Drew Peterson finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for his first career triple-double, DJ Steward scored 27 points and the Maine Celtics won their fifth-straight, beating the Delaware Blue Coats 122-101 in Wilmington, Delaware.
The Celtics opened with a 10-0 run and led 21-9 before the Blue Coats closed the quarter with a 12-7 run. Delaware began the second with a 12-2 rally for a 33-30 lead, but Maine would build a 58-53 before halftime.
Maine led 67-55 following a Peterson 3-pointer with 9:25 remaining in the third, but the Blue Coats fought back later in the quarter when Melvin Frazier, Jared Brownridge and Rob Edwards made consecutive 3s to pull within one, 80-79, with 3:24 left in the third.
The Celtics then opened it up in the fourth, starting with a 9-0 run and outscoring Delaware 34-17 in the quarter for the win.
Joe Wieskamp had 20 points and nine rebounds and Kylor Kelley added 12 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks for the Celtics.
COLLEGES
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Paige Bueckers scored 27 points and had five blocks to help No. 10 UConn beat Georgetown 78-42 on Monday night in Uncasville, Connecticut, to win its 22nd Big East Tournament title.
It was the 29th title overall for the Huskies, who haven’t lost in a conference championship contest since 2013, when Notre Dame beat them for the Big East title.
UConn (29-5), which has been in 20 consecutive conference tournament championship games, has won all four titles since rejoining the Big East in 2020-21 after taking seven straight during its run in the American Athletic Conference.
Georgetown was making its first appearance in the championship game in school history. The Hoyas (22-11) already have the most wins since the 2011-12 team had 23. That was the last time the school made the NCAA Tournament. Despite making the title game, they are a long shot to make the NCAAs with a very weak non-conference schedule.
• Southern California rode a Pac-12 Tournament championship to its best ranking in 38 years.
The Trojans moved up to No. 3 in The Associated Press Top 25 poll after topping Stanford to win the conference tournament for the first time since 2014, their only other time in the title game. It’s the highest ranking for USC since the final poll of the 1986 season, when the team was also third.
South Carolina remained a unanimous No. 1, receiving all 35 first-place votes from the AP national media panel. The Gamecocks head into the NCAA Tournament undefeated for the second consecutive season after surviving the SEC Tournament semifinals on a last-second 3-pointer by Kamilla Cardoso. The Gamecocks then beat LSU for the title in a game marred by late ejections.
Iowa moved back up to No. 2 after winning the Big Ten Tournament, rallying to beat Nebraska in overtime behind Caitlin Clark. It was the third straight conference tournament title for the Hawkeyes.
• Aimee Evans scored 13 points, including nine during a 17-7 third-quarter rally, as top-seeded Johnson & Wales-Charlotte (18-7) eliminated eighth-seeded Southern Maine Community College (21-8) with a 62-37 win in a United States Collegiate Athletic Association Division II Small College national tournament quarterfinal in Petersburg, Va.
Hope Butler led the Seawolves with eight points, followed by York and Aija Andrews with seven apiece, and Jenna Philbrook with six.
The Seawolves will play a consolation bracket game Tuesday against Penn State Beaver.
MEN’S BASKETBALL: Houston remained atop the AP Top 25 poll for the third consecutive week Monday while a couple of the game’s traditional bluebloods made big jumps as they peak just in time for postseason play.
The Cougars received 52 of 62 first-place votes from a national media panel after a week in which they beat UCF and routed then-No. 14 Kansas to clinch the Big 12 regular-season title in their first year in the league. Defending national champion UConn, the top seed in the Big East tourney, was second in the poll after picking up six first-place votes, and Purdue – the top seed in the Big Ten tourney – remained at No. 3 after getting four first-place votes.
The big movement came in the rest of the top 10, where North Carolina jumped three spots to No. 4 after beating then-No. 9 Duke and Kentucky vaulted six spots to No. 9 after its win over then-No. 4 Tennessee.
• Luke Briggs scored 13 points and Andrew St. Hillaire added 10 as Southern Maine Community College (21-9) closed its season with an 87-66 loss to Penn State Mont Alto in the consolation round of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association Division II Small College national tournament in Petersburg, Va.
BASKETBALL
NBA: Atlanta Hawks forward Saddiq Bey will miss the rest of the season after tearing the ACL in his left knee, another major blow to the injury-plagued team.
Bey left a 116-103 loss to New Orleans on Sunday night with what was initially described as a hyperextended left knee. An MRI found a torn anterior cruciate ligament, which will require season-ending surgery.
HOCKEY
NHL: The Carolina Hurricanes re-signed depth forward Brendan Lemieux to a $775,000 contract for next season.
Lemieux, 27, is the son of former NHL player Claude Lemieux and recently reached the 300-game milestone. He’s in his first season with Carolina, recording three points and getting into three fights in 25 games.
TENNIS
BNP PARIBAS OPEN: Coco Gauff gave herself an early birthday present by beating Lucia Bronzetti 6-2, 7-6 (5) in the third round in Indian Wells, California.
Gauff, who turns 20 on Wednesday, struggled early but found a way to hold her serve by saving 10 of 11 break points. She closed out the match with a serve into the body that Bronzetti couldn’t return. It extended Gauff’s winning streak in the United States to 18 matches, a run that includes winning the title at last year’s U.S. Open.
SLED DOG RACING
IDITAROD: Two dogs died over the weekend during Alaska’s annual Iditarod sled dog race, marking the first deaths during the race in five years and renewing calls to end the 1,000-mile (1,609-kilometer) competition that sees mushers and their canine teams traverse mountain ranges, a frozen river and sea ice – often during treacherous weather.
Bog, a 2-year-old male on musher Issac Teaford’s team, collapsed Sunday morning about 200 feet short of the checkpoint in the village of Nulato, a former Russian trading post located 582 miles into the race across the Alaska wilderness. He died despite a veterinarian performing CPR for about 20 minutes.
A second dog, George, a 4-year-old male on musher Hunter Keefe’s team, also collapsed and died despite attempts to revive him, a race statement said.
George died on the trail about 35 miles outside of the village of Kaltag, which is 629 miles into the race.
OLYMPICS
DRUG TESTING: Track and field athletes from Brazil, Ecuador, Peru and Portugal will be tested more often ahead of the Paris Olympics because of sub-standard anti-doping programs at home, the sport’s investigators said.
Each country failed to heed warnings after the 2022 world championships held in Eugene, Oregon, to improve no-notice testing ahead of the 2023 edition, the Athletics Integrity Unit said, calling the targeted testing by nation “unprecedented.”
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