Sports

By AARON BEARD AP Basketball Writer No. 9 Duke, No. 14 North Carolina and No. 22 North Carolina State are all making things tougher than usual in their part of the state. The Blue Devils’ climb in the AP Top 25 rankings marked only the second time since 2000 that all three of the “Triangle”-region

SEATTLE (AP) — Dylan Moore and the Seattle Mariners finalized a three-year contract worth $8,875,000. He gets a $250,000 signing bonus and salaries of $2 million this year, $3.05 million in 2024 and $3,575,000 in 2025. Moore’s 2025 salary would increases by $250,000 if he has 400 or more plate appearances in 2024. The 30-year-old

By EDDIE PELLS AP National Writer DENVER (AP) — More than 27 months since it was greenlighted by Congress, the panel established to investigate the inner workings of the U.S. Olympic structure has yet to conduct a formal interview because of bureaucratic red tape and slow action from the same lawmakers who had expressed a

By BRIAN MAHONEY AP Basketball Writer James Harden averaged 36 points a few seasons ago. Devin Booker once scored 70 in one game. There are many more players doing much more scoring now than when LeBron James began his NBA career in 2003-04. A player scoring like Harden in his peak years could be flirting

ZURICH (AP) — The 10-plus minutes of stoppage time that were a regular feature of World Cup games in Qatar are back on soccer’s agenda. FIFA’s rule-making panel known as IFAB put additional time on the agenda published Wednesday for its annual meeting next month in London. Changes agreed on March 4 can take effect

By ANDREW DAMPF and ERIC WILLEMSEN Associated Press MERIBEL, France (AP) — Marta Bassino won the women’s super-G to give Italy its second gold medal at the skiing world championships. Mikaela Shiffrin took silver. Shiffrin led Bassino by three-tenths of a second at the second split but couldn’t match the Italian’s pace in the last

CHICAGO (AP) — The United States men’s team will play a CONCACAF Nations League match against El Salvador at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida, on March 24. The 13th-ranked Americans report to the Orlando area on March 19 and 20, then play at No. 173 Grenada on March 24 before the game against 74th-ranked El

LUXEMBOURG (AP) — The European Court has ruled against a Barcelona fan group in France that demanded that the European Commission should investigate whether Paris Saint-Germain unfairly signed Lionel Messi and jeopardized Barcelona’s finances. The court in Luxembourg decided that the European Commission does not have to accept the group as an interested party and

By HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian tennis player and Olympic bronze medalist Elina Svitolina has pushed for a total ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Paris Games in an interview with The Associated Press. Svitolina won her bronze medal in singles at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She

By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer GENEVA (AP) — The International Olympic Committee has pushed back against the mayor of Paris by insisting there are no plans for “a Russian or Belarusian delegation” at the 2024 Games while also acknowledging that some athletes from those countries could be welcomed. The IOC statement came a day

By STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer Sweden’s Olympic leaders are weighing up whether to bid for the Winter Games in 2030. The Nordic country’s potential entry into the race to stage the 2030 Games comes at a time when the International Olympic Committee has delayed the process and is searching around for more contenders to

By DAVID BRANDT AP Sports Writer PHOENIX (AP) — It’s likely the only time football fans will see Kansas City’s Chad Henne or Philadelphia’s Gardner Minshew during the Super Bowl will be on the sideline. But this is the NFL and sometimes things don’t go according to plan. That’s why the backup quarterbacks for the

By TERESA M. WALKER AP Pro Football Writer The rash of quarterback injuries in the NFL made developing a game plan even more challenging. Game week preparations are still geared to developing offensive schemes around the projected starter and opponents plotting to derail  those plans. But everyone is well aware how quickly that can change.

By DOUG FEINBERG AP Basketball Writer Brittney Griner texted her good friend Diana Taurasi on Tuesday asking how the USA Basketball training camp was going. Griner was back in Arizona, choosing to skip the camp in Minnesota so she can be with her wife and recover from her time in a Russian jail. She was

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina coach Dawn Staley has strongly defended her team in response to comments by UConn coach Geno Auriemma after the top-ranked Gamecocks’ 81-77 victory over the Huskies on Sunday. Staley spoke on her radio call-in show Tuesday night, saying she’s angry when her team is wrongly criticized for its success.

By The Associated Press Kareem Abdul-Jabbar passed Wilt Chamberlain for the NBA’s career scoring lead on April 5, 1984 during a game against the Utah Jazz in Las Vegas. The Associated Press, as part of its coverage of LeBron James’ pursuit of Abdul-Jabbar’s record, is looking back at Abdul-Jabbar’s historic night.