U.S./World Sports category, Page 370
No. 13 seed UC Irvine upsets Kansas State
SAN JOSE, Calif. — When it comes to college basketball in California, UC Irvine is low on the totem pole. Now the program that sometimes feels like a little brother to Pac-12 powers like UCLA and USC is the only school from the state still standing in the NCAA Tournament...
NCAA Tournament roundup: Iowa rallies past Cincinnati
Iowa kept up the Big Ten’s blitz through its first six games in the NCAA Tournament. Luka Garza scored 20 points, Jordan Bohannon made a three-point play during the Hawkeyes’ closing surge, and the No. 10 seed in the South Region kept its league unblemished by rallying for a 79-72...
NCAA wrestling session 3 recap: Top seed falls at 165 pounds
The NCAA wrestling tournament finally saw a top seed lose. Iowa’s Alex Marinelli, No. 1 at 165 pounds after winning a Big Ten championship last week, saw his bid for a national title come to a stunning end with a 3-1 loss to Virginia Tech’s Mekhi Lewis in their quarterfinal...
Five WPIAL graduates advance to NCAA wrestling semifinals; Vincenzo Joseph, Joshua Shields to meet
Joshua Shields ticked through a long list of wrestlers he battled at Young Guns Wrestling Club before his college days. To name a few: Jason Nolf, Vincenzo Joseph, Sam Krivus, Luke Pletcher, A.C. Headlee, Mike Kemerer, Spencer Lee, Devin Brown, Micky Phillippi, Gavin Teasdale. “You couldn’t go into that practice...
NCAA wrestling second session recap: Attendance near 35,000 on first day at PPG Paints Arena
Nearly 35,000 people came out to PPG Paints Arena on Thursday for the opening day of the NCAA wrestling championships. The NCAA announced attendance for the second session at 17,957, eight more than Thursday afternoon’s session, which drew 17,949. Those in attendance Thursday night witnessed some memorable matches. Biggest upset:...
Robert Morris women faces No. 1 seed Louisville minus Cardinals coach
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jeff Walz does not yet know where he will watch Louisville’s NCAA Tournament opener against Robert Morris. The Cardinals coach, who is suspended for the game, hints at being close enough to quickly rejoin his top-seeded team if it gets past the 16th-seeded Colonials on Friday. He...
Ja Morant’s triple-double leads Murray State to upset of Marquette
HARTFORD, Conn. — The game was in hand for Murray State and sensational point guard Ja Morant, who dominated Marquette in every way. With a chance to make some NCAA Tournament history, Morant’s coach told him to hit the boards and grab the rebound that would push him to an...
UCF’s 7-foot-6 center Tacko Fall set for his NCAA Tournament debut
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The tallest man in college basketball is finally on the game’s grandest stage: 7-foot-6 Tacko Fall is set for the NCAA Tournament. Fall’s ninth-seeded UCF (23-8) opens East Region play Friday night against No. 8 seed VCU (25-7). “For me, for us, I would say it means...
Late mistakes cost New Mexico State in loss to Auburn
SALT LAKE CITY — After a teammate passed up an open layup that could have tied the game, New Mexico State’s Terrell Brown was fouled behind the arc and missed two of three free throws as the Aggies dropped a 78-77 heartbreaker Thursday to fifth-seeded Auburn in the NCAA Tournament....
NCAA Tournament roundup: Maryland holds off Belmont
Maryland’s Darryl Morsell made a crucial defensive stop as the Terrapins fended off Belmont, 79-77, in a first-round game in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday. The mid-major powerhouse from Nashville, Tenn., couldn’t knock off the No. 6-seeded Terrapins from the Big Ten despite a 35-point performance by Dylan Windler. Maryland...
NCAA wrestling tournament Session 1 recap: Penn State dominant in opening round
More than 300 wrestlers took the mats Thursday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena for the preliminary and first rounds of the NCAA wrestling championships. Penn State, which won seven of the past eight championships, held the team lead after the end of the first session with 21 points, ahead of...
Arizona State dispatches St. Johns in First Four game
DAYTON, Ohio — Luguentz Dort overcame a hard foul and a leg injury, scored 21 points and led Arizona State to a long-awaited NCAA Tournament victory Wednesday night, 74-65, over St. John’s in the First Four. The 11th-seeded Sun Devils (23-10) will play Mid-American Conference champion Buffalo on Friday in...
Five matches to watch during the 1st round of the NCAA Division I wrestling championships
The NCAA Division I wrestling championship begins Thursday, and here are some interesting first-round matches to watch (each wrestler’s name is preceded by his seeding): 28-Gage Curry, American (23-11) vs. 5-Jack Mueller, Virginia (17-0) Mueller (125 pounds) could make some noise in the tournament. Curry isn’t an easy draw. The...
NCAA Tournament East Region preview: Michigan State hopes to avoid upset
DES MOINES, Iowa — It seems as though coach Tom Izzo has Michigan State poised to make a Final Four run nearly every year. The Spartans need to focus on surviving the first weekend this time around. It has been four years since Michigan State (28-6) made it to the...
NCAA Tournament Midwest preview: Injury hangs over Kentucky
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — As the Kentucky Wildcats went through a casual shootaround the day before their opening game of the NCAA Tournament, complete with a blaring band and thousands of blue-clad fans watching every move, something was missing. Their best player. PJ Washington, a rare sophomore amid John Calipari’s latest...
NCAA Tournament South Region preview: Villanova in different spot
HARTFORD, Conn. — Villanova is coming into the NCAA Tournament this year from an unfamiliar angle. The defending national champions bring the cache that comes with two NCAA titles in the last three seasons, along with a couple of key senior leaders who have a wealth of postseason experience and,...
NCAA Tournament West Region preview: Gonzaga eager to bounce back
SALT LAKE CITY — Gonzaga enters the NCAA Tournament after a loss for one of the rare times under coach Mark Few. The dominant team in the West Coast Conference for two decades, the Zags lost to Saint Mary’s in the conference title game last week in Las Vegas. The...
North Dakota State gets shot at Duke with First Four victory
DAYTON, Ohio — North Dakota State is one of the best free-throw shooting teams in the country, and that’s what it came down to at the end of the Bison’s First Four win over North Carolina Central. Vinnie Shahid sank three foul shots in the last 8 seconds to secure...
What to watch at this year’s NCAA Tournament
The NCAA Tournament somehow seems to be getting better every year, almost as if each bracket is extending from the previous one. Last year brought one of the maddest of Marches, starting with Maryland-Baltimore County becoming the first No. 16 seed to beat a 1 — poor Virginia — to...
Ja Morant, Markus Howard headline Murray State-Marquette matchup
HARTFORD, Conn. — Murray State’s Ja Morant and Marquette’s Markus Howard have much in common: Point guards, prolific scorers, conference players of the year, All-America contenders. And, apparently, promptness. Morant and Howard struck up a friendship last summer at NBA All-Star Chris Paul’s camp for elite guards. “We were the...
Former WPIAL wrestlers embrace home-mat advantage at NCAAsVideo
For Luke Pletcher, the stakes are higher than most. A Latrobe graduate, Pletcher was one of the best WPIAL wrestlers in recent memory earlier this decade. But the three-time PIAA champion took his talents across the state line to the west. Pletcher became an All-American at Ohio State, placing fourth...
At-large wrestlers can make good on reprieve at NCAAs
Greg Bulsak and Nick Kiussis spent the minutes leading up to 3 p.m. March 12 repeatedly refreshing the NCAA wrestling website on their phones. Sammy Krivus kept himself busy by lifting weights. Ultimately, all three wrestlers received the news they were hoping for the same way: from somebody else. Bulsak,...
Mariners top A’s in MLB opener in Japan
TOKYO — Ichiro drew all the cheers. Most everyone else on the Seattle Mariners did all the hitting. A crowd that came to salute Ichiro Suzuki in his homeland saw Domingo Santana deliver the biggest hit at the Tokyo Dome, a grand slam that sent Seattle over the Oakland Athletics,...
Baltimore mayor sues to block move of Preakness Stakes from Pimlico
BALTIMORE — Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh has sued the owners of Pimlico Race Course in an effort to seize the horse racetrack and block the move of the Preakness Stakes out of the city. News outlets report that on behalf of the city, Pugh is also trying to prevent the...
Tim Benz: A little tweak to make the NCAA Tournament’s First Four better
You may not have even submitted your bracket yet, and the 2019 NCAA Tournament is one night old. One potential 16th-seeded Cinderella — Prairie View A&M — is already going home. Another — either North Carolina Central or North Dakota State — will get eliminated Wednesday night. All that before...
