BASKETBALL
Luka Samanic had 30 points and 11 rebounds for the Maine Celtics as they pulled away for a 115-104 win over the Long Island Nets 115-104 at the Nassau Coliseum at Uniondale, New York.
Mfiondu Kabengele added 21 points for Maine (3-0), while Denzel Valentine and JD Davison added15 apiece, and Marial Shayok had 11 rebounds.
Jordan Bowden led Long Island (0-3) with 19 points.
HOCKEY
NHL: Joe Pavelski scored a goal and added two assists and Jake Oettinger recorded 37 saves to lead the Dallas Stars to a 5-1 win in Philadelphia over the Flyers.
Matej Blumel, Esa Lindel, Luke Glendening and Jason Robertson all scored for Dallas, which snapped a two-game losing streak in the first game of a three-game Eastern Conference road swing.
• Alexander Barabanov scored in the fifth round of the shootout and San Jose rallied to beat the Minnesota Wild 3-2 in St. Paul, Minnesota, giving the Sharks consecutive wins for the first time this season.
Steven Lorentz and Nico Sturm scored in regulation and James Reimer made 28 saves for San Jose.
GOLF
PGA TOUR: Staked to a four-shot lead Sunday in the Houston Open, Tony Finau stretched it to eight shots on the back nine and sailed to his third PGA Tour victory of the year. With three bogeys that only affected the margin, he closed with a 1-under 69 and won by four.
Finau won only once in his first 185 tournaments upon joining the PGA Tour. Now he has four in the last 30 tournaments, including three in this calendar year.
EUROPEAN TOUR: Tommy Fleetwood saved his best for last with a final-round 67 to come from behind and retain his title at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in Sun City, South Africa as he ended a three-year winless drought.
The Englishman moved up from a tie for seventh overnight to finish 11-under par overall and win by a stroke from New Zealand’s Ryan Fox (68), who was hoping to goto the top of the season rankings with a victory in Sun City but just missed out after making a bogey on the last.
LPGA TOUR: Locked in a battle with Lexi Thompson along the back nine, Nelly Korda pulled ahead with birdies on the 16th and 17th hole and held on for a 6-under 64 for a one-shot victory in the Pelican Women’s Championship, in Belleair, Florida.
Korda won at Pelican Golf Club for the second straight year, this one elevating her past Thai teenager Atthaya Thitikul to reclaim the No. 1 ranking.
CHAMPIONS TOUR: Steve Alker shot 3-under 68 to finish third behind record-setting Padraig Harrington in the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix to claim the season-long Schwab Cup.
To claim the Charles Schwab Cup, Harrington needed to win and have Alker finish outside the top five. The 51-year-old Irishman took care of the winning by running away from the field, shooting 65 in breezy conditions at Phoenix Country Club.
He finished at 27-under 257 to break the PGA Tour Champions 72-hole record of 258 set by Tom Lehman at the 2012 Schwab Cup Championship. He also matched Jack Nicklaus’ record of 27 under at the 1990 Kaulig Companies Championship.
TENNIS
BILLIE JEAN KING CUP: Switzerland won the biggest prize in women’s team tennis for the first time after Belinda Bencic completed a near-perfect tournament by beating Australia’s Alja Tomljanovic in straight sets in the Billie Jean King Cup final in Glascow, Scotland.
The win gave Switzerland an unassailable 2-0 lead after Jil Teichmann outlasted Australia’s Storm Sanders 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in the opening singles match.
ATP FINALS: Rafael Nadal’s bid to win one of the few titles missing from his glittering career started poorly as he was beaten in straight sets by eighth-seeded Taylor Fritz in their opening match at the ATP Finals in Turin, Italy.
After a close-fought opening set, Fritz dominated the second as the American secured a 7-6 (3), 6-1 victory over the top-seeded Nadal.
Earlier, third-seeded Casper Ruud, who lost in the semifinals last year, eased to a straight-set victory over tournament debutant Felix Auger-Aliassime in the other Green Group match.
SOCCER
U.S. WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM: Mallory Pugh scored the go-ahead goal in the 56th minute and the U.S. women avoided a fourth straight loss with a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Germany in Harrison, New Jersey.
Sophia Smith also scored for the top-ranked United States, which went into the match at Red Bull Stadium with its first three-game losing streak since 1993.
Germany defeated the United States 2-1 on Thursday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Paula Krumbiegel scored the decisive goal in the 89th minute for the third-ranked Germans.
WORLD CUP: Toronto defender Doneil Henry will miss the World Cup with a torn calf sustained during warmups in a pre-tournament exhibition against Bahrain.
Atiba Hutchinson, a 39-year-old midfielder and Canada’s captain, was among 26 players picked for the roster by Coach John Herdman. The only player on the roster alive during Canada’s last World Cup appearance in 1986, Hutchinson made his first appearance of the season for Turkey’s Beşiktaş on Wednesday after recovering from a bone bruise.
• Saudi Arabia winger Fahad al-Mowallad was pulled from the World Cup squad on Sunday less than 48 hours after being selected because of an ongoing doping case.
The Saudis’ coach, Hervé Renard, replaced al-Mowallad from his 26-man squad for the tournament in Qatar “as a precaution,” the team said on its Twitter account.
The Saudi Arabian Anti-Doping Committee said in May it suspended the player for 18 months over his positive test in February for the doping substance furosemide. It is a diuretic that has a long-established use in sports doping as a masking agent to hide the presence of other drugs.
AUTO RACING
FORMULA ONE: Chased to the end by his teammate Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes driver George Russell won his first race in Formula One at the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo.
It was also Mercedes’ first GP win of an otherwise disappointing season with Hamilton making it an impressive 1-2 for the team in a statement of intent for next season.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. completed the podium at Interlagos.
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