The United States celebrates on the podium after defeating China to win the gold medal at the women’s Basketball World Cup in Sydney, Australia on Saturday. Mark Baker/Associated Press
BASKETBALL
WOMEN’S WORLD CUP: A’ja Wilson scored 19 points, Kelsey Plum added 17 and the United States beat China 83-61 on Saturday in Sydney, Australia to win its fourth consecutive gold medal at the women’s World Cup.
The Americans now have won four straight gold medals for the first-time ever. This was also the biggest win in a gold-medal game, surpassing the 20-point wins that the Americans had done twice.
The U.S. (8-0) finished the World Cup averaging 98.8 points – just short of the mark held by the 1994 team that averaged 99.1. They won by an average of 40.8 points, topping the mark held by the 2010 team.
Jin Weina hit a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer to get China back to within 10. The U.S. was just too good to let the upset happen, outscoring China 25-14 in the third. China won its first medal since the 1994 World Cup
• Lauren Jackson scored 30 points to lead Australia to a 95-65 win over Canada on Saturday in the third-place game, denying Canada its first medal since 1986.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR TRUCKS: NASCAR driver Jordan Anderson was airlifted out of Talladega Superspeedway on Saturday with burns from a crash in the Truck Series race.
Anderson’s truck was spinning across the track when flames began shooting from underneath the Chevrolet. The truck continued to spin and slide toward an interior wall and Anderson appeared to be halfway out of the window when it came to a rest aligned with the wall.
Anderson scrambled to the top of the wall and away from the flames. He was initially seen in the infield care center and then airlifted to a Birmingham hospital. It was the fifth start of the season for Anderson, a 31-year-old journeyman in NASCAR’s lower level national series.
FORMULA ONE: Max Verstappen looked on course for pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday when his Red Bull team aborted his lap with just seconds left in qualifying because of a fuel issue and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took pole instead.
Leclerc clinched a season-leading ninth pole and finished .022 ahead of Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez and .054 clear of Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.
GOLF
PGA TOUR: Mark Hubbard ran off five straight birdies on the back nine and ended with a superb shot to 4 feet, giving him a 7-under 65 and a one-shot lead in the Sanderson Farms Championship in Jackson, Mississippi as he goes for his first PGA Tour victory.
Hubbard has gone 163 starts over six years without winning, and this would be as good a chance as any. It’s his first time to hold a 54-hole lead on tour.
Mackenzie Hughes of Canada showed how much can change in so little time at the Country Club of Jackson.
Hughes sent his approach long on the 18th and faced a difficult putt up closely mown grass to a green and raced away from him. Right went it looked as though Hubbard might have a three-shot lead, Hughes holed the putt from 30 feet for birdie and a 68.
Hubbard was at 15-under 201, one shot ahead of Hughes.
Scott Stallings also in the mix when he chipped out of the bushes to 10 feet on the reachable par-4 15th to reach 14 under. But then after going 51 straight holes without a bogey, Stallings missed the fairways to the left on the 16th and 18th holes and made bogey on both of them.
He shot 68 and was three shots behind along with Honda Classic winner Sepp Straka (69) and Garrick Higgo (68), who bounced back nicely from a double bogey on the 12th hole when he had wedge in his hand from 119 yards in the fairway.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Richard Mansell doubled his lead to four strokes at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship by shooting 5-under 67 at Carnoustie in the third round on Saturday in St. Andrews, Scotland.
The No. 218-ranked Mansell was on course for his first victory on the European tour as the Englishman heads back to St. Andrews for the final round of an event played over three of Scotland’s storied courses over the first three days: Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and the Old Course at the home of golf.
Mansell defied terrible weather on Friday to shoot 4-under 68 at the Old Course and shone again on a bright but breezy day just a half-hour up the road, posting six birdies and one bogey to reach 15-under 201.
Three players are tied for second place: Fellow Englishman Daniel Gavins, Sweden’s Alex Noren and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox.
TENNIS
PARMA LADIES OPEN: Mayar Sherif became the first Egyptian to win a WTA Tour event by beating top-seeded Maria Sakkari 7-5, 6-3 in Parma, Italy on Saturday.
Besides earning her first career title, Sherif also notched her first win over a top-10 opponent. Along with Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, who reached the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals this year, Sherif is raising the profile of tennis in North Africa.
The 74th-ranked Sherif actually had to win two matches on Saturday, first overcoming sixth-seeded Ana Bogdan 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in the semifinals, which were postponed a day due to rain.
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