BASKETBALL
Brandon Boston Jr. scored 33 points to lead six players in double figures as the fourth-seeded Ontario Clippers beat the eighth-seeded Maine Celtics 124-112 Tuesday night in the semifinals of the G League’s Showcase Cup Tournament at Las Vegas.
Mfiondu Kabengele scored 29 points for the Celtics, who also had six players reach double figures.
The Winter Showcase features a target score ending rather than a traditional 12-minute fourth quarter, adding 25 points to the leading team’s score at the end of the third and playing an untimed quarter to determine the winner.
Ontario led 99-93 after three quarters.
WNBA: The Atlanta Dream made long-term commitments to their management team by giving Coach Tanisha Wright and GM Dan Padover five-year contract extensions.
The extension carry through the 2027 season.
Wright was named AP Coach of the Year following her first season in Atlanta. The Dream finished 14-22 after winning only eight games in 2021..
Padover made a trade which gave the team the No. 1 selection in the WNBA draft, with which the Dream took Rhyne Howard, who was named rookie of the year and an All-Star.
GOLF
Players who defected from the PGA Tour to join Saudi-funded LIV Golf are still welcome at the Masters next year, even as Augusta National officials expressed disappointment Tuesday in the division it has caused in golf.
The Masters, the smallest field among the four majors, is by invitation and there was some question whether it would honor the PGA Tour suspending players – including past Masters champions – for joining a rival league.
Chairman Fred Ridley put the tournament over the ongoing battle, which is now playing out in federal court with antitrust lawsuits and countersuits.
“Although we are disappointed in these developments, our focus is to honor the tradition of bringing together a preeminent field of golfers this coming April,” Ridley said in a statement, which were his first comments on how Augusta National viewed the divide.
“Therefore, as invitations are sent this week, we will invite those eligible under our current criteria to compete in the 2023 Masters Tournament.”
Sixteen players with LIV Golf are among the 78 players currently eligible for the Masters. That includes six Masters champions – Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Bubba Watson and Charl Schwartzel.
SOCCER
WORLD CUP: Argentina’s dramatic victory over France in penalty kicks in the World Cup final was the second most-watched soccer match of any kind in the United States.
The early numbers from Nielsen, Fox and Telemundo show Sunday’s match had an English- and Spanish-language combined audience of 25,783,000.
That trails the 26.7 million that tuned in to the 2015 Women’s World Cup final, when the U.S. beat Japan 5-2 in a match that aired in prime time for most of the United States because the tournament was held in Canada.
MLS: The newest Major League Soccer expansion franchise will begin its inaugural campaign on the road when St. Louis City SC plays at Austin FC on Feb. 25 before making its home debut in Week 2 of the 2023 season.
The league released its schedule for next season, highlighted by the debut of St. Louis City, the 29th MLS franchise. St. Louis will be one of 14 teams in the Western Conference, with Nashville shifting to the Eastern Conference and creating a 15-team division.
The opening week also will include an El Trafico matchup between MLS Cup champion Los Angeles FC and the LA Galaxy at the Rose Bowl.
Most games will be played on Saturdays with a 7:30 p.m. local start time; a select number will be on Wednesdays. All games will be broadcast through the league’s new streaming deal with Apple called MLS Season Pass. Fox Sports will also air 34 of those games, with 15 on FOX and 19 on FS1.
PREMIER LEAGUE: Brentford Striker Ivan Toney has been charged by the English Football Association with 30 more breaches of betting rules.
Toney, who is third in the Premier League with 10 goals this season, was charged in November with with 232 alleged breaches between 2017 to 2021.
The west London club said it was informed by the governing body of the additional alleged breaches.
Toney has until Jan. 4 to provide a response. The additional charges stem from alleged breaches between March 2017 and February 2019.
Toney said last month that he was assisting the FA with its investigation.
The FA has strict betting rules and if a player is found guilty it can impose “financial penalties, suspensions, and in some instances, lifetime bans.”
AUTO RACING
FORMULA ONE: Drivers will need permission from the sport’s governing body to display political or religious statements starting in 2023.
The FIA’s international sporting code, which governs the running of motorsport competitions, has been updated with new clauses under “breach of rules.”
It now includes: “The general making and display of political, religious and personal statements or comments notably in violation of the general principle of neutrality promoted by the FIA its statutes, unless previously approved in writing by the FIA for international competitions…”
After F1 champion Lewis Hamilton won the Tuscan Grand Prix in September 2020, he wore a T-shirt featuring the statement “Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor,” in reference to the Black woman fatally shot by police in her apartment in Louisville earlier that year.
The FIA had responded at that time by requiring drivers to remain in their race suits during postrace proceedings.
The Mercedes driver in 2021 debuted a helmet sporting a rainbow to recognize the LGBTQ+ community.
The now-retired driver Sebastian Vettel wore a special helmet promoting a message of diversity and inclusion at the Turkish GP in 2020. More recently, he highlighted environmental causes such as bee die-offs and the mining of oil from tar sands in Canada.
The FIA’s statutes include a proclamation that the governing body “shall promote the protection of human rights and human dignity, and refrain from manifesting discrimination on account of race, skin color, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic or social origin, language, religion, philosophical or political opinion, family situation or disability in the course of its activities and from taking any action in this respect.”
DOPING
MARATHON: Kenyan marathoner Diana Kipyokei was banned for six years and stripped of her 2021 Boston Marathon title for doping and tampering, the Athletics Integrity Unit said.
Kipyokei’s urine sample after winning in Boston in October 2021 had traces of triamcinolone acetonide – an anti-inflammatory prohibited at races when an athlete does not have permission to use it as a medication.
The AIU said Kipyokei “provided false/misleading information” in trying to explain her use of the substance, “including fake documentation which she alleged came from a hospital.”
The Boston Athletic Association announced that Kipyokei’s result in the 2021 Boston Marathon has been disqualified, and that Edna Kiplagat of Kenya has been elevated to winner. Kiplagat is now recognized as a two-time Boston winner, having also won in 2017.
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