AP National Sports

LUSAIL, Qatar (AP) — Lionel Messi is making a record 26th appearance at the World Cup. That breaks a tie with Germany great Lothar Matthäus. Messi’s games have been spread over five World Cups. He played at his first World Cup tournament in 2006. He has scored 11 goals in total to be tied for

LA VILLA, Italy (AP) — Lucas Braathen won the Alta Badia giant slalom for his second win in as many races. Braathen moved up from third after the opening run to finish a slim 0.02 seconds ahead of Norwegian teammate Henrik Kristoffersen on the Gran Risa course. Overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt recovered from

By ALEX TURNBULL Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Fans are applying their blue, white and red face paint, squeezing into national team jerseys and icing champagne as France hopes that Les Bleus will win beat Argentina to win their third World Cup title. French TV carried live images of the France team leaving its hotel

GRAND BAIE, Mauritius (AP) — French golfer Antoine Rozner has produced a brilliant burst of scoring on the front nine to win the Mauritius Open by five shots and become a three-time European tour champion. Rozner, who started the final round with a two-shot lead, extended his advantage to five after carding an eagle and

By DANIEL POLITI Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentines woke up ready to watch the national team play for its third World Cup title amid a national feeling of unity and joy that is rare for a country that has been engulfed in an economic crisis for years and has one of the

CONWAY, S.C. (AP) — Revived UConn and hot Marshall will face each other in the Myrtle Beach Bowl on Monday. The Huskies had won just four games combined the previous three seasons before going 6-6 in Jim Mora Jr.’s first year to reach the postseason for the first time since 2015. The Thundering Herd pulled

ST. MORITZ, Switzerland (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin has a women’s World Cup super-G victory to top off her first speed race weekend of the season with career win No. 77. The result leaves the American skier five wins short of the women’s record set by her former teammate Lindsey Vonn. Shiffrin finished sixth and fourth

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — The World Cup champions will earn $42 million in prize money for their soccer federation. The losing team in the final between France and Argentina will get $30 million from a FIFA prize fund of $440 million. The French soccer federation got $38 million from FIFA’s $400 million prize fund when

By STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé head the selections for the team of the tournament as chosen by writers covering the World Cup for The Associated Press. Messi is joined by Argentina teammates Julián Álvarez and Nicolas Otamendi while the France players alongside Mbappé are Antoine

By DANIEL POLITI Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentines woke up ready to watch the national team play for its third World Cup title amid a national feeling of unity and joy that is rare for a country that has been engulfed in an economic crisis for years and has one of the

LA VILLA, Italy (AP) — Olympic silver medalist Zan Kranjec led the opening run of the Alta Badia giant slalom while overall World Cup leader Marco Odermatt struggled in ninth place. Kranjec posted a significant advantage ahead of two Norwegians. Henrik Kristoffersen stood 0.60 seconds behind Kranjec in second and Lucas Braathen was 0.73 back

By JONAH BRONSTEIN Associated Press ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Tua Tagovailoa remains optimistic in seeing the Dolphins take positive steps despite extending their skid to three games following a 32-29 loss to the Buffalo Bills. The starting quarterback was encouraged by how the Dolphins offense finally began to find its footing after struggling in

By DAVID BRANDT AP Sports Writer PHOENIX (AP) — Devin Booker scored a season-high 58 points, using one of the best scoring efforts of his career to nearly single-handedly push the Phoenix Suns past the New Orleans Pelicans 118-114 on Saturday night. It’s the second time this season Booker has topped 50 points — he

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Kyle Connor extended his points streak with a goal and an assist and the Winnipeg Jets downed the Vancouver Canucks 5-1 on Saturday. Sam Gagner also scored and had a helper for the Jets, while Kyle Capobianco, Neal Pionk and Axel Jonsson-Fjallby all added goals. Bo Horvat replied for Vancouver

By MARK ANDERSON AP Sports Writer LAS VEGAS (AP) — Semyon Varlamov stopped 35 shots before being injured in the third period and the New York Islanders beat the Vegas Golden Knights 5-2. Zach Parise and Brock Nelson each had a goal and an assist, and Anders Lee, Hudson Faschling, Simon Holmstrom also scored for

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Ajay Mitchell totaled 25 points, seven rebounds and five assists to lead UC Santa Barbara to an 85-73 victory over Portland State. Mitchell made 10 of 17 shots from the floor for the Gauchos (8-2). Calvin Wishart hit all eight of his free throws and scored 13 off the bench. Miles

By JOHN MARSHALL AP Basketball Writer TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Azuolas Tubelis scored 19 points, Oumar Ballo added 18 and No. 9 Arizona turned the physical tables on No. 6 Tennessee for a 75-70 victory. The Wildcats did well to withstand the Vols’ defensive pressure and applied a bit of their own in a game

By DAN GREENSPAN Associated Press LOS ANGELES (AP) — Trevor Moore scored the shootout winner for the second straight game, giving the Los Angeles Kings a 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks. Phillip Danault had a power-play goal and Jaret Anderson-Dolan also scored in regulation as the Kings won consecutive games for the first

ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) — Cameron Gooden scored 15 points to lead Utah Tech to a 100-58 victory over Masters College. Gooden added four assists for the Trailblazers (6-5). Isaiah Pope and Jacob Nicolds scored 14 apiece. Pope grabbed eight rebounds, while  Nicolds sank all five of his shots with three 3-pointers. Tanner Christensen pitched