April 5, 2022 3:45 am
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Kansas has claimed its fourth NCAA men’s basketball comeback by engineering the greatest second-half comeback in finals history. The Jayhawks turned a 16-point, second-half deficit into a 72-69 victory over North Carolina. David McCormack scored the go-ahead bucket from close range with 1:21 left, then another at the 22-second mark to put the Jayhawks ahead by three. McCormack and Jalen Wilson led KU with 15 points each. Christian Braun scored 10 of his 12 in the second half and transfer Remy Martin had 11 of his 15 over the final 20 minutes. Carolina had scored 16 straight points late in the first half to open a 40-25 advantage at the break, but top-seeded KU went on a 31-10 run over the opening 10 minutes of the second to take a six-point lead. The Tar Heels went scoreless over the final 1:41 and missed their last four shots, including Caleb Love’s desperation 3 at the buzzer. Armando Bacot provided 15 points and 15 rebounds for North Carolina to become the first player to record double-doubles in all six tournament games. The Tar Heels were seeking their seventh national championship and could have joined the 1985 Villanova Wildcats as the only No. 8 seeds to win the title.
April 5, 2022 3:49 am
LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) – The Detroit Tigers have acquired outfielder Austin Meadows in a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays. Detroit sent infielder Isaac Paredes and a competitive balance round B pick in the 2022 amateur draft to Tampa Bay. Meadows hit .234 with 27 homers and a career-high 106 RBIs last season. Detroit is much improved after going 77-85 last year in its fifth consecutive losing season. Meadows joins a lineup that includes Javier Baez, who signed a blockbuster deal with the Tigers in free agency, and Spencer Torkelson, one of the majors’ top slugging prospects.
April 5, 2022 3:48 am
UNDATED (AP) – Albert Pujols will be in the starting lineup for the St. Louis Cardinals against the Pittsburgh Pirates when he begins his final big league season Thursday. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol announced Monday that Pujols will be the designated hitter for his 22nd consecutive opening day start. That matches Hank Aaron and Carl Yastrzemski for second-most behind only Pete Rose, who made 23 straight during his career.
April 4, 2022 3:55 am
NEW ORLEANS (AP) – There are strong connections between North Carolina and Kansas. The storied programs heading into Monday night’s NCAA men’s championship game in New Orleans share stories and ties to some of the giants of the sport. The connections include late North Carolina Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith being a Kansas alumnus. Smith played for the Jayhawks under Phog Allen, who had learned the game from basketball inventor Dr. James Naismith. There is also Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams, who spent 33 years between the two schools as head coach. Tar Heels first-year coach Hubert Davis says he still remembers the pain of losing to Williams’ Kansas team in the 1991 Final Four as a guard on that North Carolina squad.
April 4, 2022 3:54 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Destanni Henderson scored a career-high 26 points to lead South Carolina to a 64-49 victory over UConn in the national championship game. On a night when the Gamecocks’ height advantage helped them dominate the game inside, the smallest player on the court did the most damage on the scoreboard. Henderson shot 9 of 20 from the field as the Gamecocks won their second national title. She added four assists and helped hold Paige Bueckers to 14 points, teaming with junior Brea Beal to keep the UConn star in check most of the night.
April 4, 2022 3:59 am
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) – Tiger Woods has arrived at Augusta National. Still to be determined is whether he plays in the Masters. Woods says he is at Augusta to continue his preparation, but it’s a game-time decision whether he plays. His right leg so was severely damaged in a car crash 13 months ago that he said doctors contemplated amputation.
April 3, 2022 7:41 am
DENVER (AP) — The puck bounced off the boards behind the net and straight to Devon Toews, who stood wide open in front. A home-ice sort of carom. A home-ice sort of goal. No wonder the Avalanche like this place. Toews scored with 4:26 remaining, Darcy Kuemper stopped 38 shots and Colorado tied the franchise record for most home wins in a season with a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday. It was win No. 28 at Ball Arena, matching Colorado’s marks from 2000-01 and 2017-18. At 28-4-3, Colorado possesses the league’s top home points percentage (.843). Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Mikko Rantanen also scored for Colorado in a fast-paced game that had just one penalty and featured two of the best scorers in the business, Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon. Mike Matheson and Crosby had goals for the Penguins. Crosby’s goal gave him 1,397 career points — one point away from joining Jari Kurri and Alex Ovechkin in a three-way tie for 21st-most in NHL history. Toews knocked in a carom off the boards 27 seconds after Matheson tied it up at two. His goal was set up when MacKinnon turned and shot the puck.
April 3, 2022 7:42 am
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — For the 48th time over 47 years of unparalleled coaching, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski took the slow walk to midcourt and shook the hand of the North Carolina coach who beat him. After that, he found his wife, Mickie, and they made the slow, sad walk, hand-in-hand, off the Superdome floor. Saturday night’s 81-77 setback in the national semifinal showdown between archrivals marked Coach K’s last loss, and one of his toughest losses, too. And thanks to the Tar Heels — those dadgum Tar Heels — the 75-year-old coach will have plenty of time to get over it. Krzyzewski’s remarkable career came to gut-wrenching close after Caleb Love made a key 3-pointer and three late free throws to lift the Tar Heels to their thrill-a-minute victory. This was the 258th, most consequential and maybe, just maybe, the very best meeting between these teams, whose arenas are separated by a scant 11 miles down on Tobacco Road. The eighth-seeded Tar Heels (29-9), of all teams, pinned the 368th and final loss on Krzyzewski. He finished with 1202 wins. His lifetime record against North Carolina fell to 50-48. Losses No. 47 and 48 are ones Carolina fans will treasure forever. They were partying early into Sunday morning on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. This latest win came exactly four weeks after the Tar Heels ruined the going-away party in Coach K’s final home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
April 3, 2022 7:44 am
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Ochai Agbaji followed a celebrating stream of Kansas players off the floor at the Final Four, their shouts of “One more!” echoing all the way up the tunnel of the Superdome and right to the door of their locker room. One more game awaits, the biggest of their careers. The Jayhawks earned a trip back to the national championship Saturday night with a shooting performance that will go down in history. David McCormack muscled his way to 25 points, Ochai Agbaji hit six 3-pointers and had 21, and the only No. 1 seed to reach the national semifinals rolled to an 81-65 victory over Villanova before a huge crowd that packed the home of the New Orleans Saints one year after the pandemic kept just about everyone away. Well, they can look forward to a big-time showdown now: The Jayhawks, the winningest program in Division I history, will face North Carolina, which sits at No. 3 on the list and has been to more Final Fours than anyone.
April 3, 2022 3:54 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -The South Carolina Gamecocks have had the top spot in the Associated Press Top 25 poll the entire season. The last test for the No. 1 overall seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament will be the Connecticut Huskies. Women’s college basketball gets the greats of the game together on the biggest stage as consistently as any sport. This South Carolina-UConn matchup is no different. The Gamecocks toppled Louisville 72-59 in the first semifinal behind 23 points and 18 rebounds from AP Player of the Year Aliyah Boston. The Huskies outlasted Stanford 63-58 in the second game. Bueckers had 14 points in her hometown.
