COLLEGES
The University of Maine field hockey team had its eight-game winning streak snapped on Friday with a 3-1 loss to the Catamounts in Burlington, Vermont.
Alina Gerke scored on a feed from Sophia Drees to break a 1-1 tie late in the first half for the Catamounts, who improved to 10-5 overall and 3-3 in America East.
Clodagh Ferry opened the scoring with Drees assisting for Vermont before Brooke Sulinski countered for Maine (9-6, 6-1) with a goal assisted by Chloe Walton. Ferry added an insurance goal in the second half from Puck Kwaspen.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY: Viki Harkness scored midway through the second period and Connecticut (4-0) held on for a 1-0 win over Maine (2-3) at Alfond Arena in Orono.
UMaine goalie Jorden Mattison finished with 33 saves.
MEN’S SOCCER: Giovanni Martins scored off a feed from Nick Corso 28 seconds into the second half and Curry College (8-4-3, 3-2-1 Commonwealth Coast) went on to a 2-0 win over the University of New England (1-12-1, 0-6) in Biddeford
Dom Simpson added a goal for Curry in the 50th minute. Triston O’Hagan stopped 13 shots for UNE.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: South Carolina’s national championship coach Dawn Staley has signed seven-year contract that will pay her $2.9 million this season and grow to $3.5 million in the final season. She believes the $22.4 million deal should make an impact on her sport and in the equality of what men and women’s coaches and athletes receive from their schools.
“Who knew? Who knew this would take place during my tenure at South Carolina,” she said Friday.
The school’s Board of Trustees approved the deal worth $22.4 million Friday to keep the national championship coach with the Gamecocks through the 2027-28 season. The school said in a statement the new deal makes Staley the highest-paid Black coach in women’s basketball and one of the highest-paid coaches in the sport.
BASKETBALL
WNBA: Chicago jumped out to a 22-point halftime lead and cruised to an 86-50 win over Phoenix on Friday for a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five WNBA finals.
Kahleah Cooper scored 22 points to lead the Sky, who can clinch the title in Game 4 on Sunday.
Brittney Griner scored 16 points for Phoenix.
NBA: Tyler Herro scored 29 points in 23 minutes and Miami finished off a 5-1 preseason with a 121-100 win over the Boston Celtics.
Jimmy Butler scored 25 points, Bam Adebayo scored 17, Markieff Morris had 11 and Max Strus finished with 10 for Miami, which trailed by 12 points in the first half. Herro averaged 22.4 points in five preseason appearances; the Heat went 5-0 in those games.
Jayson Tatum led Boston (2-2) with 23 points. Romeo Langford added 18 on 7 of 9 shooting, Dennis Schroder had 13 and former Heat guard Josh Richardson finished with 12 for the Celtics – who were without, among others, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford and Marcus Smart.
• Bucks General Manager Jon Horst has signed a multi-year contract extension after helping Milwaukee win its first NBA title in a half-century.
The move comes less than two months after the Bucks signed Coach Mike Budenholzer to an extension. Milwaukee won the NBA Finals over the Phoenix Suns in six games to win its first championship since 1971.
“I am blessed and excited to continue with the Bucks,” Horst said Friday.
HOCKEY
NHL: The NHL suspended Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin for a game for roughing Tampa Bay forward Mathieu Joseph.
The league announced the penalty Friday, adding Larkin will give up $30,500 in pay that will go toward the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
Larkin will miss Detroit’s home game Saturday night against the Vancouver Canucks. The NHL says Larkin was suspended for retaliating to Joseph’s hit from behind with a punch in the face when the opponent was not suspecting it.
TRACK AND FIELD
MURDER SUSPECT ARRESTED: The husband of Olympic runner Agnes Tirop has been arrested and will be charged with her murder after Kenyan police launched a nationwide manhunt and found him in the coastal city of Mombasa trying to flee the country, authorities said.
Ibrahim Rotich was arrested just before 9 p.m. Thursday, police said, but only after crashing his vehicle into a truck in a car chase with police and escaping a first attempt by officers to apprehend him about 285 miles from Mombasa. He was finally arrested hours later in the eastern city.
Rotich was detained a day after Tirop, a two-time world championship bronze medalist, was found stabbed to death at her home in the western town of Iten, more than 500 miles from Mombasa on the other side of the country. The 25-year-old Tirop’s body was found in a pool of blood with stab wounds in the abdomen, police said.
GOLF
EUROPEAN TOUR: Jon Rahm’s woes back in Spain worsened when he failed to make the cut at the Andalucía Masters in Sotogrande, Spain on Friday.
The top-ranked Rahm shot 3-over 74 through the second round, finishing with a share of 99th place and 14 strokes off the lead of Romain Langasque. That was actually an improvement on his first round. On Thursday, Rahm matched his worst round as a professional with a 7-over 78, leaving him 11 shots behind overnight leader Julien Guerrier.
“This is the first time in my life that I don’t want to see a golf club,” Rahm said. “And this comes from someone who loves this sport, and after a year in which some pretty good things have happened to me.”
Rahm said he needs to take a break and may not play for one month until the World Tour Championship in Dubai.
“More than my body, it is my mind that can’t take it. I am going to hang up my clubs for four weeks,” Rahm said. “I haven’t stopped since the stoppage because of COVID. … If we add it all up, I need to rest.”
Langasque carded a 2-under 69 for the second straight day to take a one-shot lead over four chasers.
PGA: One day after matching his career low with a 62, Keith Mitchell followed that with an 8-under 64 on Friday to build a five-shot shot lead going into the weekend of the CJ Cup at Summit in Las Vegas.
Jordan Spieth had eight birdies and an eagle to counter a few soft bogeys for a 65 and was tied for second along with Harry Higgs (67) and Seonghyeon Kim (63), one of eight South Korean players who will be in the second stage of Korn Ferry Tour qualifying next week.
Joining them was Adam Scott, who had two eagles on his last five holes and played his last seven holes in 8 under for a 63. Mitchell was at 18-under 126, breaking by five shots his best 36-hole score on tour.
CHAMPIONS TOUR: Scott Parel shot a bogey-free 7-under 65 on Friday to take the first-round lead in the PGA Tour Champions’ SAS Championship at Cary, North Carolina.
The 56-year-old Parel birdied Nos. 5-7 and added four more on the back nine on Nos. 10, 12, 13 and 16 at Prestonwood Country Club. He won the last of his three senior titles in February 2020. Monday qualifier Thongchai Jaidee of Thailand and Robert Karlsson of Sweden were a stroke back. Jaidee birdied his final four holes.
Lee Janzen and Miguel Angel Jimenez were tied for fourth at 67. John Daly was at 68 with 67-year-old Jay Haas, Retief Goosen, David Toms, Tim Petrovic, Scott Dunlap, Stuart Appleby, Alex Cejka, Jeff Sluman, Harrison Frazar, Paul Broadhurst and Brett Quigley.
TENNIS
INDIAN WELLS: Nikoloz Basilashvili outlasted No. 2 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 Friday to move into the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open with the biggest win of his career. Basilashvili next plays either No. 3 Alexander Zverev or American Taylor Fritz, who met in a later quarterfinal at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
The women’s semifinals Friday night featured Victoria Azarenka against Jelena Ostapenko and Ons Jabeur against Paula Badosa.
Ranked 36th in the world, Basilashvili’s previous biggest win came over then-No. 4 Juan Martin del Potro in the final at Beijing in 2018. The 29-year-old from Georgia beat Tsitsipas for the first time in three tries. Ranked third, Tsitsipas has a leading 54 wins on the ATP Tour this year.
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