistakes, he is not a bad person.
Now that he’s back from rehab (he spent three weeks at an undisclosed inpatient facility), Jim attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings every day. He and Emily see a therapist.
Emily said she knows that coaching is still in her husband’s blood, and that she can see it when he’s on the ice. When asked if she’d be OK with him returning to coaching, she gave a thumbs up.
• The Colorado Avalanche will be without top scorer Nathan MacKinnon for at least a week after he suffered a lower body injury.
MacKinnon was hurt during the second period in Los Angeles against the Kings on Monday. It’s the latest blow to an injury-plagued Avalanche team that’s trying to catch St. Louis for the top seed in the Western Conference.
The Avalanche are missing six other players.
HORSE RACING
TRIPLE CROWN: Former five-time All-Star baseball player Victor Martinez paid $6,000 to nominate King Guillermo to the Triple Crown series.
King Guillermo won the Tampa Bay Derby at 49-1 odds last weekend.
Victoria’s Ranch, Martinez’s Florida-based racing operation, made the payment Tuesday. The late nomination phase for the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont stakes ends March 30.
As a result, King Guillermo stands fifth in qualifying points on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard, which determines the 20-horse field for the May 2 race at Churchill Downs.
Horses not nominated to the Triple Crown series during either the early or late nomination phases can still become eligible by paying a supplemental fee due at entry time. The Derby fee is $200,000; the Preakness is $150,000, and the Belmont is $50,000.
DEATH: War Emblem, the 2002 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, died at age 21.
He had been at Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Center since 2015 after returning from Japan. Officials said the cause of death was believed to be a paddock accident, but exact details weren’t known. A necropsy was pending.
SKIING
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP: The last races of the women’s Alpine skiing season were canceled amid public health concerns related to the spread of the coronavirus, handing Federica Brignone the overall title and denying Mikaela Shiffrin a chance to defend her crown.
The decision to call off the three-day event in Are, Sweden, means Brignone becomes the first Italian women’s overall champion in the 53-year history of the World Cup.
Shiffrin, the defending overall champion, had announced earlier that she would compete at the event after taking a six-week break from the sport following the death of her father.
During her absence, Shiffrin lost her lead in the overall standings to Brignone, who is 153 points ahead of the American. There would have been a total of 300 points up for grabs in the last three races.
CYCLING
USA: USA Cycling announced the return of Jim Miller as its head of elite athletics.
Miller spent 17 years with USA Cycling, helping to bring home 14 Olympic medals and numerous world championship titles, before resigning to spend the past two years with performance company TrainingPeaks.
Miller replaces Scott Schnitzspahn, who resigned earlier this week. Schnitzspahn had overseen a massive rebuild of USA Cycling’s coaching staff, and he helped the Americans capture two gold medals and five overall to finish third on the medal table at the recent track cycling world championships.
The U.S. will have plenty of medal hopefuls in Tokyo, including world time trial champion Chloe Dygert, the world champion women’s pursuit squad and Ashton Lambie, the former world record-holder in the men’s individual pursuit.
SOCCER
RETIREMENT: Midfielder Benny Feilhaber retired after a career that included playing for the United States at the 2010 World Cup and nine years in Major League Soccer.
The 35-year-old scored two goals in 44 international appearances from 2007-17, including a tie-breaking goal on a 22-yard volley that lifted the U.S. over Mexico in the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup final. He made three appearances, all as a substitute, at the World Cup in South Africa, and also played for the U.S. at 2008 Olympics.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Atletico Madrid ended Liverpool’s title defense with a 3-2 win at Anfield thanks to two goals by Marcos Llorente in extra time and another by fellow substitute Alvaro Morata.
Atletico advanced 4-2 on aggregate in the Round of 16.
AUTO RACING
FORMULA ONE: Driver Daniel Ricciardo pulled out of a scheduled Renault team media conference over fears he might be exposed to the coronavirus, while three other team members have been placed in self-isolation just days out from the Australian Grand Prix.
GOLF
EUROPEAN TOUR: The Hero Indian Open has been postponed because of the threat of the coronavirus, leaving the tour without a tournament for rank-and-file members for nearly two months.
The Indian Open was scheduled for next week in New Delhi.
That makes it the fourth tournament on the schedule that has been postponed because of the virus..
The Kenya Open was to be played this week. The tour previously postponed the Maybank Championship in Malaysia (April 16-19) and the Volvo China Open (April 23-26).
The next tournament on the schedule is the Andalucia Masters along the southern coast of Spain that starts April 30.
SLED DOG RACING
IDITAROD: Paige Drobney, a native of Pennsylvania living in Cantwell, Alaska, took the lead. She was the first musher to leave the checkpoint at Ophir.
Drobney left Ophir just six minutes ahead of the second-place musher, Michelle Phillips of Tagish, Yukon, Canada.
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