COLLEGES
Nebraska Omaha scored three times in the third period Friday night in Omaha, Nebraska, to beat Maine, 4-1, in Coach Ben Barr’s debut as the Black Bears men’s hockey coach.
Omaha took the lead 3:06 into the second period when Cameron Berg scored from Kirby Proctor and Isaiah Saville. Maine tied it at 12:31 when Ben Poisson scored from Adam Dawe and Jakub Sirota.
Taylor Ward scored a power-play goal 8:58 into the third period to put Omaha (1-1) back in front. Jake Randl made it 3-1 and then added an empty-net goal to finish the scoring.
Victor Ostman had 24 saves for Maine, while Saville made 22 saves for Omaha.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY: Taylor Leech scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, and Maine (1-3) picked up its first win of the season with a 4-2 victory against Long Island University (0-5) in Brooklyn, New York.
Maddie Giordano, Ally Johnson and Nicole Pateman also scored for the Black Bears.
FIELD HOCKEY: Hana Davis and Julia Ross scored in the second quarter as Maine jumped out to a two-goal first-half lead and beat California 4-1 in Orono.
Poppy Lambert added a goal in the third quarter, assisted by Brittany Smith and Madisyn Hartley, as Maine (8-5, 4-0 America East), won its seventh straight game. Chloe Walton scored in the fourth for the Black Bears.
Maddie Cleat scored the lone goal for Cal (6-3, 3-1).
FOOTBALL: UConn interim coach Lou Spanos, two assistant coaches and two Huskies players have tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss Saturday’s game against UMass.
The school says all five are fully vaccinated and doing well.
GOLF: Former NBA guard J.R. Smith, 36, 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 golf course.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: Diana Taurasi scored 14 of her 24 points in the fourth quarter, and Brittney Griner had 28 points and nine rebounds as the 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 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.
HOCKEY
NHL: Choosing loyalty over the chance to be an unrestricted free agent next summer and play somewhere else, Aleksander Barkov has agreed to an eight-year extension with the Florida Panthers, the team announced. The deal is worth $80 million, with a $10 million average cap value, two people with direct knowledge of the talks told The Associated Press. They spoke on of anonymity because financial terms were not announced.
“All In,” read the sign displayed aside Barkov at a news conference, where the signing of the player who won last season’s Selke Trophy, given to the NHL’s best defensive forward, and finished sixth in balloting for the Hart Trophy – the league’s MVP – was announced.
The majority of the deal will be paid to Barkov in the form of a signing bonus, according to one of the people who spoke with AP. Structuring the deal that way was a win-win for both Barkov and the Panthers; for the player, it has certain tax advantages, and for the team, it allows future flexibility for other deals.
• The Chicago Blackhawks lost another young defenseman when the team announced Caleb Jones has a sprained left wrist and is expected to miss approximately six weeks.
The 24-year-old Jones, the younger brother of Chicago defenseman Seth Jones, was acquired in a July trade with Edmonton that moved Duncan Keith to the Oilers.
SOCCER
WORLD CUP QUALFYING: A fire broke out at Andorra’s national stadium, a day before England plays the tiny nation there in a World Cup qualifier.
The government of Andorra said the blaze was put out by firefighters not long after it started.
The president of the Andorran Football Association, Félix Álvarez, said they were hoping the incident would not stop the game from going ahead as planned.
TENNIS
BNP PARIBAS OPEN: Iga Swiatek needed just 71 minutes to dispatch Petra Martic 6-1, 6-3 in the second round, in Indian Wells, California.
The last time the tournament was played in 2019, Swiatek lost in qualifying. Now, she’s the No. 2 seed and the 2020 French Open champion.
Also Friday, Emma Raducanu came down to earth in her first tournament since her surprising U.S. Open victory, losing in straight sets to Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
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.
No. 4 seed Elina Svitolina beat Tereza Martineova 6-2, 7-5. Ninth-seeded Anatasia Pavlyuchenkova topped Madison Keys 6-3, 6-1.
No. 11 seed Simona Halep beat Marta Kostyuk 7-6 (2), 6-1.
Victoria Azarenka advanced via walkover when Magda Linette quit trailing 7-5, 3-0. Shelby Rogers routed Kristina Kucova 6-2, 6-2.
Former men’s No. 1 Andy Murray, U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu and runner-up Leyla Fernanda played night matches.
On the men’s side, Americans Jenson Brooksby and Ernesto Escobedo won their first-round matches. Brooksby beat Cem Ilkel 7-6 (5), 6-4, and Escobedo defeated Holger Rune 6-4, 6-1.
OBIT: John Edward “Budge” Patty, a former No. 1-ranked tennis player who won back-to-back major titles at the French Championships and Wimbledon in 1950, has died. He was 97.
GOLF
PGA TOUR: Sam Burns won the Sanderson Farms Championship last week and is trying to put it behind him. He’s playing as though it never ended.
Burns made a pair of 6-foot par putts on the only two greens he missed in regulation, ran off eight birdies in the morning for an 8-under 63 that left him a shot behind Sungjae Im and Chad Ramey in the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas.
Not only has Burns won twice in the last 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. The 25-year-old is comfortable at the top, and it’s showing.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Jon Rahm had a lackluster second round at the Spanish Open, carding a 4-under 67 to stay one shot behind leader Wil Besseling going into the weekend in Madrid.
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.
Besseling made six birdies, four of them on the back nine, to add a 6-under 65 to his 64. The Dutchman has yet to make a bogey.
CHAMPIONS TOUR: Phil Mickelson shot a 6-under 66 in Jacksonville, Florida, for a share of the first-round lead with Matt Gogel in the PGA Tour Champions’ Constellation Furyk & Friends Invitational.
Trying to win for the third time in four career starts on the 50-and-over tour, Mickelson had seven birdies and a bogey at Donald Ross-designed Timuquana Country Club in the round interrupted by a rain delay.
LPGA: Jin Young Ko had a three-stroke lead with four holes left when second-round play in the Cognizant Founders Cup in West Caldwell, New Jersey was suspended because of darkness.
Play was delayed at the start because of fog for the second straight day at Donald Ross-designed Mountain Ridge, with 63 players unable to finish.
The second-ranked Ko was 10 under. She opened with an 8-under 63 on Thursday for a three-shot lead. She has 11 consecutive rounds in the 60s, three short of the record that Annika Sorenstam set in 2005.
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