BASKETBALL
Luka Samanic and Denzel Valentine each had a double-double as the Maine Celtics earned their second straight win to start the season, beating the Westchester Knicks 121-114 on Sunday at the Portland Expo.
Samanic scored 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Valentine had 18 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. Marial Shayok added 20 points, eight rebounds and six assists for the Celtics. JD Davison was 6 for 6 from the floor and finished with 17 points and seven assists. Kamar Baldwin also had 17 points.
James Akinjo scored 40 points and grabbed nine rebounds for Westchester. Garrison Brooks added 15 points and 12 rebounds, while Feron Hunt had 23 points and nine rebounds.
Maine returns to action on Nov. 13 when it travels to Uniondale, New York to face the Long Island, Nets.
NBA: Donovan Mitchell scored 33 points and Darius Garland added 24 in the dynamic Cleveland backcourt’s return from injury absences, and the Cavaliers rolled past LeBron James and the Lakers 114-100 in Los Angeles for their eighth consecutive victory.
Jarrett Allen added 16 points to back the Cleveland guards’ latest two-man show while the Cavs improved to 8-1, extending their longest winning streak since a 13-game run in late 2017 during James’ final season with his hometown club.
• Fred VanVleet returned from injury with season highs of 30 points and 11 assists, Scottie Barnes had 19 points and 10 rebounds, and the Toronto Raptors overcame the absence of leading scorer Pascal Siakam to beat the Chicago Bulls 113-104 in Toronto.
VanVleet returned after missing three games because of a sore lower back.
• Desmond Bane scored 28 points, Ja Morant added 23 points, nine rebounds and six assists, and the Memphis Grizzlies held on for a 103-97 victory over the Washington Wizards in Memphis, Tennessee.
The Wizards were without leading scorer Bradley Beal, who was in the league’s health and safety protocols, eliminating 21.6 points and 5.7 assists from the Washington lineup.
HOCKEY
NHL: John Tavares scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1 in Raleigh, North Carolina for their first three-game winning streak of the season.
• Dominik Kubalik scored a power-play goal 2:43 into overtime and the Detroit Red Wings rallied to beat the New York Rangers 3-2 in New York.
COLLEGES
FOOTBALL: Georgia tightened its hold on No. 1 in The Associated Press college football poll, with TCU climbing up to No. 4 and Alabama dropping all the way to No. 10.
The Bulldogs had their strongest support of the season after manhandling Tennessee in a 1-2 matchup on Saturday. Georgia received 62 of 63 first-place votes from the media panel in the AP Top 25.
No. 2 Ohio State got the other first-place vote. Michigan moved up a spot to No. 3 and TCU jumped three spots to its highest ranking since late in the 2017 season.
No. 5 Tennessee fell three spots after losing on the road to the defending national champions.
For the first time in the College Football Playoff era, Alabama and Clemson lost on the same day and both tumbled in the rankings. The Crimson Tide (7-2) fell to LSU by a point in overtime to end up at No. 10 – their worst ranking since 2015.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Miami Coach Katie Meier has been suspended for the first three games of the season while the school cooperates with an NCAA probe.
Meier said Sunday that she is also cooperating with the NCAA. Neither she, the school nor the NCAA has released specifics of the probe, other than Miami calling it “an enforcement matter.”
The NCAA has not announced any sanctions against Miami, which means this is a self-imposed penalty by the university.
ROAD RACING
NYC MARATHON: Kenyans Evans Chebet and Sharon Lokedi made huge splashes in their New York City Marathon debuts.
Chebet won the men’s race and Lokedi the women’s race in her first-ever marathon on an unseasonably warm day, with temperatures in the 70s making it one of the hottest in race history since the marathon was moved to November in 1986.
Chebet finished in 2 hours, 8 minutes and 41 seconds, which was 13 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Shura Kitata of Ethiopia.
There was a scary moment in the men’s race when Daniel Do Nascimento, who had been leading the entire way, collapsed 21 miles in. Race officials said later that he was OK.
It was Lokedi’s first-ever marathon and she finished in 2:23.23 — just ahead of Lonah Chemtai Salpeter of Israel.
HORSE RACING
RETIREMENT: Flightline has been retired and will stand at stud after completing a dominant, unbeaten career capped by Saturday’s runaway victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland.
The son of Tapit will begin his breeding career next year at the farm in Versailles, Kentucky, Lane’s End Farms announced in a news release Sunday morning.
The 4-year-old bay colt won the 1¼-mile Classic by a record 8¼ lengths as the 2-5 favorite to cap a 6-0 thoroughbred career.
TENNIS
PARIS MASTERS: Unseeded Danish teenager Holger Rune staged a stunning comeback to secure the biggest victory of his career by beating Novak Djokovic 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the final in Paris.
Rune denied Djokovic a record-extending 39th Masters title.
The 19-year-old Rune saved six break points when serving for the match.
Djokovic saved one match point when Rune double-faulted. But the audacious Dane took his chance on the next, whipping a forehand into Djokovic’s feet that he could only volley back into the net.
WTA FINALS: Caroline Garcia rolled to a 6-3, 6-2 semifinal victory over Maria Sakkari in Fort Worth, Texas, reaching the championship of the WTA Finals for the first time in her career.
Garcia will face either top-ranked Iga Swiatek or Aryna Sabalenka on Monday night with a chance to join Amelie Mauresmo (2005) as the only Frenchwomen to win the season-ending event.
Defending doubles champs Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova also advanced to the title match with a 7-6(5), 6-2 semifinal victory over Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko.
GOLF
PGA: Russell Henley finally made a bogey, and that’s about all that went wrong for him as he closed with a 1-under 70 for a four-shot victory in the World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.
Henley, staked to a six-shot lead going into the final round at El Camaleon, had the lead reduced to three when he missed a 5-foot par putt on the par-5 fifth hole.
He responded with three straight birdies, and no one got closer than four shots the rest of the way.
Henley won for the fourth time on the PGA Tour, and the first time since the Houston Open five years ago.
Henley finished at 23-under 261 to tie the tournament record. He came into the final round as the only player who had not made a bogey all week.
Brian Harman closed with a 66 to finish alone in second, while the group five shots behind included Masters champion Scottie Scheffler and Seamus Power of Ireland, who was coming off a victory last week in Bermuda.
CHAMPIONS: Bernhard Langer broke his own record as the oldest winner on the PGA Tour Champions with a 6-under 66 for a six-shot victory in Boca Raton, Florida in the TimberTech Championship, leaving the 65-year-old German one win away from matching the career record.
Langer started the final round with a one-shot lead, was caught briefly by Paul Goydos and then pulled away from the younger crowd, which for him means just about everyone.
The two-time Masters champion, who broke his age by two shots on Saturday when he took the lead, needed a birdie on the par-5 18th at Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club to shoot his age for the seventh time.
He made par for a 66, six shots clear of Goydos (71) and Thongchai Jaidee (67).
LPGA: Gemma Dryburgh of Scotland won her first LPGA Tour title with a final-round 7-under 65 in Shiga, Japan to take the Toto Classic by four shots ahead of Japan’s Kana Nagai. Nagai also closed with a 65.
Linn Grant was a third, five shots off the pace after a 67.
Dryburgh, who also carded a 65 in the third round, finished 20-under 268 at the Seta Golf Club in western Japan.
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