Sports

By HANK KURZ Jr. AP Sports Writer From the First Four to the Final Four, the women’s NCAA Tournament captivates sports fans for more than three weeks every year. How well do you think you know it? Do you know the teams that finished unbeaten? Who’s the leading scorer in a championship game? Which player

By DAVE SKRETTA AP Basketball Writer Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark has looked over the women’s NCAA Tournament bracket, eyed the potential matchups facing her second-seeded Hawkeyes and the rest of their Big Ten brethern, and come to a rather optimistic conclusion. “The Big Ten can certainly place two in the Final Four,” she said. “I

By DAVE SKRETTA AP Basketball Writer Losses by second-seeded Arizona and fourth-seeded Virginia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament won’t help their March reputations. The Wildcats lost for the fifth straight time to a team seeded worse than them. The latest was a meltdown against No. 15 seed Princeton. The Cavaliers lost in

LONDON (AP) — Patrick Vieira has been fired by Crystal Palace with the team having been dragged into the Premier League’s relegation fight. Palace is in 12th place in the 20-team league but is only five points ahead of last-place Southampton. The team has lost three straight league games and has no wins in any

By The Associated Press The NCAA Tournament has begun with a full slate of weekend games as teams set their sites on winning the national championship in men’s basketball. Sweet 16 weekend will see games in New York City, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Missouri, and Louisville, Kentucky. The Final Four is in Houston. The semifinals

LONDON (AP) — Patrick Vieira has been fired by Crystal Palace with the team having been dragged into the Premier League’s relegation fight. Palace is in 12th place in the 20-team league but is only five points from last-place Southampton. The team has lost three straight league games and has no wins in any competition

By DAN GREENSPAN Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Carl Grundstrom had a goal and an assist in Los Angeles’ four-goal second period, Pheonix Copley made 30 saves and the Kings beat the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-1 on Thursday night. Drew Doughty, Anze Kopitar and Viktor Arvidsson also scored to help the Kings improve to

By JACK THOMPSON Associated Press PHOENIX (AP) — osh Okogie made a go-ahead 3-pointer midway through the fourth quarter and blocked Paolo Banchero’s 3 in the final seconds as the Phoenix Suns held off the Orlando Magic 116-113 on Thursday night to snap a three-game losing streak. Devin Booker led Phoenix with 19 points. Cameron

By W.G. RAMIREZ Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — Tyler Toffoli and Blake Coleman each scored twice as the Calgary Flames defeated Vegas 7-2 for their first road victory over the Golden Knights. The Flames, who lost 13 of their previous 20 games, scored seven goals for the third time this season. It marked the

By JOHN MARSHALL AP Sports Writer TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Travis Boyd scored twice, Ivan Prosvetov stopped 29 shots and the Arizona Coyotes stretched their points streak to seven games with a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. Prosvetov helped the Coyotes withstand a string of early penalties in his second start this season and

By DAVE CAMPBELL AP Sports Writer DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Sir’Jabari Rice, reflecting on the career-high seven 3-pointers he made for Texas, was asked by a reporter when he last felt that confident. “I don’t necessarily feel hot, because I missed three,” Rice said with a straight face as teammate Marcus Carr doubled over

By JOSH DUBOW AP Sports Writer SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 17 points and UCLA raced out to a fast start and never looked back for an 86-53 victory over UNC Asheville in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The second-seeded Bruins scored the first 14 points of the game and

By MARK LONG AP Sports Writer ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Tyreke Key scored 12 points, Jahmai Mashack added 11 and fourth-seeded Tennessee survived a late scare to hold off Louisiana-Lafayette 58-55 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. The Ragin’ Cajuns whittled an 18-point deficit to three in the final minute, but the Volunteers

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Jeremy Swayman made 36 saves for his third shutout of the season and eighth overall in the NHL-leading Boston Bruins’ 3-0 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night. Trent Frederic, Pavel Zacha and Tomas Nosek scored to help Boston rebound from its first consecutive regulation losses of the season. Frederic

By PAUL NEWBERRY AP Sports Writer BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — With All-American Marcus Sasser watching from the bench, top-seeded Houston shook off Northern Kentucky for a 63-52 victory to open the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night. Chants of “NKU!” and “Overrated!” filled Legacy Arena as the 16th-seeded Norse trailed by only three at halftime and

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) — Top-ranked Iga Swiatek breezed past Sorana Cirstea 6-2, 6-3 to reach the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open. Next up for Swiatek is 10th-seeded Elena Rybakina, who beat Karolina Muchova, 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-4. Those two met at the Australian Open in January, with Rybakina winning. On the men’s side,