BASKETBALL
Scottie Pippen Jr. scored 34 points to lead the South Bay Lakers to a 114-98 win over the Maine Celtics in a G League game Saturday night in El Segundo, California.
South Bay’s reserves produced 77 points, including 17 by Max Christie and 15 by LJ Figueroa.
Luka Samanic paced Maine with 27 points. Kamar Baldwin added 17 points and seven assists.
SKIING
WORLD CUP: American skier Mikaela Shiffrin accomplished what she called “the big, big goal for me this season.”
But it wasn’t a record-tying 86th career victory.
Shiffrin locked up her fifth overall World Cup title, widely regarded as ski racing’s biggest prize, by tying for fifth place in a downhill, in Kvitfjell, Norway.
The American’s quest for another race win was extended by at least another day, as she was set to compete in a super-G Sunday.
Shiffrin needs one victory to match Ingemar Stenmark ’s total on the all-time overall winners list – between men and women. The Swede competed in the 1970s and 80s.
• Aleksander Aamodt Kilde earned his second consecutive World Cup downhill title by winning the race in Aspen, Colorado by more than a half-second.
The Norwegian collected his sixth victory in nine downhills this season, allowing him to join Stephan Eberharter as the only male ski racers in the past 45 years with that many. Eberharter did it in 2001-02 and 2002-03; before that, the last man with at least a half-dozen downhill triumphs in one season was Franz Klammer in 1977.
AUTO RACING
NASCAR CUP SERIES: Chase Elliott is out indefinitely after undergoing a successful three-hour surgery to repair a fractured tibia, Hendrick Motorsports General Manager Jeff Andrews said.
Andrews said there was no timeline on when the star NASCAR driver would return. Elliott injured his left leg Friday while snowboarding in Colorado. Josh Berry will drive the No. 9 Chevrolet in place of Elliott in Sunday’s Cup race in Las Vegas.
Andrews said the process has begun to attain a waiver from NASCAR for Elliott – the 2020 Cup champion – to be eligible for this year’s playoffs. Waivers have been granted to other drivers for various circumstances.
• Defending NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano, who won the October race in Las Vegas, qualified for the pole position in Sunday’s Pennzoil 400 in Las Vegas.
Logano, driving the Team Penske No. 22 Ford, had a speed of 186.053 miles an hour. He has won three of his past eight Cup races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
William Byron, in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevrolet, qualified second with a speed of 185.153.
The rest of the top five were Ryan Blaney in the Penske No. 12 Ford (184.9), rookie Ty Gibbs in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 Toyota (184.54) and Kyle Busch in the Richard Childress Racing No. 8 Chevy (184.489).
XFINITY: Austin Hill overtook Chandler Smith just before the final lap to win the NASCAR Xfinity Cup Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Smith, who was the pole-sitter, led 118 laps of the 200-lap race and appeared to be in good shape in the final laps before Hill made his late charge.
FORMULA ONE: World champion Max Verstappen took pole position ahead of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
Perez beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to place second, .138 seconds behind Verstappen under the floodlights at the desert track in Sakhir.
SOCCER
PREMIER LEAGUE: Manchester City passed a huge test of its Premier League title credentials by beating Newcastle 2-0 as a couple of big calls by Pep Guardiola paid off in a match between the wealthiest teams in English soccer.
Phil Foden was handed a start over Riyad Mahrez on the right wing and gave City the lead in the 15th minute when his driving run into the area ended with a shot that deflected past Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope.
• Big-spending Chelsea pulled out a big win to ease some of the pressure on Manager Graham Potter, beating Leeds 1-0 thanks to a rare goal by one of the club’s most expensive signings.
• A first-half own goal handed Aston Villa a 1-0 victory and kept Crystal Palace winless in 2023 in the English Premier League.
• Wolverhampton boosted its survival hopes and delivered a damaging blow to Tottenham’s Champions League ambitions in a 1-0 win in the English Premier League.
• Conceding a goal after just nine seconds and going 2-0 down in the second half wasn’t enough to derail Arsenal’s English Premier League title hopes on Saturday.
Substitute Reiss Nelson scored the winner with a fierce volley deep into injury time as Arsenal recovered to beat Bournemouth 3-2 and maintain a five-point lead atop the league.
• West Ham fans turned on Manager David Moyes after an alarming 4-0 loss at Brighton in the English Premier League.
The away supporters chanted, “You don’t know what you’re doing” and “Sacked in the morning” to Moyes in the second half as West Ham extended its winless away run in the league to 11 matches with a feeble display.
GOLF
PGA: Kurt Kitayama steadied himself down the stretch at Bay Hill, closing with two birdies over the last three holes to escape with an even-par 72 and a one-shot lead in the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, Florida.
Now comes the hard part for Kitayama, a 30-year-old Californian going after his first PGA Tour victory.
Defending champion Scottie Scheffler had five birdies over his last seven holes in warm gusts that made Bay Hill tough as ever. He finished with a 68 and was one shot behind, along with Viktor Hovland of Norway (66).
LPGA: Defending champion Jin Young Ko shot a second consecutive 7-under 65 to take a two-stroke lead over Nelly Korda into the final round of the LPGA’s Women’s World Championship in Singapore.
Ko had a 54-hole total of 14-under 202 after another weather-delayed day at the Sentosa Golf Club. She birdied four of her first five holes and two of her last three.
Korda shot 68 Saturday and was in second place, followed by first-round leader Elizabeth Szokol, who had a 70 and was three behind Ko and in third place, tied with Allisen Corpuz, who also shot 70.
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